Zappa Plays Zappa - Orpheum Theater, Boston 6/13/06

Wow - this will be really good. Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa PLUS the amazing Stevie Vai, Terry Bozzio, and Napoleon Murphy Brock from the really old days. Tix are still on sale (balcony is what's left). Anyone interested?

http://www.zappa.com/cheezoid/whatsnew/zpz/

".....movin' to Montana soon......yippee-eye-yo-tie-yay......."

Damn, when I first saw this thread, I thougt it was Frank Zappa. Zappa was the first concert I ever went to, that was back in 73. Is he still alive?

andyzee said:

Damn, when I first saw this thread, I thougt it was Frank Zappa. Zappa was the first concert I ever went to, that was back in 73. Is he still alive?

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Andy where have you been? Frank died years ago from prostate cancer; I think he was in his early 50's.

Zappa is god...

I'm sorry - thats JUST the way I feel...

Saw him many times.. Enjoyed every damn minute...

JimG. said:

Andy where have you been? Frank died years ago from prostate cancer; I think he was in his early 50's.

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Oops, forgot. But hey, saw him back in 73 at the Capitol Theater, Passaic, NJ. My brain has gone through a lot since then, he may be part of the reason

Zappa died in 1993 at age 52 of prostate cancer, as Jim said.

Note - ZPZ is also playing the Beacon Theatre in NYC on 6/12. Googled a couple of concert reviews from last week's shows in Europe and they were ecstatic. 3.5 to 4-hour shows every night......

1973, I was working for a small Vermont concert production company named Putney Folk. We had a Youngbloods concert set, bandmember's wife has baby, concert cancelled. Got word Frank Zappa was in the area, I get chosen to pick him up at the Keene Airport during a blizzard. As we start heading back to Bratt he turns to me and asks..."hey man, you got any weed"...I refuse to continue on the grounds it might incriminate me....:lol: He was with two very wierd guys, former bandmembers of the Turtles. I think they called themselves the Banzini Brothers(?)
What a strange trip that was.

ski_resort_observer said:

1973, I was working for a small Vermont concert production company named Putney Folk. We had a Youngbloods concert set, bandmember's wife has baby, concert cancelled. Got word Frank Zappa was in the area, I get chosen to pick him up at the Keene Airport during a blizzard. As we start heading back to Bratt he turns to me and asks..."hey man, you got any weed"...I refuse to continue on the grounds it might incriminate me....:lol: He was with two very wierd guys, former bandmembers of the Turtles. I think they called themselves the Banzini Brothers(?)
What a strange trip that was.

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Flo (Mark Volman) & Eddie (Howard Kaylan) were indeed the former leaders of The Turtles, and made a fortune singing pop tunes like "Happy Together" in the late 60s. Apparently art (or something like it) won out over commercial success, and Flo & Eddie joined Zappa's band in 1970. These guys were dirty and hilarious, and man, could they sing. Allmusic.com says: (<< WARNING - THIS IS PG-13 AND THEN SOME>>)


"The Sanzini Brothers" was a short comedy routine performed by the Mothers of Invention while singers Flo & Eddie were part of the band (1970-1971). More than "Groupie Routine" or "Penis Dimension," this number represents how low Frank Zappa and his consorts' humor could go. The brothers Adolph, Rudolph, Piss-Off, and Jack-Off perform ludicrous circus tricks, one of which is "the world famous sodomy trick" — the reader is left to imagine the rest on his or her own. A live recording appeared on Playground Psychotics for historic purposes, but other performances had seen the light of day on a number of bootlegs and the duo of comedians continued to include it in their own shows, recording it twice (on Flo & Eddie and Illegal, Immoral & Fattening).


It's too bad this is what most people associate with Zappa - dirty satire. It's partly true and the stuff is a scream (check out the Fillmore East and Weasels Ripped My Flesh albums - both live from 70-71 with Flo & Eddie), but the Mothers and Zappa were so much more. He just did the raunchy stuff as a goof. Arguably the most talented single musician and series of bands in the rock period.....

Wow...thanks Chile. All this time I thought it was just a wierd dream....:lol:

The Turtles were a fav back then and of course, the song "Happy Together" was also a song I loved. I remember when they played it on the "Ed Sullivan Show"...what a thrill. Keep in mind that when you have just a couple of TV stations from Burlington and your a teenager, something like that is a big deal.

Thanks again for the info!

hmmmm, very tempting. Unfortunately I'm very poor right now. Dammit. Working through the hundreds of hours of boots I've yet to listen to will have to suffice.

BTW Chile- what era is your favorite?

roark said:

hmmmm, very tempting. Unfortunately I'm very poor right now. Dammit. Working through the hundreds of hours of boots I've yet to listen to will have to suffice.

BTW Chile- what era is your favorite?

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That's right - Roark - you're a HUGE Zappa fan - how can you miss this? You need to go on the FZ.com website right now and check out the ZPZ videos from last week in Dusseldorf and Amsterdam. Killer stuff.

I really like anything Zappa did after the original Mothers. The first band's music was so far out there and the recordings are mostly terrible. Some of that stuff holds up (My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama and The Orange County Lumber Truck are old faves).

Oh man - there are too many songs I like to name them all. I think my favorite Zappa tunes are Inca Roads and Sofa #1/#2. But I also truly love the complex jazz of the Roxy and NYC live albums, and the craziness of the Flo & Eddie stuff. Their high harmonies on Dog Breath are just amazing. I used to drive my neighbors crazy in college blasting Sheik Yerbouti. I also really like his orchestral stuff (Uncle Meat, Mo & Herb's Vacation, etc). So I'm probably a 70s Zappa fan mostly.....

Ticketbastard has some scattered single seats in the orchestra section still available, just picked one up (obstructed view).

roark said:

Ticketbastard has some scattered single seats in the orchestra section still available, just picked one up (obstructed view).

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Roark - you da man! I'll see you there. Look for me out in front.

Roark and I are getting together before the ZPZ show - AZ musical outing!!!

So psyched for this show......

Bump -

Tonite's the nite for Zappa. Trip report to follow........

Date - 6/13/06

Location - Orpheum Theatre, Boston MA

Event - Zappa Plays Zappa

Conditions - Steamy and Loud

Degree of Difficulty - Varied from Blue to Double Black

Overall Rating - ****


Wow, what a show - the Orpheum sweatbox hosted me and about 2500 other Zappa maniacs for a combo trip down memory lane/musical gymnastics workout, and the results were outstanding by the final encore. It was definitely weird at first, having a "Zappa" band playing without Frank, but after the first few numbers the band got into form and hammered out many of Zappa's "hits" (if you can call them that) and several of his best-loved tunes as well.

Frank's son with the famous name, Dweezil Zappa, was fronting the band on lead guitar, along with several outstanding young musicians that had demonstrated they were up to the task of performing FZ's stuff. Old friends Napoleon Murphy Brock (tenor sax, vocals, dancing), Terry Bozzio (monster drums), and the amazing Steve Vai (listed as "stunt guitarist") were brought back for more fun and adventures! The band was incredible.

Good ole Roark met my brother and me for a couple of warm-up beverages, and Roark dropped several Zappa discs on me, too, which I will enjoy for years to come!! Thanks Roark!! The lobby lights flashed at 7:50 and the houselights went dark at 8PM sharp. The first half-hour was a film of Frank and the band from 1973. Frank and the band had some funny moments in the film, and the audience really enjoyed the look back.

After the film, Dweezil and band came onstage to loud applause. They started with a medley of the ancient Mothers' songs, "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" and "Let's Make the Water Turn Black", which were fun in their historical way. Napoleon Murphy Brock then led the band on a sludgy, slow-tempo version of one of my favorite Zappa tunes, "Florentine Pogen", which was sort of a disappointment, but hey, not every tune can be a winner. But that was when the band really caught fire and took off into crazy things like "Pygmy Twylyte", "The Idiot Bastard Son", and "Inca Roads". The crowd loved it and Dweezil seemed to be having a good time, also. Intertesting - early on, Dweezil seemed to be looking around at the audience, in one way checking out their reactions to his father's music, but in another way, he almost seemed to be looking at the audience with a, "how am I doing?" sort of look. I think he's still somewhat self-conscious playing his father's music. "King Kong" was presented with hilarious extended audience participation. Terry Bozzio came out to do insane rave-ups with pounding drum action ("I'm So Cute", "Trying to Grow a Chin", "Punky's Whips"), and the mid-show highlight of "City of Tiny Lights", which featured Dweezil on blasting lead guitar. The obligatory "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" medley followed, which was fun. But the highlight for me was "Village of the Sun > Echidna's Arf", whcih is sooooo incredibly complex and the band nailed it note for note. Absolutely incredible playing. Loud, tight and spot-on. I think FZ would have enjoyed that.

Bummer - Dweezil announced at 10:45 that the union had an 11:00 curfew, so they had to wrap up early. At other venues they had played 2 sets of about 75 minutes each, so this show would be a little short. They closed up with "Zombie Woof" and a quick "Cozmik Debris" as the first encore (I didn't know the last tune). All in all, a great show. It was cool to hear FZ's music played, because you simply won't hear it often, so it was a treat. FZ's music isn't for everybody, but if you're into jazz at all or if you're looking for something a little different and more challenging from rock 'n roll, give Zappa a listen. And if ZPZ puts out a disc, it would be a good way to try Zappa's music in a more accessible format.

God, it was good to get out of the Orpheum at last - it was so hot that I was still driving with the windows wide open an hour later trying to cool off.

Roark - what did you think?

Best show I've seen in quite some time. I definetely noticed the Dweez wasn't entirely at home on stage but his playing sure has improved - I remembered him as the epitomy of whammy bar spoo. Of course Vai shredded him every time they traded solos but he handled most of the solos and melodies quite well. His hand signals came off as more of a gimmick than Franks though.

The last tune was off Grand Wazoo but I don't recall the name - "Eat that Question" maybe?

Unfortunately I had one of the worst seats in the house. Beware the 'obstructed view' at the Orpheum! Luckily I was able to scoot over about 8 seats to get a much better view (Vai, the keys, and 2nd sax/vocals etc were hidden behind the stage right stack - why they don't hang the house stacks from some scaffolding and give everyone a good view is beyond me :angry: ). Bozzio is still a monster. He's so damn scrawny it doesn't look like he should be such an explosive drummer. Napoleon Murphy Brock still sounds (and moves) like he did 30 years ago, he added a fun element to the group of technically precise wizardry and handled most all of the vocals (except the signature Bozzio tunes) and still plays a mean sax and flute. Vai's first appearance was, of course, for the song that got him into Zappas band originally - "The Black Page".

The "regular" band was great. I read a little on the ZPZ site they had 3 days to learn/transcribe whichever tunes Dweez told them before the audition. So the Zappa tradition of brutal auditions is still in place. I'll have to learn the names and check out what comes next from that crew.

I was pretty exhausted (and had a rather urgent need after my body had processed the pregame warmup session:beer: ) and cut out during Bozzio's solo on what I presume was the final tune. I left the AC on for most of the ride as I was still kicking off so much moisture and heat I was fogging up the car for much of the ride home. I don’t make the trip to Boston often, but this was well worth it.

Enjoy the discs Chile, I've got quite a bit more! (I also have some of the same film they showed- snippets from a BBC show - not DVD quality though.)

See link for setlist - http://www.zappa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30

Apparently the second encore was "Eat That Question". I don't know that song. And this guy's setlist includes "Cheepnis" which they did not do.

Bummer about your seat, but glad you were able to see better after you moved. I wsa looking for you over in the corner, but couldn't see you. Man, was it hot. I took my bio-break during "The Black Page"........

I think they did play an abbreviated Cheepnis, went directly into it from idiot bastard son.

I guess I missed Vai playing with his tongue. I could see the headstock, sometimes the first few frets in his regular position. Better seats next time!

roark said:

I think they did play an abbreviated Cheepnis, went directly into it from idiot bastard son.

I guess I missed Vai playing with his tongue. I could see the headstock, sometimes the first few frets in his regular position. Better seats next time!

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Huh - don't know how I missed Cheepnis, but oh well....

Vai was amazing. Way over the top in Zomby Woof.......