Zappa Plays Zappa @ ThebartonTheatre, Adelaide (17/04/09)

Thu 23rd Apr, 2009 in Gig Reviews

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Despite the obvious hereditary connection between Dweezil Zappa and Frank Zappa, before this gig there was a nagging, unshakable doubt in my mind that I could be immeasurably pumping myself up for what could be just another cover band. Yes they would be a cover band with some of the most entertainingly weird and impressively complex music the “rock” (and I use that as loosely as possible) medium has provided at their disposal. Even though the threat of these fears becoming a reality momentarily existed during a tight but lacking-vibrancy version of Purple Lagoon at the beginning of the show, they quite quickly dissipated and what was to follow was one of the tightest, Rock ‘n’ Roll shows you’re going to see. Concentrating almost exclusively on Zappa’s 70’s jazz-rock-fusion-funk work, the band chose their Zappa with distinction and seemed to perfectly marry their talents and desires with their song choice.

To clarify for those that are less aware of “Zappa originale’s” ridiculously prolific, entirely peculiar and perennially interesting back catalogue there are anywhere in between 5 and 10 ‘Zappas’ (The selection of specific numbers in this case was arbitrary, more for effect then any kind of technical analysis). In saying this I am making point of the fact that across over 40 maybe 50 original releases Zappa has touched territory that other artists haven’t even considered as ‘music’ and has released music through different phases and changing eras of such vast variety and originality (let alone complete fucking weirdness) that some fans may like only one of these ‘types’ of Zappa, they may like 3 types or they may like all types. There is so much available to listen to that any intelligent man could get lost in the mire of consistently relentless worthwhile music. This suggests that selection of a cover band set list of Zappa’s music, is a no doubt intimidating task. This was well negotiated by the defined focus mentioned earlier and really was the key to success for Zappa Plays Zappa on this night. It also helped that 70’s rockin’ Zappa is one of my personally favourite Zappa ‘types’.

The band was nothing short of ridiculously impressive. A solid mix between veteran musicians of great calibre like mallet man Billy Hulting and guitarist Jamie Kime to young Zappa-devotees saxophonist, blower and keyboardist Scheila Gonzales (god she’s fine) and bassist (the unfortunately named) Pete Griffin. The outcome on the night from a band like this with this mix of personnel was a highly accurate replication of Zappa’s music with a dash of enthusiasm and excitement in the slight rearrangements and natural performance. They were tight, and bar two miss starts, caused by Dweezil, one in which his guitar didn’t work, another when he missed the beat, a few mini-losses of rhythmic continuity and a feedback burst mistimed, they all continually impressed both technically and aurally. This mostly applied to Dweezil whose guitar playing abilities, that were developed under the auspices of the wankerishly awesome Steve Vai have determinedly improved.

The Purple Lagoon mini-issue was remedied almost immediately by a blistering rendition of the typically funny and weird Pygmy Twylte. It burnt the stage and gave every member an opportunity to introduce themselves and their considerable abilities to the crowd. Already by this stage it was quite clear what the flavour of the night would be. Seventies Zappa would dominate the proceedings. Songs started to run into each other with shorter more famous Zappa numbers interspersed tactically between longer jam songs. A rare single like Tell Me You Love Me was played side by side with the triple song medley from Roxy and Elsewhere of Village of The Sun, Echidna’s Arf (Of You), and Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing. Roxy was well represented but his ballad to funk-rock to progressive cock rock combination was constantly capturing of attention leaving most of the dichotomous, either aging or somewhat prepubescent crowd salivating. There were more surprise famous vocal songs played. A Scheila Gonzales sung version of Dirty Love which despite probably being impaired by female vocals (chosen in the name of ironic fun apparently) was pretty entertaining. A low-down funk version of the non-sensical My Guitar Wants To Eat Your Mama breezed by smoothly for the seated crowd while the overly popular Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow got a genuine if not radical reading. The later day epic guitar piece Mammy’s Anthem originally seemed a misstep but very quickly became a highlight as Zappa convincingly took control of his guitar and lauded it (without the ego of his father) over the supplicant crowd. The band got their opportunity to expand a bit, bust their chops on an epic if not constantly recognisable version of King Kong. On record it’s a mish-mash mess used by Zappa to get ridiculously experimental. For Dweezil and his crew it was time to swap solos and impress the musically savvy crowd. There were a number of other awesome moments peppered throughout the night but necessary mention of the encore must be made. The gig finished with a double shot of dirty, grungy, disgusting bliss of I’m the Slime from Overnite Sensation and the singular Hot Rats foray the Beefheart sung Willie The Pimp. Given that the band didn’t have the vast range of instrumentalists and instruments available to Zappa for the making of Hot Rats utilised, it’s no surprise that they only chose the funkiest, most simplistic bluesy number from the album, and well chosen it was. After the gig there was a solid hour of me grunting the riff retardedly, to the chagrin of my respectable fellow gig attendee.

The doubts I’d carried on entering Thebby were completely dissuaded now and I’d seen not what I expected but instead a genuine rock ‘n’ roll gig that went for two hours, rocked out in the encore and for a significant portion of it, made me forget that I was watching what is intrinsically a cover band. As a Zappa fan, not a Zappa obsessive (the majority of Zappa fans are Zappa collectors, Zappa fanatics, Zappa weirdos) the best I can say for Dweezil is that he said he’d be back and I will go and see him accordingly. The same will no doubt go for the ‘elder statesmen’ of the crowd and the ‘young ruffians’. If this is the best we can hope for in terms of Zappa live. We’re not that unlucky.

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