Show Review: Zappa Plays Zappa

Let’s go back in time between the late 50s through the early 90s. Through this time we see the influential works of bands like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and many others who have helped to shape today’s music. Our younger generation, not being around for most of that time, has missed one of the most potentially influential artists of that time. You won’t hear Frank Zappa’s name commonly throughout much of the under 30 crowd, but if you look a bit later, your parents probably listened to Zappa’s music or at least had heard of him.

So Frank was this crazy crazy guy. He and Captain Beefheart worked together on occasion, just to give you an idea. Anyway, so from the 50s through when he died, he was a guitarist and composer. His music basically takes the idea of experimental rock and adds another “experimental” to it, or something like that. Back in the day, this was one of the first bands Steve Vai was in (also, another testament to his craziness) And if you can get a hold of any of his orchestral works, they’re pretty nuts as well.

How is this a show review, though? I mean, the guy has been dead for 17 years and I would’ve been 4 at that time! This show was actually only in mid-January, this year. Turns out Frank’s son, Dweezil, (Yeah, Dweezil. His sister’s name: Moon Unit… Told ya’ he was crazy…) made a tribute band to his father in ’05, appropriately name: Zappa Plays Zappa. Since then, ZPZ has been on tour a few times, playing old Zappa songs, nearly note-for-note. Last summer I got the chance to see them 5th row, opening for Dream Theater. It was the best live show I’ve ever seen, so when I saw ZPZ was going to be in Baltimore, at Ram’s Head Live, I had to go.

As I said before, this is some crazy experimental rock. ZPZ is a 7 piece: guitar, guiar, bass, drums, percussion, keyboard/sax/flute, and vocals. In addition, everyone else also does vocal things and Dweezil actually plays his dad’s old Gibson SG – the same one Frank played at his shows. Since it was just ZPZ, with no openers, they played a nearly 3 hour set. It featured a wide variety of Frank’s work, including a few pieces from the Joe’s Garage album that they’ve just started to play on this tour. I’d say my favorite songs of the night were probably “Catholic Girl” and “Crew Slut.” Yes, moderately offensive, but in a rather comical way.

Now on to how this show was mind-blowing. First, I think the instrumentation is amazing. Not only is there an extreme variety between songs because of this, but then they throw in these crazy instrumental interludes. These are a little beyond just “solos” because it’s not just one feature at a time (most of the time). There is also a lot of call and response between instruments, which is pretty awesome.

So in addition to the instrumentals, there’s also these crazy vocal things they do. With everyone capable of singing and whatnot, the possibilities are endless. Quite a few of Zappa’s songs tell stories. In that instance, usually everyone will have a character and dialogue within the song. There are even times when multiple conversations are going on at once, so you have to listen to bits and pieces of each to get the idea of what’s going around. That’s probably the craziest it gets vocally. A handful of weird vocal sound effects are used throughout the performance as well.
Basically, this is the sort of show that everyone should be required to go to at some point in their life. There’s a little bit of everything thrown in, so if you are even remotely musically inclined, you should be able to appreciate it. Those of us who fancy more experimental sounds, music that keeps you guessing, will likely be able to appreciate ZPZ the most. For me, this completely changes my outlook on music. I have no idea what that means for the future of my own writing/listening/etc, but for now I’m sorta just left scratching my head and wondering how it’s possible to do what they do.

-Alex Brubaker