Blogger wants to upload the images below in reverse chronological order, so once we get to the images, we will actually be walking backwards through time, from when I left and thought to shoot the Marquee to before the band had even started to play. No matter.
Some thoughts:
1. Nick, the mallet man, is (AT LEAST) every bit as good as Ruth Underwood. I love Ruth Underwood and am prejudicial to tasty malletwork (hello to Ruth, if you are reading this, and Nick too). So this is probably about the highest praise I can give the man. Is that a xylophone he's playing? I never feel confident to make such calls -- I can't tell a marimba from a glockenspiel (pretty sure they weren't vibes tho'. Anyhoo, "mallets" will suffice). It's fascinating to me to see a percussion instrument carry so much tune. Bandleader Blair -- seen below on trumpet -- even pointed to him during one song and said "Watch Nick, he's about to blow your minds," I think that was how Blair put it; but I'd been watching Nick all night already and tbh the show-offy stuff he did thereafter didn't seem that much more virtuosic than anything else he'd been playing. He's real good. (Most of the showing off seemed to involve virtuosic, or at least highly flashy, tambourine playing, actually. Never actually been impressed by someone's skill with a tambourine before!).
(Did Ruth Underwood also play tambourines?).
2. It is an obvious though trivial pastime when watching Zappostrophe' to try to pick and choose between (briefly-Zappamask-wearing) guitar-Blair -- not to be confused with bandleader/ trumpet-Blair or the thing-Blair making a UFO in the ice-tunnel below the venue -- and Guenter (he of the long hair). Of the two, guitar-Blair seems friendlier and more playful -- he operated the rubber chicken, say (I can't bring myself to say "play") -- but Guenter (who probably merits an umlaut or something but I'm pressed for time, since I have to be at work soon), though somewhat dour of countenance, befitting his German (Austrian? Swiss?) origins perhaps, does seem to take (or be given?) the meatier solos. I actually have never paid close enough attention to Zappa to be able to tell (unless, like, I'm watching video footage) which solos were his and which were a secondary guitarist's (like, say, Steve Vai) -- like, when hearing a Zappa track with two leads, which one is Zappa? Can YOU tell? (And while we're at it, when bringing on a secondary guitarist... did Zappa pick people who were even better than he was, or, y'know, not quite as good? Could Steve Vai, say, outnoodle Zappa in a guitar-off, like, y'know, he was playing against Ralph Macchio or something, or would Zappa slay them all?). Anyhow, never mind which I like better, the question here then becomes, which of them is BEING Zappa and which of them Vai (or whomever?). My guess is, Guenter is being Zappa, but I don't know. Maybe they trade off ("Do you want to be Zappa on this one?"). Question for future interview!
3. "Inca Roads" is a damn fine Zappa tune, and One Size Fits All grows larger and larger in my estimation from seeing Zappostrophe' cover songs off it ("Sofa No. 1" and "Andy" both made appearances last night). Jeeezus, trumpet-Blair and co-vocalist LJ really had fun with the "guacamole bit," which I'm going to have to read on a lyric sheet, because WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT, other than the vocal high point of the night? Even Blair laughed. Trumpet-Blair, I mean.
...but (sorry) we must presume to quibble with trumpet-Blair -- are they really called called crop circles in Chariots of the Gods, or are you thinking of the Nazca lines, which were not done in crops (aside: I wonder if people in Peru who use and/or manufacture cocaine ever make Nazca jokes? Like, maybe they draw a monkey in cocaine on a mirror: "Wanna do a real Nazca line?"). The modern resurgence of crop circles didn't start until the 1970s, though they do date back to the 17th century apparently (I looked it up). Maybe they were inspired by von Daniken (Chariots was from 1968). Have any of you Zappostrophe' people actually read that book? I have not. I will defer to you if I must, but question #2 (or is it #3?) for a future interview is hereby noted.
Did the Inca really have roads?
4. HOWEVER -- and here we get to the crux of the biscuit -- these "oofo"-related quibbles -- which I may be wrong about -- are nothing compared to the (admittedly somewhat bemused) SCANDAL that shot through me to hear "Eskimo" changed to "land of snow" in "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" ("I dreamed I came from the land of snow": WHAT?). Though I do understand the political issue at hand and realize that the band may not be all on the same page on such issues -- and that Zappa does have some problematic songs, which you can't even BEGIN to play live these days -- I half-expected, when I heard that, for the wrathful ghost of Frank Zappa himself to rise from the stage and shoot lightning from his eyes, slaying the band en masse for presuming to sanitize his lyric. I would like to point out that the entire lyrics of the song revolve around a character named Nanook, and that the lyric, dog-doo snow cones et alia, AS A WHOLE is not, exactly, a sensitive and respectful representation of northern indigeneity, so changing one word dunnint (sic) help very much; that b) Inuit musicians who were contemporaries of Zappa, like, say, Willie Thrasher, use the word "Eskimo" in their lyrics and CONTINUE TO DO SO (I have interviewed Willie, seen him thrice, and was actually now RECOGNIZED by him when I showed up in the audience in that clip, which blew me away, but I don't have his email address or such, or I'd ask him to weigh in here); c) that we all realize that these are not your lyrics and will not necessarily hold you accountable for them; d) that it is unlikely that any Inuit were around to be offended last night, which means this is all about maintaining social status among fellow white liberals, many of whom (I raise my hand) would probably forgive you... You also are not obliged to SING songs that have offensive content, y'know? I think I'd prolly just leave those out -- play them or not but DO NOT PRESUME TO CENSOR THEM.
On the other hand, I do not mind creative engagement with the Zappa catalogue. Zappostrophe' also added lyrics to "Black Napkins," threw in a Rocky-and-Bullwinkle reference (?!). and wrote totally new words for "Let's Make the Water Turn Black," which was weird, but I wasn't able to follow them well enough to take umbrage -- I was definitely curious what they were singin' about! (Eugene Chadbourne when he covered that changed some words too but I think just because he had forgotten the original lyrics. I think "numies" became "boogers" in his version, if memory serves). There was some built-in reference to offensive content in Zappa's lyrics in their rendition of "Let's Make...," too, but it was pleasingly goofy, and at least seemed more creative in intent than, uh, "censorious," while being also more puzzling, since what the heck is offensive about "Let's Make the Water Turn Black?" (granted, I am not sure what "numies" are or what "pooting" is. How will I be saved? Wait, that's the wrong band).
Anyhow, I dunno about the revisionist streak that manifested itself onstage at the Fox last night (the band is apparently not all on the same page about doo-wop, either, from what t-Blair said: there was less of it this time than at the previous Fox show, just a medley of "Dog Breath in the Year of the Plague," "Cheap Thrills," and "Dirty Love," with only the middle song seeming truly full-on doo-wop. There mighta been one other thrown in there but Blair did say something about having cut back on the doo-wop to mollify an anti-doo-wop contingent in the band. Whatevs! I can take or leave that stuff, and already was generously treated to a much fuller doo-wop set the last time I saw them at the Fox, but I was glad they did "Dog Breath" though, no less).
5. Scott of Big Top was in the crowd. I miss Big Top. I want Scott to come back. There was also a guy who ran a record store in New West (who'd had a stroke, so he couldn't remember the NAME of the store!) who told us how he had met Zappa and got his signature on a record (!!!) (but he couldn't remember the name of the record either; strokes suck). Which reminds me, Erik Iversen and son were in the house, and hearing that story. I gave Erik a book and, speaking of strokes, got a photo of a musician who I will be writing about NEXT week (can ya guess WHO?).
I din't recognize anyone else.
6. Hey, if this band got a violin player, they could tackle Hot Rats (nice used copy of that for a decent price at Carson Books and Records, by the way -- not in the main bins, but with the new arrivals. It's an OG with the gatefold but not the blue Bizarre label, I checked. They have 200 Motels and... there was one other. Bunch of used Zappa came into Beat Street, too; I snagged vinyl of The Grand Wazoo there before the show and if I'd been able to stay to the very end, I might have bugged the band to "sign my Wazoo," mostly for the pleasure of saying those words. I don't know if they'd actually deface a real Zappa record for me, though). In any event, there remain vast Zappafrank worlds (and asteroids) for them to conquer -- classical compositions, say, or stuff from Zappa's later years, or from Freak Out, or.... Meantime, I'm very curious to see what they're going to do with the video footage they shot last night!
7. ...Tho', coming back to the issue of tweaking lyrics -- and speaking of worlds to conquer -- I'd like to challenge the censorious streak in the band to write lyrics for "Bobby Brown Goes Down" that are not homophobic, a version of "Suicide Chump" that is sensitive to people having a mental health crisis, a pro-union "Flakes," a body-positive "Big Leg Emma" and a non-misogynist "Easy Meat," for starters. I don't think you can fix them by subbing out one word, but whatta I know?
(Or else mebbe just don't play Zappa songs that you have to change the words for. Frank would not approve: this is the MODERN PMRC you are catering to, folks, and we know how Frank felt about THEM.)
Still, wow, great night! They have t-shirts now. I bought one. I'd see them again, in the land of snow or not.
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