wow, that was fast. concert hasn’t been over for 2 hours yet (as of 1 AM) and zappa.com is already updated with the news:
After reading this you might consider pondering the fact that History as we know it could easily have been written otherwise. Had we bothered at any point to revel in Otherness and appreciate the Absurd then perhaps more cities (across this great land of ours) would be remembering their own Denizens of the Universe and not August 9th as the day of infamy that it is for most – the resignation of Richard Nixon. Ah well.
All the more reason (as in mental process as opposed to excuse) to value the actions of The Honorable Sheila Dixon and others who are responsible for initiating this Proclamation in the best sense of a tribute to Frank Zappa – Anything Anywhere Anytime For No Reason At All.
We as a family are grateful and tickled too!
Gail Zappa
Happy Frank Zappa Day!
so, the concert: AWESOME. i’ve got serious taper’s remorse for not recording it (why oh why didn’t i tape it oh yeah that’s right i wanted to be a good little glenn and not be stealthy and wanted to concentrate on enjoying the show but argh dweezil zappa in baltimore why why why didn’t i go with my gut instinct) because as soon as something awesome happened then something else even more awesomer happened.
i stopped off at the apartment after work so i could do a quick change of clothes, and i thought about rigging up my recorder but decided against it, partially for practical reasons, and partially because i didn’t have the time to really set it up — the concert was starting at 8 and the doors were opening at 7, and it was already 6 pm. i managed to get parked and get to power plant live by 7 pm, though. soulive was going to be performing for free in the courtyard there (some folks from the taperssection forums were planning on going and recording since soulive is a taper-friendly band), and i guess because of that there were some security folks at the entrance to power plant live carding folks and giving them a green heineken wristband if they were over 21. i also saw them say something to a guy in a red t-shirt how “you aren’t allowed in if you’re wearing a plain red t-shirt”. wtf. i heard them do that about some guy in a plain white t-shirt once before and his buddy had to buy a shirt at howl at the moon so he could get into the area. really weird.
anyway, i went straight to ram’s head live and got in line and had to wait about 10-15 minutes for the line to start moving. security was just some dude checking in bags and purses for stuff, so i could have even just had my recording gear in my pocket, let alone stealthed away on my person. he took my ticket (i had bought one of the vip tickets so i got access to the sweet spot in the balcony) and asked to see my id. uh, ok… once he saw it he gave me a purple wristband and a slip of paper i could trade in for a free fordham draft beer (the ram’s head tavern’s house beer label, i suppose) or a rail drink. sweet! free beer! right next to him was another guy who wanted to see my id yet again. i complained that the guy next to him already saw my id and put the purple wristband on me but he said “that doesn’t mean anything” and stamped my hand once i showed him my id as well. so now i had two wristbands and a handstamp and was thinking that efforts to curb underage drinking were going a bit too far. 😛 i figured it out better later, though — the green wristband would let me drink outside in the courtyard if i wanted to, the purple wristband got me into the vip areas (because i’m down with vip. and i wore my “local celebrity” shirt.), and the handstamp meant i was over 21. i still thought it was a bit ridiculous to have all this crap on my one wrist, though. i found the bathrooms and then went upstairs to get a beer and find a spot to watch the concert. the girl tending the bar i went to seemed a bit irritated. she wasn’t unfriendly, but if i was buying with cash instead of using my free beer coupon then i wouldn’t have given her a tip for the way she was acting toward me.
ram’s head live has 4 levels:
the balcony is shaped in a sort of ‘U’, with the stage being on the ground floor between the two top points of the ‘U’. the left portion of the ‘U’ is general admission, while the bottom and right-hand side are both vip areas. the bleachers are also at the bottom of the ‘U’ with about 15 feet between the edge of the balcony and the start of the bleachers, so there’s a little area for standing-room that puts you pretty much dead-center of the stage — i was right in the middle of the two speaker-stacks suspended from the ceiling, straight across from dweezil in the center of the stage, and the only person i couldn’t really see very well was the guitarist at the right side of the stage due to the way the right side of the ‘U’ curved:
i had originally tried staking out a spot to the right where i was practically over the stage, but the sound wasn’t that great from there since i was to the side of the speaker stacks, and i didn’t want to be That Guy Who Dropped His Beer On Dweezil Zappa’s Head. so, i relocated to a spot over the soundboard, and i figured in terms of getting drunk at the spot i ended up at:
at the zappa plays zappa concert i went to in dc last fall they didn’t do one thing that i was expecting them to do which they did do this time: that big screen over the stage? they would play video footage of frank zappa in concert (accompanied by his guitar track and vocals), and the band below would play along and do backing vocals, so it was just like frank zappa was out playing with the band for “montana”, “dumb all over” and “muffin man”. pretty neat!
when the concert started they had a representative from the mayor’s office come out and read that proclamation and present it to dweezil and he started crying. then he brought out some little girl (his?) who’s named zola frank zappa and then started the concert properly. i don’t remember the exact order of the songs that they did (or even all of the songs they did), but i do remember they did the following:
edited: here’s the full setlist…
Intro w/ proclamation from the Mayor naming August 9, 2007 “Frank Zappa Day” in Baltimore city.
Peaches En Regalia (first time played this tour?)
City of Tiny Lights (Ray White joins band onstage)
Montana (w/DRS video trailer 74, FZ vocals & guitar solo)
Advance Romance
Dumb All Over (w/DRS video trailer 81, vocals & guitar solo tracks by FZ)
What’s New in Baltimore?
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy
Son of Suzy Creamcheese–>
Brown Shoes Don’t Make It–>
America Drinks and Goes Home
Pygmy Twylight
Dupree’s Paradise (w/ solos by everyone and “Hey Hon”, “You Gave Me Crabs”, “Natty Boh”, and “Hot Syphilis” vamping by Ray)
Uncle Remus
Willie the Pimp
Joe’s Garage (w/ Pete and Scheila dancing during “The White Zone is for…..” )
Wind up Workin’ in a Gas Station
San Ber’dino
The Illinois Enema Bandit (incl. “Don Pardo” preamble by Billy)
Cosmik Debris (w/DRS video trailer 74, vocals & 2nd guitar solo by FZ)
G-Spot Tornado
Muffin Man (w/BS video trailer 77, vocals & 1st guitar solo by FZ)
ENCORE:
Florentine Pogen
when they were going to play “dupree’s paradise” they did some audience participation — they asked for people to name things that had to do with baltimore (the things couldn’t be related to any frank zappa songs or anything like that), and the first thing was some guy shouting out “HOT SYPHILIS!” the guy standing to my left said “well, that is baltimore!” they ended up with “hi, hon”, “natty boh” and “you gave me crabs”. during “dupree’s paradise” they would do extended solos and the different band members would say things at random related to the phrases we had given them (“this is the hot syphilis portion of the program!”, or *extended guitar solo* “…crabs.” *extended guitar solo*, stuff like that). after all that, the band freestyled a song while ray white (the “special guest” for the concert) had to freestyle lyrics with each of those phrases into the song. this part was incredibly well-done and super-hilarious, the entire audience was rolling with laughter and this was one of the big reasons why i wish i recorded the concert. my only hope is that either someone else taped it or that it gets released on cd (they’re doing a dvd of some of the fall performances, i know that much).
afterwards i picked up a copy of the dub room special soundtrack on cd (only available for sale at the concerts right now! and it looks like there’s a splice of the recording tape in the cd case, too!), mostly because i really like the “room service” sketch. i also picked up a spiffy-looking shirt of the concert tour as well.
but man oh man, i can’t wait and i really hope that i can get to another zappa plays zappa concert. seriously, these concerts are just getting better and better. i really wish that i could go to one of the concerts with ocarina, though — i think she’d get a big kick out of it, and she was the second person who introduced me to frank zappa (the first being dr. demento when i heard “valley girl” on july 18, 1993, haha… see what happens when you remember hearing “valley girl”, “the lumberjack song” and “spam” on your radio under your covers while away at band camp? you end up finding out the exact date you heard that broadcast :P).
after the concert i saw some hot girls going clubbing at iguana cantina. the last time i went there was with festive and we figured it was “busted ladies night” after seeing so many ugly chicks in one place (i thought one looked cute until she smiled and looked more like a hockey player). it seemed much better tonight. i wondered why i don’t try to go clubbing now and then i remember that i have to work on fridays. plus, some (well, a lot) of the girls looked a bit plastic. that doesn’t stop me from wanting some sexin’, though. maybe one day when i have off on a friday, or when i hate myself and don’t want to wake up to go to work in the morning.
ok, time to go to bed. yesterday i said that it was time to dream about sexy ladies, and that actually worked! too bad i also mentioned highlander in my post yesterday because my dream also had a drafty old scottish castle and sean connery. boo.