Dweezil Zappa is keeping the memory of his father alive and his legacy has a good standing chance of being experienced by those, like me, too young to have seen Frank Zappa alive.
Dweezil, who for the first 12 years of his life, grew exclusively listening to his father’s music, not by ways of LPs but by loving his father’s creative and composition process, stopped by Montreal’s Corona Theatre to present us with his Choice Cuts tour.
He presented a personal selection way beyond Frank’s hits, in fact the purpose of the show was to both satisfy the most avid fans and showcase a lesser known side of Zappa’s music to new fans, going deep into the catalog, and going way beyond “Don’t you Eat the Yellow Snow”, which, according to Dweezil, is what most people think of when they think of Zappa.
Hours previous to the show there was some frozen rain that made walking to the venue a risky endeavor. The odious, and depressing weather did not impede many people, mostly baby boomers, from almost selling out the place. Many Frank Zappa t-shirts and hoodie were worn that night and people were very happy to be witnessing Dweezil’s new tour after he passed our city in 2016.
He was joined on stage by six excellent musicians, several of them multi-instrumentalists, with a special highlight from Sheila Gonzalez, an Emmy-winning musician that amazed many people in the crowd, she not only sang beautifully but play the keyboard, flute, and saxophone masterfully, and on top of all she did a great Cartman impression during the song “The Flakes”.
In Dweezil’s own words, the theme of the night was “it’s fucking great to be alive” and his purpose that night was to “freak us out”, and that he did, it was great getting to experience such a powerful performance, with songs that were being played live once again. Even listening to pieces that were originally unreleased live songs that were played only a couple of times and some even performed over 50 years ago.
Some of the songs were either instrumental or had extended solos, as it was traditional for Frank Zappa to compose, but during those songs while looking around and sensing the crowd’s reactions, people became still, from what it seemed was either awe or complete boredom and tiredness, and I don’t blame them, with more than 3 hours of continuous music and more than 30 songs, the ears and brain can get easily overwhelmed.
The repertoire, the Choice Cuts, really brought out great pieces from the vast career that Frank Zappa had. Some songs felt like modern prog songs while other felt like rock anthems. For me all new with the exception of a couple melodies that I’ve heard before from the album “The Roxy Performances” from 2017.
At the end of the night, everyone’s smile and excitement could be felt even in the wagons of the metro, with people bonding over the genius of the Zappas and joyous to have witnessed life so many of the songs that made them true fans and a huge family of freaks.
Setlist:
Purple Lagoon Intro
Andy
Lonely Little Girl
Flakes
Fifty-Fifty
I’m the Slime
Call Any Vegetable/Tell Me You Love Me
Rollo Medley
James Bond Theme / Studebaker Hoch
Absolutely Free
Dog Breath
Dog Meat
A Pound for a Brown on the Bus
Cocaine Decisions
Drowning Witch
Sleeping in a Jar
Florentine Pogen
Sleep Napkins
The Black Page #1
The Black Page #2
Love Ride
Dragon Master
Peaches en Regalia
This Town is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich
Keep It Greasey
Cheepnis
Orange County-Segue
Trouble-End Show
Encore:
Remington Electric Razor
Oh, In the Sky
Dinah-Moe Humm
Muffin Man
Purple Lagoon Reprise
Review – Ricardo D. Flores
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