Manchester Palace Theatre 05/12/19
When the opportunity arose to see Dweezil Zappa, the son of legendary musician Frank Zappa, performing the iconic album Hot Rats, it was just too good an opportunity to turn down. I knew bits and pieces of Zappa’s work, but I wouldn’t say I was an aficionado by any stretch of the imagination.
The theatre was packed and with quite a cross section of ages, from people in their early twenties, right the way through to people in their eighties. This music crosses normal generational barriers. This was promising to be a good night. I found my seat and sat down and pretty soon a very unassuming band arrived on stage, plugged in and began to play.
Opening up with ‘Don’t Eat Yellow Snow’ the band straight away blew me away. I was somewhat surprised they didn’t begin the set playing Hot Rats, but that was to come. What an incredible sound. What incredible musicians, diligently recreating this Frank Zappa classic.
At the end of the track, Dweezil welcomes everyone and then the band launch into the first Hot Rats song, which gets a huge cheer from the audience. ‘Peaches en Regalia’ takes me somewhere else. I had heard the album version, but seeing it realised by a live band, in front of me was incredible. The really impressive thing too, was the collection of musicians Dweezil has chosen to surround himself with. They are all multi instrumentalists. The second guitarist also doubles up as a keys player, the saxophonist also plays guitar, well there’s not a lot that saxophonist Scheila Gonzalez cant play to be honest, but more on her later!
The band continue playing through Hot Rats, I was transfixed. Seeing a real display of solid gold musicianship up on the stage. I really was in the presence of greatness here. It was unlike anything I have ever seen or heard before. I was truly amazed. ‘Willie The Pimp’ was incredible, Little Umbrellas was amazing, a song that Dweezil had said Frank Zappa had never performed live. And then the highlight of the first half, ‘The Gumbo Variations’.
Dweezil introduced the track and announced that Scheila Gonzales was playing the sax. Now we had already seen her play pretty much everything else on the stage, including sax on other pieces, but this was a sax heavy piece and my god, was it amazing! Played with such passion. She absolutely nailed it, better than the record, if that is even possible. Scheila Gonzales at that moment, with that solo, stole the show!
The first half came to a close with an energetic version of ‘It Must Be A Camel’. What a surreal piece. The Hot Rats album has some great moments and some weird and wonderful concoctions. ‘It Must Be A Camel’ was one of those. I wasn’t familiar with the piece, I have listened to it a few times since and I still cant find the words to describe. I just know, it was weird and I liked it!
The Second Half was a Frank Zappa greatest hits collection. Beginning with ‘Montana’, what a song that is. Smooth, and some of the sexiest, smoothest, soulful guitar playing I have witnessed. I was lapping this up and loving it. Also, such a funny song. Dweezil introduced it as a song about dental floss. The whole band were on fire.
The hits kept coming and I was more and more amazed as the night progressed. ‘Here Lies Love’, ‘I’m Not Satisfied’ and ‘Teen Age Dream’ all followed and then something puzzled me. The band launched into a version of The Knack song ‘My Sharona’. Completely out of place in an otherwise otherworldly gig! Dweezil later explained that his dad, Frank Zappa, loved the song and would throw it into as many different things as he could and as such, Dweezil threw the whole song into the show and interweaved a riff that his dad kept playing repeatedly.
The magnificent show came to a close with ‘Tears Began to Fall’. I can not sum up just quite how remarkable the night was. A stunning collection of musicians, playing absolutely mind blowing music. I loved every second of it. Thank you Dweezil Zappa for keeping the remarkable music your dad created alive. Fifty years on, Hot Rats still feels fresh and vibrant and as for the other stuff… My mind was well and truly blown!
