Zappa Plays Zappa

[Hyfi]

I got this DVD for xmas this year and all I can say at first screening is WOW.

I only saw Frank once back in the 70s, the night after he was on SNL, and the whole band came out as Coneheads.

Franks diverse 75 albums have something for everyone and for the most part, to be fully appreciated one needs to see a band performing all this intricate, layered music. All the musicians picked for this band went through a pretty tough assignment of learning 2 songs and in 2 days time, play the whole of their part with only drums as accompaniment.

Dweezil is one heck of a talented player who does not showboat one bit while he shreds his father's tunes without looking.

What you get are 2 very long DVDs with a ton of great music and showmanship, along with Steve Vai and Terry Bozzio.

Sound Quality is very good in both 5.1 and 2ch and the PQ is quite good for a DVD concert video.

Highly recommended if you want to hear some fresh takes of Frank's masterpieces.

[3LB]

Do they do a lot of the jazzy/fusion stuff or is it mostly the silly stuff?

[Hyfi]

Do they do a lot of the jazzy/fusion stuff or is it mostly the silly stuff?

They play only a few of the more comedic tunes and as per the interview with Dweezil, those tunes are best left to Frank.

The second disk has more of Via and Bozzio and some real killer fusiony stuff like this

1 of 3 - ZPZ - Trouble Every Day - YouTube

[Hyfi]

Do they do a lot of the jazzy/fusion stuff or is it mostly the silly stuff?

I think this is a must have DVD if not just for what Steve Vai does on Zombie Woof alone. But then there is Montana, which has some more smokin Via and then the one I posted the link for, Trouble Every Day where Via does the main solo and then battles it out with DZ near the end. The Torture Never Stops is eerily captivating and jamin also. Black Napkins is just gorgeously done by Dweezil too.

I would say Disk 2 is the one for the fusion guys and Disk 1 is also great but a little less jamming and more of the real intricate tracks full of layers and all around incredibly hard to play tunes.

In the interview with DZ in the bonus section, he mentions that the way people auditioned for this band was they were given 2 pcs of music and had to come back in 2 days and play as much of their take on each one with only drums as accompaniment. Sounds pretty tough, specially for Zappa's music. He also talked about when he first picked up the guitar, and after a few days of struggling, Frank asked Steve to give him some lessons. Wow, to have both Frank and Steve as your teachers must be friggin awesome.

The one observation I have about Dweezil, and I am not sure if he does it to be like Frank, but he is too mechanical. He tears it up as fast as Via but with no emotion at all, most of the time staring at everything but where his fingers are on the neck. It's like he is programmed but I'm sure it has to come from within. He was born with licks and chops!