16 July 2008

Hello Friends,
Just a quick note to fill you in on our European adventure so far. We started off in Holland at the world famous North Sea Jazz festival. I ran into Ralph Armstrong. He used to play with Frank. He had some nice stories to share. That was fun.

We played our show with all rental equipment except for our guitars and horns. (It's way too expensive to bring our own gear for this short run of fly dates) Festivals routinely have no soundcheck so that adds to the challenge. It's the nature of the beast. We had a few technical issues at the North Sea gig - things like Ray's voice not being audible in anyone's in-ear monitor mix for the first couple of songs. It's a good thing Ray has such a natural gift to sing in tune otherwise it could have been a little "special" for the audience.

We had short time allotment. The set length was 75 minutes. It flew by. The crowd was very nice to us though.

The next day we flew to Milano, Italy. We played at a villa modeled after the Versailles Palace called Villa Arconati. It's a beautiful place. The stage was set up in a tent outside in the courtyard. It was a bit like playing inside a Zeppelin. There was about a 6 second decay for any noise that come off stage. Not exactly ideal for detailed music.

However, the Italian audience blew us away. They had a huge surge of energy during "Bamboozled By Love" and they kept it going throughout the rest of the night.

When we played "Peaches En Regalia" in the encore I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. The audience sang the melody so loud that at a certain point we broke it down to drums and bass so we could all hear the audience sing. I've never seen or heard anything like that. That's a tricky melody to sing - they nailed all the rhythms. It was amazing to witness that.

I had a really good time with that crowd. I'll be happy to go back to play for them anytime.

We're off to Madrid in the morning. It will be our first time playing in Spain. We were originally supposed to start the 06 tour in Spain. We never ended up going there. I'm looking forward to it now though. I'll let you know how it goes.

Regards, DZ

POSTED BY DWEEZIL ZAPPA AT 2008-07-16 10:53:33

8 July 2008

Soap Opera: AKA Lengthy Blog about stupid stuff...

Hello Friends,
I recently read an amusing tale about an incident that supposedly took place stage side during one of our shows. The author of this highly exaggerated tale is André Cholmondeley. He would like you to believe he was physically attacked. More on that later...

Perhaps it is his dream come true that I would take a moment of my time to write a few sentences that publicly address him. It's a one shot deal - You're welcome.

Here you go...

Dateline - Los Angeles California:

The following are actual private e-mails between me and Adrian Belew. (I apologize to Adrian in advance if this causes him any aggravation.)

I would not normally be inclined to use private information in this way but it perfectly illustrates the details of the "non event" that follows.

Dweezil Zappa writes to Adrian Belew - (e-mail addresses have been removed.)

On June 20, 2008, at 1:42 am, dweezil wrote:

Hello Adrian,
I hope this e-mail finds you doing well. I have noticed that you will be playing before us at 2 upcoming shows. I would like to extend an invitation to you to sit in with us if you like during our set. We are playing "Tiny Lites" and "Flakes" either of those 2 songs could make for a good surprise cameo.

Please let me know if you would be interested.

Regards, DZ

On June 30, 2008 12:04 pm, Adrian wrote:

dweezil,
please excuse my late reply.
I've always had a secret desire to show up for a concert with no guitar and no cases full of gear, just a harmonica in my back pocket.

so...
my idea of a cool cameo would be to come out in the middle of flakes harmonica in hand, sing the sad bob dylan part, and exit stage right, hopefully to applause.
what do you think?

cheers,
adrian

ps: I greatly admire and respect what you are doing for your father's legacy.
no one deserves it more than he and I've heard you do it exceptionally well.

After this first electronic exchange I was informed that Adrian was employing André Cholmondeley as his guitar tech. André's propensity for spreading misinformation and negativity has earned him a reputation. A reputation for being obnoxious and creating conflicts.

Since those personality traits hold no appeal for me I decided to write back to Adrian with a request.

On June 30, 2008, at 11:43 pm, dweezil wrote:

Hello Adrian,
Nice to hear from you. Your idea sounds fun and easy.
I think people will appreciate it. They may even decide to clap a little bit... It happens sometimes.

We usually play Flakes midway through the show. I can say, "Take it away Bob or Adrian" whichever you prefer and you can enter to Ray's microphone.

Just let us know day of show if you're up for it and we'll do it.

On a different topic - perhaps an awkward one - I have been informed that you are working with Andre from Project Object. He is likely your friend as well as your employee so you may not enjoy what is to follow.

Whether you are aware of it or not he has instigated a lot of unpleasant things on our website forum and has made many transgressions musical and otherwise regarding Frank over the years. It would be my preference that he politely remove himself from my view before, during and after our set. For me
the phrase persona non grata is applicable in this case.

I can understand if you feel awkward relaying this and I can even understand if you choose not to accept my invitation to join us on stage as a result.

The fact of the matter is he knows what he has done and it should come as no surprise that I wouldn't appreciate him being anywhere near me now or in the future.

I apologize for having to bring this to your attention.

I thank both of you for your consideration and cooperation on this matter in advance.

Regards, DZ

A politely worded simple request. Here's Adrian's response.

On July 1, 2008, at 9:05 am, Adrian wrote:

dweezil,
please introduce me any way you like.
what key is flakes?
I'll bring the appropriate harmonica.

it's true andre works for me now.
I will make certain he is persona non grata as best I can.

as I told gail, I try always to honor frank, his memory, and his music. he remains a towering inspiration to me. I loved him too, and I could never repay him for what he did for me.

I take responsibility for my own actions, never for the actions of others.
I've have heard bits of the rhetoric surrounding project object (after the fact) but remain apart from it all.
should you or your family have any problem with anything I might ever do, please let me know.

see you onstage.
cheers,
adrian

That was July 1st. Whether or not Adrian decided to convey my request to Andre I do not know for sure. But it is safe to assume by his e-mail that he had every intention of doing so.

It is also clear by his e-mail that he is aware of the existing circumstances that could warrant such a request.

Dateline - Ottawa July 5th:

Showtime for Zappa Plays Zappa. Dave Tobias is mixing our in ear monitor mix and is dealing with a keyboard that has lost phantom power. Andre saunters up and tries to make himself at home in Dave's work area. Why would he attempt to do this? Surely he has been told that it would be polite to stay away by his friend and employer Adrian Belew. One must ask, "Why not go enjoy the show from the audience or anywhere else... just be polite and respect a simple request?" Besides, who willingly wants to be in a place where they know they are not welcome?

Dave stops Andre and relays the message that he is not supposed to be there. No touching, pushing or spitting occurred. Loud talking happened, that's it. There was a concert going on and Dave had in ear monitors in his ears. At no point was anyone instructed to be rude to Andre in fact just the opposite is true. Andre even mentioned in his own blog about how nice everyone was earlier in the day. He even mentioned Dave Tobias. Everyone believed that Andre knew about the request and was willing to co-operate and watch the show from a different vantage point later on.

Apparently Adrian must not have made it clear to him that he was not welcome in the stage area. Or maybe he did and Andre decided to ignore the request? In any case, Dave Tobias was a little surprised to see Andre in his work area given all of the back story. He most likely assumed Andre was informed of the request to politely be elsewhere and that he was just trying to be obnoxious again - which is why I originally requested he politely remove himself in the first place.

That's end of the story. Probable miscommunication from Employer to employee. End result stupid drama.

The show the next night had no incident whatsoever. Andre still temerariously snuck himself to the side of the stage though. It's just his way. He can't help himself.

Contrary to his report where claims he locked eyes with me at some point during the show, I'm here to tell you that it never took place. He'd know if I locked eyes with him. "What an imagination"

Here's a paragraph dedicated solely to Andre. To me, if you really have respect for my Father and his music you have an asinine way of showing it. By repeatedly insulting Frank's family and ignoring copyright laws related to his music you have proven the exact opposite of respect. Your obsequious fawning over "alumni" and your precious associations you have with them are embarrassingly shallow. Your attempts to draw attention to yourself as some sort of soldier fighting the good fight for Frank's music reveal what you really are - a depressing epigone starving for recognition.

One last thing, for me to care at all about what you say or do would mean that I have some sort of respect for you or your opinion.
Sadly, I have neither.

End of 15 minutes...

Regards, DZ

POSTED BY DWEEZIL ZAPPA AT 2008-07-08 10:31:22

7 July 2008

Hello Friends,

We've just completed our brief Canadian summer tour. We did it in fine style here at the Quebec International Summer Festival. We were quite pleased to help the city celebrate it's 400th birthday. There must have been over 10,000 wildly enthusiastic fans packed into the staging area with many more lining the city streets at the outer edges.

I've said it before but it's worth repeating, the Canadian audiences are amazing. The energy they send back to the stage can be overwhelming at times. Frank's music has clearly left an indelible impression on the collective imaginations of these impossibly nice people who live up North. They have been making a strong connection with Zappa Plays Zappa as well. We will be happy to play in Canada any time.

Tonight was a fun show. Even though I still have a runny nose and a nagging cough and Joe Travers pulled a muscle in his neck leaving him in absolute agony 3 songs into the show, the audience was right there for every moment of every song. It was a crowd of great diversity. Many young people were shoulder to shoulder right down in front. We always like to see that. You could also tell that there were a lot of long time FZ fans out there in the crowd. We certainly always appreciate their continued support as well.

The audience got a nice surprise when a special guest appeared onstage during "Flakes". Adrian Belew furtively crept out onto the stage replete with harmonica in hand and performed the Bob Dylan monologue. Wearing his Army Nurse's hat from Baby Snakes, he finessed a few perfectly comical harmonica toots and scampered back into the darkness to the sound of Power Chords and a roaring crowd. He sounded great and it was fun to have him join us on stage for that. Thanks Adrian!

Well it's time to hit the road again. We'll be coming to a town near you soon. See you at the next concert.

By the way, be on the lookout for special information regarding our Fall Tour. There are a lot of cool things in the works!

Regards, DZ

POSTED BY DWEEZIL ZAPPA AT 2008-07-07 12:24:39

6 July 2008

take off

Hello all, I'm writing from a brief hotel respite after the show here in Ottawa and I've finally got the chance to sit down and write some of the stuff that's been going through my head recently. Playing all these outdoor festivals has been so amazing, some of the settings have been truly breathtaking, and all of the crowds have been responsive and rocking.
Here's where I might start waxing spiritual, so forgive me. I've always wanted to fly. Pretty much everything I've done in my life has been a jealous attempt to recreate what birds must feel when they catch a breeze with their wings open and just soar. Sometimes, playing with this band, these people, and particularly backing Dweezil up during a solo, something happens that has to be the closest I'll ever get to that feeling. The breeze picks up a little, I close my eyes and get lost in whatever we're playing, and I could swear my feet lift off the ground. That freedom, that amazing feeling of some sort of super power, would never be possible without each person present, including the last person in the last row of the crowd. So thank you, all of you, for helping me fly.
Ok, back to Crisco-ing my wristwatch.

Pete Griffin

POSTED BY PETE GRIFFIN AT 2008-07-06 01:26:02

23 June 2008

Hello Friends,

We're about to start the next leg of the 08 ZPZ tour. We're looking forward to playing all the new material and visiting some new places and making new friends along the way.

We're particularly excited to have the opportunity to play a few more festivals. As you know, introducing Frank's music to a new generation of fans is one of my biggest goals. The fact that we have been invited to play at both Rock and Jazz festivals is unusual. I suspect there will be some interesting differences between audiences. We'll be playing a few of each in the US and Canada as well as in Europe. Speaking of Europe, it's worth mentioning that I have every intention of playing many more dates with ZPZ throughout Europe in the very near future. I expect to play some more shows there in the fall as well as the shows currently listed on our brief summer tour. The fall tour in general has a few cool surprises and fan incentives - more on that in a future blog.

To all the European fans vocalizing about feeling left out please consider this simple equation - touring comes down to promoters who are interested in bringing the show to your town. It obviously costs a lot of money to travel with a large group and a lot of gear, especially these days. I would love to do a more extensive European tour but we can only go to the places that have the motivation to bring us there in a financially viable way. Perhaps the blustering overbearing pessimists on certain fan forums should run some numbers in their spare time, (which they obviously have a lot of) on shipping over 20,000 lbs of equipment, air fares for 18 people + salaries, hotels, buses, trucks, fuel - just to name a few things - and then ask themselves how feasible it really is.

Remember to take into account that the fickle ticket buying fan base that enjoys the "World's Finest Optional Entertainment" is not an overflowing pool of tens of thousands in each territory like say, U2... it's a mere puddle in comparison. For argument's sake let's say it's a few thousand people. Are they all free for the night of the show? Will there be enough promotion to get the word out to all of them so they know about it? I have no control over that. That is the promoters' job. Will they do it well? One would hope... We will likely play in small venues - good for intimate shows but hard if not impossible to cover tour expenses. There are innumerable amounts of variables that go into the decision making process of routing a tour.

We're definitely motivated to come and play for you, we just need the right partners/promoters. Slowly but surely we are making those connections. Please have some patience and keep checking the tour dates on the site.

See you soon,

DZ

POSTED BY DWEEZIL ZAPPA AT 2008-06-23 22:56:08

15 June 2008

Bonnaroo!

Hello Friends,

We have completed the first leg of the tour. Bonnaroo is officially scratched off the to do list. It was fun to play for the crowd that gathered at our tent. I want to commend our brave and hard working road crew for getting our complicated set up in there... "in there" is essentially in the middle of a big muddy field.

I don't know how many people we played to. I will estimate on the low side and say 3,000. It's really hard to judge. The tent was full and there were people outside watching and listening as well. Someone said the tent capacity was 15,000, I'm not sure about that. As I said, it's hard to judge. Many of the people sang along to every word throughout the set.

There were likely a few folks out there who were mostly unfamiliar with the music. We hope they enjoyed themselves. It would seem as though they did since the crowd chanted, "one more song, one more song" for a few minutes after our alloted time was up.

Once we gained permission to do the extra song we hit the stage and served up "Cosmik Debris". We aim to please.

Once again, thanks to everyone for supporting us on this tour. We'll see more of you in a few weeks for round 2.

Regards, DZ

POSTED BY DWEEZIL ZAPPA AT 2008-06-15 10:53:41

14 June 2008

Ignorance is bliss...

Hello Folks,

Someone forwarded an article to me the other day. I thought I might comment on it. First I must make sure the writer of the article gets credit. There is a point to this I promise.

Herald & Review.com CENTRAL ILLINOIS' No.1 NEWS SOURCE published their own Tim Cain's review of a recent Zappa Plays Zappa concert. He found the show to be satisfactory. He's actually quite a big fan.

He knows a lot of my Father's songs. He's even purchased many of the albums for his own personal enjoyment. He was unnerved by something though - I inadvertently "harshed his mellow" when I commented to the audience that I was distracted by someone blatantly taping the concert from a few feet away. Not with a cell phone but a full blown video camera. I also said that the fan with the camera was taping something he did not own.

Now this did not sit well with Tim. He went on to write:

“Yes, in fact, we (the fans) DO own this music.

I’m not proud – nor am I ashamed – of the amount of money I’ve invested in music during my lifetime. And yes, I consider it an 'investment.' I’ve long (and only half-jokingly) said music is my best friend, because it’s always giving something to me and never asking anything in return.

So I’ve dropped thousands of dollars on Frank Zappa’s music, between vinyl and CDs and DVDs and cassettes. I lot of that went to Zappa or his family, and some went to collectors who had managed to collect a fair amount of Frank Zappa concert tapes. That’s where my ownership comes in."

My favorite part is the end when Tim writes:

"(I’d estimate that I haven’t gone a week on the last 25 years without listening to some Frank Zappa music, and I can’t say that about any other act, not even my beloved Beatles.)

Just don’t try to tell me that I don’t have some ownership of it."

While I totally appreciate Tim's enthusiasm for Frank's music and the kind words he's had to say about Zappa Plays Zappa, let me apply Tim's logic to something other than music.

I really like oranges. I have enjoyed them my whole life. I buy them all the time, I even have orange juice in my fridge. I like them so much that at this point I feel pretty good about saying that I own a piece of them. The next time I go to the store and fill my shopping cart with them no-one should mind if I just walk out without paying for them. The store won't care, it's not like they spent any money to stock and supply them, the farmers won't care, they didn't have to do any work to grow them or protect them from frost and hordes of insects or anything like that, the police won't care, they'll totally understand and support my thievery because ... I love oranges... I own them.

Now perhaps I should remind you that there are laws that protect such things as music and oranges. Whether you like it or not.

Those of you who protest the protection of trademarks, copyrights and oranges and view it as pure greed might want to imagine yourself in the position of the copyright/trademark or farm owner for once. If you have something of value would you protect it? You protect your home and your car, don't you? You protect your family and your own money, don't you??? Why is that considered to be a bad thing? You'd be a fool if you didn't protect those things.

I guess some people like to view it negatively so they can convince themselves they're not being disrespectful to the things they "love" while they try to take advantage of the things they "love" because they are special... and they "love" them so much...

Oh by the way the fan with the video camera came up to me at the end of the show and offered a heartfelt apology. He said he didn't know he wasn't allowed to tape the show. I commend him for making the effort to apologize. Nice manners.

DZ

POSTED BY DWEEZIL ZAPPA AT 2008-06-14 21:26:49

13 June 2008

OK,

It seems that Dweezil keeps beating me to the punch on the blogging. WHATEVER! He's a regular blogging fiend this time, but I'm sure you all love it. It's hard to believe that our first outing comes to a close tomorrow. I was just telling Joe that right about now is where I hit my stride out here on the road.

Pete caught me earlier this afternoon sitting on the bus with a goofy grin on my face, just kind of staring off. Later on as we prepared to go on stage, I just couldn't wipe that same grin off my face as I primped in the mirror one last time. In that moment I was somehow taken WAY back to when I was four years old, waiting backstage at the Anaheim High School auditorium getting ready to go on stage and do a ballet recital in my tutu and make up. I was suddenly filled with an overwhelming joy and gratitude for what I get to do. I hope you guys aren't getting sick of hearing this, but it's true. I LOVE EVERY PERSON IN THE ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA BAND AND CREW. Period. I am filled with such love for these wonderful people. It's a blessing to know them and a joy to make such amazing music with them night after night. Truly. I can't emphasize this enough. I thought for sure my heart would burst through my chest tonight or that I would just lose it on stage and start crying. Well, I'm crying now as I write this, but I just can't help it.

The outpouring of love and appreciation from the audience is overwhelming at times. It's incredible that Frank's music can bring us all together to have such an amazing time. I feel so happy to be a part of this. Every show--EVERY SHOW has been amazing. THANK YOU for being such an incredible and supportive audience. We feel each and every one of you and it means so much to play for people that truly appreciate the music, the musicians onstage and the hard work we've put in to learn and deliver it all back to you. It's really cyclical, you know? We give to you, you give back to us, we want to give more back to you and so on...and so on...and so on...SO, you should each go out and tell two friends and they'll tell two friends, and so on...and so on! :-)

There was something in the air tonight here in Raleigh. I felt it before we went on stage. This year's show is so much fun (I know Mary's havin' a good time!). The audiences are all reacting with such fervor. Believe me, it doesn't go unnoticed. The most interesting thing that was in the air tonight? Panties. Yes, that's right, you heard right. A pair of beautiful, lacy, panties graced the ZPZ stage. That cracked me up as most of our audiences are primarily male. It just goes to show that there ARE indeed some ladies in the crowd and bold ones at that! Keep on comin' out, girls and keep "showing your support!" ;-)

Bonnaroo tomorrow! Now THAT'S the way to finish off this first leg of the tour. We can't wait to play to a festival crowd especially since we were robbed of our performance at Wakarusa. It will be nice to have the opportunity to play to fans of the music as well as hopefully doing some "recruiting/converting".

Well, that's all I've got for now. Jamie's polishing off a PB & J sandwich, Dweezil's blogging away, Joe's figuring out what DVD to watch first, the rest of the guys are either sleeping or hanging in the back lounge and we're rolling on into the night. I'm settling into my spot here in the front lounge and soon we'll be listening to some of tonight's show and perhaps watching some DVD's, snacking, talking and surely laughing. Good times...

If we haven't seen you yet, we hope to see you soon!

Love to y'all and thank you again!
Scheila
xoxox

POSTED BY SCHEILA GONZALEZ AT 2008-06-13 23:28:24

13 June 2008

Carolina Hardcore Respect

Hello Friends,
As I suspected, no mother/daughter combos down front. I did see a Panda though. It requested "Eye Of The Tiger" because it sounds so triumphant. Pandas love that shit. The big surprise tonight was the amount of kids under twenty in the front row. Almost all of them had hearing protection. I strongly recommend having some on hand for any live music event.

The show was a lot of fun. We received our first set of freshly removed panties from a callipygian lady in a top hat. Joe seemed to be the most interested in the undergarments and sent down a stick for surgical retrieval. Ray carefully hoisted them on to the stick and carried them back to Joe.

He inspected them... gave his approval and fastened them to one of his rack toms. They endured several beatings as they remained on display.

The crowd was extremely energetic. The most remarkable thing occurred after the show was over. I met a lot of fans but one guy stood out. In a display of maximum respect I was given a set of dog tags from one Mr. Robert Robichaux. He said that Frank's music helped him through his tour of Iraq. I'm sure glad it did. That's too heavy for words... I'll hold on to 'em for now but you let me know if you ever want them back.

We're off to Bonnaroo but we will surely remember Raleigh.

Regards, DZ

POSTED BY DWEEZIL ZAPPA AT 2008-06-13 21:58:24

13 June 2008

Like Mother Like Daughter...

Hello Friends,
A couple of hours ago we performed to a sold out crowd in Atlanta. I noticed a large number of "youngsters" in the audience. It's really satisfying to see that, and as I have said all along I hope to see it more and more as time goes on.

One thing I always find surprising is the make up of the first couple of rows. I usually expect to see a few "lifers" and some guitar aficionados but rarely do I see mother and daughter combos out for an evening of Zappa music. Statistically speaking, I would expect their numbers to be quite low. Kinda of like the Panda population, but even less. Tonight there was a young girl, maybe 21 or 22 with her mom jammed down in front. They were mixed in with several of the other types of individuals I mentioned earlier. The ladies held their ground all night. I kept wondering who brought who to the show. I met the dynamic duo after the show and found out that mom was the instigator.

Personally, I think it is amazing that this music can bring different generations together and especially parents and their children. Having 2 daughters myself, I look forward to moments in the future that approximate the scenario I just described.

We are on the bus headed to North Carolina. I'll keep you posted on mother daughter combo sightings...

Regards, DZ

POSTED BY DWEEZIL ZAPPA AT 2008-06-13 00:08:32