Dweezil Zappa World

After a 6 hour road trip from Alabama, my daughter Wyatt and I checked into the hotel next to the venue, showered changed and started our way to the show. We ran into Billy Hulting in the hotel lobby. He was nice enough to offer some passes so we would be able to linger after the show. We picked up our tickets and returned to the hotel for dinner, where I unsuccessfully attempted to teach her to use a steak knife, but the dinner was great anyway.

We left the table and ran into Chris Norton, his parents, brother and some extended family, wonderful people all. I had previously met the Nortons so we sat with them for a few minutes then headed to the venue to assure Wyatt would be front row. We got on the rail directly in front of Ben, Scheila and Billy. Wyatt's anticipation grew for the 50 minutes leading up to the show as she continually reminded me 45 minutes to go, 40 minutes, 30 minutes, 15 minutes. Uh oh, 8 o'clock where are the musicians.... we caught a peek of them backstage and they came out about 8:04 to a very receptive audience, Wyatt included.

She has asked me repeatedly "why do you like those songs with no words"? The first song is one of my favorite instrumentals, "The Gumbo Variations". She dealt with that just great and I pointed out a few reasons why I love the instrumentals and she listened attentively while ZPZ hit it out of the park! Next up - Apostrophe in it's entirety. Great only one instrumental. She had heard Yellow Snow previously, but wholly unfamiliar with the rest of the album. I think she still thinks that Nanook, St Alphonzo and Father Oblivion are all just one long song, but she will have her own copy of the album come christmas (oops ruined the surprise if she reads this), so she can ingest it on her own. Next up, Cosmik Debris...."why is Frank's guitar smoking?" "That's a cigarette" I told her, h**l put it out in a minute and trade licks with Dweezil". Then Exzentrifugal Forz, she has now seen 2 songs performed that Frank never played on stage himself, this one and Gumbo above. Pretty cool! Oh no a dreaded instrumental. I told her that Pete was playing one of the most difficult bass lines out there. Maybe it is maybe it isn't, but it sure is infectious. Anyway, she says it looks easy. Maybe she's a prodigy, more likely Pete just makes it look easy! Well, by this point she has enjoyed the lyrical songs enough to put up with an instrumental. She enjoyed Uncle Remus, recognizing the Disney connection, and I caught her singing Stinkfoot in the car on the way home today, so she must have liked that one too. The show is going wonderfully for her.

RDNZL starts, the 2nd uh oh of the night. Not that it's an instrumental, which she later pointed out, they sang at the end and that if RDNZL is an instrumental then her pre-show favorite "Muffin Man" would be too, because there is a lot more song with no words than time during the song with someone singing. Keen observation, in my opinion. No, the problem was that she had left the sign she made for Dweezil in the hotel room. The Pagaent made up for Missouri's ridiculous drinking laws, (I couldn't get her a Pepsi without fighting diagonally across the entire standing crowd to get it back to her, but I digress) by allowing those over 21 to leave and come back in. So I ran to the hotel and got her sign. I was back, sign in hand, before RDNZL ended.

Next on the setlist is "Keep it Greasy". No, there are too many females in the crowd to leave out "Valley Girl". Dweezil unexpectedly added this one, so guess what, Wyatt now has a new favorite Zappa song. She was amazed by Scheila's performance on this. She really couldn't understand the words too well, but loves the feel of the song. So, now she is getting "Ship Arriving too late" for Chrismas as well. I really gotta quit giving away surprises.

Dweezil decides that "there seems to be some extra room on stage". I have seen Dweezil bring kids on stage before, so I tease her that he is going to call her up there. She went almost white with fear, I thought she was going to start trembling, maybe she did, and her eyeballs were as big as quarters. She hid from Dweezil's view and got her head down behind the gentleman standing next to us. Dweezil brought no less than 15 ladies on stage to exhibit their terpsichorean skills for all. I am quite positive that had she been enthusiastic about going up on stage, she could have easily gone up there. Once the song started, she was over her fear and got some great pics of the women of St. Louis twisting and frugging in all sorts of fashions to the many different rhythms that "Keep It Greasy" offers.

By this point she is having enough fun that the fact that "Echidna's Arf" is an instrumental doesn't phase her in the least. Even if she did mind, since they played it at double speed or more, she would have only had to bear it for a short time. Another keen observation was that she recognized how excited the band was to have accomplished the task during a show. They did seem to be ecstatic about it to me as well. I had seen them do this at previous sound checks, but don't know if it has ever been done for a full audience.

 Time for a journey down Inca Roads, one of my personal favorites and featuring Frank on guitar once again via video. During Chris' keyboard solo I picked up Wyatt to dance with me, or more specifically bob and weave to the rhythms. Which reminds me, I need to start working out more, I didn't make it through the entire solo with her in my arms (I say "more" as if there is some going on already). So I put her down and we proceeded to watch Chris, in amazement, as his spider-like fingers tapped out one of the more memorable solos I've witnessed from him. Nearing the end of it, as Chris is almost spread-eagle playing on both setups seemingly at the far ends of each he looks to Joe, I think for the queue to get out of the solo, but it seems Joe thinks he should continue for a few more bars and he attacks the Korg with an amazing ferocity. 

On to "A Romantic Interlude with Joe Travers" or as it is called in the industry, a drum solo. I noticed the cue for City of Tiny Lights, but the crowd was into the drums and Joe kept it going a bit longer while getting the crowd to keep a clapping rhythm. Then once again Chris displays his immense talent by belting out COTL. By this time Wyatt is totally into everything going on and beaming, as am I.

"I Promise Not To Come in Your Mouth" Wyatt is thirty by this point and I go to get us a couple drinks, mine has a little Cap'n in it and I am in for a lesson on Missouri's liquor laws and The Pagaent's house rules concerning beverages, I don't really like either of them, but that's irrelevant I guess.

"Cruising for Burgers" is the end of the set. But it is a masterpiece and Wyatt, who can't quit talking about Dweezil's six pack abs as it is points out the muscles in Dweezil's arms as he plays one of the most amazing outro guitar solos of his repertoire. Then the musicians leave the stage. "Is it over already?" she asks. "No" I say "they're just getting some water and will be right back".

Although Wyatt claims that Moon's song is her favorite, we listened to "Baby Snakes" more times on the way home than any other song, so I am pretty sure she loved this one.

Then came the one song I had a concern over taking an 11 year old girl to see performed, not so much because of the content of the song, but more because of the questions that I may have had a litttle trouble answering once she had been "exposed". But all went well and we listened to it a couple of times in the car on the way home. I am talking of course about "Chrissy Puked Twice" or as it is more popularly known "Titties and Beer". I've had a chance previously to spend some time with Ben and being right out front he gave me a little shout out during this song. Can you believe she missed it? But don't worry, I made sure she knew it happened. During the frenzy of trying to convince the Devil to give back the titties and beer, Ben called on me for help, he looked at me, said "Scott" and kinda put the mic toward me. I was kinda caught by surprise and unprepared, but if I was a little more quick witted, I had a line appropriate for the situation. Ben has done a great job of embracing his role on this one and I loved his variations of the title - the "tits and the Schlitz", the " jugs and the suds". Well I was trying to think of some of my own and I came up with the "hoo hahs and the breuhaus". Would have loved to have gotten that in, but such is life.  

Then "Muffin Man" came on. Wyatt's favorite Zappa song prior to the show. She lit up when it started and on the ride home, once again mentioned Dweezil's buffness. She said "Dweezil has a six pack and he kept his shirt on but Frank took his off and he is really skinny. What's up with that?" OK, that's not a quote, but you get the jist of it.

Not a bad night, right? It's only half over. The best is yet to come. In all the commotion, Scheila catches my attention and gestures that she has a set list for Wyatt. I motion back a thumbs up. Scheila carefully removes the tape and heads towards us with her setlist. As she is approaching, Dweezil cuts in front of her and hands Wyatt his setlist, indicating to Scheila that he has already signed his. Awesome!

Wyatt  and I go enjoy the beverages I bought earlier to give the crowd their chance to visit with Dweezil. Once the crowd clears we get Scheila to sign the setlist as well as the back of Wyatt's "Suzy Creamcheese" shirt, just under the ZPZ logo. Sandy Norton takes Wyatt around to get a few other signatures on the setlist. And then I take her back up to ask Dweezil to sign the shirt and for a picture with Wyatt. Of course he obliges. By this time security is forcing the folks out of the venue. Oh no, we haven't gotten everyone to sign yet. Thanks to Billy, the passes we have allow us to wait in the Green Room and we are able to get everyones autograph on both the setlist and her shirt. Except we forgot to ask Ben to sign the shirt. Dammit! But she was able to get an awesome picture taken with Ben.

As we are walking back to the hotel we pause to watch the road crew loading the gear. Somehow we meet up with Sandy again, who proceeds to give Wyatt a tour of the bus. Finally we head back to the room and order a hot chocolate and another Cap'n. Well she is just bouncing off the walls, so we went back down to the restaurant to impose on everyone down there once again. We get Wyatt a Shirley Temple and she tries some Calamari for the first time, courtesy, once again, of the Nortons, this time it is Joel though. The party starts to disperse slowly and steadily making their way to the bowling alley bar next door, Wyatt asks if we can go too. I, knowing fulll well that we can't get in tell her sure, we'll go bowl a game while the others congregate in the bar. Of course, we can't go in, so we head back to the hotel and call an end to the best night of our lives.

Thanks again Billy for the hospitality and to Niel (Twist and Frug on here) for the introducing me to Billy. You guys made me look so good in my daughter's eyes.