Zappa plays Zappa 18/11/12

I did wonder about taking in a Zappa Plays Zappa gig. Was it a nostalgia fest? Was it a tribute band? In either case I would probably avoid. In the end I decided it was a concert of Frank's compositions (which are dense and worthy of replaying) by a band that would be respectful and understanding of the music. And so I found myself front and centre in the Town Hall Birmingham a few feet from Dweezil Zappa playing a replica of his father's Gibson. He played it better than I expected and the whole band were good musicians and enthusiastically into Frank Zappa's canon of works. The set list was inevitably slightly surreal including 'Penguin in Bondage' and 'Im harder than your husband' (Frank's take on country music) as well as 'Strictly Genteel' - a classical work, not to mention 'Teenage Prostitute' or 'Zomby Woof'. 'Zomby Woof' was just about the highlight for me. It was the second track into the encore and Dweezil brought a classical clarinettist on stage for an extended improvisation and musical duel with his guitar. There was also a sax solo early on from sax, keyboards and flute player Scheila Gonzalez that was excellent and she gave it her all on every track sometimes playing both sax and keyboards at the same time. I also enjoyed hearing 'Peaches en Regalia' as 'Hot Rats' was my introduction to Zappa and still my favourite album. 'Ride My Face to Chicago' was also memorable and the standard of musicianship throughout the band and the gig was always high. It's very hard to classify Frank Zappa's music. It's not really rock and it's not exactly jazz. It's certainly surreal and disturbingly disjointed (in a nice way). This has encouraged me to get out the Zappa vynyl again.