24 July 2010 (gig)
29 July 2010
From 24th to 25th July, Victoria Park in Hackney rocked for the first High Voltage festival, and Dweezil Zappa was amongst the featured artists.
If the attending bands and visitors are anything to go by, there will be many more Voltage treats in store. With a line-up to kill for and three stages to wander to and fro (Classic Rock, Progressive Rock, and the Metal Hammer stage), the organizers ensured that music lovers were entertained from noon till late.
With so many highlights, it was practically impossible to see all the bands one wanted to see (unless you are a triple-spliced clone). However, one big highlight was Dweezil Zappa’s musical project Zappa Plays Zappa, who took to the Progressive Rock stage on the first day of the festival.
As the name already indicates, Zappa Plays Zappa is a musical project created by Dweezil to introduce the music of his late father to a new generation. Not an easy task, seeing how Frank Zappa’s compositions are a complex, elaborate and not always easy to digest mix of avantgarde and progressive rock, experimental-jazz and classical. Yet, while remaining as truthful as possible to his father’s music, Dweezil and band played a set that not only rocked the crowd, but the tracks were played in a manner that sounded surprisingly ‘accessible’.
With eight musicians on stage, all of them multi-instrumentalists, there was little doubt that the audience was in for a treat! First number ‘Big Swifty’ had percussionist Billy Hulting, guitarist Jamie Kime and Scheila Gonzales on sax, keyboards and flute in the spotlight, and while announcing ‘Easy Meat’, the son of Zappa joked that the song is dedicated to all the groupies out there.
Although Dweezil is the main man and was centre-stage during the show, he allowed plenty of room for his backing musicians to shine, remaining emerged in his guitar play while the others took turns in belting out main vocals. Frank Zappa’s music leaves room for improvisation, and that’s where Dweezil’s versions come into their own – with lots of guitar solos thrown in.
There were plenty of Zappa fans amongst the audience, and probably just as many newcomers curious to find out more about the band. The set wasn’t just comprised of ‘biggest hits’ but offered an interesting diversity in styles. However, one track that the crowd expected to hear was ‘Inca Roads’ and they got it. Next came ‘Blessed Relief’, a mellow, jazzy rock number with marimba and keyboard overtones, and Scheila on flute. It was a perfect number to compliment the beautifully sunny day.
Three songs were performed in segue, namely ‘Yellow Snow’, ‘Florentine Pogen’ and ‘Mystery Roach’. During ‘Latex Solar Beef’, the audience was treated to a drum solo and during ‘Apostrophe’, bassist Pete Griffin was at the forefront.
The show was meant to end with ‘Yo Mama’ from the Sheik Yerbouti album, but the audience decided otherwise. Hence, for the encore the band performed ‘Keep It Greasey’ and another Zappa classic: ‘I’m The Slime’ (‘oozing out from your TV-set’).
This was Zappa for devotes as well as beginners, and it was zapptastic. The return of the son of… was a big success and personally, I can’t wait what’s next with the Zappa project.
(Before the show, I had the opportunity to talk with Dweezil about his musical vision and other stuff, so make sure you read my interview in the ‘Interviews’ section.)
