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The "Roxy" Band
16 March 1974
Paramount Theater
Portland, Oregon
© 1998 by Fast Frank
I had just moved away from home, overamped on the newness of being on my own. I was living in a small farmhouse built in 1920, soaking in the old clawfoot bathtub I'd painted purple, and listening to a brand new radio station.
KGON was on the air broadcasting in the new "Quadrophonic" sound that was sweeping the nation. Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" was in it's humble infancy, and you still bought your, uh, "herb" by the lid...(I recall once laying in the middle of the floor in my living room surrounded by my quadrophonic speakers, stoned out of my ever-loving skull while "One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You Into Little Pieces" raced around the room...I think I was stuck there for days, but I digress...)
Suddenly, the guy on the radio (Bob Ancheta, if I'm not mistaken) said something that raised me right out of the tub. Frank Zappa was coming to Portland! And so with "Montana" blasting from the speakers, I did my naked pygmy pony dance, thanking the music gods in a strange ritual known only to myself...
16-March-1974, 8 o'clock in the evening, tickets a
whopping five bucks each!! It was a pleasant spring evening
as my still-then-girlfriend Pam and I stood in line at the
old Paramount Theater. It was a strange carnival-like
atmosphere with more than the usual share of strange
carnival-like individuals hanging around. An obviously
shitfaced and/or stoned biker type in a black leather jacket
was giving an oration on how his horoscope had revealed to
him that "this is gonna be a cool fuckin' day, man!" Another
bit of chit-chat went so...
"A friend of mine has a guitar that Zappa used to own..."
"Oh yeah? How does he know Zappa used to own it?"
"We...well, it's got his fuckin' name right on it!"
"Oh..."
"You know Zappa doesn't do drugs?"
"WHAT?!?!" (sounds genuinely disappointed...)
"Nope, no drugs.."
"Oh, he's gotta smoke pot!"
"Nope, nothing..."
"Not even a little pot?" (REALLY sounds genuinely
disappointed, now!)
Soon we were all shuffling inside. On stage was an incredible array of stuff, stacks of keyboards, all kindsa percussion instruments, really impressive looking!
Okay, now, I'll tell ya something...when this particular version of the Mothers came out and blasted into Tunage Mode, I was shoved down into my seat and could not function until they had finished...I take that back. I had this huge shit- eating grin on my face throughout the entire show, but that was more like an involuntary function.
This show and this band amazes me to this very day! Basically, it was the Roxy line-up; FZ, Tom Fowler, Nappy Brock, George Duke, Ruth Underwood (who was fucking awesome!), Chester Thompson, and, I'm pretty sure, Don Preston.
This band literally roared through a setlist that was basically all the Roxy stuff, along with some oldies thrown in for good measure. This band was SO good and had SO much fun performing that trying to pin down any particular highlights would be silly! Ruth Underwood looked as though she was having the best time...in fact, she gave me the impression that the more complex the part, the more fun it was, and she wore that big toothy grin of hers throughout the entire show. FZ even joined her on percussion during one tune and I think he must have caught the grinning thing from her cuz he was doin' it, too!
The problem with seeing a show filled with as-yet unreleased stuff is that I can never remember the names of the songs. I saw this show before Apostrophe' or Roxy were released, so rather than trying to keep track of the titles and other particulars, I just sat there with this big ol' skunk-eating-shit perma-grin on my face and left it at that!
This was probably THE best FZ concert I ever attended, although I hate making statements like that because, like each album, I tried to look at each show as an entity unto itself, judging it on it's own merits. That's probably why I cringe at those "What do you think is the WORST FZ album?" thingies. I have my favorites, sure, but I don't dislike ANY of 'em. I was never disappointed in any of the shows I went to either...but I DO have my favorites, and this one, if you tied me down and tortured me until I picked one, would be it!
Fast Frank :o{-
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