Zappanale report, phaze 1.
by Jon Naurin

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Seems I'm the first one too write something about the spectacular events
that took place in Bad Doberan the past weekend. Zappanale #13 featured
18 concerts, hundreds and hundreds of fans and lots of ex-Mothers and
other people from FZ's life. An overall mind-blowing experience, and for
someone who lives in a country where Zappa tributes are rare, it was a
dream-come-true to see all these bands and people I've heard on tapes and
read about on this newsgroup.

First a disclaimer: 18 concerts (and probably as many pints of beer) in 3
days is a lot, and much of my memory has been blurred. I didn't bother to
write any setlists or details down, as I expect to get recordings of
everything. Second, let me just say that the entire arrangement was a
huge success for the Arf-Society. Everything worked perfectly, even the
weather was with us. Huge thanks to everyone who was involved with
arranging this happening!

I arrived on friday with three friends from Sweden, and missed the first
two events that took place in Bad Doberan before the actual start of
Zappanale: "Going Back Home", a presentation in German of Roxy &
Elsewhere by Jim Cohen, featuring Miss Pamela, and "Alles Über Frank", a
musical performance by Daniel Rohr and Theater Neumarkt from Zürich.
The first concert was by Dwarf Nebula from Germany, and didn't leave any
lasting impressions. The second song (I think) was Dancin' Fool with lots
of wrong chords, and I wondered if it was an interpretation or simply
lack of musicality. As it turned out, it was probably the former, since
many of the other songs were obviously "interpreted", although not very
well if you ask me. OK, the fast Torture and the soft City Of Tiny Lights
had their points, but what I will remember from this concert was the
female singer, who was quite good.

Next, Cosmik Debris from Hungary (the band names would become more
imaginative later on), a band that I enjoyed quite a bit. A good,
charismatic singer and an excellent 15-year-old sax player helped, but
the song choices left some to desire.

Concert #3 was the first real highlight: "Thana Harris - Don Preston -
Mike Keneally" was what the program told us - exciting to say the least,
but giving us no idea what to expect. As it turned out, the show also
featured Bob Harris (yes, #2) plus Seahag & Glenn Leonard from Project
Object on bass/drums. And it started off with Flambay! Thana sang it
beautifully, hitting the high notes perfectly (as I recall, she moved
them down an octave in one place), and Don's piano accompaniment was
really fine. A stunning experience to hear this live. Next, they did
Planetary Tango, the best song on Thanatopsis, with Mike playing some
beautiful guitar. And then a kicking version of The Boy/Girl Song from
Steve Vai's Flexable, including a great joint Bob/Thana scat solo.
If my memory serves me, this was when Jimmy Carl Black entered the stage
for the first time. Everyone joined in on an a capella Love Of My Life,
and hearing Bob Harris's falsetto (as good as ever, much to my delight)
here was lovely. As encore, the Harrises did a nice unaccompanied
"Somewhere Over The Rainbow", which apparently was an audition song for
Thana.

Euphorium Freakestra w/ Günter "Baby" Sommer had the difficult task of
playing between Harris/Preston/Keneally and Project Object, and well,
they seemed to amuse a large part of the audience. I wasn't very
impressed, though - a singer who tried to sound like Frank-doing-his-
funny-voice in every song (even in songs like Absolutely Free), and long,
rather pointless improvisations. Some surprising song choices, like Ya
Hozna and You Call That Music?, didn't really help to make this concert
more than so-so.

And so it was time for Project Object, the final band on friday. I had
heard and seen a lot of these guys on concert tapes/videos, so I knew
what to expect. And they did not disappoint - man, what a show! So much
have been said about these guys here already, so let me just add to all
the praise they've been given: these guys rock!

I was a little worried when Napoleon's name wasn't in the program, but as
the show started, Ike promised that there would be many surprise guests,
and I felt relieved. Napoleon came on stage after a few songs, and made
an already great show something really extra. His voice sounds better
than ever, and he puts so much energy and "show" into his performance.
Seeing and hearing Napi doing Cheepnis is simply one of my best concert
experiences ever (although there were several more competitors this
weekend).

The other special guests were the drummer of Ossi Duri (on Black Page
drum solo/#1), Ed Palermo on sax (played some fine solos), and Bob
Harris, who sang with Ike on Keep It Greasey, Outside Now and probably
some more that I forget. No setlist surprises that I can think of right
now - recordings of these shows will probably be on the binaries groups
soon, so I won't even try to list the songs that were played at each show
from my hazy memory.

OK - more ramblings to follow soon. Hasi, Charles, Bengo and Steve (and
other affzers who were there - ?) are more than welcome to fill in and
correct the above.

- Jon

Check out the FZ concert tape database at
http://home.swipnet.se/fzshows

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