Zappa Plays Zappa
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DVD details
Actor: Dweezil ZappaBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: NTSC
Running Time: 205 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Razor & Tie
DVD Reviews of Zappa Plays Zappa
DVD Review: Gaining Status at the Rock Show
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been a Frank Zappa fan since high school, when a friend gave me a mix tape. We often lament that this modern composer died before we could see him in concert. So when Zappa Plays Zappa came around, we zipped up to Portland in the middle of a December rainstorm with slim wallets and wobbly crutches.
That's the only way to go in Oregon. Especially for a 65th birthday concert being recorded for a commercial release! Now it's your turn to enjoy Frank with the ZPZ fan pack.
The rock maestro left the building in 1993, but his son Dweezil carries on the legacy. Joined by Joe Travers, the vault-meister responsible for Frank's master-tapes, ZPZ includes a rotating guest list of Zappa alumni. For taped shows in Portland and Seattle, this meant vocalist vet Napoleon Murphy Brock, drum-master Terry Bozzio, and guitar god Steve Vai.
You can experience them in several different versions:
>2 DVD set--the core package
>1 or 2 disc CD
>The most expensive 2 DVD/3CD fan pak.
The shows focuses on cuts from the mid-to late 1970's with a few Sixties classics thrown in. More pop and less socio-political, it's a crowd and company-pleasing performance.
For the most part, ZPZ sounds to me like it is interpreting Frank's music directly from the discography, with little in the way of new flourishes or rearrangements. Right down to the Don Pardo impersonation by Billy Hulting on "I'm the Slime". However, they make a fair amount of solo improvs and lyrical ad-libs. Also, it's their own live performance--no samples slipped in that I can tell (aside from effects like the wind in "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow"). That matches my memory of the show.
Unfortunately, the same disability which gave us head-of-the-line entry also put my friend at the back of the audience (the bouncers said his crutches were a crowd hazard). Aside from cheating us out of front row seating and video immortality, I had trouble seeing certain performances.
Fortunately, the DVD footage offers a good view. Some sound and visual edits are a little awkward or nonsensical, but the overall presentation alternates between strategic and tactical shots of the band. The former lets you see how they play together, holding or jumping between members within a given section of music. The latter pays attention to hands, sticks, and lips during notable passages. Dweezil also uses a Fret Cam to showcase his licks. Occasional split screens also let the viewer compare different members during the passage, with the camera centered on the performance.
But don't mistake this for an instructional video. Ya got plenty of spins, jumps, pans `n' zooms to stimulate your eyes. As others have pointed out, there's never a moment when the picture is facing the wrong way or too tricked out with effects to see what is going on. Sometimes you get a mike stand blocking someone's face, or a camera craning around the frame, but nothing that spoils a moment.
That said, most of the footage comes from the Seattle show.
The Roseland is what the liner notes charitably call "a very rock `n' roll looking venue"--with a low ceiling, lots of obstructive pylons and the standing crowd pushed close to the stage. Some of the more rockin' portions of the set come from this footage.
Seattle's Paramount, by comparison, looks open and bright. The crowd is neatly seated, the band elegantly framed onstage, and you can see right in the footage that camera operators had more room to operate. Especially for long shots, it makes sense. Plus, Frank Zappa had history here.
Most performances are taken wholly from one venue or the other. But "Trouble Every Day" cuts back and forth, and includes a guitar duel, saxophone duel, and drum duel in a 24-minute epic of sound.
The audio is coherent. No funky echoes, mike squeals, or muffling. You can hear the crowd when Dweezil wants you to hear it, and you can hear the music.
The CDs sound like slightly trimmed and remixed audio of the DVDs... adding "Cheepnis" and cranking up the drums a bit, but otherwise offering little variation. That's fine with me, because I'm tired of going to great shows that don't end up on disc at all. I'm gratified this program includes the Portland performances of "Punky's Whips" and "Peaches En Regalia"--two of the few songs in the set from that long-ago mix tape. A good set list overall.
Overall, this is a good set for Zappa veterans and noobs alike. I was introduced directly to Frank's social works, like "Bobby Brown Goes Down" and "Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like Me?" in my status-avoiding days at the high school. But these cuts would probably scare off current generations, who sometime seem more like Bobby and Betty than ever before. The real gift of ZPZ is that it offers Frank's art through his more accessible and yet signature works.
Some fun stuff is still missing from the set. Such as Dweezil conducting the audience, the word of the night, or the Roseland singing "Happy Birthday" for Frank. Dweezil's video duet with Frank doesn't make it either.
"Cheepnis", one of the Portland encores, is relegated to the Bonus features. That and a short interview with Dweezil are it for extras. Setup is limited to PCM Stereo and 5.1 English--no subtitles for the French or hearing impaired.
The box itself is a digipak in a cheap cardstock sleeve. But it looks sturdy enough, with the same width as two DVD cases, so it should do fine on your shelf. However, it uses those overlapping trays that force you to peel off a disc to reach one underneath.
That's okay. ZPZ offers a historic and well-documented show from the safety of your living room. No parking hassles on Burnside, no muggers or drug dealers lurking around the side streets, and no 70-mile drive on the I-5. Just you, your couch, and Zappa all the way, baby.
Description of Zappa Plays Zappa
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