Dweezil Zappa returned to Raleigh with a subtle lyric change to his dad’s tune “Fembot In A Wet T-Shirt”. Referencing his brother, Dweezil said “Ahmet is waiting for you behind the toolshed.” The Zappa family vitriol hasn’t waned. They’re still battling about ridiculous things. The Cease and Desist shirts are still displayed at Dweezil’s merch stand, but the concert was thankfully full of music, not drama. Dweezil did take one moment during the encore to rant about his unfortunately toxic family situation, making sure to take a jab at his relatives plan to put Frank’s face on yoga pants before leading the band into an appropriate “Cosmik Debris”.
The sizeable Lincoln Theater audience was enraptured for most of the 2-plus-hour show, which found Dweezil steering band members old and new through an intensely complex, widely varying selection of Frank’s compositions. The first part of the show focused squarely on the Freak Out album, which just turned 50 years old. Interspersing Freak Out tracks with “Harry, You’re A Beast” and the oddity “Lemme Take You To The Beach,” the septet combined “Help I’m A Rock”, “Who Are The Brain Police”, “You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here”, and “How Could I Be Such A Fool” into one dazzling display of vocal and instrumental calisthenics.
Dweezil has had a lot of partners in crime over the years, but perhaps none are as vocally gifted as this current band. Cian Coey adds soulful power and a raspy, rugged approach to some of the music’s toughest singing challenges, such as “Zomby Woof”, “The Illinois Enema Bandit”, and “Doreen”. David Luther was called on between bouts of baritone sax blowing to handle most of the droll vocal intonations that Zappa so loved, such as the storytelling voice in “Montana” and “Cosmik Debris”. Bassist Kurt Morgan proved a fine harmonizer and offered falsetto yelps of “Mama!” on “Yo Mama”. As always, Dweezil’s right-hand woman Scheila Gonzalez performed an incredible amount of tasks, handling keys, kazoo, sax, vocals, beach balls (during “Lemme Take You To The Beach”) and giant fake boobs (during “Fembot”). They all put themselves through the wringer with the maddeningly off-kilter vocals and time signatures of “Inca Roads”, which featured a fantastic solo from Dweezil, and “Flower Punk”, which, from every angle, seems an incredibly tough tune to perform live.
The end of the show included a run of tunes from the ever-influential album Joe’s Garage, starting with the aforementioned “Fembot” and continuing on through a couple of dreamy guitar solos in “On the Bus” and “Watermelon In Easter Hay”, plus precise versions of “Keep It Greasey” and “Packard Goose”. The encore was all fun, featuring “Cosmik Debris”, a cathartic “Muffin Man”, and “Ride My Face to Chicago” with the titular city changed to Raleigh. Apparently, if it were up to Dweezil’s family, the only thing keeping Frank’s music alive would be the provocative squats of yoga pant wearers. Legions of devoted Zappa fans, who know that seeing the music in a live setting is a special rarity, are thankful that’s not the case just yet.
