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I was sitting in the shop yesterday with Denny Walley talkin about work when suddenly I realized.. holy shit! its june when's the ZPZ show? i asked. Tommorow night, he answered gruffly. Is it sold out ? Not yet, said Mr. Walley. well I gotta get some tickets. He's heard this before since ive punked out so many times, this time is different, im taking my son Will 10years old and an aspiring guitarist to his first rock concert. What could be more appropriate than ZPZ. Since we only live down the street from the Variety Playhouse we walked. Which is very cool. Walking from your house to hear Zappa. First thing I saw at the door was another dad with his 2 boys. Cool... I thought. We settled into our seats and waited for the show to begin, I felt real close to my son at that point. Denny found us and wanted to take Will backstage to meet Dweezil and the musicians.Will asked to wait till the end of show as he did not want to get in the way. Dweezil started out with a full bore, solid steel heart pumpin version of Cashmere. That really got his attention. What do you think Will? I asked. Awesome! was his reply. Then he asked, Is this blues rock or jazz? Exactly, I answered. Will started to fade about 2 hours into the show and wanted go home .He really tried to make it to the end to meet Dweezil and Co. I told him, no worries we'll catch him next time for sure. When i looked in on him the following morning I found asleep in his bed with his guitar. Thanks to DZ for his recognition during the show about the parents with kids at the show. I really enjoyed the story about lying backstage on road cases listening to his Dad play him to sleep. I'll never forget that night for the rest of my life and neither will the boy.

Great post, man! Its inspiring to see how the love of music, sense of adventure and just pure joy that Frank had when he played is now being released through Dweezil. I think there is such an amazing connection between fathers and sons. I took my 22 year old to see ZPZ last year and it was an incredible experience for both of us to spend that time together, watching someone else create such a heartfelt tribute to their father. When Frank appeared on the video screen you could sense the pride that Dweezil was feeling and it showed on his face. I remember thinking that I hoped my kids would be just as proud of me and the life that I have lived and remember fondly the times we have spent together. This year I'm taking my 16 year old son and I'm really looking forward to having that experience all over again. I wish there existed in the world, more optional entertainment like this because these are the things that make life worth living and sharing with the ones you love.

I took my son to see the first tour of ZPZ when he was 10 and now my son plays guitar and is teaching me stuff! He just got a scholarship to an expensive Jazz Camp all i have to do is pay 150 dollars and take him there with his axe and new carvin amp.

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Great posts, gentlemen. Thanks for taking the time to write 'em.

Haha!

Great posts guys. Thanks for sharing.

Man, great post. Extraodinairy story full of emotion

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I WANT THE ROXY DVD RELEASE DATE TO BUY IT

Mine is a bit different. When I was a bit younger, my father made me liten to Zappa's records. I didn't like it. Then, I LOVED IT. I bought a lot of new albums. Then I made him come with me at the ZPZ paris show, and he was really happy. It was great to see him glad while Ray White sung his favorite song, The Illinois enema Bandit.

It was great.

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I WANT THE ROXY DVD RELEASE DATE TO BUY IT

My 18 year old daughter and I were in the front row, too, and met the band afterwards - they were all talking about the kids and parents and how cool it was. My daughter loves guitarists like Satriani and Vai, so she HAD to be introduced to live Zappa. She loved it ...and of course I did, too. Those people are fabulous.

I took my wife to see ZPZ--first time for both of us----never having the chance to see frank as I had many times in the village at the garrick in NYC and yearly in pitt pa before we married. she was floored not only by the music but by the as she put forth--dweezils great looks---she was already in love with frank--yeah not a kid she was 61 years old when she seen ZPZ. so as you can see it is great to bring newbies into the fold no matter the age!

Aw man do you have any cool stories from any of the shows you seen at the Garrick?

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I told this once b4 on kill ugly radio but I worked at the cafe a go go which was connected to the garrick which zappa had sort of rented for shows. imagine this...a box office outside the garrick...on the window is a
handwritten note which went something like {forgive me I'm 58 and was only around 17 at that time} The cost of this show is $3:00...Frank zappa may or may not show up..there will be no refunds and some reference to language. why this was written I'll never understand because he was there nightly. this was the original MOI, and for me it was the equivalant of running away with the circus. about 100 seats filled most nights. at anytime anyone would or could be invited to come up on stage. you would be handed anything from a instrument to a baby doll and you were supposed to play it. now i know zappa did not approve of drugs but most of the band did, and for the most part they stayed away for rehersals but at night when the show went on, so did the mothers. {even after a few of them had downed pitchers of beer at the tin angel just across the street .} I got to see most of the garrick shows as I was a kitchen worker at the a go go. I would sneak up and sit way in the back and be amazed. zappa walked from his apartment to the garrick. I was always enamored by his very long hair and this pair of orangy in color shoes he always wore. well this may not seem so great to the masses but for me it was my upbringing into this sort of cult the MOI had. and at that time freak out was playing from windows everywhere in the village. well I'll stop this is probably not what you are looking for, but it still makes me freak out to this day, that I was lucky enough to have been sort of bottle fed this music as well as this man. one thing more I went back to the village early 90's and was shocked that this theater is now an apartment bldg. who could imagine?

"may not seem so great?" are you kidding? stories like this are gold! how great that you "lucked" into that job and had access to the shows. any other memories of the garrick days or the shows you saw in pa would be greatly appreciated!

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One two, buckle my shoe!

not only zappa but in the village in the early to mid 60's everyone {musicians that is} were able to walk the streets without the papparazi shoving things in their faces. dylan, the lovin spoonful, spanky and our gang, zappa and yes even ole blue eyes sinatra would come in and dine or drink. respect of just hey or love ya and a return gesture of some kind, all were nice to us reg. folks. and as for the shows at the garrick some nights they would open the show and zappa would {only on rare occassions} call for the house lights to be turned up at that time you either got a very wild show or he might say something like--goodnight Mother fuc----! and then the sign on the window made sense. but, i loved it anyway, after all I wasn't paying. oh yeah, the garrick was accessed from the go-go via a set of steps in back. many a night some of the mothers would come down and make themselves a large sundae {they did not just sell alchohol} which was like a foot tall whipped cream cherries nuts...shove that down then head up to complete or do a 2nd show. and throughout all the shows zappa encouraged audience participation and for those who have most of his music of live concerts you would know that he even encouraged those who thought they were tragically hip, to participate even if it was to just show your thumb. zappa even on many nights would have servicemen in uniforms up on stage playing instruments or just making a noise as directed by him. I know I jump around with my little stories but hey I am going by memory of things that occured 40+ years ago. I still shake at the fact that I was one of the luckiest people around. now years later as a registered nurse specializing in psychiatry I realise that I have used the teachings of zappa rather than those of freud or yung to help my patients. I learned most of my political, comical and sexual views of life from the man. don't you agree that zappa was and still is one of the best teachers of life? ok I'll stop preaching again.

brings a tear to your eye.Great to see kids being brought up the right way

I want to bring my little girl to the show and I have a pair of tix for 8/3. She loves anything that I listen to but I am a little concerned about some lyrics (my baby is 5 - yup FIVE). It may be her first concert. Should I bring her or not?