KAPT.KIIRK wrote:
beajerkgotowork wrote:
I believe The Grandmothers is a better tribute to Zappa, with actual members of The Mothers. But if ZPZ does come to my town, I will go!
Have you seen DZpZ yet? There totally awesome +1000,really! Trust me.The best by far so far for me. So it should be easy to see who's got a bisquit and who's got an Apostrophy! Ha,ha! Can't wait to see,hear and compare.Each is uniquely different and qualified and yet the same.Ah,that Frank,whatta rogue composer!

I would have said the same thing before what I saw this last Saturday night at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz. I have seen ZPZ now more times than I saw Frank himself and will always catch their shows whenever I get a chance. That said, if the Grandmothers of Invention and ZPZ were playing the same night I might just catch the Grandmothers.
My mini-review got yanked as part of a Grandmothers thread-yank in the concerts forum (no surprise there). I only just heard about the Grandmothers playing in my town (Santa Cruz) that morning so of course I went. I had expectations of a show maybe a bit better than Project Object, but nowhere near the level of ZPZ. Boy was I wrong. I was blown away! I went with two other Zappa fans who have also seen ZPZ many times (one being my wonderful wife who has been by my side at all the ZPZ shows I have been to) and we were all blown away. This was a five-piece band and they did almost the entire Roxy album and it sounded more like the way I remember seeing Frank live in the '70s than any ZPZ show, even with Napoleon in the two '06 shows I saw (SF and their last show at Moranga). Napoleon was on fire (when isn't he?) performing like he was 40 years younger. Tom Fowler was layin' down the bass the same as in the 70s on Roxy, but even better with the advantage of almost 4 decades worth of practice added to his insane chops. Don Preston at 79 years 11 months old was nothing short of amazing (what would you expect from a legend in the synthesizer. Chris Garcia's drum work was superb--I just wish I could have heard him do some marimbas since he was apparently a percussion student of Ruth's. Mike Miller (from Chick Corea's Elektric Band, Banned from Utopia, Fowler Bros. among others) stepped into the guitar role and his playing was absolutely fabulously! There was talk of a possible show in the future with George Duke, Ruth, and Bruce Fowler as special guests in the LA area, and that is a lineup I would travel 350+ miles to LA for.
So loosing interest in ZPZ? No. Gaining interest in the new formation of the Grandmothers? Absolutely! I wish Gail would take a queue from the way Pink Floyd members treat the Australian Pink Floyd Project with regards to the Grandmothers (I know it will never happen). APNF was invited to perform (and did so) at David Gilmore's birthday party!
I just want to hear Frank's music played live and well. ZPZ does it Dweezil's way very nicely and I love it. The current iteration of the Grandmother's do it like they have Frank on stage with them still and are mind blowing.