To begin with....This was a fantastic show so please weigh that sentence against any weak points I bring up about the show. The fact is, you all know that the show was awesome and what I'd like to do is point out the highs and the not so high if possible.
This was an outside concerts at a place called "Stubbs" and the weather was absolutely optimal! And although it was quite crowded, the people were extremely polite and there were no issues whatsoever. One odd item was that Dweezil was sort of complaining about it being cold, but it was super nice out - maybe the temps were different on the stage because they had fans blowing up there. He also seemed to be blaming the temperature as the reason for falling out of tune.
ZPZ started off the night with Zombie Woof and it was very good (It was nice not having to wait until the encore to hear it like we had to in Dallas). I am not sure which song it was, but early in the show Ben Thomas muffed the lyrics toward the end of the song - I think it was Penguin in Bondage, but there are many reasons my memory can't remember
I really don't mention that to rip on Ben because he is phenomenal - that's why it stood out for me because he usually is dead on.
I was totally taken off guard when they played Montana since this was my fourth show and had not heard that one played yet - as usual, they did a great job on it.
Like I said, I absolutely loved the show and will see them again. I will list below just a couple exceptions to their perfection
1. There are a couple Frank songs that have what I refer to as "Signature Solos" that I really looked forward to hearing, but Dweezil chose for one reason or another not to do them. The most noticeable was during Willie the Pimp (WTP) - Now although it was very cool that he brought Eric Johnson on stage as a guest performer, I was disappointed that WTP was the song they chose to do their guitar battle with because I love that signature solo in that song. I will admit that it was still great.
2. Something was up with Sheilia this night. Although she played really well, it seemed to me that she wasn't feeling very well given the fact that she wasn't dancing around as much and didn't seem as jovial.
3. Even though it was cool to see Eric Johnson, he was having all kinds of tuning issues prior to playing WTP.
4. I would really like to see Dweezil bring back the xylophone to the stage. Ruth was a key part of the band IMO and it would be worth it to pay someone the money to play that instrument in future shows.
Well, that's about it - In summary, I travelled from Chicago, IL to see both the Dallas and Austin shows and would do it all again because the shows were great. A big thanks to the Zappa family for allowing us to enjoy this music live once again.
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