ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA EINDHOVEN REVIEW

This is De Effenaar, a new concert hall that hosted a performance of Zappa Plays Zappa this evening. In my home town no less!

At 5:30 I ate a little, afterwards I got dressed in my Donald Duck shirt and posted at the Z-forum that, if any members present wanted to say hi, they'd need to look out for a lady in a Donald shirt.
I got on my bicycle at 6:30, and as usual, I begin slightly too late with recalling whether I had anything I needed. Donald tee? Check. Extra vest? Check. Agenda with ZPZ ticket? (opens bag) Check. Camera? Check. Spare batteries? Check. Keys? Check. Ballpoint to jot down the setlist?
Oh fuck. To me the setlist is very important to help me remember the events of the evening, and although I'm pretty good at remembering which tunes were played, I was nervous about forgetting huge sections of concert.
So I decided to shoot a snippet of each and every tune the band played. I'll stick them all together and make a YouTube vid of it, but that will come later.

I entered the hall about ten minutes to 7, and the concert was scheduled at 7:15. A long wait, and what didn't make it easier for me was that it was particularly hot in the theatre.
But fortunately my shirt worked! I met the lovely Unica and entourage.
Also near me was a father and his daughter, a ten-year-old or something. Cute kid. She and two other young girls were invited to stand in front of the fencing, to keep from getting squashed.

Anyway, after a while, the crowded hall (sell-out, and at a thousand people standing it was VERY full) was getting impatient and started applauding loudly whenever a song from the warmup tape had ended. And around 7:30, DZ and gang show up!


This is my first pic of DZ this evening. Unfortunately the light was coming from behind the players, and no lights from the front, making photosnapping very hard. The NO FLASH signs everywhere didn't make me overcome my aversion towards flash photography.


My only good photo of this evening! I stood near the edge and could only see Peter Griffin and Jamie Kime if they went up to the mikes. I was decently at front though, getting annoyed at someone who was definitely not entertained. If you don't like the show, get out of the front seat and leave it to someone who'd love to stand in front of Jamie.

After a short banter with the crowd, DZ announces the first song of the evening: Purple Lagoon.
DZ announces there will be several Roxy songs this evening.
Then, the newbie Ben Thomas got up on stage for the first time for Penguin in Bondage. I was rather sceptic about the ZPZ performance, with the wonderful keyboardplayer Aaron Arntz out of the team and Ray White's departure, but Thomas has a fantastic heavy voice, he gave a consistent and great performance!
Up next, Wind Up Working In A Gas Station! A delicious song that always cheers me up. And yes, I stuck up my thumb. Like most people.

Next on the playlist: Magic Fingers! A delightful rendition, with an unusually highpitched Joe Travers on the "Do you really want to hurt me?" lines, and a heavy voiced Scheila Gonzales with the "You know I do..."

The final monologue, "There are a lot of reasons why I'd drag a girl such as yourself to a motel room and..." was dealt between the various players. Nice to hear Peter Griffin's voice, and totally epic to hear DZ say "while I did a weewee in your hair..."

[Edited on 23-5-09 by BBP]

And then: ENCORE! DZ grabbed his SG and mentioned it had been behaving badly all evening. He tuned it, and while doing that, he played a few chords of My Mother Is A Space Cadet.

Then three more crowd pleasers:
Cosmik Debris, juicy, rocking, and with much sing-along! Another favourite, I never mind hearing this again!

Zomby Woof had another nice Dweezil solo, and great singing by Ben!

And Willie The Pimp, Dweezil was finally rolling into it, a great song and a very good performance. And then the show was over.

But fortunately some band members stuck around! I stood near Unica, so Pete Griffin and Jamie Kime came over to say hi.
And there was another Dweezil moshpit, like during the Brussels concert. I have 2 DZ sigs already, so this time I went over for a handshake.

OK EVERYBODY LET's MOSH!!

It was a lot of squeezing, and what didn't help matters was that Dweezil moved from the side where I was standing, to the other side of the stage. I got squashed some more, and the advance I'd made in the waiting was completely lost. But eventually I got closer, I finally mentioned to get a good shot of The Dweez:


And then I finally got over to him! If you look closely at his hands, you can see he's holding a bag of guitar picks he was handing out. I got one! Pic comes later!

...but I still don't have a handshake. Oh well.

Bigger pictures here

Album ZPZ Effenaar Eindhoven