ZAPPANALE #13 – The Second Day
In the morning,
Ian and I both felt a little rough – and the cold showers did little to help
us. But by midday, we felt well enough to go into the centre of town to witness
the dedication of the FZ monument, sculpted by the Czech artist Vaclav Cesak.
The Grannies sang It Can’t Happen Here, and Candy formally ‘whipped it
off’ to reveal a fine bust; this lead to a great rubbing of parts – Frank’s
nose, to be precise. Yes, the assembled artists and friends came forward to
give his honker a little tweak. And Bob Zappa gave a little speech then.
Back to the racetrack, and
we caught the end of Landplage’s set. Not sure if they sang the whole
thing in their native tongue, but they were warmly received by the locals. As
were French guitar duo Pierrejean Gaucher and Christophe Godin.
I’d previously heard Pierrejean’s version of Sleep Dirt, and was looking
forward to his turn here. I wasn’t disappointed. The pair described themselves
as jazz/rock (“He’s jazz, and I’m rock,” is how Monsieur Godin aptly put
it), and took turns at playing lead and rhythm lines. Christophe slapped some
funky bass lines on his six-string and, during Duodenum, knocked out
some Vai-like licks. Pierrejean’s high-pitched picking reminded me of Pat
Metheny at times – notably on Zoot Allures. They touchingly dedicated a
medley of songs (commencing with The Idiot Bastard Son and ending with
the aforementioned Sleep Dirt) to Thana, Bob and Nathan Harris. Which
was nice. Then they sashayed into an amusing version of Ravel’s Bolero,
with both their guitars laughing along. The next night, I introduced Christophe
to a Swedish promoter of jazz and chamber music festivals. “Did you enjoy our
set?” Christophe asked him. “No” replied the Swede. My how we laughed. Well I
enjoyed it, and so did many others. Having wowed us with Project/Object the
previous night, Ike Willis was back next with a group of young Italians, Ossi
Duri. Their drummer is just 16, and it was great to see a new generation of
FZ fans committed to tackling his sometimes difficult repertoire. They played a
good solid set - starting with the The Mammy Anthem, culminating with Camarillo
Brillo, and calling at Cleveland and similar places in-between. I
recall a pretty decent sax solo during Zoot Allures, and their rotund
road manager flouncing around in a pig’s head during Keep It Greasy. You’ll note that by now some tunes had been
repeated a few times by the different bands with similar instrumentation. Thus
it was a joy to behold the Ed Palermo Band (reduced here from 20 to 8
pieces) blow the roof off with the likes of Penis Dimension, Run Home
Slow and Regyptian Strut. The audience were noticeably impressed
with Ed’s breathtaking arrangements, which included a tenor sax solo in King
Kong lifted from the Ahead Of Their Time CD. Candy Zappa was in fine
voice for Let’s Make The Water Turn Black, Evelyn, A Modified Dog
and Directly From My Heart To You, and was ably supported by the omnipresent
Ike Willis. Just when you thought things couldn’t get much better, Thana Harris
and Mike Keneally strode on for an audacious trot through Spider Of Destiny.
Mike stayed to help John
Tabacco (Nigey Lennon’s musical partner) sing Magdalena, and later
struck out on his own to grind his axe and vocal chords during Shove It
Right In. For the band’s encore, they wheeled out Jimmy Carl Black
to relay his ‘green pear trip’ before playing (you guessed it) Holiday In
Berlin (Full Blown). I think by and large the audience were surprised at
how good Ed & Co were, and could be seen for a goodly while after queuing
up to buy his CD and chat with the man. Nobody was sure what to expect next
from the Lewinskys. A mainly female band featuring a fiddle player and
the perky talents of Scott Thunes’s sister Stacy (a dead ringer for her
sibling, but with loads more hair on her head and far less on her ears). They
announced that they’d never played any Zappa songs before but, as they were
being joined by Scott and Mike Keneally tonight, they were gonna give it a go.
They started with I Have Been In You
(thankfully sung by one of their male members) before launching into a
thundering Willie The Pimp with JCB up front on the M.I.C. and Scott
pumping out the familiar bass line at the back. Mike and (that-man-again) Ike
sang Magic Fingers before permitting the Lewinskys to spotlight one of
their own tunes (Liquor Store). Scott got to play a bit of a solo during
My Guitar; Mike impersonated Johnny Cash again for Ring Of Fire;
the girls sang another of their songs (Nicotine, Caffeine & Alcohol);
and they ended with a magnificent (and brave) stab at Valley Girl (Stacy
as Moon, and one of her German colleagues adding some dialogue for the home
crowd). I guess you could say the Lewinskys kinda prostituted theyselves by
allowing Mike and Scott and FZ to dominate, but all had a good time. Totally.
I’m sure. When the Ozric Tentacles finally came on, I went backstage and
talked briefly with Scott.
He’s not so much a scary
musician as scary full stop. I managed to utter a few inanities before he went
to check out the Tentacles “good groove” (Keneally was already out front
digging them in the mosh-pit). I went back to our tent and, instead of sheep,
Ian and I counted the number of notes played by the bass player. I made it 4½.