Whizbang Photography »

It was during the final encore, Willie the Pimp. Saxon’s absolute favourite Frank Zappa song. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this song. He knows it note for note by heart, forwards, backwards, small chunks of the song rewound over and over as he analyses different parts listening intently for any new sounds he hasn’t found yet, for hours on end, sometimes for days at a time. Always at window rattling volume. (keeps taking his hearing aids out) Our neighbours are very familiar with Willie the Pimp!

 I surprised Saxon and Matt with tickets to Zappa plays Zappa at the State Theatre in Sydney, no preparation for Saxon, we decided to throw him in the deep end and see how he coped.  As you can see he did fine! Saxon has been listening to Zappa for the last two years on an almost daily basis, he understands it and is passionate about it. Matt may have given him access to his albums but Saxon found the stuff he liked himself and ran with it… with gusto!

Matt says Saxon rocked out all night, he danced, played air guitar and conducted with precision! He got really excited when they played Dirty Love as he hadn’t heard it before. We have in the past tried to monitor what songs he is listening too but it’s becoming more difficult and I have given up worrying about it. Saxon is a smart kid, he knows what he likes and there isn’t really any reason why I should get in the way of that. I asked Saxon how he felt when he was playing guitar with Dweezil and he answered with “So very happy”. He also told me that he “scratched the pick down the low E string”  His confidence is up and he is trying to talk about the concert which is cool. We have a new CD. Zappa/Wazoo. I have lost count of how many times we have listened to the intro. Saxon has a new word. Mangled.

A huge Thank you to Dweezil!

xo

Dweezil’s blog entry from Zappa plays Zappa blog  15/4/09

The Little Nipper…

Hello Everyone,
I wanted to share something with you. Since we started this Zappa Plays Zappa project we’ve had a lot of memorable moments on stage and off.  We’ve had the opportunity to play this amazing music together as a core band and with great guests, we’ve won a Grammy, and we’ve had our fair share of silliness and emotional plateaus. Last night in Sydney there was a singular occurrence that brought about a sense of the connection of the new circle. I’ve been saying that we were looking forward to connecting with the the next generation of Zappa fans.

Last night in Sydney this undoubtedly happened. The venue was great, the beautiful old State theater built in the 20’s. The crowd was very diverse. There was a strong youth contingent down front. There was an energy feeding frenzy going back and forth between the band and this particular portion of the audience.

We had special things going on all night. My friend Mark Lizotte - also known as Diesel - joined us on stage for a punishing version of Bamboozled By Love. He’s got a great voice and he’s damn fine blues guitarist to boot. Someone was saying they’d like to see a tour called Diesel and Dweezil.

 Anyway at a certain point it had to happen, we had to have some of these aforementioned young folks join us on stage. The guys that came on stage were dancing up a storm and they were really feeling the music. This was not the average display of polite choreography, they were in a different world and the music was their master.

All of that was great fun but the highlight of the night and maybe the highlight of this whole on going Zappa Plays Zappa experience to date happened during the encore of Willie The Pimp. A father walked down the aisle with his young song in his arms. As he carried him to the stage the little nipper was furiously jamming air guitar! His father placed him on the stage and the little nipper brought the house down.

I sat next to him playing along and finally decided he needed a real guitar. I put my SG over his shoulder and turned him loose. This was indeed the connection of the new circle.

Thank you to everyone in that audience for making it this such a special night, especially the little nipper!

Regards, DZ