Zappa Plays Zappa (DVD)

18 thoughts on “Zappa Plays Zappa (DVD)”

1. I am very much interested in purchasing the long-awaited ZPZ DVD. Where can I find this elusive DVD. I have searched everwhere.

   PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

   Mark G.

2. My Barfko-Swill “Wish List” basket still says the following:

   “Due to circumstances beyond our control we sincerely regret to inform you we are temporarily OUT OF STOCK. If you want to be notified as soon as it’s back in stock, email us here: zpzdvd@zappa.com. xxx, the barfies

   $35.00

   CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE”

   I think it was shipping with two Disc 2’s or some such thing.

   (Either that or it both discs were all bird sounds, Disc 2 was loose, Disc 2 was so tight it broke when trying to remove it, Disc 2 had a glitch at 12:04 and a drop-out at 12:21, or the audience sounds were removed after every song. Yeah, something like that.)

   Direct to BF: http://barfkoswill.shop.musictoday.com/

3. Great DVD. Solid show with good sound and great camera work (zooming in on the music: fingers, hands, not on the musicians making weird faces – although there is no escapin Stave Vai). Torture is actually scary.
   My only objection is Dweezil’s tears. Were they sincere? Then he would have edited them out. But it’s about music ladies and gentlemen! Arrangements, improv’s and the likes. Celebrating the music of your favorite composer with a lot of very good musicians.

4. Why is this even here in the discography section? It’s not a zappa recording. It’s a cover band playing his music.

5. An earlier comment on this pages asks if Dweezil’s tears were sincere. I was in the audience. Yes. There he was on stage, displaying how much he missed his father. Forget that his father is Frank Zappa. He was missing his father that night of his birthday and grateful that he could share his love with so many other people who cared, most of whom were men, all of them somebody’s son. It was impossible to not be moved by his vulnerability and sincerity.

6. OK, you can hate the FZT all you want (and God knows I do more often than not), but this is as good a FZ tribute band as anyone is going to find, rehearse and put together out there. The fact that they specifically chose to focus on Frank’s thornier pieces as opposed to jamming through “Dancin’ Fool” and “Wet T-Shirt Nite” for 20 minutes each is really a touchingly impressive tribute to Frank’s own demanding works.

   The special guests are great, but watching Bozzio strain vocally for some of the higher notes on “Punky’s…” is kind of funny after all these years.

   the sound mix on this DVD is so amazing, I was awestruck. The quality on Travers’ drums alone is worth the price of the release. The sax solo orgasm in “Eat That Question” is beyond words. This is a worthy group of musicians, I agree with those who believe Dweezil sheds real tears for his dad, and the music does posess the passion for Frank’s life works.

   And they are all musicians.

7. Just got this DVD. Only seen some of it so far, but what I have seen is EXCELLENT! It’s even got ‘Cheepnis’ on the bonus selection!

8. Bought the 2 DVD, 3 CD special box. The Pound for a Brown solo section is off the chain. Killer mix of a tight band. PS, I saw these guys in concert last fall and they blew my girlfriend and I away. We were just as emotional as Dweezil or anyone else in the crowd, only being 25 and never having the chance to see Mr. Zappa in concert in person.

9. j ai vu zappa fils au grand rex paris!! le concert etais celui de la tournee ray white bandit!!! j ai achete ce dvd avant de rentrer en salle donc dans les 5 premiers des sa sortie mondiale houf zpz jouent la musique de frank avec serieux;et respect!!! sur ce dvd on decouvre de bons musiciens la releve sans doute a ecouter plusieurs fois!!! ps… pas d autres commentaires!!! si un petit j ai vu frank z 4 fois sur scene na!!!

10. Yesterday I made another attempt to watch the ZPZ DVD and forced myself all the way through it.

    I’d bought it when it was released, watched it, hated it, shelved it, forgot about it.

    This time my impressions where even worse. I had forgotten how bad this is. I think those performances are really, really horrible. If you are a newbie to Frank’s music, this release should be avoided. It would give you a totally wrong impression.

    I don’t want this to be in the FZ discography because this is harmful to the composers intent.

    Thinman

11. So, Thinman – What specifically, in your opinion makes the performances really, really horrible? Do they play the wrong notes? Are the rhythms not correct? Are the vocals off-key? When playing the music, to me, ZPZ are just as good as Ed Palermo. But when they try to imitate the personalities of FZ band members, especially Dweez trying to imitate Frank, then I find that things get uncomfortable. Also, I have always found Steve Vai to be a “one trick pony”. Again, can you be more specific in your opinion?

12. Do they play the wrong notes? Are the rhythms not correct? Are the vocals off-key? No. No. And No.

    But it doesn’t sound right. That is the point. There is more to music than just palying the right notes and rhythms. They play machine-like. It is like a note-on/note-off midi-device. No dynamics. Every melody line doubled on guitar. To many instruments playing in the same register. It is lifeless. The improvisation/solo section do the rest. Not a single one that works.

    I had the same experience during the 3 live shows I had attended in 2006 and 2007. I know many, many hardcore Zappa-fans who had seen them once and will never go again.

    Th.

13. Thinman – when you say they play machine-like do you mean like a synclavier perhaps? Don’t be so arrogant as to presume you know the composers intent.

14. @Stewart: When I listen to FZ’s recordings I get an idea about the composers intend – in the case that what we hear is what he wanted.

    ZpZ is like painting by numbers. You get a nice picture but no art.

    Th.

15. I like ZpZ, but I do think they have too many instruments playing in
    the same register, at least on their DVD.
    And I don’t like Dweezil’s super high guitar lines in Regyptian Strut…
    But some of DZ’s playing sounds great to me….
    And the band sounds real good at times…

16. To all of those complaining of how this doesn’t match the ‘composers intent’ – Music, like all art, and especially all PERFORMANCE art, evolves with each iteration. If you have REALLY listened to Franks discography, you would know that never once did he mimic an exact performance. Each was allowed to grow and change organically, depending on the performers, the venue and his mood.

    Such is this performance – Dweezil did the near impossible and created a band that captured the magic that was a live Zappa performance that focused on the more challenging aspects of Franks creations.

    Is it different than what Frank did? Sure, Dweezil isn’t Frank, after all. He’s the son. The music was updated to include today’s musical aesthetic because it was performed TODAY.

    The most important seal of approval, in my mind, has nothing to do with the Zappa family or the fans . . . Three of Franks co-creators and dear friends (Bozzio, Brock and Vai) all gave their approval by adding to the magic.

    So, do yourselves a favor and try to limit the mental stigma you are automatically assigning this performance simply based on the ‘It’s not Frank’ factor, and try to watch it again with an open mind. You know, the way Frank wanted us to.

    d

17. I have nothing against Dweezil or ZPZ, but why are we reviewing what is essentially a product of a glorified tribute band? Why does ZPZ deserve special treatment? The last name?

    Barry, I suggest if we are going to review one tribute band, we should review them all don’t you think? Even out the playing field, so to speak.

    We could even call it our Cease & Desist section.

    Think about it, there are a lot of excellent Zappa related tribute albums worthy of review here at KUR, why limit ourselves just to ZPZ?

18. Lighten up all you textperts – if you never saw frank quit dissing dweezil – it don’t make you cool to criticize without context – I saw frank a shytwad of times and find ZPZ to be an acceptable substitute . . . even better at times – longer gigs and longer guitar solos, whats wrong with that? And dweezil is properly humble and sufficiently reverent and does his dad honor – my pop would have loved it if I took over the family biz even if I was mediocre, but dweezil is hardly that – I never met frank, except on the telephone, but I bet he would have called your bluff thinman – grow up and stop critisizing

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