Dweezil Zappa still wonders: ‘Who Are The Brain Police?’

Hey musicians: Are you ready to be humbled? Hey music lovers: Are you ready to be jaw droppingly amazed? Go see Dweezil Zappa and his band. That will do the trick.

Son of the late Frank Zappa, Dweezil Zappa will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, in Reno’s Cargo Concert Hall as part of the Choice Cuts World Tour.

Here’s a look back at Nick McCabe’s review of Dweezil’s concert the last time he was in the area.

Why don’t you hear many bands covering Frank Zappa? Because his music is too intricate for most musicians to play, and it’s a little out there for some people’s taste.

The music of Frank Zappa is not your typical rock and roll. Not even close. It’s closer to jazz or avant-garde. The band started its April 28, 2017, show at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe with five selections from Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention’s 1966 debut release, “Freak Out!”

That set the tone for a truly atonal evening. To bring the groundbreaking nature of this album into focus you only need to know that the Top 10 songs of 1966 included “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” “Cherish,” “Reach Out And I’ll Be There” — and who can forget the Monkees’ “Last Train To Clarksville.” Compare those to Zappa’s “Who Are The Brain Police?” and you see somebody who was marching to the beat of a different drummer.

The South Shore Room was the site for “50 Years of Frank: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever The F@%k He Wants – The Cease and Desist Tour 2017.”

The musical skills required to pull off the re-creation of these songs is of the highest level. The core of this band (Dweezil, of course, Ryan Brown on drums, and Kurt Morgan on bass) is an amazingly tight trio. For “Apostrophe,” the band stripped it down to this trio onstage, blowing your hair back. It was an astonishing seven-minute presentation, complete with solos by all three players. Incredible, to say the least.

These songs are not 1-4-5 rock or blues progressions that can be worked out in an evening. These are what I would call through-composed (having a compositional structure that is not based on repeating sections of music; specifically, of a song with stanzas having regular meter and rhyme but different music for each stanza). Maybe that’s a liberal interpretation, but they are of a highly technical and written out nature.

Band members included the aforementioned Morgan on bass guitar and vocals, and Brown on drums. These two talented players have been working with Dweezil for many years, as have Chris Norton on keyboards, Scheila Gonzalez on sax, flute, keyboards and vocals, and Chris Martin on keyboards and vocals.

New to the mix since I last saw the band in 2015 are David Luther on saxophones, guitar, and deep, deep Frank-type vocals, and Cian Coey on vocals, percussion and a little guitar. This girl could sing all the challenging parts in these Zappa tunes. Her looks were deceiving. She appears to be a lovely demure little thing, but belts out vocals like Janice Joplin or Grace Slick with all the soul of Aretha Franklin.

After finishing the set with “The Illinois Enema Bandit,” the band left the stage for a much longer period of time than your normal encore interlude. It was funny to hear the roars, clapping and foot stomping in the room start to fade as the aged crowd became fatigued at its efforts to bring the musicians back to the stage, but return they did with a three-song, 25-minute encore.

First up was a wonderful performance of “Cosmik Debris.” This was followed by the emotional high point of the evening with the slow and powerful “Watermelon in Easter Hay,” from the album “Joe’s Garage.” Dweezil introduced this by saying,  “This is pretty much my favorite song that my dad made… definitely one of the most brilliant improvisational guitar solos that’s ever been captured on a recording.” Late in the song, Dweezil started crying repeatedly wiped tears from his cheeks and eyes. It was very real and very touching. As with the last time I saw them, the show closer was the ever popular “Muffin Man.”

I can understand that this type of music isn’t for everybody. It’s a lot to absorb and comprehend. When I was in college as a music major, Zappa was a respected writer and his shows were acceptable as part of the required events to attend in fulfillment of your major. This was a musician’s show, for sure. My thanks to Dweezil and his band for carrying the torch for the next generation to hear this music live.

Zappa and company have been in our area four times since 2009, so if you missed this show, you’ll have another chance. Take advantage of it. You won’t regret it.

— Nick McCabe

• Dweezil Zappa
  April 28, 2017
  Harrah’s Lake Tahoe
  THE SET
  Help, I’m A Rock
  It Can’t Happen Here
  You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here
  How Could I be Such A Fool
  Who Are The Brain Police?
  Selections From 200 Motels
  Flower Punk
  Black Napkins
  Apostrophe Teen-Age Wind
  Montana
  Zomby Woof
  Doreen
  You Are What You Is
  The Illinois Enema Bandit
  Encore
  Cosmik Debris
  Watermelon in Easter Hay
  Muffin Man
• THE BAND
  Dweezil Zappa
  Scheila Gonzalez
  Ryan Brown
  David Luther
  Kurt Morgan
  Cian Coey
  Chris Norton