Dragged my usher duds out of mothballs Saturday night to work the Zappa Plays Zappa show at the Warfield, and man, am I glad I did. A thoroughly great performance encompassing a wide swath of Frank's career. The band was led by his eldest son Dweezil, and besides a few featured players from Zappa bands of yore (Napoleon Murphy Brock, Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio, and a surprise guest appearance from Warren Cucurullo), was entirely made up of young unknowns who all played like motherf***kers (which was Frank's m.o. for drafting musicians too). They hit both the weird, funny stuff (Don't Eat Yellow Snow, Montana) and the cerebral, highly technical pieces such as Inca Roads and Black Page and Florentine Pogen. And yes, they played Peaches En Regalia, too. Great, great show, which, from Dweezil's comments toward the end, I gather they're going to continue touring periodically, learning new tunes and bringing in other Zappa alumni to guest. I'd love it if they got Flo & Eddie to reprise Just Another Band from LA.
