Wednesday, 4 May, 1988
The Ahoy, Rotterdam
Geef mij wat vloerbedekking! Vloerbedekking!BandFrank Zappa (guitar, synclavier, vocals)
Ike Willis (guitar, synth, vocals)
Mike Keneally (guitar, synth, vocals)
Robert Martin (keyboards, vocals)
Walt Fowler (trumpet, flugel horn, synth)
Bruce Fowler (trombone)
Paul Carman (alto, soprano and baritone sax)
Albert Wing (tenor sax)
Kurt McGettrick (baritone and bass sax, contrabass clarinet)
Ed Mann (percussion)
Scott Thunes (bass, Minimoog)
Chad Wackerman (drums)
Set listsAll tracks authored by Frank Zappa, except where noted.
Stinkfoot [ending on
Make A Jazz Noise Here]
Dickie's Such An Asshole (q: Midnight Sun
(Lionel Hampton, Sonny Burke, Johnny Mercer), The Battle Hymn Of The Republic
(William Steffe, Julia Ward Howe), Billy The Mountain)
When The Lie's So Big (q: Dickie's Such An Asshole, Bolero
(Maurice Ravel), The Battle Hymn Of The Republic
(William Steffe, Julia Ward Howe), Happy Days Are Here Again
(Milton Ager, Jack Yellen))
Planet Of The Baritone Women (q: Teddy Bears' Picnic
(John W. Bratton, Jimmy Kennedy), Dance Of The Cuckoos
(T. Marvin Hatley, Harry Steinberg))
Any Kind Of Pain
Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk†
Mr Green Genes
Florentine Pogen (q: Louie Louie
(Richard Berry))
Andy
Inca Roads (q: Approximate, Stayin' Alive
(Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb))
Eat That Question
Black Napkins
Sharleena
Dupree's Paradise
Marqueson's Chicken
City Of Tiny Lights
Pound For A Brown
The Torture Never Stops Medley*
Keep It Greasey
Cruising For Burgers (q: Handsome Cabin Boy
(trad.)) [parts on
Make A Jazz Noise Here]
Sofa (q: Billy The Mountain)
Crew Slut
† Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk contains quotations from
- Light Cavalry Overture (Franz von Suppé),
- The Battle Hymn Of The Republic (William Steffe, Julia Ward Howe),
- The Twilight Zone: Main Title Theme (Marius Constant),
- Entry Of The Gladiators (Julius Fučík),
- The Old Rugged Cross (Rev. George Bennard),
- Dixie (Daniel Decatur Emmett),
- Louie Louie (Richard Berry), and
- Rock Of Ages (Augustus M. Toplady, Thomas Hastings).
* The Torture Never Stops Medley consists of
- The Torture Never Stops part 1,
- Theme From "Bonanza" (Ray Evans, Jay Livingston),
- Lonesome Cowboy Burt, and
- The Torture Never Stops part 2;
and contains quotations from
- Hall Of The Mountain King (Edvard Grieg),
- Chattanooga Choo Choo (Harry Warren, Mack Gordon),
- I Love Lucy (Eliot Daniel, Harold Adamson),
- My Three Sons Theme (Frank DeVol),
- Mission: Impossible Theme (Lalo Schifrin),
- This Is The Theme To Garry's Show (Joey Carbone),
- The Addams Family (Vic Mizzy),
- Wipe Out (Bob Berryhill, Pat Connolly, Jim Fuller, Ron Wilson),
- O Superman (Laurie Anderson), and
- Sharkey's Day (Laurie Anderson).
ReviewIf yesterday's show was a Flo, this one is an Eddie, and he is not kidding. As with most pairs of shows played in the same city in 1988, these set lists are clearly crafted to entertain the same audience on both nights — there is not a single piece repeated. As with yesterday, this show contains some fine examples of what the '88 band was capable of, although most of them are in the second half of the show. Settle in and prepare yourself.
From the powerful opening chords of Stinkfoot, you can tell it's going to be a great one. "Yes, we will be playing Black Napkins, you can put the sign down now" says Frank. He proceeds to read out the set list for the evening, having "made some changes" since last night. Annoyingly, Frank's set list includes Whipping Post, which appears to either have been dropped or not made it onto this tape. A pity, as it was one of this band's strongest tunes.
Stinkfoot manages, against all odds, to be even groovier than usual, with Frank playing around with rhythms as he repeats the "python boot" line a few times. This incredible band, of course, doesn't miss a beat. For some reason, Frank decides to get quiet and contemplative with his first guitar solo tonight, which — once again beating the odds — works magnificently on this usually-a-much-harder-rocker of a vamp.
The band intros at the end of Stinkfoot are the ones we all know and love from
Make A Jazz Noise Here, including the "special case" of Frank getting Ed to rehearse the lick from Dickie's Such An Asshole in response to a fan's complaint. What you don't hear on the album is that this is the beginning of tonight's secret word — "rehearsal".
The so-called "Republican medley", occupying most of the first half of the first set, consists of mostly new compositions for this tour that don't hold a candle to his older tunes, and which — for some reason — he always liked to play as a single group rather than distributing them throughout the show for contrast. Dickie's Such An Asshole — a recycled ditty about Nixon from 1973 — is actually among the better of these, and tonight we get "a rehearsal out of the evening news" and a pleasantly bluesy guitar solo. Ike pretends to fuck up his post-solo rap so he can "have one more rehearsal right now", which gets a cheer out of the crowd and a chuckle from this reviewer.
The "rehearsal" moments continue throughout tonight's Republican medley, from all three of Ike, Frank and Bobby, making it somewhat more bearable than usual. Frank even promotes tomorrow's soundcheck in Dortmund, as the audience seems to be enjoying this demented performance. On the other hand, tonight's Any Kind Of Pain guitar solo is somewhat underwhelming. I suppose you can't win 'em all.
The second half of the first set, though, is one of the best sequences of classic tunes this band had in its repertoire. The segue into Mr Green Genes is music to my ears, and I don't just mean that literally. These arrangements of these songs are well represented on
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life, although here we get a few more "rehearsal" mutations to liven things up, not that it's needed anymore. Frank's solos, as is the sad norm for this tour in these songs, are tasty but nothing spectacular, but the horn solo (from Albert, I think?) in Inca Roads raises the bar a bit. However, these songs have enough oomph to carry themselves well even without great solos. And, finally, "that's Bruce" heralds tonight's intermission.
"Okay, everybody go 'woo' one time" says Frank after coming back out on stage. The much-requested Eat That Question/Black Napkins follows this tidbit of banter, much as heard on
Make A Jazz Noise Here. Both Bruce (I think — I'm terrible at identifying horns by ear) and Frank find their groove in Black Napkins, promising greater improvisation for the second set than the first.
Sharleena benefits from the extra horns in the '88 lineup brings with it, sounding dootier than ever before. Unfortunately, though, the verses are still reggae. The guitar solo is over the "Winos Do Not March" vamp from
Guitar, and while I slightly prefer the '81/'82 Sharleenas, this vamp almost always elicits guitar magnificence from Frank, and tonight is no exception. I would call this the first truly great solo of the evening, building up gradually into a fury as every good Sharleena should.
Dupree's Paradise is disappointingly short for tonight, with brief but satisfying solos from Walt (I think) and one of the saxophonists (Paul?), before segueing slightly jarringly into Marqueson's Chicken. This Marqueson has also been dooted up for '88, and the old shuffle vamp has been replaced with *checks notes* oh no. No, please no. Oh God no, anything but more reggae. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—
Mercifully, after a while the band turns the reggae back into a shuffle, and the conclusion of Frank's solo isn't too bad at that point. I'm feeling better now. Moving on, Frank hits us with a faceful of blues right off the bat on his City Of Tiny Lights solo and doesn't let up, making this great solo number 2 for tonight for my money. Oh, and did I mention Chad is fucking
tight tonight? This is the kind of energy that makes the '88 band something special.
The best thing about City Of Tiny Lights, though, is that it almost always comes as a pair with Pound For A Brown. And — holy shit — I can't identify which saxophonist is making these noises, but this is by far the best horn solo of the evening. It consists of a series of alternating doots and squeaks that fly by so fast I'm concerned he might develop RSI, with some simply
insane accompaniment from Chad. The second Pound solo is from Bruce, who gives us a much more subdued, but no less enjoyable effort.
The usual mid-Pound synclavier and percussion interlude runs for a bit longer than normal, and after a few minutes, dumps us right into a short but sweet drum solo from Chad, which in turn segues into a Bobby keyboard solo. I enjoy this improv session quite a lot more than last night's Big Swifty, with stellar performances from everybody involved. The whole thing rounds off, just as spectacularly as it began, with another sax solo over one of Frank's guitar loops.
The guitar looping segues somewhat awkwardly, yet strangely satisfyingly, into The Torture Never Stops. This is the monster Torture medley, as heard (from a different show) on
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life. The culmination of 13 years of continuous tweaking since this song debuted in 1975 has resulted in a nearly 20-minute song that combines the Chattanooga Choo Choo quote, Frank's Sprechgesang, and many other oddities and references, including an entire performance of Lonesome Cowboy Burt deposited in the middle. Tonight, as usual for this song when there is a secret word, we have more "rehearsal" references in the middle of the Bob Dylan parody section, leading to a Lonesome Cowboy Burt entirely about going to a rehearsal. This simply
must be heard to be properly enjoyed.
After Lonesome Cowboy Burt, of course, comes the Torture Never Stops guitar solo, which is very quiet and laid-back though highly enjoyable, though it stops short of greatness. In the final verse, we get one of the better secret word mutations of the evening, in the form of "could it have been some of the catering some of them tasted?" Frank then very tastefully invents the word "creasted" as a rhyme, a satisfying conclusion to the intentional mistakes throughout this very bizarre concert.
Disappointingly, Keep It Greasey contains no secret words tonight, and is otherwise a very unremarkable song. But it does segue into Cruising For Burgers, rearing its beautiful head for the first time since 1977. Frank's guitar solo here may be the best of the evening. It's not quite as frenetic as Sharleena or as heavy as City, but it is much better constructed from start to finish than either of those. Note that although parts of this performance are on
Make A Jazz Noise Here, the guitar solo is different (the solo on the album is from Lund the previous week).
Sofa is the treat it always is, and leads us into Crew Slut, which gives Frank one last opportunity for a six-string serenade before leaving Rotterdam for the last time. And while the guitar solo is pretty good, the real treat here is more outbursts of "vloerbedekking!" in between verses from Frank. Even though Whipping Post
would have been a better way to say farewell, the conceptual continuity with the 1971 show makes this a nice second-best.
That's all, folks! It's been an interesting journey listening to all of these snapshots in time. The two 1988 shows are definitely the high point, as I expected, but there are a number of other gems tucked away from year to year. I might do another of these threads at some point, but for now that's a wrap, and thanks for reading. Doeg!