Grandmothers of Invention - Amazing In Concert!

[Number9Dream]

We saw The Grandmothers of Invention in concert on 9/29/13 at the Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA. If you're a Zappa fan, it was as close as you could get without Frank. The concert was excellent in every way. They played all of the "One Size Fits All" album, mixing it in with other Zappa material. The band was amazingly tight! The old guys played ~ 2 hrs & 30 min. They included Peaches & Regalia, Holiday In Berlin, Village of the Sun, Don't You Ever Wash That Thing, and many more. It was announced that Don Preston, (keyboards, vocals)(original Mothers), had turned 81 in September. Eighty-one and still doing a kick-ass job with a rock band! It was an honor to shake Don's hand and Napoleon's hand after the show. Napoleon Murphy Brock - vocals, sax, & flute. Dave Johnsen - bass & vocals (excellent). Max Kutner was channeling Frank on guitar, and played with amazing virtuosity. Chris Garcia was equally terrific on drums & vocals.

If you get a chance, see these guys!

[johnp3907]

1. Saw them in Pittsburgh last year.

They were excellent! I've seen Project/Object a bunch of times, and they're always good, but this Grandmothers show was better than any of the times I've seen P/O. Preston's keyboard solo was one of the highlights, and the setlist was great. My favorite part was what I guess you'd call the Burnt Weeny Suite: Holiday in Berlin, Full Blown / Aybe Sea / The Little House I Used to Live In.

[Number9Dream]

3. Don told a funny story about "Holiday in Berlin"...

...The Mothers did a concert in Berlin, and some German radicals wanted Frank to announce that they would be burning down some building after the show. Of course, Frank refused. Don said that there was some kind of onstage argument in German between the promoter and a radical... Don yelling, "Nein, nein, nein...!" and Chris Garcia jabbering in fake German.
Afterward, Frank wrote "Holiday in Berlin".

[GReedDiamond]

2. Don Preston is 81?!...

...Don played grand piano on a record my band put out in 1982.

I had no idea he was already an octogenarian...but glad to know he's still on the road with the Grandmothers.

Thanks for the concert review, Number9Dream.

[Number9Dream]

4. Don was great!

He sang lead and back-up vocals, and was very good on keyboards. He did an interesting smart phone solo, at the end of which sparks flew out of the phone. He magically pulled "eggs" out of his mouth while he was playing. After playing two and a half hours, he was very cordial after the show, shaking hands and signing autographs. What a great musician and just a nice person!

[GReedDiamond]

5. Yes, he is, a great musician and nice person...

...we met him when we were recording at a studio in Hollywood, back around '81.

He was working on a sci-fi movie soundtrack, he had his vintage (at the time, maybe fifteen years old) Moog synthesizer - the kind with the patch cords all over the place. He ran some of the film on a monitor and demonstrated how he was dubbing these electronic sound effects into it.

He agreed to come over to our studio, where he recorded a piano track for one of the tunes we were working on at the time.

We also had Sam Phipps, aka Sluggo, of Oingo Boingo, do a sax solo on the same tune, but that's another story.

[johnp3907]

6. Well don't leave us hangin'!

Post the tune here!