1976 North American Tour (October-November)

Overview:

The late ‘75/early ‘76 band had served its purpose, and Frank felt it was time to move on. Keeping only Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on drums, he began to build yet another new rocking teenage combo. Sometime in the middle of the year, FZ has a massive fall-out with longtime sleazy manager Herb Cohen, which leads to years of heinous legal troubles. It’s also a large reason why Frank decided to abandon the “Mothers Of Invention” moniker around this time, to avoid any possible issues arising using a “band” that Herb may have partial managerial oversight of (FZ also stated that the band had so little relation to what was happening with the “original” MOI, that it was time to drop the name, which makes sense to me as well). Bass player extraordinaire Patrick O’Hearn (a friend of Terry’s), made the group a trio, and was followed not long after by Eddie Jobson on wonderful keyboards and violin (Eddie was formerly with Roxy Music, and sat in with the Mothers for a couple shows in late ‘75). The final additions were the unstoppable Ray White on guitar and vocals (the beginning of his long and illustrious career with Frank), and the utterly amazing Lady Bianca on wonderful gospel-style vocals and extra keyboards. This is a fantastic band (billed simply as “ZAPPA”); they have a really odd unique sound in FZ’s universe, punctuated by Pat’s fretless bass, Bianca’s beautiful voice, and Eddie’s weird, plinky, circus-s keyboard tone that leads to lots of fun. Frank’s guitar is continuously excellent, thanks in part to the amazing rhythm section provided by Pat and Terry (in my opinion the finest and tightest duo of FZ’s career). This group has a lot of personality, with regular hysterical comments (usually from Patrick) about The Gilded Grape (a club at the center of New York’s drag scene in the 70s), and other “salute(s) to S&M”. Terry is emerging more and more as a major voice in Zappa’s arsenal, with occasional comments during his solos, and regular speaking/singing parts in numerous songs. This band had a really fun repertoire of songs too. The setlist was fairly regular, but not as repetitive as the previous tour. This is a rare tour actually supporting a recent album, so Frank plays a large number of songs from Zoot Allures, and shouts out the new LP a number of times throughout each show. For the earliest shows the song order was fairly set in stone, but as the tour goes on, Frank starts to mix things up here and there, and once Bianca decides to leave the group, FZ has no choice but to change arrangements and the song’s played. The songs are a combination of new tunes and old tunes (both songs from the previous tour, and new arrangements of old classics). Basically every tune that was played on the early ‘76 European tour is more fun and complete on this jaunt across North America. Nearly every show (exceptions being 10 31L and 11 06) begins with same 40-50 minute opening set:

The Band:

Frank Zappa – Guitar, Vocals, Titties, Beer

Ray White – Guitar, Vocals, Cowbell, Tiny Lites

Eddie Jobson – Marginably Visible Violin, Keys, English-ness

“Bionica” Lady Bianca – Beautiful Vocals, Non-Essential Keyboards, Tambourine (through November 13)

Patrick O’Hearn – Bass, Snide Comments, Iron Butterfly

Terry Bozzio – Drums, Cuteness

Recordings Available:

1976 10 12 – McAlister Auditorium, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA  (Fragments From Two Shows – Audience A-)

click here to listen

A taper recorded these entire shows, but he unfortunately only wanted to share these two clips (people tried to get him to release the rest, to no avail). He recorded the 1980 New Orleans show and did the same thing, releasing only the early show’s Black Napkins. Anyway, Frank began this fall tour with a leg through the American south, and this night in NoLa is only the second date this band played. What we have here are two lovely takes of Black Napkins, one from the early show and one from the late. The first take starts off with an amusing intro (“Alright this is a song for all the… for all the lovers out there in the audience, every rock and roll show has to have at least one song for lovers, this is our contribution to that trend. The name of this song is Black Napkins. Why, why would a person call a song Black Napkins?, well, here’s why…”), before four tasty solos from Bianca, Eddie, Ray and Frank. There’s a small tape cut in FZ’s solo, but it’s nothing too distracting. The second shows take is nice too, its has less of an intro (“We have to go into another song, and the name of this sucker is Black Napkins”), and Bianca opens up with another tasteful vocal solo (“lemme do it again… thank you very much”). Eddie’s violin solo is wonderful, Ray’s is subdued yet powerful and Frank’s ending jam is monstrous. This is definitely one of the best tours for this tune and it’s clear right off the bat. The two Black Napkins are nice, and are captured on an excellent tape, but they’d be a lot nicer in the full context of the show. Good performances, but for completionists only. 

1976 10 16 – The Patio, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL (Audience B+)

click here to listen

The first complete recording of the tour comes from a suburb of Miami, five days into the tour, and is captured on a very nice tape. Frank announces the “Mothers of Invention Miami matinee for 1976” (I guess he hadn’t gotten the name change to “Zappa” down pat yet), tells Terry to “show ‘em yer tights”, and finally introduces “ the lovely Bianca“. Eventually he says “We’re going to start off with something mild to moderate so you don’t geek(?) out too early, the name of this song is Stink-Foot”. It’s a very nice version of the tune, with a great solo and a couple of amusing lines (“There’s been a slight tragedy. Due to the odor of my feet, Fido has just died.”). We get a standard Poodle Lecture (thankfully this is the last tour with it), but we do get the nonsense line “The poodle was a mistake because he didn’t know that they were going to invent Miami later.” Dirty Love is a great take and afterwards we get a nasty story about Frank’s  “fantasy last night”. His driver took the band past “The Flagler Dog Track”, so FZ of course talks about “Poodle races” (you can imagine where this goes). Up next we get the return of “a song about higher education” Wind Up Workin In A Gas Station. Tryin’ To Grow A Chin follows making a nice, poppy medley of two (even more fun than the last tour’s version), and a great, soulful Torture Never Stops comes next, the first fully complete live take known. A cut takes out the end of the tune though, and we resume a couple seconds into City of Tiny Lites. It’s a nice, standard take, and ends with a fun segue to the next tune from Frank: “Well enough of the cookies, ladies and gentleman. Bianca will now sing to you a charming little tune direct from the Ruben and the Jets album called, You Didn’t Try To Call Me”. It’s a great take, the audience loves it and Bianca can clearly tell. The sound gets a little worse here but it doesn’t bother me, and there’s a small error midway through where Bianca almost skips the “I can’t say what’s wrong or what’s right” verse. After the tune, Frank goes into a unique speech. He says, “I got a really good excuse for why I didn’t try to call you…I was so busy y’know… There was this monster movie on television… We were watching this film called Mars Needs Women. Have you ever seen that movie? Everybody here who has seen Mars Needs Women knows that this movie is, the nicest thing you can say about it is that it is rancid… so after watching this film I became so inspired you see, I went directly to my desk Bianca. I was gonna call you, I was going to invite you to rehearsal, really.” We get a nice take of the weirdo number, followed by a fun, very early Titties ‘N Beer, with the Chrissy Puked Twice verse, the “you can have my soul” lines and an extra set of lyrics not in any other take! Near the end of the tune Frank says:“You know I laughed like a fool I laughed til I cried/I nearly pissed in my pants as I was holding my side/The devil was mad, I took off to my pad/I swear I do declare how did she get back there…” After this we get a wonderful Black Napkins “dedicated to anybody in this audience here who has been forced to eat thanksgiving dinner at the Pfister towers hotel in Milwaukee”. This band produced maybe the best version of this tune out there, with a wonderful vocal solo from Bianca, and an equally beautiful violin solo from Eddie. Rounding out the tune is a lovely solo from Ray, and a monstrous one from Frank to finish us off. Next is Advance Romance, which is occasionally a mini-monster on this tour. It’s now, “They took Terry’s watch”, instead of George’s (or Andre’s), and tonight Frank comments “Should’ve taken his yogurt instead of his watch”. Patrick and Frank each deliver a nice solo, a regular occurrence in Fall ‘76 (Patrick plays the melody of the tune for part of his solo tonight). Honey Don’t You Wanna follows, with Bianca playing the role of Betty, and after this we get a suite of Flo and Eddie songs. I think having three vocalists. Reminded Frank of the old vaudeville days, and so he brought back a handful of songs from the 70-71 albums. Tonight they play all four throwback tunes: Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink, Would You Go All The Way?, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy and What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are?. The first two tunes are fun but forgettable, but the second two save the medley. Dinah-Moe Humm ends the main set, and we get a great encore, starting with “Stranded in the Jungle (“I didn’t write this thing, I wish I had, but I was too young when it was originally recorded”). And finishing with Camarillo Brillo and Muffin Man. Frank’s in a great mood today, so is the audience, and the new Mothers create some great music. Not the first show I’d recommend, but it’s worth checking out, if only for the weird early takes of a couple tunes. 

1976 10 18 – Memorial Auditorium, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (Audience C+/C)

click here to listen

This show is pretty good, but it sounds horrible. The recording is very distorted and hissy, and most of the vocals can’t be interpreted, but the instrumental sections are listenable enough. Frank says some amusing intros, mentioning Terry’s “black tights” and “Eddie ‘The Prince’ Jobson” and we start off with a nice but distorted Stink-Foot and a standard Poodle Lecture (“God made three mistakes, *feedback*, that was not one of them, but it could have been because nobody’s perfect”). Dirty Love is fun and funky yet again, and next up is “a song about something else that I think actually bites and chews it, you may disagree, it’s a song about higher education”. Gas Station is solid, and so is the following Chin, but they’re not super pleasant to listen to. After this is an excellent Torture, Frank really goes all out for his solo, and follows it with a fine City of Tiny Lights (FZ says something I can’t make out between the two tunes). We get a measly City solo, Frank shouts out Ray at the end, and Bianca improvs a beautiful, long vocal intro to You Didn’t Try To Call Me. After this is something completely different, “A song that deals with the rhythm section”, Mars Needs Women! Titties ‘N Beer is mostly unintelligible and missing the ending, but a beautiful Black Napkins dedicated “to an old friend of mine who lives down here… Paul Allen Buff” nearly saves the show. Advance Romance takes its regular spot next, and Terry gets a surprise solo between the two regulars! (I think Frank yells “give the drummer some”?). All three contestants deliver, and the main show ends with another cavalcade of vocal tunes (Honey, Rudy, Would You Go All The Way?, Daddy, What Kind Of Girl and Dinah-Moe Humm). Frank makes some unintelligible comments between Would You? and Daddy, and makes a few fun mutations in What Kind Of Girl (including “the swingingest college in music city” and “Made the charts this week with a monster”). For an encore we get Stranded In The Jungle (with a fun ending solo from Frank!), and a regular Camarillo/Muffin duo provides a nice rock ‘n roll ending to the night. This is a nice show, but this recording is just awful. There’s some fun moments, but nothing that requires listening. Completionists only. 

1976 10 24 – Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA (Two Shows – Audience A/A- and A-/B+)

click here to listen to the early show

click here to listen to the late show

The first truly fantastic night of the tour, and one of the best nights of 1976. Frank’s talkative and in a good mood, and the group’s playing clearly reflects that. The early show starts off with a long audience intro, including what I assume is an early version of the Revenge of The Knick Knack People. After this is our regular Purple Lagoon opener, Frank talks about how they “get to spend 5 days in this town.” (“We’re gonna have a good time tonight, and we’re gonna have a good time the rest of the week”), then gives a bunch of amusing intros to the band (including “Mz. Patrick O’Hearn on Bass”, “also with the lips Mz. Terry Bozio on drums”, “shunning his lip makeup for one night only, simply because the others had too much on, Eddie Jobson on keyboards and violin”, and “when you’re talking about Lip, you have to include Bianca”). After this Frank declares: “And once again, as we have started our shows here for the last 4 years (sic) with the same stupid song. We’re gonna start it again, with a song about your feet and my feet: Stink-Foot!” We get a fantastic, high spirited take of the dog medley (Stink-Foot/The Poodle Lecture/Dirty Love), then FZ announces that “this is the part of the show where the cute persons become so inflamed with ecstasy… These are the kind of songs that other people with lip gloss can enjoy”: Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station and Tryin’ To Grow A Chin of course. They’re great, lively takes of both tunes, and interestingly Eddie’s backing vocals are very high in the mix of the later tune (one of the only times I’ve clearly heard his voice during a Zappa show). We get a lovely version of the Torture Never Stops (including about half of the One Shot Deal riff, in, it’s final known appearance) and a solid City Of Tiny Lights follows this. After City is a somewhat infamous Zappa moment. During what should have been a lovely You Didn’t Try To Call Me, Bianca starts to get heckled by the crowd (multiple “take it off”s), which clearly pisses her off, so she replies with the fantastic comeback: “Tell yer mama to take her clothes off and after you do that tell her to suck a rat’s dick” (FZ: “that’s right, you heard right!). She manages to start and successfully finish the tune, and at the end Frank comments “and don’t tell her to take her clothes off anymore because she’s got so many yo mamas waiting for you that you wouldn’t believe it”. He repeats her insult ”for those of you who didn’t hear it the first time” and announces that “the name of this song is Mars Needs Yo Mama” (of course referring to the piece that ends up as Manx Needs Women). Frank plays around with the guitar part in the second half of the weirdo tune, and the following Titties ‘n Beer is the standard dumb/fun tune we’ve grown to love (well I love it at least). Black Napkins is lovely as always, and Bianca seems pretty angry during her vocal solo (rightfully so). FZ even comments after her solo “Well I hope you’re enjoying this”. It’s such a bummer that the dumb, drunken frat boy crowd reacted to Bianca in the way they did. If the “take it off” incident didn’t happen, Bianca may have been in the band much longer. Anyway, following this we get a fantastic Advance Romance, with some more “lip gloss” comments. Patrick and Frank both play great solos, and after the latter FZ shouts “give the drummer some!”, and Terry plays a fun little drum spot, with a lot of Poodle-related commentary involving drum-stick sodomy (“Bringing it on down with the poodle”). After a while we slow down, Frank sings “I’m back in the Poodle again”, and “In-a-gadda-da-Poodle”, before bringing us “back to the real world” and ending the song (but not before some more “SPCA work that wall” comments). Next is a mildly mutated Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me? (“He had an Irish poodle”), and regular takes of Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink and Dinah-Moe Humm to end the show (“And now the Purple Lagoon!”). During the encore break Frank starts to introduce the next song but someone insults him and he replies “Fuck me? That’s the nicest thing anybody’s said to me all day, and the name of this song is Stranded In The Jungle”. It’s a great take (“Meanwhile against the wall”), and it goes right into Muffin Man, skipping Camarillo (Patrick says “Niiice” and Frank claims “there are many ways to say I love you, here’s another one”) Frank ends with “Thank you very much for coming to the concert” in the rhythm of Muffin Man and closes out the early show. The first show is great, but the second is even better (despite a comparative decrease in sound quality). Frank comments on their “yearly visit to Boston” and that they’ll start “this show the same way we started the other show off, with a song about your feet”. It’s an excellent version, with amusing slippers dialog (“Fido why, why do you treat me this way”), and Terry has a Gilded Grape related outburst too (“Ladies and gentleman, he’s going for the big three in a row!”). A great solo, a lame Poodle Lecture and a fun Dirty Love round out the dog-themed opener. Gas Station/Grow A Chin is always a riot, and Torture delivers yet again. City is fun too, and interestingly Frank sings “Bamboozled By Love, oh lord the shit just hit the fan” over the end of tune. It goes right into another delightful, less eventful You Didn’t Try To Call Me (in a good way). Frank comes in after to shout out Bianca and give an announcement that we’re taking a “deviation from our normal pattern of events” and playing one of “Terry’s favorite songs”: I’m So Cute! It’s a completely different version of the tune, with only about 75% of the lyrics connecting it to the Sheik Yerbouti version (and basically no musical similarities). It’s a fantastic tune, with a wonderful violin solo, and a tweaky outro (read about it more in the song description), and it leads back into the regular regularly scheduled programming with Titties ‘n Beer (“Take my soul, you already got the guys from Black Sabbath”). After this is a long excellent Black Napkins, dedicated “to all the lovers and also all the college graduates, “especially the ones who got out of Berkley while there was still time”. It’s a lovely version, with a bunch of dumb comments and jokes throughout. Frank sings in his dumb voice along with Bianca, mentions the “Winner of tonight’s orchid eating contest”, “the tender succulent Eddie Jobson on violin” and some yo mama quips (“If yo mama had told you where the barbershop was you wouldn’t have had that problem”). Next is a wonderful Advance Romance, with a totally wild solo section featuring quotes from I’m In The Mood For Love, Isn’t It Romantic? and Tequila (all from Patrick)! Frank and Bianca even sing part of Any Kind of Pain! We get more cool solos from Patrick, Terry and Frank and more classic outbursts from this band (“Work that wall”, “Niiiice”, “Give the drummer some”), along with the aforementioned musical quotes. Terry talks about the Gilded Grape as an intro to his drum fury (with numerous comments from his bandmates), and the tune ends like normal (“She might be the devil…” “no it’s just Coco”). This extravaganza ends the main set and we get a two song encore consisting of What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are? (“Bet you never thought you’d hear this song again”) and Muffin Man. Frank outros the band, sings Muffin Man again, and cues the final Purple Lagoon. These are an excellent set of shows, both historically and musically. The late show is the real stand out, with I’m So Cute through Advance Romance being some of the best this band could offer, but the early show is very nice too (and very nice sounding) Check these shows out today!

1976 10 27 – Leroy Concert Theater, Pawtucket, RI  (Audience A-)

click here to listen

This is a fun show, captured in very nice sound. It’s not as crazy as the last gig in Boston, but it’s got its fair share of surprises and is still very enjoyable. There were two shows on this date, but all we have is the early gig. Frank opens the show like normal, and announces “the lovely Bianca on frostbite”, hinting at the freezing conditions in this hall. Stink-Foot, The Poodle Lecture, Dirty Love, Gas Station and Tryin’ To Grow A Chin all deliver what you’d expect (in a good way), and these tunes are followed up by another excellent Torture Never Stops. City Of Tiny Lights and You Didn’t Try To Call Me spotlight Ray and Bianca respectively, and succeed in both cases. The “abstruse number” Manx Needs Women (still known as Mars) comes next, and FZ dedicates it to a someone who interviewed him “just before the program”. Titties ‘n Beer is fun like normal, but this version is special because Frank plays a solo over the ending chords! Frank shuts down some Dinah-Moe Humm fans afterwards (“You’ll get your poking and stroking later”), and leads us into another great Black Napkins. Some fans in the audience mention that Frank was sitting and playing by himself on this tune last time they played here (they also comment on the temperature), and Bianca, Eddie, Ray and Frank precede to deliver a wonderful set of solos. Advance Romance comes next, Patrick delivers another delightfully weird bass solo with some more bits of Tequila and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Frank even starts to sing along with Patrick’s bass, imitating his fretless style with some dumb-but-funny mouth sounds. He finally says, “Y’know what?” and suddenly tears into his guitar, unleashing some excellent guitar fury, and eventually singing some of the Iron Butterfly classic. This eventually ends the main set, but they return for the first of two encores. As Frank comes back on he tells the audience “I got an interesting feeling coming on the stage in a shitty little theater with no heat in it… I’ve never lived in a town like this, thank god… I just wanted to say that when I can see you… I could’ve gone to school with you people, you look pretty familiar to me…It’s like playing for a high school assembly or something”. Whatever that means, Frank decides to finally appease the audience and play Dinah-Moe Humm. It goes right into Muffin Man (it’s so weird hearing it sans Camarillo Brillo), and the band leaves the stage once again. They return for a fun What Kind Of Girl? (Frank drops an amusing “Why don’t you turn the heat on in this fucking place” mid-tune), and an even better Stranded In The Jungle. Frank briefly forgets the lyrics to the final song, tells the crowd that they’ve “been a red hot audience for a ridiculously cold theater”, and that they can’t play any more because “We gotta do it all over again in a minute!” To appease the masses Frank plays a wonderful little solo to end Stranded In The Jungle! It’s a wonderful finale to a great set of music, it’s too bad we don’t have the second show . Check this one out if you’re looking for more late ‘76, you won’t be disappointed. 

Bonus: 1976 10 28 – The Mike Douglas Show, Philadelphia, PA (Official Release)

(A lesser-quality YouTube version is included at the end of the Philly ‘76 playlist)

Frank made an appearance on the Mike Douglas show early on in the tour. He has a nice, but short conversation with Mr. Douglas where they talk about the origin of the Mothers and how Zappa comes up with his titles (“I’m abnormal”), before FZ gets his guitar ready to play Black Napkins with Mike’s studio orchestra! He plays a very nice solo for about 5 minutes, with lovely horn accompaniment, before another commercial break and more conversation. They talk about Alice Cooper, music to relax to (classical vs modern), drug use/culture and finally Frank shows a segment of A Token Of His Extreme. Kenny Rogers chimes in on appreciating classical music which is delightful. Co-host Jimmie Walker really seems to vibe with Frank too. Overall this is an excellent TV spot for Frank, with a lovely and unique version of Black Napkins. It was released officially as a bonus feature on the Token of His Extreme DVD, but it’s available on YouTube too. Check it out!

1976 10 29 – Spectrum Theater, Philadelphia, PA (Official Release)

click here to listen

This wonderful show has been officially released as Philly ‘76. It’s the only multi-track document of this line-up in the vault, and while it’s not the most insane concert, all the participants are clearly in a good mood and it leads to some great music. Flo & Eddie were supposed to open, but had to cancel because of their lead guitar player’s unfortunate death three night’s earlier. The setlist is pretty standard for October ‘76, but they’re all high-energy and quality performances. Stink-Foot and Dirty Love are always fun, and FZ introduces Gas Station as “Cut one, side one of our new album, Zoot Allures, which is being delivered to you in time for Halloween”, and follows it with the regular greats: Tryin To Grow A Chin, The Torture Never Stops, and City of Tiny Lights (all excellent takes). Frank comments on “the Sanzini Brothers Pyramid Trick revisited” at the end of City, and leads us into another delightful You Didn’t Try To Call Me, and disturbing Mars Needs Women (still not Manx). Titties is fun (Frank plays another great ending solo!), and before Black Napkins FZ plugs Zoot Allures again, and mentions that he played “this song with Mike Douglas’ studio orchestra” the day before. It’s a wonderful take, like usual, and features nearly 20 minutes of fantastic, soulful music. Advance Romance is great too, Patrick’s bass stops working a couple seconds in so he sings “Ain’t got no power” and Frank tells Tex Abel to fix the problem. They each play a great solo (once everything is working), and this leads us into the vocal-heavy part of the program, with great takes of Honey, all the Flo & Eddie throwback tunes, and Dinah-Moe Humm to close the main set. For an encore we get another great Stranded In The Jungle, a rare Find Her Finer (“a virtual instruction booklet” on how to “get laid”), and a fun Camarillo/Muffin medley. Frank says “Here’s another kind of dummy . . .” leading into the penultimate tune, and he gets really into the lyrics from Muffin Man, asking the crowd to sing along, repeating the head, and ending the show, with a bunch of comments on the state of America (“200 years and this is all you get.”). According to a fan in attendance “there was a guy in a Richard Nixon mask & classic old-time prison costume on the floor a few rows back in the center”, and that’s what Frank was referring to  in his outros (“Thanks for coming by, Dick . . . He’s looking good”. FZ actually used this performance of Gas Station on YCDTOSA#6, and he also used his final guitar chord in Advance Romance as an end to Greggery Peccary on Lather. This is an excellent show, wonderfully presented in beautiful audio quality. It’s the best sounding document of this band, and it’s truly a great concert. Check this one out!

1976 10 30 – Felt Forum, New York, NY (Audience A-)

click here to listen

Frank opens this (usually) very nice sounding show by announcing it as the “Halloween warm up program”, and while this is a funny off hand remark, it really does feel like the band’s waiting till tomorrow night to truly go wild. Our “old pal Frankie” starts the show with a song about “our feet, my feet, everybody’s feet”: Stink-Foot. It’s a nice take, with a standard (lame) Poodle Lecture and concluded by a fun Dirty Love. Wind Up Workin is great and so is Trying To Grow A Chin (Patrick goes wild in this one). A very good Torture, with a partial quote of the One Shot Deal Riff, follows this. They take a short break, then play another wonderful City Of Tiny Lights (with a weird vamp under the post-solo theme?). An amusing Titties and Beer comes next, (Frank mentions his Mike Douglas appearance yet again) and we get another excellent Black Napkins. A quality Advance Romance follows this, and Bianca seems to sing it, I don’t know, angrier? growlier? Whatever it is, I like it. We get another fun drum solo between Patrick and Frank, and FZ ends the main set with a “Happy Halloween warm-up to you!” They of course return for an encore; Frank dedicates the first song to “an old friend of mine… this goes out to Bleaker Bob”: Stranded In The Jungle. “We got this other song, it just happens to be in the same key. It’s a slow song. We don’t usually like to play slow songs for encores here because I know you wanna get your rocks off in a hurry, but this is something that I think you’ll enjoy”: What Kind Of Girl? It’s a fun take, they segue into Dinah-Moe Humm after this, FZ shouts out Frenchie the poodle and they leave the stage again. They return a final time for what should be a classic Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man, but the sound gets insanely bad, like C/C- level due to tape recorder battery fatigue. It’s terrible but it’s so sudden it’s kinda funny. This is a solid show, but Frank said it himself, it’s a warm-up. We get a nice concert, full of solid performances, captured in very nice sound, but there’s nothing that can’t be found (in slightly better quality) on the two shows tomorrow night. I’d recommend this one for historic interest (it is a Halloween show after all) and for the nice performances and sound, but there are at least 10 shows from this tour I think you should check out first. 

1976 10 31 – Halloween – Felt Forum, New York, NY (Two Shows – Audience A/A-)

click here to listen to the early show

click here to listen to the late show

It’s Halloween yet again, and we have another fun pair of Zappa shows. These two concerts are captured on a very nice tape, one of, if not the best audience tape of the tour. The early show starts with some crowd noise, a bit of Revenge Of The Knick Knack People, and the now standard Purple Lagoon opener. Frank’s clearly in a great mood; he comes on stage and declares it “the most important holiday of the year”, and comments that “This is… our day. I always knew that our day would come” and that “tonight is the mysterious night that two members of the Ramones are actually in the audience!” “the guests of our drummer”. He finally gets around to introducing the band (including “Eddie Jobson on randomonium”), and leads us into another titillating Stink-Foot. He whips the poodle into a frenzy, comments that “It’s almost like being a friend of Andy Warhol or something”, and proceeds to deliver a great guitar solo. An above-average Poodle Lecture comes next, mainly because Frank sees his brother in the audience (“Everybody from New Jersey right there in the front”…“Ladies and gentleman, Bobby Zappa!”,  “A former marine”) and he later describes a number of Zappa-New York landmarks on the body of the poodle (The Garrick Theater and the like). Dirty Love is nice, though Bianca does mix up the lyrics a little tonight. FZ announces Wind Up Working In A Gas Station (“Yes this is a commercial for the album, because those sons of bitches at Warner Brothers won’t do anything to sell it so I’m gonna sell it myself! … And then after you buy it send a letter to Warner Brothers telling them to go doot doot doot doot doot.”), and we get a lovely version of the tune about higher education, followed by an equally lovely take of Grow Me A Chin. A solid Torture (with an ending “take it away bob!”), and tight, but regular versions of City Of Tiny Lights, You Didn’t Try To Call Me and Manx Needs Women follow. Titties and Beer is as fun as always, Terry is really trying to venture into conversational improv, but Frank’s not having much of it. We get another excellent Black Napkins with an amusing intro from Frank (“It’s just as possible to fall in love on Halloween as any other night in the year, in fact in most instances it’s better. It gives it that little extra something y’know? The candy corn…”) A lovely performance, and it’s followed by a solid Advance Romance that brings the main set of the early show to an end. They return, Frank chats with the audience and then tells us that “We’re gonna play something that we haven’t played for a long time”, and they break out a surprise My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama! It’s a lovely take, really cool to hear with Bianca doubling Frank, even though it’s basically the same as the reworked version best known as a staple of the following European tour. After this we get a fun Stranded In The Jungle, with some unexpected audience participation attempts (FZ says “Just like going to the Grape on Wednesday night”, and later tries to get the crowd to dance and to “show me yer” thumb/tongue/bum). They have “time for one more quasi-musical event”, the time honored classic of Dinah-Moe Humm. It’s a standard take and it brings the early show to a close. Frank outros the band “and Mr. Smothers”, and we’re ready for the Halloween late show. It’s even more fun than the early show, and the recording sounds just as good. Another “Happy Halloween!”, some more chatting with the audience (“I just hope we can make this program everything you hoped for”), another round of intros (“Direct from Egypt itself! Bianca!”), and we start the program with tonight’s second fiery Stink-Foot. Frank tells us that “somebody stole the big dog that we had from the first show… We’re gonna have to resort to the use of the small dog”, but we get a fun take of the tune regardless. After this is a perfunctory Poodle Lecture, with more minor references to New York (Ex. “she clips some of the unwanted debris from the entrance to the Queens midtown tunnel”) and a couple references to last year’s extravaganza (He mentions famed Radiologist/Enema deliverer Frannie, though he misremembers her name as “Fannie” – at least I think this is what he’s referring to). Dirty Love is always fun, Frank tunes up after (“I can tune up on Halloween can’t I?”), and gives a fun intro to a new song for the band (“I don’t know whether it’s going to turn out, you don’t know whether it’s going to turn out, we won’t be able to tell until we’ve actually played it”): The return of A Bound For A Brown On The Bus!. It’s a great take with fun solos from Frank and Terry, and a great sign of things to come later on in the tour (Pound is one of Frank’s best solo vehicles in late ‘76). We return to our regularly scheduled programming, though mildly mutated. Frank says “lemme see yer tits” in Gas Station and Terry comments that he’s tried all his life “just to grow me a dick” in the next tune. A solid torture (“tuning your guitar on Halloween, go fuck yourselves!”) and a solid City comes next, and after that we get a lovely You Didn’t Try To Call Me, with some hints of Wipe Out from FZ over the end. And next, “direct from the ultimate elsewhere, Mars Needs Women!”, followed by a fun Halloween Titties N Beer. Black Napkins is wonderful as always. Frank gives an amusing intro (“If you’re not a lover, if you don’t love something, you can’t listen to this song, you have to stick some sort of material in your ear during this complete number”), and then continues to make comments and interjections throughout the tune. While Bianca’s singing, he says, “see in order to do that she has to make her throat real tiny”, and then sorta joins in with his dumb singing voice. A fun Advance Romance ends the main set once again, and we get a fun first encore of What Kind Of Girl? and Dinah-Moe Humm (“This is the swingingest place in Halloween New York City”).  For the second encore we get the Camarillo/Muffin medley, but with a  “special Halloween surprise” during the latter tune. “Introducing the great new singing sensation…Making his singing debut”: John Smothers! Frank feeds the words to his bodyguard, who gets most of them right, and proceeds to whip out a great solo. He thanks the audience, outros the band, and Halloween ‘76 is over. These aren’t the craziest Halloween shows, but I love this band, and these are great recordings of two of their best shows. Also, Frank didn’t record these shows, so this is the best we’re going to get. Check these ones out!

1976 11 04 – Capitol Centre, Landover (a.k.a. Largo), MD (Audience B+/B)

click here to listen

This show is a very interesting case. It’s not the most exciting concert, but Frank captured this whole performance on video! Only a couple fragments have been released from the vault (come on Joe!), but you can hear Frank comment on the filming once or twice through-out. They also played The Token of His Extreme movie before the show, which led to a number of amusing comments too (“you’re the only people in the world who’ve seen it… help me get that son of a bitch on the air!”). They start the show off with “a different version of that old favorite, Stink-Foot” (compared to the 1974 version the audience just saw), where Fido “was so tore up on flakes” and Frank comments “you’ll have to pretend that my fingers are growing in this part” during the guitar solo (again, like in this movie). The rest of the show is our normal good time. The Poodle Lecture is perfunctory, Dirty Love, Gas Station and Chin are always fun (Frank lets it rip on his guitar in the later tune), and it’s followed up by a tasty Torture and a funky City Of Tiny Lites. Unfortunately, the tape cuts off near the end of the tune, and doesn’t resume until Bianca’s solo in Black Napkins solo, likely missing all of You Didn’t Try To Call Me, Manx/Mars Needs Women, and Titties N Beer (though, video of the boobs/booze song has been released as part of Alex Winter’s “save the vault”/Zappa Movie kickstarter). Anyway, the rest of Black Napkins is lovely, though I believe Ray doesn’t solo in this take (possibly due to time constraints). FZ ends the main set with “hope you liked the TV show!” and they return for two encores, the first consisting of Dinah-Moe Humm and the latter featuring the timeless Camarillo/Muffin medley (Muffin Mans are starting to get really good, setting the stage for 1977, the year of the Muffin Man). This is a nice show, Frank’s in a good mood and the audience is eating it up. It’s not the most interesting show out there, the sound quality is simply “pretty good”, and there’s a 15-20 minute chunk missing, so this wouldn’t be the first tape I’d check out, but when we finally get the full video of this show released I am going to freak.

1976 11 06 – Fieldhouse, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY (Audience B+ and Soundboard B+)

click here to listen

This is a really fun show. There are two recordings, an audience tape of the whole show and a soundboard recording roughly covering the first quarter of the show. The audience recording starts with some sick full band improvisations from tonight’s soundcheck (including the pound for a brown bass line, and a bass part Patrick plays during the Purple Lagoon off on ZINY). This ends and the recording resumes during the intro Purple Lagoon. More amusing intros follow; Frank asks “How are you doing, and why are you here”, and seems genuinely surprised that anyone in Troy New York would see him (I guess). Tonight’s show includes Patrick on “Pooched Lips”, “Terry Ted ‘my people eat anything’ Bozzio” and “Eddie, who just shaved before he came on stage, It’s about the third time he’s been able to shave this year”. Stink-Foot starts us off right, we have the first “kiss the foot” audience participation routine!  Someone would bring out a big plaster foot, and Frank would bring a fan on stage to “kiss the stinking foot” (this time it’s Dick Cosky and Lisa Vigetta – assuming spelling). I love this dumb little bit, and most shows from this point on feature it (either with or instead of the Fido bit). Frank talks to the “bionic poodle”, he tells him to go fuck himself (possibly for the first time), Patrick quotes a little Strangers In Paradise and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and FZ delivers a great solo. Partway through this the soundboard record starts, and the quality improves somewhat. It’s pretty murky, but there’s much more separation and clarity compared to the audience tape.  Frank starts the Poodle Lecture, but quickly moves out of the lecture and deviates into a rare occurrence! Frank talks about his road manager Bruce Sax (“We call him Bubba”), his bodyguard “Bald Headed” John Smothers, and their fateful  game of backgammon They made a bet, Bruce “bit the bag” and so John gets to shave Bruce’s entire face. Bianca sings “Stink-Face”, Frank talks to Bubba, Bubba says “he feels like a schmuck”, Frank talks to the audience, and then eventually talks to John and has him attempt to sing Muffin Man again (like he did 6 days ago). After seven minutes the event wraps up, and FZ decides to start the program off differently tonight! No Dirty Love, instead we get Honey Don’t You Wanna “Schmuck” Like Me, followed by two Flo and Eddie songs (Rudy and USA). The regular setlist resumes with a fun Gas Station/Chin, followed by a nice Torture Never Stops, where the soundboard unfortunately ends midway through Frank’s solo. City of Tiny Lights is fun and funky like always, and FZ amends the tiny cookies ending with “just like the ones they give you in church”. After some tuning, Frank announces another Pound For A Brown! (and wrongly says “we played it on stage last night in Pittsburgh for the first time”; I think he just forgot about Halloween). It’s a long, fantastic take and all Frank (with Patrick playing a little more In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida). Call Me is lovely as always, and Manx comes next but Eddie totally fucks up the beginning, and a few other times throughout the tune. Apparently this really pissed off Frank, because this is the last performance until the December New York shows! It’s pretty rough, so to play it off in the moment (I think) Frank solos all over Titties ‘N’ Beer. After each of the first three verses Frank plays a nice-little solo-ette, and later he talks to the devil a little more than usual about how he really only wants titties (“No breasts, no bosoms… Thighs? No thighs, I want titties!”). FZ decides to end the show after this, but he must realize he has more time than usual because they return to play a delicious, full length Black Napkins! (“we’re gonna play you something that you will like, although you don’t know you will like it until you hear it”). Tonight’s second encore is a standard Dinah-Moe Humm, and after this they leave and return yet again, Frank says “we only have time for one more”, and plays two songs, Camarillo Brillo and Muffin Man. This is the for-sure real end of the show; Frank sings Muffin Man twice, says some really chill outros, plays some more guitar, queues the Purple Lagoon, and finally the audience is forced to go home. This is a really fun show, the band is on fire, and we get a weird setlist with an extra special Stink-Foot. Listen to this one!

1976 11 07 – Civic Center, Springfield, MA (Audience A-/B+)

click here to listen

This is a fairly standard, but nice show. Nothing super notable happens (except maybe for the forced intermission, but the band is on and the recording is very good. Frank introduces “tonight’s salute to S&M” (“Niceeee”), and ends with “my name is Frank and I’m gonna sing you a song about feet”. We get another great Stink-Foot, Cindy and “Pillow” kiss the blue, reeking foot, and FZ comments that “some of you have never seen a real pink dog before” during the Fido speech. The perfunctory Poodle Lecture comes next (thank god we’re almost done), and we get a very well performed but regular following half an hour, with Dirty Love, Gas Station, Grow Me A Chin, Torture Never Stops and City of Tiny Lights. At the end of City, Frank announces a rare intermission, commenting that “The popcorn makers of this particular town, they have to have a shot at you tonight. So we have to stop playing for approximately ten minutes while you go out and gorge yourself on roughage!” Ten minutes and two Purple Lagoons later and the band returns for another beautiful You Didn’t Try To Call Me. It’s a fun take too, with Frank (and the audience) joining in on the end. Frank then tries to induce “a song from the Uncle Meat album”, but ends up interacting with the audience a bit (I think someone passes a painting up?). We are treated to another excellent Pound For A Brown (with a sick guitar coda as a repeat of the theme), and it leads into a fun Titties and Beer. FZ quickly mentions the Illinois Enema Bandit right at the beginning, and we get a normal performance of the tune. This is the first version with expanded devil dialog including Ray, where he asks if Frank would want a bosom, a breast, or even a bum, but FZ always just wants tits (he also mentions that the devil can put his soul in his breadbox, whatever that means, and he mentions this in a handful of later shows too). At the end of the tune Frank talks to the audience more, mentions that “the Illinois enema bandit costume in the front does get the golden turkey award”, and moves into another wonderful Black Napkins, with a rare solo from Terry at the very end. There’s no ending theme, and after this Frank transitions into the first Wonderful Wino of the tour! It’s a fun take, a little stilted but FZ delivers a great guitar solo to make up for it and this brings the main set to a close. We get a single encore consisting of What Kind Of Girl (tonight it’s the “swingingest place on all of Springfield”) and Dinah-Moe Humm. Something gets passed on stage in the latter tune, FZ comments on it, and the tape unfortunately cuts out before the song finishes. This isn’t the most exciting show out there, but it sounds really nice and has its fair share of excellent moments. Not the first one I’d recommend, but definitely worth a listen. 

1976 11 09 – Civic Centre, Ottawa, Canada (Audience B+)

click here to listen

This was probably a pretty good show, but it’s captured on such a weird, fragmented tape that it’s incredibly hard to tell. The first 15 minutes are fairly well represented, but most of the rest is just (at the most) minute long chunks of tunes. Frank comes out and comments on the temperature (“Oh man it’s cold out here … I don’t envy your butts sitting on that ice cube out there”), and starts another fun Stink-Foot. It’s an amusing take, with more kiss “the stinking foot replica” audience participation, this time with Don and Linda (“I got this from the Doobie Brothers actually. This is the left foot of the Doobie Brothers road manager”). The tune continues, Frank comments that he’s holding an actually living poodle (“one of Farah Fawcett’s favorite dogs”), Patrick plays some more In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, and Frank starts his solo, but it unfortunately cuts after about a minute. We return to a Canadian-labor-problem themed Poodle Lecture (also God wanted to build a Husky tonight), but this cuts out shortly before the end too. Here is where the tape really falls apart. The Torture Never Stops comes next, but it’s three song fragments, adding up to a little over two minutes (with about 30 seconds of soloing). Next is an equally messed up City of Tiny Lights. You can hear the taper say “push the button down”, to his friend before one of the cuts, suggesting some kind of error in the recording process. After this Frank announces A Pound For A Brown, and we get 25 random seconds of the tune, mostly from Terry’s solo (I assume). Next is 90 seconds of You Didn’t Try To Call Me (the best part of this is hearing the tapers positive surprise), followed by two minutes of Titties N Beer fragments. At least for this song we get a bit of the improv between Frank and Ray, which was only played in November (“Would you settle for a bosom?”, “No, I want Tits!”). Then we get the very end of the show, a largely complete performance of Dinah-Moe Humm (not the song I would have chosen to record in full but whatever). It’s an above average take, with some amusing middle-improv with Bianca (“Will you swallow all of it in the frozen tundra”). Frank mentions her tambourine and how The Bryds’ “Jimmy McGuinn always had chunks in his tambourine”. He outros the band, and the tape cuts off before he can finish. This seems like a really nice show, but basically on this tape all we have is most of a nice Stink-Foot, captured in nice sound. Nothing else here is even remotely worth a listen. Hardcore fans only. 

1976 11 10 – Forum, Montreal, Canada (Audience B-/C+/C)

Click here to listen 

This show features the classic bootleggers dilemma: A very nice show captured on an uber-cruddy tape. The recording begins with a short but mildly amusing radio ad, followed by the heavily distorted and over-modulated main program (Patrick’s bass is hit worst of all, and this makes for a frequently unpleasant listening experience. Frank welcomes the crowd to tonight’s “Montreal Extravaganza”, and his intros include “Patrick O’Hearn on bass and puckered lips”, “Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on very good beat”, “The darling of Montreal itself, Eddie Jobson”, “and me”. A fun but regular Stink-Foot follows, featuring the Fido-talk (“a tribute to S&M live on stage”) but unfortunately missing the “kiss the foot” audience participation section. Frank delivers a solid but short solo, and this leads into a surprisingly amusing Poodle Lecture. Frank comments that “we’re struggling with the language barrier here” and that “all I know is if I say ‘zircon encrusted tweezers’, people the world over go ‘yeahhhhhh’”. Partway through, FZ starts to talk to a rabid fan who introduces himself as “Chuck Roast”, which really amuses Frank. He asks him if he knows Uncle Meat’s first name, he correctly answers “Stu”, and Frank deems him Mr. Meat’s nephew. He wraps up the nsfw dog rant, and finishes the opening event with an unlistenable-y distorted Dirty Love. Gas Station is fun, (it’s dedicated to Mr. Chuck Roast), and Grow Me A Chin is it’s regular spastic self. The bass gets slightly better during these last two tunes, but right after this we get the Torture Never Stops, and Frank’s low voice gets just as distorted, making the composed parts of the song a little painful. Patrick says something Gilded Grape related at the very beginning of the tune. Frank mentions our favorite Meat man a few more times during the tune (“You dig it Chuck!”; “There he is again Chuck Roast ladies and gentleman”) and provides an excellent guitar solo, but overall it’s a pretty regular take for the era (which isn’t a bad thing). The music stops, and we get surprised with another rare Intermission (“you can go out and get your popcorn… Have a wonderful time out there in the lobby; make those people happy by buying their little trinkets and stuff, and we’ll see you in a couple of minutes”). There’s a Purple Lagoon outro, but Frank decides to skip the weirdo number for the start of set two. Someone announces “You want some more-a? Right here on the floor-a? Okay, Frank Zappa!” and they start off cold with another solid City Of Tiny Lights. The sound has definitely improved by this point, but it’s still far from great (or even good). Another excellent, fiery Pound For A Brown follows this, and after is a great You Didn’t Try To Call Me (Vaultmeister Joe Traver must have realized this too because he released it as a bonus track on Zappa/Erie). Frank announces “now ladies and gentleman, we have a song about your friend and mine, the devil!”, leading us into another fun Titties ‘N’ Beer. It’s a really good take, with lots of riffing from Frank, including lines like “Keep my soul in your kitchen, next to your breadbox!”, “I’m giving you permission, right now, just because I’m up here wearing purple pants, you go out there and you find some tits that you like and they’re all yours, that’s my present to you tonight!” and of course “I’m talking about the Big Ones”. Frank gives a funny intro to Black Napkins (“Those of you with a large quantity of French blood probably understand this concept better than the other guys, but that’s not to say that the other guys couldn’t get into it too”), and we proceed with another great performance of the tune from all the regular players. Following this is a surprise Advance Romance, the final known performance of the tune for nearly six years. It’s a great take, Bianca hits it out of the park, and Patrick, Terry and Frank all deliver during their respective spaces to stretch out. This brings the main set to an end, but of course they return for a handful of encores (“Merci Beaucoup as they say in the trade”). Encore number one consists of Dinah-Moe Humm, with some crowd interaction (“hey stop that! that’s his scarf!), and encore number two starts off with a fun Stranded In The Jungle (“for the Italians!”), After this, to finish off the night, Frank tells us that “we’re gonna play another song and I want you all to sing along with it”, before whipping out a very tasty Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. This brings this troubled show to a riotous end. Here we have a very fun show buried under many layers of distortion. I wish I could recommend it but it just sounds too cruddy. Completionists and hardcore Bianca fans only. 

1976 11 11 – Le Colisee, Quebec City, Canada (Audience B/C+)

click here to listen

This show is a mixed bag, it has some really great performances, but it was captured on two tapes that range from “okay-sounding” to “not great”. Frank talks slowly and keeps the intros short for the French speaking audience. Stink-Foot is fun, but still misses the “kiss the foot” section. FZ chats with Fido, delivers a nice solo, and we get a thankfully quick Poodle Lecture due to the language barrier (it even includes a “niiice” from Patrick). Dirty Love, Gas Stastion and Grow A Chin all deliver, and Torture is a different kind of fantastic. Ray delivers once again in City, and it leads into another great Pound For A Brown (with one of Frank’s best solos of the tour). A Wonderful You Didn’t Try To Call Me follows this (featuring a great ending back and forth with Frank’s guitar), and the main set ends with a full performance of the Flo and Eddie medley (Rudy-USA-Daddy-What Kind Of Girl) plus Dinah-Moe Humm. Frank comments that this is the “swinginnest place in all of Quebec”, in What Kind Of Girl, and there’s no Bianca/Frank dialog section in Dinah-Moe Humm. For an encore, we get a long, fantastic Black Napkins, with the regular fixings to bring tonight’s show to a close. Really nice performances tonight, but the sound quality really hurts the experience. Check this one out if you’re desperate for more Bianca, but otherwise this is a kind of a hard listen (though still significantly better than the Montreal tape). 

1976 11 12 – Erie County Fieldhouse, Erie, PA (Official Release)

click here to listen

This fantastic show has been officially released by the Zappa Trust on the lovely boxset Zappa/Erie, dedicated to Vaultmeister Joe Travers’ hometown. This is also the last full show available with Bianca in the band, sad but true. Tonight’s opening act was delayed, so FZ and crew played a short set (that probably wasn’t recorded) to fill in. When Frank comes on stage for the main show he is immediately reminded of the heinous crowd from the last time they played Erie in November ‘74 (“Remember what I told you before, about moving back and sitting down so that the people behind you can see?… Believe me, folks, we’re not gonna start playing until this is actually happening. Move back and sit down… We must have law and order here!”). There’s a solid chance FZ is just referring to the opening set when he says “Remember what I told you before?”, but I like to think he’s recalling when he was horribly sick in Erie two years prior. Anyway, after this long, somewhat funny, somewhat painful Purple Lagoon (“Please move back. Just keep moving back…”), we’re treated to another excellent “song about my feet”. Audience members Vickie and Larry are our first contestants (“Kim” comes in a little late) to  “actually kiss this plaster stinking foot”, and we get some amusing asides from Patrick throughout (“Niiiice”). FZ decides to “forego the usual poodle routine” (the “fetch the slippers” section), and heads right into tonight’s tasty solo. In the following lecture, Frank talks about clipping the poodle “near the Sheraton in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where they have that little 75¢ glass of orange juice as big as your finger.” and Patrick plays a bit of Tequila (maybe Strangers in Paradise too?). Dirty Love is always fun (Bianca just blows this song away), and Gas Station and Chin are two of Frank’s best rock songs. Afterwards is another excellent Torture Never Stops, with a large amount of secret wordplay relating to sport coats for some reason. It’s a really fun take, my favorite line being “but a sportcoat like a sin, requires naught but tucking in”. City Of Tiny Lights comes next, but Ray apparently really messed something up tonight, because Joe decided to replace Erie’s performance with a better version from the following night in Toledo. A lovely Pound For A Brown comes next, with fun quotes of Tarantella Napoletana (the Italian song) at end, and after this is Bianca’s final known You Didn’t Try To Call Me (with some amusing comments from Patrick over the coda). We get standard performances of the two lesser Flo and Eddie songs from this tour (Rudy/USA) and after this brief detour we get a monster Black Napkins. After our regular tasty solos (with another sport coat reference from Bianca), and after the restatement of the theme, we get two more solos from Terry and Patrick! They’re really cool, unique jams, and during tonight’s bass solo Frank and Eddie quote parts of Manx Needs Women! Frank then segues right into a  fantastically rocking performance of Wonderful Wino, and finally brings the main set to a close (“Hope you enjoyed it. Even you in the sport coat. ”). They return for tonight’s first encore consisting of Stranded In The Jungle and Dinah-Moe Humm. Both tunes are fun; The end of Stranded is extra amusing because Frank tries to get  “our gogo boy” and roadie Tex Able on stage to dance to the end of the tune (“we want Tex! We want Tex!”). Ray chumps Dinah-Moe a little, they leave the stage, and they return a final time for Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. After a classic performance, Frank ends the show for a final time and asks the crowd for a favor: “Tomorrow, if you have some spare time, call your neighborhood radio station and tell ’em to play our album, would you? I’d appreciate it. Good night!”. This is an excellent concert, lots of great playing, joking around, and unique on-stage events. An excellent way to wrap the Erie boxset, and a wonderful final (complete and available) show to end Bianca’s time with Zappa. Listen to this one whenever you get the chance!

1976 11 13 – Sports Arena, Toledo, OH (Partially Officially Released)

(included with Erie playlist)

A few songs from this show were released on Zappa/Erie, as supplements/bonus tracks for the main ‘76 show. The Toledo version of City of Tiny Lights was used in place of the Erie version (which was reportedly full of errors), and the 13th’s take of Black Napkins (and the following Purple Lagoon outro) were included as well. Two very nice takes, and nice additions to the northwestern Pennsylvanian box set. Frank tells the crowd to  “get on the phone and call your radio station and say, ‘Hey, play that son of a bitch, would you?’” before Black Napkins. It’s a shorter version than usual (Ray doesn’t get a solo), but it’s still a beautiful take and features what’s probably Bianca’s final solo with Zappa. This is the last confirmed show to feature the delightful Lady Bianca; There is no available recording for the next show on the 15th in London Ontario (Joe Travers has said that Frank recorded the show but later deleted the recordings to reuse the tape), and she’s not present at the Toronto show. It’s such a shame things went down the way they did. Despite this her final performances are just as wonderful as the rest, and these Toledo performances are no different. Check them out along with the whole Erie set. 

1976 11 16 – Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Canada (Audience B+/B)

Click here to listen

The first show post-Bianca is surprisingly put together and exciting! Frank welcomes us to a “miniature extravaganza… in two parts”, and lets us know that there will be an intermission, where they will “let [us] go out there and buy popcorn… I guess that’s a Canadian custom”. Frank is always clearly annoyed whenever there is a hall-enforced set break, but hearing him pissed always makes me laugh so I don’t mind. He introduces tonight’s rocking teenage combo (including O’Hearn’s regular puckered lips, Terry “he will eat anything” Bozzio and “direct from the old country, Eddie Jobson, who will also eat anything, you just have to wash it first”). The Purple Lagoon continues and Frank announces “The world premier of the miniature bell telephone system guitar modifier”, which is a massive pedal-setup (I assume) created by FZ collaborator Claus Wiedemann. He plays some cool licks to try it out (it creates a very weird, spacey tone), then brings us into another rocking Stink-Foot. It’s a really fun take, with a Canadian “kiss the reeking foot” section (featuring Kelly and one unnamed contestant “sticking this thing in their mouth… Civilization has run amok”) and an amusing but slightly less interesting Fido talk, which Frank delivers partially in the third person. FZ plays a hot but not mind-blowing solo, then follows it up with a perfunctory Poodle Lecture (we’re so close to the end of this spiel, thank the lord). Frank reclaims the lead vocals in Dirty Love (he sings “I don’t need your constipation” at one point), does a nice job, then comments on a fan near the stage (“It’s desperate when you have to have binoculars to sit in front row, y’know what I mean?”) and introduces the next song. Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station is fun but definitely misses Bianca, and Frank mentions that no one is raising their thumb because they know the next line in the song (“show me your finger then, I don’t care!”). Tryin’ To Grow A Chin is sick as always, and The Torture Never Stops delivers in every way you would expect. We get a standard City Of Tiny Lights, that is until Frank decides to start soloing after Ray! It’s short, far from fantastic and the ending is cut off, but this is Frank’s first ever Tiny Lights solo (as far as I can tell). The song ends, and Frank announces the foretold intermission (“yes we’re talking about the tiny cookies that the people eat, and we’re talking about the tiny popcorn that the people eat…”). They play the Purple Lagoon, we get our trinkets and merch, 10 minutes go by and we get a cool, smooth cold-open into A Pound For A Brown (no Purple Lagoon surprisingly enough). Frank knew they would have to drop some songs and shorten the show, so he decides to lengthen the instrumental portions and deliver a fantastic 16 minute Pound event. Frank starts us off with his usual excellence, then we’re treated to a wonderfully weird bass solo from Patrick. Terry’s up next, and demolishes his drums. He eventually stops to say “now get this folks, I’m gonna do something that only Frank Zappa will understand”. He drums some heavy beats, then Frank starts singing some cheesy lounge-type music, and Terry continues with his solo. After a little while Frank restarts the Pound rhythm guitar backing, but slows it way down. Eddie follows him on the riff, and Frank delivers a second tasty solo, very different from his first. It’s a wonderful little jam, and a great end to this monster show-stopper Pound (and Dekalb’s is even crazier!). The return of Find Her Finer comes next, and while not the most impressive song it’s placement following this instrumental goliath just feels right. They sing “Dah Dah Goo Goo” a few times, then Frank introduces “a song about a subject that is very important to people in, uh, certain age brackets”: Titties ‘n Beer (“a lot of other rock n roll bands have songs dealing with this subject, we figured there’s no reason we shouldn’t”). It’s a great, playful take with lots of improv. FZ once again tells Terry to keep his soul in his breadbox, namedrops Lynyrd Skynyrd and eventually fucks up part of the ending. After this we get a “deluxe” Black Napkins. It’s the first post-Bianca take so the solo order is a little different, but the results are still fantastic. Ray goes first now, and knocks it out of the park. Eddie follows with his mind-blowing violin solo and Frank wraps up the event with another masterpiece of an air sculpture. Unfortunately, the very end cuts off, and we resume with a standard Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink, which brings the main set to an end. For our first set of encores we get Stranded In The Jungle and Dinah-Moe Humm. The first tune is the regular, perfect, poppy number we’ve come to love, and Dinah-Moe is pretty standard, except for the surprise audience participation in the middle. Frank pauses and says “Help this girl up onto the stage… John Smothers ladies and gentleman”. John grabs the girl (“the dynamic Sue!”), and she recites the “how ‘bout you Fauna?” section to a tee. Frank notices another fan though (“Lisa with an S”) and yells “Ladies and gentleman Motor Mouth!”. He talks to her a bit, and ends up giving her a backrub. Someone offers her a drink, she gets it and then Frank declares her “our new gogo girl”, before continuing with the song, finishing it, and leaving the stage yet again. They return and we get another fun Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. Frank dedicates the second encore to “Vito at Records on Wheels” and lets the crowd know that they’ll be down there signing things tomorrow at 7. We get some fiery performances of these last tunes (Frank sings Muffin Man twice, which basically means we get two solos), and the show finally comes to an end. Despite the obvious lack of Bianca, this is a fantastic show. Frank and the gang cranked everything up to 11 to make up for the loss of a lead vocalist, and in my opinion it completely worked. I miss Bianca, but I was having too much fun listening to this show to care. The recording is solid but nothing amazing. Surprisingly, I didn’t really notice any changes with Frank’s guitar tone, despite his comments at the start. Overall this is a great show, and one fans of this era should check out. 

1976 11 18 – Evans Field House, DeKalb, IL (Audience B+/B)

Click here to listen

Frank says “good evening college people” as he starts this evening in rural Illinois, then mentions to the crowd that “you must be the really smart people at this school because with final exams tomorrow, you’re the only ones that didn’t really need to study”. FZ announces “direct from Aurora, Ray White”, and gives his pseudo regular “puckered lips”, “he will eat anything” and “from England itself” intros for the rest of the band. They open up with the regular song about “college-educated feet”. Frank sings for about 10 seconds, then starts to talk to a cheerleader. This begets a trend for this show; Frank’s feeling very talkative tonight and regularly chats with the audience. Anyway, we get another great Stink-Foot in which two fans “actually place their lips on the steaming, reeking blue plaster simulated replica reeking foot of destiny”. Frank continues to ramble to the audience, and he eventually starts to talk about elections, before stopping and saying “wait a minute, it’s too sick”. The transition to the solo is shaky, but Frank makes us forget about it with a wonderful jam. The standard Poodle Lecture comes next (except Frank actually refers to the man as Adam) and Dirty Love of course follows. After this, Frank notes that “This is one of those tours where we actually go out on stage and play songs that are actually on our new record”, and proceeds to introduce and play Wind Up Working In A Gas Station. This song was definitely hit the hardest by Bianca’s absence, but we get an acceptable enough performance. Trying To Grow A Chin still rocks hard and is followed by a very nice Torture Never Stops, with some fun student comments (“An evil student eats a steaming pig” and “Who are all these students, that he’s locked away down there”). We get what seems like a standard City of Tiny Lights next, but Frank announces right at the beginning: “This goes out to Ray’s brothers who are in the audience tonight; he hasn’t seen them in 13 years! Now watch him closely, this is what he’s doing these days!” It’s an excellent take, almost certainly inspired by Ray’s family in the crowd. Next we get “another song from the album”: Find Her Finer. Frank gives a very funny intro about “weenies” and delivers a great take of the tune. It’s followed by another song from the new album: Wonderful Wino (“We definitely have to go into a fast song now, because we have to maintain the teenage pacing of our program”). The performance of the head is a little shaky, but Frank more than makes up for it with his excellent solo. Now we’re in for a treat. Pound For A Brown appears, and if the Toronto show is any indication that means we get to meet the monster tonight! Frank solos first, and includes a quote from Holst’s Jupiter. There is a cut at the end of FZ’s solo, and we’re led right in Ray’s first and only Pound solo. He’s fantastic as always and passes the torch to Patrick, who plays for a bit before stepping up to the microphone and performing a verbal “salute to S&M” (“alright this goes out to all our friends at the Twilt(?) and the Gilded Grape… wish they could be here to see it”). He ends with “That was for you Manx”, and we’re treated to a rare keyboard solo from Eddie! It’s terrific, and leads right into Terry’s drum solo. Now that everyone has had a chance to stretch out, Frank returns for a second, dark and moody solo to wrap up the intense affair. After a little while he starts to play a variation on the theme, then outros the band and ends the main set. For our first encore we get another great  Stranded In The Jungle (“I reached the school in about half a day”), and it’s complimentary Dinah-Moe Humm. The latter tune has a funny intro about fucking, and Frank comments that “that girl needs a spanking” in the middle, but it’s otherwise a standard performance. The tune ends, Frank tells the crowd that “I hope you all pass your tests tomorrow”, and leaves the stage yet again. They return a final time for a rare encore Black Napkins. It’s an excellent take, just like we’ve grown to expect, but the sound quality unfortunately takes a hit between the encores and so this last tune is a little distorted (I’d rate it a B-). Ray, Eddie and Frank all play their hearts out, and the show comes to an end. The sound quality overall is very similar to the last show, good but not great. This is a very fun show, Frank is very talkative and in a good mood, and the 20+ minute Pound For A Brown is one of the highlights of the tour for me. This show is really fun, and proves yet again that they can make things work without Bianca. This probably wouldn’t be the first show I’d recommend, but once you hear some of the bigger, more notable shows, this one should definitely pop up on your radar. 

1976 11 19 – Cobo Hall, Detroit, MI (Audience A/A-)

Click here to listen

Tonight we have a fairly standard show, with the major exception coming in tonight’s encores. This concert is captured in fantastic sound, which is probably why the bootleg of this show Conceptual Continuity was chosen for the Beat The Boots series. We get the now regular set of amusing intros for the four remaining non-Zappa band members. Stink-Foot of course starts us off, and about 90 seconds in Frank stops to tell all the wondering vendors “If you’re gonna sell t-shirts don’t do it in the middle of the concert”. This clearly ticks him off, he rants some more about it then continues with a T-shirt themed foot song (“Scientists call these t-shirt’s bromhidrosis… Us regular folks know this exquisite little inconvenience by the name of commercialism”). Frank yet again has some unexpecting audience members kiss the big blue foot (“Ladies and gentleman, cher!”), skips the Fido talk and leads us into another tasty solo. The Poodle Lecture sucks like usual, Frank spells out the body parts on the dog, namedrops Flint, MI, finishes the story and leads us into the one and only Dirty Love. The lame Bianca-less pseudo-demo sounding version of Gas Station comes next and as always is followed by Tryin’ To Grow A Chin. We get a wonderful take tonight; Frank tunes his guitar a little during the “one more time for the world” break, and Terry just freaks out and screams over the last chunk of the tune. After this we get an excellent Torture, followed by a lovely City Of Tiny Lights (with a nice little solo-ette over the pulsating intro from Frank!). Pound For A Brown of course follows, and though we don’t get a monster take, we do get two excellent solos from Frank and Terry (though there’s an unfortunate cut right at the beginning of FZ’s). Titties N Beer comes next, and the intro is a little mutated, giving Patrick some space for more bass licks between the riffs. Frank tells Terry to “put [his soul] in the icebox, next to the pickles”, but otherwise is a standard take. Following this is another fantastic Black Napkins “for Michigan lovers only” that ends the main set. After this though is where the show really defines himself, Frank invites former Mothers Flo and Eddie on stage! (along with their bassist Ralphe Armstrong, who played with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and later tried out for the Mothers in late 1975). Frank says it best before they start playing: “We have not really rehearsed anything of a spectacular nature for you, but what we’re going to try to do is cruise through some of the older tunes and see if we can have a good time with it”. They sing the four throwback tunes of the tour (once again that’s Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink, Would You Go All The Way?, Daddy Daddy Daddy, and What Kind Of Girl?). The final song takes the most lyrical liberty, with some references to the state of Michigan, pop stars and alka seltzer (there’s also an unfortunate cut near the end, losing a little bit of dialog). Everybody involved is just having a great time singing and reminiscing; It’s not at all polished, but it’s a lot of fun. Once they finish the two ex-Mothers leave the stage, but Ralphe stays around and Don Brewer (of Grand Funk Railroad fame) comes on stage to guest on Dinah-Moe Humm. It’s a great take (though the guest contributions aren’t immediately apparent), and brings this monstrous encore to a close. Somehow the band still has more in them, and they return for a final encore consisting of Stranded In The Jungle and Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. Frank sings the last song twice (meaning we basically get two solos), and brings this wild night to a close. While the main set isn’t particularly exciting, the amazing sound quality and sheer fun of the encores make this a tape more than worth listening to. Check this one out (or at the very least listen to the encore). 

1976 11 20 – Public Hall, Cleveland, OH (Audience B)

Click here to listen

Tonight’s Ohio event starts off very quickly. Frank’s having some guitar issues during the Purple Lagoon, and barely talks to the audience at all (sad but true). The sound is fine, nothing terrible but far from fantastic; At first you can hear “sit down!” more than the music, but the crowd eventually calms down. We head right into Stink-Foot without any fanfare, and we get another fun take of the classic podobromhidrosis song. Frank has some audience members “kiss this ugly son of a bitch” (AKA the big blue plaster foot), and Patrick quotes Strangers in Paradise while they do it. Frank has some more tuning issues mid-tune, but once he fixes things we skip the Fido talk and head right into a kick-ass solo. We get a quick Poodle Lecture, and speedy Dirty Love too, followed by a surprisingly nice Workin’ In A Gas Station. Frank decided to bring back the call and response section tonight, which really redeems the tune in my opinion. Chin is always fun, Torture is moody and fantastic, and it leads right into, rare, great performances of Wonderful Wino and Find Her Finer (tonight is the final known time Frank played the former tune live). After these rare tunes, and cool segues, we return to normalcy with another fun City Of Tiny Lights, followed by a non-monster but still excellent Pound For A  Brown with great solos from Frank and Terry. Titties comes next and we get a surprise intro solo from Frank! He plays some fiery licks of a minute or two, and then hands it over to Patrick! He plays a delightfully weird solo, and after a little while the tune propper finally starts. This probably just started as an excuse for Frank to tune his guitar, but god damn do I like it. Frank definitely could’ve soloed in the song more often, but it would’ve cut down on the excitement and surprise of the occasional solo. Terry and Frank have some fun improv in the middle (“What’s a matter? Don’t you know how to make a deal?” “N-Not in Cleveland!”). Terry (re)takes over Ray’s “breast?” questions, then there’s a weird cut near the end and the tune comes to its regular finish. Frank then announces a “tender, romantic Ohio kind of a ballad, entitled Black Napkins!” and Ray, Eddie and Frank all deliver tremendous solos. This brings the show to an end, but they of course return for an encore (or two). Our first one consists of Stranded In The Jungle (“now when I got to Cleveland I was almost dead”) and Dinah-Moe Humm, and the second encore consists of Camarillo Brillo and Muffin Man. Frank outros the band, gives a final plug for Zoot Allures, and tonight’s show is over. This is a solid late-tour show, far from the most interesting show around but also far from a bad time. Titties and Beer is the standout moment, but the rest of the show is filled with highlights too. Check this one out when you start to run out of the crazier shows, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. 

1976 11 25 – Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL (Audience A-)

Click here to listen

The final night of the tour is actually the second of two nights in Chicago, and it’s captured on one of the best audience tapes of the tour. Frank would regularly play in Chicago on or around Thanksgiving, and 1976 is no different. This concert takes place on Thanksgiving day, and FZ comments that he hopes we don’t have “a severe case of turkey bloat”; and that they can maybe “aid digestion tonight”. We get the regular November ‘76 intros, before transitioning into the last opening performance of Stink-Foot until 1988. Frank unfortunately leaves out the “kiss the foot” section, but includes the Fido talk in tonight’s performance. We get a nice solo followed by the final regular Poodle Lecture (yesssssss!!!). A fan tells Zappa to “eat shit” and he tells them to “go fuck yourself”. Frank gets in his head about the fact that the audience knows the story and decides that he doesn’t “feel like telling you the story again” (“You don’t wanna hear about the zircon encrusted tweezers”). We get our “very own Chicago human jukebox” as Frank leads us into Dirty Love; Wind Up Working In A Gas Station and Tryin’ To Grow A Chin are exactly what we’ve grown to expect, and they follow it with a very good Torture Never Stops (“Egg me on Chicago, make me crazy!”). City Of Tiny Lights comes next and we get an absolutely whacked version. The tune starts like normal, but right before Frank would normally come in with his “downers and your wine” lyrics, Patrick starts to solo! Then after him Eddie comes in with a keyboard solo, and then Frank comes in after him! Finally Frank gives his “squints” speech, Ray gets his normal funky solo and the tune comes to its usual conclusion. More oddness comes after this though because as the song ends, Ray continues the vamp and FZ announces “The Roadies Kitchen Utensils Ballet”! This is some kind of dance routine performed by Zappa’s road crew (FZ said it’s their second time doing it), and while they strut the stage Eddie plays the Streets of Cairo and other keyboard noises until they finish. Not the most interesting musical moment, but it can be fun to imagine what’s going on on stage. Another excellent Pound For A Brown follows this. Eddie fucks up the rhythm to the head a little, and we get excellent solos from Frank, Terry, and Frank again. After this we get a cool transition directly into Titties ‘n Beer, where FZ comments that he “like(s) the nose on that mask, sorta like a pickle”. We get a mostly-by-the-book version of the tune until FZ declares “That’s enough of Titties and Beer for now” and leads us into a fantastic Black Napkins, which brings the main set to a close (“Goodnight Chicago!”). The tape cuts out, and when we resume, for the encores, the sound unfortunately takes a hit. It’s still listenable, but I’d say the quality drops down to a B. Encore #1 is Dinah-Moe Humm, and Encore #2: Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. Three standard but fun takes that bring this show, and the tour to an end. This is a really fun night; A very good representation of the band post-Bianca, with enough surprises to keep me engaged. It isn’t the most insane show of the tour, but there’s plenty to keep you entertained (especially the 15+ minute City Of Tiny Lights event). Another case of; not the first show I’d have someone listen to, but I wouldn’t turn anyone away from it either.

The Songs Played:

Advance Romance – This Bongo Fury tune returns for its final performances of the 70s. Bianca takes over the vocals and does a fantastic job with it. Most of the lyrics are gender swapped (“She told me that she loved me” turns into “He told me…” ), implying that Potato-Headed Bobby is a bisexual-icon, but Bianca sings the “watch” section in first person (“I took Terry’s watch vs “she took…”), and Frank and the gang lament with the regular “the way she do me boy”. This kinda implies that both parties in the relationship were toxic, which I like. Terry gets his watch stolen on this tour, anyone in the band could improv some dialog during the head (during the “talkin’ ‘bout the anchovies” section on Bongo Fury), and Frank always yells something like “look what she did to Patrick!” before the solo section. Speaking of which, this tour has some of the best Advance Romance improv of any FZ outing, with Patrick playing a wonderfully weird bass solo in each performance. At the very least Frank would play a fiery solo after Patrick’s, but most shows feature a solo from Terry too. The performances from Boston (and to a lesser extent Pawtucket), are easily the craziest versions of this tune Frank played. The early show features a lot of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” quotes, which leads to the first “In-A-Gadda-Da-Poodle” (later repeated in Rhode Island) and during his solo, Terry has a whole improvised spiel about poodles. The late show gets even wilder, because during Patrick’s quote-laden solo, Frank starts to sing Any Kind Of Pain! It’s just the first two lines of the tune, but it’s wild to hear the song 12 years before it would actually “premiere” (and the melody is pretty much all there too). Terry talks about the famed Gilded Grape during his solo, then after this Patrick starts to play Tequila and someone starts to sing Any Kind Of Pain again. Frank yells “meanwhile”, transitions the band back into reality (the Advance Romance vamp), and tears away his guitar. These are by far the craziest two performances of this song, but every take from this tour is enjoyable. This is an easy highlight of Bianca’s time in the band, and a great version of an occasionally overperformed tune. 

Black Napkins – This Zappa classic is in top form on this tour. The theme is wonderfully orchestrated and performed, and each soloist provides a lovely, unique layer to the tune. In a regular performance we get four fantastic solos. Bianca gives a lovely vocal/scat solo first, followed by an equally jaw-dropping violin event from Eddie. It can be a little difficult to distinguish, but Ray nearly always takes a mellow guitar solo after this (the exceptions are Landover and Toledo), and Frank wraps up the affair with a classic, soulful Black Napkins guitar solo. FZ would occasionally get chatty and talk or sing during the tune (see Pawtucket or New York #3), and the Erie performance goes wild with additional solos from Terry and Patrick after the tune ends. Once Bianca leaves the band, Frank is forced to slightly restructure the tune, so the new solo order goes Ray > Eddie > Frank. Between Pawtucket and Philly, Frank appeared on the Mike Douglas show and played a fantastic version of this tune with the Mike Douglas Studio Orchestra. This is possibly the best tour for Black Napkins, and this tune is an easy highlight of every show. It’s a fantastic display of what this band should do, and any fan of FZ’s instrumental music should check one of these out. 

Camarillo Brillo – This Zappa classic gets the now regular hard rock treatment from this band. Like on the last few tours, they play through the tune once normally, then slow it down by a few factors once they hit the second “door-way” verse. After the slow bit, this tune would always make a perfect, iconic segue into Muffin Man (though in late October there are three weird cases of Muffin Man without Camarillo Brillo). By this tour, the repetition of the line “She stripped away her rancid poncho”  is usually changed to “I chewed my way through her rancid panocha”. My personal favorite versions of this song come from 1974, but these are solid versions too. The Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man combo was almost exclusively played as an encore, and would always end the night on a high note.

City Of Tiny Lights – This Zappa classic first appears on this tour, and we get a delightfully funky version. The backing is completely different from the take made famous on Sheik Yerbouti, punctuated by a tasty guitar riff throughout. Ray handles the vocal duties, and simply blows it out of the park. I love how Adrian handled the song when he was in the band, but nothing beats Ray. This entire tune is really a spotlight for Mr. White; he typically gets the whole solo section to himself. The first half consists of him scat singing along with his guitar, and the second half is a more “normal” guitar solo. These performances end on the “that the people’s eat” line instead of “that it’s over there” like on Sheik Yerbouti (and all future tours). For the first handful of shows, the post-solo theme lacks the breaks between phrases, giving it a much quicker, rushed feel. During the first two weeks they begin to lengthen the held notes between phrases and by Pawtucket we get the post-theme arrangement we know and love. In Boston, Frank starts to sing “Bamboozled By Love/oh lord the shit just hit the fan”, over the end of the solo section, about two years before the song itself would premier. In Toledo, Frank takes his first of many solos in this tune, but he doesn’t seem comfortable with the vamp and we end up with a pretty lame jam. In Detroit he plays a short solo over the intro and in Chicago, this tune goes a bit crazy. Right when Frank would usually give his “tiny is as tiny do” speech, he cues Patrick to solo and we get a mini-monster version! Patrick, Eddie and Frank each play a solo, before returning to the regularly scheduled programming, except that right as the song ends Frank announces something called The Roadies Kitchen Utensil Ballet, which is some kind of improvised dance number coming at the tail end of the tune. The audio is mainly Eddie playing The Streets Of Cairo over a similar beat to City Of Tiny Lights. A truly unique and whacked out version of a well known Zappa tune. The song was basically always played after The Torture Never Stops, and You Didn’t Try To Call Me or A Pound For A Brown would usually follow. Overall, while very solid, this isn’t the most interesting tour for this song. I really enjoy Ray’s playing, but I still prefer it when Frank solos in this tune (my favorite versions come from 1980, where we get the return of the delightful Ray-lead City, with a crazy Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression solo from Frank). Still it’s always a treat to listen to when this early, funky arrangement appears, and it’s another defining moment of the tour. 

Daddy Daddy Daddy – This underrated 200 Motels tune reappears after a five year hiatus. It’s the least played of the four revived Flo and Eddie tunes, but it’s for sure my favorite (they only played the tune when they played all four songs, coming between Would You Go All The Way and What Kind Of Girl in the “suite”). Frank drops the “do you like my new car” intro and outro, but everything else is there, including “if his dick is a monster!” The tune is played significantly faster, giving it an even poppier feel, and there’s a more prominent guitar riff throughout (a couple lively repetitions of this riff end the tune.) Frank also amended a little drum fill after the first “screaming all night” where Terry now yells “Work Work Workin’ The Wall!” Flo and Eddie just scatted over this in the studio (they actually did this after the second “I got my eye’s on you” line, which was replaced by an additional “screaming all night”), and the same drum fill is later reused in Disco Boy – right after the Chicken Delight line! I gotta shout out Patrick too, who has a great time with this tune. This song (along with many others) gets dropped from regular rotation after Bianca leaves. In Detroit, Flo and Eddie make a special appearance and sing this tune with Frank, along with all the other revived vaudeville era songs (almost-Mother Ralph Armstrong joins on bass too!). Overall, this is a great version of a great song, well worth checking out (listen to Philly ‘76!). 

Dinah-Moe Humm – This (in)famous Over-Nite Sensation tune returns to please another crowd. Performed as a regular encore, we get a pretty direct representation of the studio recording, with Bianca (obviously) covering the Ike-ettes’ vocals from the record (either Ray and/or Eddie replace her once she leaves the group). They get through the whole song, Frank asks  “And how ’bout you, Fauna?, Y’wanna?”, and then they go into an improvised back and forth with Bianca about “swallowing it”. We get the classic “zircon-encrusted tweezers” line, then the repeat of the first half of the tune, but slowed way down and interspersed with amusing yodels from Ray (you heard me right, yodels). Frank would occasionally skip the bit with Bianca in the middle, but it’s usually present (for better or for worse). In Toledo, Frank experiments with some audience participation in the gap left by Bianca. The Detroit show is special, because after Flo and Eddie guest on their old songs, Ralphe Armstrong (on bass) stays on stage and Don Brewer (on drums) comes out to play on this tune! They’re kind of hard to make out, but it’s still a very fun take. These are amusing performances, Frank isn’t completely tired of playing the tune yet, Patrick plays the hell out of his part and the yodel section is a lot of fun, so these are honestly some of the best Dinah-Moe Humm experiences out there. 

Dirty Love – This Over-Nite Sensation classic made its live premier last October, and quickly found its place as a permanent follow up to Stink-Foot (and the Poodle Lecture). We get a fun little bar band style arrangement of the perverse song, which includes a nice rock n roll solo from Frank in the middle. Bianca sings this tune when she’s in the band and she’s simply fantastic. I love her vocal style, and these are easily the best live performances of this song available (in this reviewer’s opinion). Once Bianca exits the group, Frank returns to sing the tune, and while he does a fine job, he’s definitely no Bianca. We unfortunately lose Andre’s wonderful “c’mon Frenchie” shouts over the coda of the tune, but Bianca’s interjections are fun too. Also, the bassline Patrick plays over the “The poodle bites!” coda is from the end of the studio Stink-Foot. (It’s the same melody that Frank sings “pooo-dle cheeeews it” in the background on Apostrophe), while they sing the classic “The poodle bites!” in the regular Dirty Love rhythm. Like I said before, always preceded by Stink-Foot/The Poodle Lecture (the story usually leads right into the song, ex “she looked at the dog and said…”) and followed by Wind Up Working In A Gas Station. A wonderful tour for this song, and an easy highlight from Bianca’s brief time with FZ.

Find Her Finer – This amusing Zoot Allures tune shows up a few times throughout the tour, one performance features Bianca, and the other three are from after her departure. It’s played a little faster than in the studio, but the whole song is there. Frank unfortunately dropped the funky little solo-ette he would play in late ‘75/early 76, but it is what it is. Far from Frank’s best song, and this isn’t ever the best version out there (1988 takes the cake), but it’s still fun when it rears its head (and makes sure to focus on Patrick when it does!).

Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me? – This Zappa in New York piece about the perils of dumb love continues to appear on this tour. It’s only played a handful of times, with three of the five known performances coming from the first two weeks of the tour. This is basically the same arrangement as heard on ZINY, but with Bianca singing the part of “Betty” (and without the horn section of course). Each take leads directly into Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink (though Rudy frequently appears without Honey). It’s not an amazing tune, but it’s short, pretty catchy, and overall one of Frank’s more successful R-rated comedy songs. 

I’m So Cute – This Sheik Yerbouti song debuts on this tour in a nearly unrecognizable state. It’s not yet the punk parody it would evolve into by 1978, instead this early version is almost like a take on disco of something. There’s only one known recording (from Boston), but contemporary newspaper reviews show it was played at some other shows early in the tour. The lyrics are largely the same, but there were a lot of additions and changes made before the official release (click here to read the original lyrics). It starts with a disco-esque beat, then Terry comes in to scream the timeless lyrics. He “sings” two-ish verses (with a little composed guitar lick after “The ginseng extract tweezes me”), then following the “well step aside” stanza he yells “Die you ugly suckers!” and we’re led into a fantastic, fiery violin solo from Eddie! It’s fairly short, but carries a lot of power in a little time. After this Terry recites an early version of the “ugly is bad” monologue, he releases some “screams of agony”, and then Frank announces that “cute people never experience any discomfort!”. Immediately following this, we get some tweaky, seemingly-composed, music for bass, drums and violin while Frank then recites the “ugly is bad” pseudo-poem. Next is a section consisting entirely of random percussive vocal noises, interspersed with more tweaky violin/bass music. Frank seems to conduct the band through the final vocal bit, cues Patrick to say “and now for sports!” and brings the intense frenzy to an end. This performance is full of vocal mistakes, but it doesn’t hamper the experience for me at all. This extravaganza is possibly the superior I’m So Cute experience, and that’s coming from someone who loves the final released version. This is a great highlight of this group, I wish they continued to play and refine the tune, but it is what it is. This is one of the reasons that the Boston shows are some of the best of the year, and why I think they should be heard by anyone even mildly interested in this band. 

Manx Needs Women – This uber-weirdo number from Zappa In New York first appears in this tour, and it was originally titled Mars Needs Women, after the 60s schlock sci-fi B-movie. In December, Frank would change the name to honor Manx of the Gilded Grape, but you can hear him announce the tune by the old title a number of times on this tour. The song is played pretty much as on ZINY, but with an obvious lack of horns. It was a regular part of the setlist, until Eddie fucks up a good chunk of it in Troy, NY and Frank drops it from rotation (though it’s quoted over Patrick’s Black Napkins solo in Erie, PA). This tune is whacked and fun to hear when it’s around; it’s the tweaky highlight of the tour, well it and I’m So Cute. 

Muffin Man – This Bongo Fury tune regularly appears throughout the tour as an encore. Frank plays the vamp, brings the band down behind him and jams his heart out on guitar for a couple minutes. The tune is nearly always played following Camarillo Brillo, emerging out of the slow second half of the song (the exceptions emerging in Boston and Pawtucket, possibly the only standalone Muffin Mans ever played). Occasionally after his first solo Frank would decide to sing the tune again and crank out some more hot licks (basically playing the song twice). Frank has his bodyguard John Smothers sing the tune on Halloween (a very fun finale to the night), and he later has him sing a little more of it in the “Stink-Face” extravaganza in Troy, NY. These aren’t the best Muffin Man experiences out there (I think those come from 1977 for me, and I mean both bands too), but these are nothing to shake a stick at.

My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama – This Weasels Ripped My Flesh classic returns to the stage totally rearranged. This song was only played once on this tour, as a special Halloween treat for the early show. We open with a new, tasty blues riff, before getting a slow, sultry take of the tune sung by Frank and Bianca at the same time. They sing it over a slow, sparse, chugging beat that eventually evolves into a fantastic guitar solo from Frank. After the solo, they sing the second set of lyrics again, and make a speedy transition into the next tune. This is basically the same arrangement that would become a staple of the following European tour, but played a little slower and with the obvious addition of Bianca. This version is a lot like the 1984 version, but sounding significantly less poppy and well, 80s. Overall this is a great hidden gem from this tour, and another reason to check out the Halloween shows. 

A Pound For A Brown – This Uncle Meat piece reappears once again, and is fantastic like always. We get a new, cool, spacey arrangement of the theme, very similar to what’s heard on the CD release of Zappa In New York (without the horns of course). This song first appears on Halloween, goes away for another week or so before returning to its new regular placement following City Of Tiny Lights. Each performance features a delightful, five-plus minute solo from Frank, and about half of the performances feature a drum solo from Terry. Once Bianca leaves FZ decides to ramp up this tune, which leads to fantastic monster performances in Toledo and Dekalb (and to a lesser extent Chicago, see the solo table for more info). The isn’t an ending theme per-se, but when Frank finishes the tune, he usually will play a mellow, slowed down version of the bass line to end the piece and/or transition into the next song. These jams are an underrated highlight of the tour for me, and hold some of Frank’s best guitar of the year (maybe even of the 70s). Find yourself a show with this tune as soon as you can; Erie’s got a real good one!

The Purple Lagoon – This tune premiers on this tour, but it’s not the monster heard on Zappa In New York. Instead we get a very slow performance of the theme (without any Approximate quotes or other embellishments) at the start of the show as Frank walks on. The melody itself is only about 30 seconds long, but infinitely repeatable. FZ introduces the band over the song, and leads into Stink-Foot to kick the show off. The tune was also played as a closer, after the final song of the main set and after each encore. These performances were typically shorter, usually just one repetition of the theme. When there was a hall-mandated intermission, they would typically play the Purple Lagoon to start and end the set break as well. I love this weird little melody, and am always glad to hear it come up (which is fortunate because Frank will continue to use it off and on until fall ‘78). 

Revenge of The Knick Knack People – This sound collage, or possibly a prequel to the piece, first appears on this tour. Frank created this track using bits and pieces of forgotten recordings from the late 60s and early 70s (Some from the original Mothers, some from the Hot Rats 2/Funky Nothingness sessions). This quote sums it all up: “ It was just a sound object that I wanted to make, just choppin’ tape together, and then, since there was no way to release it anyplace, I thought people might enjoy hearing it, and we used it to open the show.”  The piece was played as the musicians walked on stage, and the Purple Lagoon serves as the actual first song of the song of each show. A weird way to start a concert, but it fits this group well. 

Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink – One of Frank’s worst tunes makes an unfortunate return on this tour. This dumb, musically uninteresting anti-union tune is easily one of the worst Flo and Eddie songs, but Frank decided to revive it for this tour despite that. It’s sung by Frank and a little faster than on the album, but otherwise it sounds the same. In Detroit, Flo and Eddie make a special appearance and sing this tune with Frank, along with all the other revived vaudeville era songs (almost-Mother Ralph Armstrong joins on bass too!). Played first when all four Flo and Eddie tunes are played (Rudy>USA>Daddy>Girl). I’m not even gonna list all the better 70-71 songs he could have picked.

Soundcheck/Improvisations – The Troy, NY recording begins with 12 minutes of cool, full-band improvisations. Ray, Patrick and Terry, and Frank are the main players, and they create an amazing, eerie jam. Patrick plays the Pound For A Brown bass riff about six and a half minutes in, and about four minutes later he plays something really close to the bass riff from Sivad off of Miles Davis’ Live-Evil. These are some fantastic improvisations from some great musicians, and a wonderful to start the weird Troy show. 

Stink-Foot (incl. The Poodle Lecture) – “My name is Frank and I’m going to sing you a song about my feet!” This Apostrophe classic returns once again on this tour, largely the same as the last several tours, and still different from the album. Always played as the first full song of each show. Following the Purple Lagoon, Frank would introduce the band, and move into this number. He recites the lyrics to the song over the classic live vamp (similar but not identical to the studio version), and then plays a blistering hot solo. There was usually some lyrical variation from night to night (“it’s right around the corner” would sometimes change to a local reference), and, in the previous fall, Frank added another couple segments to the tune. Before his solo he now has a spontaneous dialog with Fido (“a bionic poodle”), where he chides the dog for not bringing him his slippers. Fido then responds with something like “Oh Frank, I was so stoned” (or starting with Halloween #2, “go fuck yourself!”), and Frank has no choice but to punish him (“Sick!”). Starting in Troy, NY, Frank introduces a new segment, where a giant, blue plaster foot replica is brought on stage, and two lucky fans actually get to kiss the reeking foot. I, for some reason, love this segment of the tune, and always eagerly await this section in the late-tour shows. Both the Fido talk and the kiss the foot sections are usually present, but sometimes Frank will drop one or the other and continue on with the song like normal. FZ also added another segment to the tune last year, the infamous Poodle Lecture. After his solo, Frank would tell a long, nasty story about God’s creation of Man, Woo-Man and the Poodle. The basic story never changed much from show to show, and is one of the most vile moments from Frank’s live career. FZ would usually name drops a local city as an area that needs to get shaved on the Poodle (Ex. Flint, MI in Detroit). He’d use the story as a bridge between the two opening Poodle songs: Stink-Foot and Dirty Love, and would recite the tale at every show in late 1975 and all of 1976. It doesn’t ruin the song, but I’d definitely prefer it if it wasn’t there. In Troy, NY Frank starts the poodle lecture like normal, but instead we get a weird head-shaving extravaganza that Bianca coins “Stink-Face” (including John Smothers once again singing a bit of Muffin Man). In Chicago he starts to give the lecture, but realizes the audience has probably heard it before. This is the final tour where this song is used as an opener, after two and a half years of regular introductory stink-age. Despite the full blown Poodle Lecture (and thank god this is the last tour to feature it), this is still a really fun tour for this tune, with the standard tasty solo from Frank. It’s overstayed its welcome a little bit (in my opinion), but this band’s version of Stink-Foot still features some great moments and solos throughout the tour.

Stranded In The Jungle – “This song was originally recorded by the Jay Hawks on the Flash label in 1956, then covered by The Cadets. Then eventually it was covered by The New York Dolls, name of this song is Stranded In The Jungle”. This is probably my favorite old doo-wop tune Frank decided to cover/revive in his whole career. It’s a fun, up-beat number, telling the story of a man lost after a plane crash who has to make his way back to “the states”, while at the same time someone is hitting on his sweetheart back home. The two sections have totally different musical styles, and both are a lot of fun. Frank and Ray are the two lead singers, and Ray even gets to drop a “Great Googly-Moogly!” (which was present in the original recordings). In Erie, FZ goads his roadie Tex Able to come out and dance as the song ends, and the takes from Nashville and Pawtucket are extra special because Frank plays a sick little solo at the end of the tune! This wonderful song was almost always played as an encore, and serves as a minor highlight for every show it’s featured in.

Titties ‘n Beer – “This is a song about, uh, the things that are nearest and dearest to the American heart”. This dumb, funky, goofy tune loosely based on Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire Du Soldat” first appears on this tour, and has quite a few differences. The main bulk of the song is the same as on Zappa In New York, but there’s a number of small lyrical differences, the biggest being the actual title of the song, which at this point was Chrissy Puked Twice. This is based on a verse that was ultimately edited out of the final version released on ZINY. The missing verse goes:  “It was 11 o’clock upon a Friday night/You know the girl and me was feeling outta’ sight/We had twenty reds and a big ol’ pile of weed/You know we drank some wine and then we LSD’d”. Frank would also always include his “1000 years old” speech, as heard on Baby Snakes. This was a regular part of the arrangement, but for whatever reason Frank didn’t recite it at the December New York shows. The earliest performances were even more different with a couple of small one word changes (Ex. “girl” instead of “girly” and “puked” instead of “farted”) and an additional couple of lines right before the ending! (“You know I laughed like a fool I laughed til I cried/I nearly pissed in my pants as I was holding my side/The devil was mad, I took off to my pad/I swear I do declare how did she get back there…”). These changes were all finalized by the time of the Boston shows. Bianca played the part of Chrissy, and would usually shout “This is the best high I’ve ever been on” after launching away at the end of the tune. Terry/The Devil and Frank’s debate is pretty scripted, but if FZ is in a good mood it can venture into some amusing improv (though that’s not super common on this outing). Starting in Springfield (though it’s hinted at in Troy), the tune gets a call and response segment where Ray asks Frank if he would like “a breast?” or “a bosom?”, but Frank always responds “No I want Titties!” They would usually include this segment in performances for the rest of the tour, and eventually Terry takes over the part (which honestly makes more sense, though I did really like Ray’s contributions). Around the same time, Frank starts to tell Terry to keep his soul next to his breadbox too, for some reason. Ultimately though, both sections were dropped after this tour and lost to history. Occasionally Frank feels inspired and decides to give us a rare Titties N Beer guitar solo! In Pawtucket and Philly he plays one over the end of the tune (the “I do declaire” vamp), in Troy he plays a short solo after the first three verses, and in Cleveland Frank AND Patrick (!) each take a solo at the very start of the tune. This song gets a lot of hate for being one of Frank’s stupider sex songs, but that is 100% what it’s setting out to be. It’s a dumb little song with a ridiculously funky beat that almost always makes me chuckle. What more can you ask for? 

The Torture Never Stops – This Zoot Allures tune reappears yet again in another wildly new arrangement. Frank reworked this song earlier this year, and we ended up with the studio version released on Zoot Allures. This tour’s take is the same arrangement as the album version, sex noises over the solo and all. Frank does a fantastic job with the low, eerie vocals, and Patrick and Terry push him to new heights during his solo. This isn’t the absolute best tour for this song, but there isn’t a bad performance from this era. Each of Frank’s solos are uniquely fantastic, and carry kind of a sultry vibe not common on future tours. This tune was a regular feature of the beginning of most shows, coming between Tryin’ To Grow A Chin and (usually) City Of Tiny Lights. In the end, this is a band that understands The Torture, and they know exactly how to make this slow-burner shine.  

Tryin’ To Grow A Chin – This riotous, Terry-led, dumb little rock number returns on this tour. The tune has an additional unique, short intro, that’s only present on recordings from 1976, and Terry often throws in the line “baby don’t you wanna, kill me with some love” during the ending (this first started to emerge earlier in the year in Europe, but this is the first tour with the full phrase regularly appearing), but otherwise the song is the same arrangement as on Sheik Yerbouti. Tryin’ To Grow A Chin was always played after Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station and before The Torture Never Stops. The Gas/Chin medley of two is a really fun, poppy, moment near the start of most shows, and always provides a good time.

What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are? – This Flo & Eddie classic makes its surprise return, with the lovely Bianca playing the questioning groupie (formerly played by Mark), and Frank playing the succulent pop star (made famous by Howard). The tune is all there, and is just as loose feeling as the original. Bianca and Frank do a great job with the vocals and really make the tune feel like their own, even though it loses some momentum when removed from the larger “groupie opera”. The lyrics are slightly tweaked, Bianca sings “what kind of girl do you think me are” while the rest of the group sings “she are” (instead of the title phrase), Alice Cooper gets replaced by Punky Meadows and Steven Tyler, and she no longer digs it with a hot Yoo-Hoo bottle, now she needs a “a wide mouth Gatorade bottle”. This tune (along with many others) gets dropped from regular rotation after Bianca leaves. In Detroit, Flo and Eddie make a special appearance and sing this tune with Frank, along with all the other revived vaudeville era songs (almost-Mother Ralph Armstrong joins on bass too!). A great tune to revive, and a fantastic number to end a night. One of the many welcome surprises from late ‘76. 

Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station – “And now a song that deals with the delicate subject of higher education”. This Zoot Allures tune returns for its final tour. It’s basically the same as on the studio album, but a little less produced (and without the tasty guitar break pre- “show me your thumb”). Frank sings lead, but everyone helps with the vocals in some way. Bianca provides excellent support exclamations throughout (“pumping the gas every night!”), Ray doubles a lot of Frank and/or Bianca’s parts, Terry sings the “hey now better make a decision” verse, and Eddie (probably) sings the high-parts throughout (“fish!”). Frank turns the “lemme see your thumb” section into a call and response between himself and Bianca. This is a fantastic addition to the song, but unfortunately when Bianca leaves, it’s hit or miss whether every line gets sung, so those Gas Stations are easily the worst the tune was ever played (they feel like a demo for the song). Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station was (nearly) always played after Dirty Love and before Tryin’ To Grow A Chin. The Gas/Chin medley of two is a really fun little poppy moment at the beginning of most shows, and always provides a good time (at least when Bianca is still around). 

Wonderful Wino – Frank and crew play this Zoot Allures tune a handful of times in November. Co-written by Jeff Simmons and first appearing on his album Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up, this tune went through a number of variations throughout the years before finally ending up released in 1976, and these are the final live performances of this tune. Frank sings lead, but Bianca sings along with parts of the tune (when present). It’s basically played like on Zoot Allures, and live it’s really evident that Frank cannot play guitar and sing at the same time. It’s not really a major detriment, but the sections of the song just feel less connected, like FZ is kinda shifting modes every few seconds. Anyway, Frank ends the affair with a funky, nasty solo (some of the best guitar of the tour is hidden here). Overall, I love this little song and I’m always glad to hear it pop up on this tour (though I prefer the 70-71 versions just a bit).

Would You Go All The Way? – This Chunga’s Revenge tune makes a surprising reappearance, and despite being one of the lesser regarded Flo and Eddie tunes, this band actually kinda blows it away. Frank, Bianca and Ray all handle the vocals at different times throughout, and the whole tune is played at about twice the speed as the studio take! This group really brings some much needed life and character into this song, elevating it beyond the studio take. This tune (along with many others) gets dropped from regular rotation after Bianca leaves. In Detroit, Flo and Eddie make a special appearance and sing this tune with Frank, along with all the other revived vaudeville era songs (almost-Mother Ralph Armstrong joins on bass too!). There’s still many more 70-71 era tunes I would’ve loved to hear this band play, but nonetheless this is a great version of this dumb tune (though my all time favorite is the one in Mothers 1970).

You Didn’t Try To Call Me – Bianca’s biggest nightly spotlight was this beautifully reworked Freak Out tune (based on the Ruben And The Jets arrangement). It starts wonderfully slow, with Bianca wordlessly vocalizing, and slowly each member of the band comes in, with Ray even singing along at points. After a few minutes of ramping up, we hit the more rocking second half of the tune, which Bianca and the band hit out of the park too. Finally we end with a delightful, funky little jam, with continued greatness from Bianca and FZ. Frank plays fantastic guitar throughout, consistently landing somewhere between rhythm and solo playing. Typically his playing would increase in energy throughout the tune, eventually leading up a solo-ette during the ending (on Halloween he plays Wipe Out in this section!). When Bianca was in the band, this song would usually follow City of Tiny Lights, or a Pound For A Brown, if present. This tune is always appreciated no matter the band, and this version might be the best of them all. It’s an amazing showcase of Bianca’s prowess, and an easy highlight of the tour.

Solo Table: