SLCene Suggests: Zappa Plays Zappa at The Depot

ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA, THE DEPOT, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 8 p.m., $20 advance/$25 day of show

The music of Frank Zappa is kind of a love-it-or-hate-it thing for most, including this music geek. I never caught the bug some of my friends did–the love of Zappa’s surrealistic “jazz from hell” jams full of abrupt stylistic shifts and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. I was a big fan of the artistic freedom Zappa stood for, particularly in his advocacy for musicians’ rights in the fight against the pro-censorship Parents Music Resource Center back in the ’80s, when my love for rock and roll was taking hold. But I never got too much into Zappa’s music. His son Dweezil, though, was a part of my record collection as soon as he released Havin’ a Bad Day, his teenage effort in 1986 to showcase his chops at Van Halen-style pop-rock (he famously played guitar on Don Johnson’s Heartbeat album back in the day, even appearing in the video). It seems natural that Dweezil would carry on his father’s legacy via his current project, Zappa Plays Zappa, in which he tours with a set of remarkable musicians, knocking out his dad’s oeuvre like no one else could.