Bas Langereis leest u voor!

Wednesday September 26, 2007:

Only a few hours at work and then we go off from Apeldoorn to Tilburg. Every train seems to be delayed. We arrive in Tilburg around 15.00. Our hotel is straight in front of the railway station. We check in and leave for a walk to the Heuvel. Sadly, that fantastic record store ‘Tommy’ has disappeared after its 30 years of existance.
We end up in café ‘Stoffels’, where the venue 013 is just around the corner, and enjoy our large Erdinger. After the first few sips, I realize I have left my rubber chicken in the hotel room. Twenty minutes later I’m back with the mascotte. It’ll play a role in the rest of these day’s story.
Hasi, zymurgy and au3 arrive, followed by Paulu$, and later Billy and Weasel show up too. We choose a nice meal from the menu. The menu is on the vinyl you can find in an album cover. I have some chicken with brie cheese and nuts, but can’t seem to find the brie and the nuts.
Then we go to the venue. 013 is a great place. When we enter the hall, not many people are in there, yet. We find a nice spot on the first two ‘steps’ of the big stairs that starts halfway the venue. From here we have a great view on stage.
We meet lots of people we’ve seen before. Even the Yes-focus guys are here! Hasi, Paulu$, au3 and zymurgy struggle themselves in front of the stage. UniMuta is spotted and also a few FoolZ have arrived. Then the house lights go down and the show begins.

‘Dumb All Over’ opens the concert. It reminds me of the great t-shirt I saw at the merchendise stand. Just black and with huge white lettering only ‘DUMB ALL OVER’. I went to ask for it, but the guy before me had the last one. The seller peeled it from the wall for him. Lucky baztard! The song features the first video interplay with the band. While the band play the song, FZ sings and plays guitar on the video screen. After that, the band splashes into ‘What’s New In Baltimore’. Wow. The sound isn’t perfect at this moment yet. It’s on ‘stadium mode’, I think, but during the next couple of minutes it’s getting better and better.
Ray White, the special guest and the singer in Zappa’s band during 1975-1977 and 1980-1984, still has that wonderful powerful soulful voice. I love him. He’s featured in the next couple of songs that seems to be written for him (but weren’t): ‘Carolina Hard-Core Ecstacy’, ‘City Of Tiny Lites’ and ‘Advance Romance’. I look at my arms and notice I have chicken skin.
Next is a couple of older tunes. Some material from ‘Absolutely Free’. ‘Suzy Cream Cheese’ is the absolute surprise, together with ‘America Drinks And Goes Home’. ‘Brown Shoes Don’t Make It’ shows a band that is very tight.
Then we move to 1973-1974. ‘Dog/Meat’ is a real treat. The ‘dog’ part is performed on ‘Yellow Shark’ style, and moves me a lot. ‘Stinkfoot’ features another video with Frank, this time it’s from the 1974 KCET tv-show. And then we witness one of the absolute highlights of the show: ‘Pygmy Twylyte’. It’s performed very accurate and tight, and Dweezil gives us a marvellous guitar solo that cuts through the veins. I realize this show is it’s money’s worth. During ‘Dupree’s Paradise’ there’s an improv section. Sheila Gonzales plays two saxophones at the same time. I think it was during this section that Dweezil looks in the audience in my direction and says: “Hey, nice chicken!” I wave with it some more. “Name me any sentence, and Ray will sing it in this song,” is Dweezil’s question to the audience. “Fuck the Swedes!” is shouted from the audience, and I recognize Hasy and zymurgy’s voice. When Ray White sings this line over and over again in ‘soul-mode’, everyone in the audience is laughing his brain out. How little do they know about Swedish Zappateers? (Some footage of this can be seen here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=NlsPZVUyeBI&mode=related&search ) ‘Dupree’s segues into a lovely version of ‘Uncle Remus’, that moves me a lot.
In ‘Willie The Pimp’, ‘Joe’s Garage’, ‘Wind Up Working In A Gas Station’ and ‘San’ Berdino’, Ray White is heavily featured. These uptempo tunes appear to be real crowd pleasers.
And then Dweezil starts the opening lick of ‘Zoot Allures’. The audience is quiet and hold their breath. Nice try. At the end, Dweezil plays the loop of ‘Ship Ahoy’, that used to be the coda for ‘Zoot’. The crowd goes mad. Without desperately trying to sound like his father, Dweezil gives us some great guitar extravaganza, that lasts several minutes long.
When the band begins with the opening bars of ‘Illinois Enema Bandit’, the audience understands something important is happening. Ray White sings it with such a powerful voice, like he’s never been away. This is absolutely stunning and I notice a tear in my eye. Dweezil’s guitar solo is relieving. And then it’s over.
The band leaves the stage, but not for long. They return for a long encore that starts with ‘Cosmik Debris’. This also features video images from the 1974 KCET-sessions, but this time it seems like a different edit. The funny interplay between Frank and George Duke is now between Dweezil and his father. The band gives us their version of the impossible-to-play synclavier-composition ‘G-Spot Tornado’ and boy, does this sound tight. A heavy ‘Muffin Man’, with also video footage (from the ‘Baby Snakes’ movie) is the perfect ending of this concert.

We don’t leave the hall, but meet lots of people.
UniMuta was satisfied with tonight’s show. Emil and Cynthia are there, with their friend Martijn. On their way to the concert, they found out that they didn’t have tickets for the show. (“I thought you said yóú were going to buy the tickets!” “No! You said you would buy them!”) They made a short phone call to 013, found out that the concert hadn’t sold out and bought their tickets.
I buy some merchandise. A tourbook and the ‘Dub Room Special’ cd. I give my free poster to Martijn. Emil gives us beer.
Then it’s time to walk to the hotel. We say goodnight to everyone and “See you tomorrow” to some others. The hotel is cheap and clean.

Setlist Tilburg, Wednesday September 26, 2007

Dumb All Over
What’s New In Baltimore?
Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy
City Of Tiny Lites
Advance Romance
Suzy Creamcheese
Brown Shoes Don’t Make It
America Drinks And Goes Home
Dog/Meat
Stinkfoot
Pygmy Twylyte
Dupree’s Paradise
Uncle Remus
Willie The Pimp
Joe’s Garage Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station
San’ Berdino
Zoot Allures (incl ‘Ship Ahoy’)
Illinois Enema Bandit
Cosmik Debris
G-Spot Tornado
Muffin Man

Youtube movies:

Willie The Pimp: here

Zoot Allures/Ship Ahoy/The Illinois Enema Bandit: here

Cosmik Debris part 1: here

Cosmik Debris part 2: here

Thursday September 27, 2007:

We wake up on time for a simple breakfast. Then we move to Amsterdam. Again, no train seems to leave on time. Anyway, we’re in Amsterdam around noon, so we have lots of time to walk around. We stroll from the Central Station to the Leidseplein.
Our first stop is record shop ‘Fame’. I see lots of items I want to buy, but don’t have the money for. Then the phone rings. Billy! “Hi man!” he speaks. “I said wanted to be there tonight too, but I can’t make it. Too bad. But did you know this afternoon a special exhibition of Zappa pictures will open in record store ‘Record Palace’, and famous storyteller Willem de Ridder will speak on his meetings with Zappa?” I didn’t know, but now I know how to spend this afternoon! But first, let’s have some lunch in ‘Luxembourg’ on the Spui.

On the Leidseplein I spot this cute lady that I think I know. I walk to her and say: “Hi Scheila, great performance last night in Tilburg! I’ll see you tonight!” She looks shocked. I just walk on through.
We find our little hotel, the Marnix Hotel. The Chinese guy behind the desk says: “Hello, I think I have a problem.” I think; “Kut.” He says: “You’ve booked a room with shower and toilet. I don’t have that room for tonight. But you can go across the street and go to that hotel and there you have a room with toilet and shower. You won’t have to pay anything more.” We walk across the street to ‘The Lantaerne’ Hotel to check in. We have to wait, because of Bald-Headed John and Magdalena from Manchester are before us. Many kisses (Dutch way, Mag: THREE times!) and hello’s. Great to see them again. They need an hour before we meet. We check our room. It’s small, clean and cheap, so we have nothing to complain.
We walk to Paradiso hall, and across the room there’s ‘Record Palace’. The shop is full of Zappa album covers and Zappa pictures. Nice.
We walk back to the hotel to pick up Bald-Headed John and Magdalena. We pass De Melkweg, the venue where tonight’s ZpZ show will happen. A large black bus drives into the street. I tell my wife to wait a little, for I want to see who’s leaving this bus. She says: “You should look here,” and points to the other side of the road. I take a look. A young man with dark curly hair comes on walking towards the venue. I cross the road and walk towards him. I take his hand and shake it. “Mr. Zappa. I’ve witnessed your show in Tilburg last night, and I was very impressed. I was the guy with the rubber chicken.” I open my black jeans jacket and show him the insights of my pocket. He grins shyly. “Ah, that was you,” he whispers. I continue: “I will be at tonight’s show too, and I’m really looking forward to it.” “Thank you,” is all he can say. “Thank you,” is what I say too. And then I walk on.
We meet up with Bald-Headed John and Magdalena again. Together we stroll to the Leidseplein and have a beer in a Grand Café called ‘The Palladium’. Then we go over to the ‘Record Palace’ and spend some time there. Nice vinyl. It smells good. Except for Peter Frampton’s ‘I’m In You’. Before Willem de Ridder can start his stories, we leave to the Leidseplein.

Outside the ‘Hard Rock Café’ we have another beer and meet up with Hasi, zymurgy, Remco, Paulu$, Parrafin-Lamp and au3. The boys walk on in with rolls of pink paper on which they will write tonight’s secret word. “Fuck the Swedes”, that must be it. A friend of Bald-Headed John, called David, also from Manchester, shows up. He has come over for the show, but hasn’t got a ticket yet.
Few beers later we decide to have a meal somewhere. I have seen this Argentinian steakhouse on the Leidseplein. Some of us go there. The food is great and Paraffin-Lamp too, for he wants to pay all our dinner. Meanwhile, the rest of the guys have finished painting their banners for tonight’s show.
Time to go to the Melkweg. Lots of familiar faces again. Ed_Lick is there, sibbz, Jelly, paulb, chunga’s revenge, NotPedro, and many more. And David from Manchester is there; he’s got in, and has bought a ticket for €110. The venue is way smaller than 013. Still, there’s lots of space on the sideways near the stage. There are some steps aside, so even the smaller people have a good look on the stage. Beer, anyone?

This time, the show starts off with ‘Stinkfoot’, with the video footage. The audience is stunned. After the guitar solo, Dweezil says: “Hey you guys, great to be here, but there’s one thing that really annoys me and that is some of you taping this show! Like you! I can see the red light on your camera!” He points in my direction. I was just taking a photograph and he scares me a lot. Right behind me there’s Jelly, who’s quickly stopping filming.
After the opening tune we hear ‘City Of Tiny Lites’, that features Ray White in full glory.
“Here’s a song we haven’t played for a while,” is Dweezils announcement to ‘Florentine Pogen’, and boy it’s nice. When it’s over, Dweezil pays some attention to the stupid members of the audience. “Thank you guys, even you with the banners about the Swedes. It’s so nice to see that some people went to see us yesterday and today too. There’s even a guy with a rubber chicken!” The house lights seem to switch on and I feel like I’m a hero for a macrosecond. Then we head off to ‘Advance Romance’: “No more credit to the liquer store” remains one of the best opening lines of a song ever. Ray White sings it in full splendour and the whole song sounds even better than last night. When it’s finished, Dweezil says: “This little song features Ray White, and we’ve never played it before on stage.” The band splashes into a very nice version of ‘Doreen’, that everyone seem to enjoy.
Then it’s time for the ‘old’ tunes. ‘Suzy Creamcheese’, ‘Brown Shoes Don’t Make It’ and ‘America Drinks And Goes Home’. All played very well. Especially ‘Brown Shoes’ is very well received by the crowd. During ‘America’ Scheila does her waitress act again.
This time I don’t miss ‘Dog/Meat’. A wonderful version again. When ‘Dumb All Over’ (with video) starts, I decide to go for a pee. Whithin two minutes I’m outside the hall and can do my thing. Then when I enter the hall again, it appears to be so crowded, that I’m afraid to never rejoin my friends. During ‘What’s New In Baltimore?’ I’m still in the back of the hall. The pause between ‘Baltimore’ and ‘Pygmy Twylyte’ gives me the opportunity to struggle my way forward. Again, a wonderful guitar solo in this tune. Finally, I reach my friends.
Then we get ‘Dupree’s Paradise’ which includes vamps like ‘Packard Goose’ and ‘Heavy Duty Judy’ on which the band improvises. This time Dweezil says: “I want Ray White to sing random lyrics like ‘I love my bootbelt better than my woman’.” Ray sings these lines, but some voices in the audience scream for “Fuck The Swedes.” From this moment on the “Fuck The Swedes” quote becomes the joke onstage.
When ‘Dupree’s’ is almost over, I see lots of empty gaps in the audience right in front of the stage, so I take a few steps closer to the stage. EdLick is there. ‘Uncle Remus’ sets in and I feel something behind my eyes. This is beautiful, really beautiful.
Next we have some uptempo crowd pleasers with Ray White. ‘Willie The Pimp’, ‘Joe’s Garage’, ‘Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station’ and ‘San Berdino’ really please the crowd.
We know the end is near. Dweezil starts ‘Zoot Allures’, and again it includes ‘Ship Ahoy’. Meanwhile, I have found my way right in front of the stage and I want to make some pictures. Next to me stands this man from about 50 years old with his daughter that is about 10 years old, I think. The girl isn’t looking at the stage, but at my rubber chicken. I can’t seem to make a good picture, so I give her the chicken and do my picture job. The girl is watching the rubber thing in her hands and her face tells us all that she thinks it’s a dirty thing. Never seen such big eyes on a kid. Then i get it back.
Finally, there’s ‘The Illinois Enema Bandit’, during which the whole band makes nothing but ‘Swedes’ jokes. I am laughing and crying at the same time. What a way to finish the show. Ray White sings so beautiful, it leaves me with my jaw on the ground.
The encores are the same as last night. ‘Cosmik Debris’, with the alternate 1974 video, a splendid accurate version of ‘G-Spot Tornado’ and the inevitable ‘Muffin’ Man’ with the ‘Baby Snakes’ video on the screen.
And then it’s over. The band bows and bows, and Dweezil gets lots of attention from the fans in front of the stage.
I buy some merchandise: a shirt, a mug and the pink underpants that says: ‘We don’t mess around’, and that sums it all up.

In the Hard Rock Café, we meet with Magdalena, Bald-Headed John, Remco, zymurgy, au3, Hasi, Paulu$ and David. We have a few beers.
Eventually, it’s only David, ModifiedDog and me that moves to the next pub for one last drink. We sit outside when suddenly Scheila Gonzalez, Aaron Arntz and Billy Hulting walk by. They make a picture with my rubber chicken and I photograph them doing that.
Then we leave for our hotel. It’s small, cheap and clean.

Next morning we have breakfast together with Magdalena and Bald-Headed John, but then leave for home. During our walk and train journey home, we come up with ideas of visiting the Antwerp show next week ….

(to be continued?)

Setlist De Melkweg, Amsterdam – September 27, 2007:

Stinkfoot (with video)
City Of Tiny Lites
Florentine Pogen
Advance Romance
Doreen
Suzy Creamcheese
Brown Shoes
America Drinks
Dog Meat
Dumb All Over (with video)
What’s New In Baltimore
Pygmy Twylyte
Dupree’s Paradise (including Packard Goose and Heavy Duty Judy lines and Fuck The Swedes vocal improvs)
Uncle Remus
Willie The Pimp
Joe’s Garage
Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station San Berdino Zoot Allures including Ship Ahoy
The Illinois Enema Bandit
encores:
Cosmik Debris (with alternate 1974 video)
G-Spot Tornado
Muffin’ Man (with video)Â

Apeldoorn, September 29/30, 2007Â

The next Sunday, the wife has an idea. “Shall we check if there’s tickets for the Antwerp show?” She’s crazy. Next day, I find out that there are still tickets left. We will be seated on 7th row in the middle.

Saturday, October 6, 2007 – Elizabethzaal, Antwerp, Belgium

Okay, so here we go. Up to another ZpZ show. We leave Apeldoorn at 10.30, and travel via Utrecht, Rotterdam and Roosendaal to Antwerp. We arrive at 13.30. When we leave the Central Railway Station, we find out that the venue is just three doors from the railway station, and next to the venue is our Hotel Atlanta.
We check in and our hotel room appears to be clean and cheap. I open the window and look at the two large black tour busses in front of the venue. One bus opens its door and someone is walking from the bus to the venue. I recognize Ray White immediately.
We go for a walk to the old centre of town. When we stroll into the Keyserlei, four people come walking towards us. “Hey, here we are again,” I say, while opening my black jean jacket and showing them the inside of the pocket. Jamie Kime, Aaron Arntz, Billy Hulting and Scheila Gonzalez have big eyes. “The chicken man!” shouts Scheila. We all laugh.
We visit the Groenmarkt, the Grote Markt and the nautic museum along the river Schelde. Then we go back and have a nice Tongerlo abbey beer on a terrace on the Grote Markt. We even have another one. Then we go back to the venue. Meanwhile, we have contact with LudzNL, and we meet in a bar close to the venue. There we have a nice Jupiler. We’re all hungry and we go to a Lebanese grill restaurant where we eat nice, quick and cheap.

It’s 19.00 and we go to the Elizabethzaal. I buy my ticket and we go inside. To my great pleasure I find out that the ZpZ-dvd is released and being sold. Of course I have my copy and I also buy my ‘Dumb All Over’ t-shirt. We meet up with UniMuta, and with that guy from Apeldoorn I recognize!
The Elizabethzaal is a very nice theatre hall with comfortable pink pluche seats. But: a seated audience for a rock show? The Amsterdam show really steamily rocked.
When the band plays their first few tunes, I’m disgusted with the sound. It’s on ‘stadium mode’, with lots and lots of delay. I don’t like it. I hope it will get better during the first tunes, but it doesn’t. The band really performs well, and they’re having fun onstage, but the audience is lame.
Opening tunes are a small improv, ‘Peaches En Regalia’ and ‘Cosmik Debris’ (with video footage). Then Ray White is introduced, and he sings very fine on ‘City Of Tiny Lites’, ‘Advance Romance’, ‘I’m Not Satisfied’ (premiere!) and ‘Doreen’. We hear ‘Eat That Question’, that wasn’t played in Tilburg and Amsterdam.
The old tunes are very accurate, again. ‘Son Of Suzie Creamcheese’, ‘Brown Shoes Don’t Make It’ and ‘America Drinks And Goes Home’ are well received by the audience. During the latter tune, Scheila does her barmaid act, and now I’m able to take some pictures of that. ‘Lonely Little Girl’ is another premier version in this tour. It’s followed by ‘Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy’.
Next is the great instrumental part of the show. ‘Pygmy Twylyte’ is wonderful again, with a great guitar solo by Dweezil. This time, I succeed in filming it with my photo camera. The monster version of ‘Dupree’s Paradise’ has some special features. Every band member plays a solo. When it’s up to keyboardist Aaron Arntz, he stands up to the microphone, and asks: “Is the man with the chicken in the house?” I stand up. “Can I please have it onstage with me?” he asks. I walk towards the stage, and hand it over to him. “Do with it what you want!” I tell him, “but I really want it back.” “Sure! No problem!” He goes over to his keyboard rig and fools around with the chicken while playing some great solos too. When he’s finished, Dweezil tells him to give the chicken back. I’m halfway the stage, when he throws it high up into the air in my direction. Luckily, I catch it. The audience is going wild! Then I go back to my seat. Ray White is doing his lyrical improv part; this time the sentence he has to improvise on is: “I’m gonna fuck you up!” and he sings lots of references to a rubber chicken. I laugh my brains out. What a special ‘Dupree’s’ this is! The segue into ‘Uncle Remus’ is emotional to me, again. What a gorgeous melody.
After this great section we get the crowd pleasing tunes. ‘Willie The Pimp’ features Ray White’s new hat (he bought it that afternoon), ‘Joe’s Garage’, ‘Wind Up Working In A Gas Station’ and ‘San Ber’Dino’. We know the end is near.
I expect ‘Zoot Allures’, but the band goes straight into ‘The Illinois Enema Bandit’. Another fantastic version, without Swedish jokes this time. Then the band leaves the stage.
Of course they have to do an encore. We get ‘G-Spot Tornado’ in another tight and accurate version. And then ‘Muffin Man’, with the video footage is the farewell to Antwerp. The band bows and bows. Dweezil has to sign lots of things.
We go to the foyer to have a drink. It’s been a wonderful show, despite the delay in the sound. We think a seated audience causes a reserved show. When the audience is standing and dancing, it inspires the band to perform at its peak. However, the rubber chicken abuse extravaganza was very much in Zappa-style.

We meet lots of people. The rubber chicken is heavily recognized as a special guest. It’s LudzNL that spots Ray White walking through the people towards the exit. When Ray sees the rubber chicken, he burst into laughter, and LudzNL takes the picture of me with Ray. We meet up with Audie and Johnny, a brother and sister from Arnhem, with Audie’s daughter Ruth and son (lost his name, sorry). Together, we decide to have a drink in a bar. We say goodbye to LudzNL and Unimuta. When we leave the Elizabethzaal, we see Jamie Kime and Pete Griffin standing by the bus. “Oh, the chicken man!” they shout. They tell me that Aaron was afraid that I’d be upset when he’d asked the chicken to go upstage. I laugh and tell them that the chicken is meant to be onstage as much as possible. We shake hands and then we leave and go to a nice ‘volkscafé’, where Frans Bauer and Flemish schlagersingers are being played all night long. The Maes pilsnener is very good, and we have nice conversations with our new Zappa-friends from Arnhem. It’s 01.30 when we leave the terrace and go to our hotel. We pass the tour busses again, and this time it’s Joe Travers that steps outside. “Oh, the chicken man,”  he says. He shakes my hand. “Thank you so much for following us all these days.” He really means it. I thank him a lot for the great music, and then we take our last steps to the hotel room.  It’s clean and cheap.
Next morning we have a simple but good breakfast and take a walk through the city park of Antwerp. At the end of the morning we have a Leffe in a Brasserie and a lunch with Karmeliet Tripel and Kwak close to the Central Railway Station. Then it’s off home.
Our ZpZ-adventure is over.

Setlist Elizabethzaal, Antwerp – October 6, 2007:

LudzNL’s video footage of the rubber chicken onstage is here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6OZj3-SXYEw. Too bad it’s that short. I myself have better footage, check it out! The links are below.

Youtube movies:

Pygmy Twylyte: here

rubber chicken abuse part one: here

rubber chicken abuse part two: here

Wind Up Working In A Gas Station: here

Apeldoorn, October 8, 2007