StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Zappa Plays Zappa play Apostrophe(')

This week, let's take at look at some video clips of Zappa Plays Zappa, who will be in St. Louis next Wednesday, December 8 to play at The Pageant.

This will be ZPZ's third visit to St. Louis in the last four years, and this time around, their show will center around playing Frank Zappa's 1974 album Apostrophe(') in its entirety. I wrote a short preview of the concert for this week's Riverfront Times, which you can read online here. Also, you can read my review of ZPZ's first St. Louis show back in 2006 here.

All four of today's clips were recorded this year and feature performances of songs from Apostrophe(') by the current ZPZ lineup. For the record, that's Dweezil Zappa (guitar, vocals), Scheila Gonzalez (saxophone, flute, keyboards, vocals), Pete Griffin (bass), Billy Hulting (marimba, mallets, percussion), Jamie Kime (guitar), Ben Thomas (vocals), Joe Travers (drums, vocals) and Chris Norton (keyboards, vocals).

First up is a rendition of the title song from Apostrophe('), recorded in July at the Capitol Theatre in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. The tune originally was an impromptu studio jam featuring the elder Zappa, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Jim Gordon, and here showcases Dweezil and then bassist Pete Griffin.

Down below is a medley of the album's two best-known songs, the novelty Top 40 hit "(Don't You Eat That) Yellow Snow" and the FM radio staple "Cosmic Debris," taken from a show in June at at the Wakarusa Festival in Arkansas. Below that is a version of "Uncle Remus" shot in November at the Roundhouse in London, England.

The fourth video shows ZPZ playing "Stinkfoot" this past September during a free concert in Baltimore's Highlandtown neighborhood as part of the city's "Frank Zappa Day" celebration. FZ, who was born in Baltimore, was honored with a statue outside a local library, and by the renaming of a section of a nearby street as "Frank Zappa Way".