Zappa plays Zappa at the Ballroom

Appearing on a large screen above the rear entrance to the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, the late Frank Zappa sang the familiar lyrics to his classic song “Montana,” off the “Overnite Sensation” album.

“I might be movin’ to Montana soon, just to raise me up a crop of … dental floss,” Zappa crooned through his iconic mustache. From the ballroom stage, an entourage of musicians kept the rhythm and provided backing vocals. “Movin’ to Montana soon, gonna be a dental floss tycoon,” they sang in unison.

Live video footage of Zappa rolled on as he entered into a vintage guitar solo, thrilling the packed audience in Hampton. When the solo was over, the onstage band picked up where Zappa Sr. left off, and his son, Dweezil Zappa, offered up a solo of his own. As it turns out, the younger Zappa can really tear on guitar, which should come as no great surprise. Frank Zappa is, after all, one of rock’s all-time underrated guitar players.

In fact, Zappa fans have long contended that the zany composer, who died of prostate cancer in 1993, is underappreciated on many levels. While the average listener thinks of Zappa as a sleazy, mustachioed weirdo, most people are unaware of the complexity of his compositions, which are demonstrated in a vast library of work that spans the better part of three decades.
Dweezil Zappa started the “Zappa Plays Zappa, Tour De Frank,” last summer, with the intention of spreading his father’s music to a new generation of potential fans. “I think my Dad’s music deserves to be heard by a wider audience,” Dweezil stated in a promotional release for the tour. “I really think he’s been misunderstood for far too long, which brings me back to why I’m doing this: I’m so in awe of his accomplishments and want more and more people to know about him, and I think the best way for people to first discover his music is on a visceral level in a live situation.”

A few little-known facts about Frank Zappa, to clear up some of the “misunderstandings” that surround him: In the early- to mid-1960s, Zappa was one of the first rock musicians to play in integrated bands. He was renowned for recognizing talent where no one else stooped to look, picking up no-name blues singers at seedy bars and lounges around the country and adding them to his touring acts. Although he may look like a drug-crazed freak, Zappa did not take drugs. (In his autobiography, he reports that he tried marijuana a handful of times in the 1960s and it made him tired.) Non-fans know Zappa for his humorous and sometimes offensive lyrics, but he writes technically difficult melodies that are too complex for most popular musicians to undertake. (He even made a classical album, “The Yellow Shark,” shortly before he died.) Zappa made more than 80 albums before his life was cut short at the age of 52, and he worked tirelessly to combat censorship in music.

Zappa never put much stock in political correctness, but he did write scathing and satirical lyrics that provided cynical social commentaries, often involving the general stupidity of the human race. This was demonstrated at the Casino Ballroom on Aug. 2, when old footage of Zappa performing “Dumb All Over” played on the screen above the exits. After rapping out most of the song’s lyrics, Zappa began preaching to the audience. Not one to discriminate, he told his fans that people of all races have universally shown themselves to be equally dumb throughout history. He held God accountable for allegedly creating people in his own image. “So if we’re dumb, then God is dumb, and maybe even a little ugly on the side,” he said before lacing into an electric guitar solo.

The seated crowd at the Ballroom ate it up, laughing loudly and standing to applaud. The eclectic audience, which included teenagers with Mohawks and middle-aged soccer moms, remained excited when Zappa’s image later returned to the screen, this time playing “Cosmic Debris.” Dweezil ripped an impressive solo during the tune, while his father bobbed his head on the screen, as if nodding his approval from the grave. The crowd responded with an enthusiastic standing ovation.

“Who knew so many people in New Hampshire felt this way about Frank’s music?” Dweezil said when the song was over, mimicking his father’s voice. “It’s almost like a bumper sticker: ‘New Hampshire—who knew?’”

Dweezil’s crew included many veterans of his father’s old bands playing an assortment of instruments that included flute, saxophone, trumpet, marimbas and keyboards. Keeping true to his father’s spirit of improvisation, Dweezil asked an audience member to select a word for the band to use as inspiration for a song. The man shouted “children,” and Dweezil modified his request with an adjective, spontaneously composing a song called “Greasy Children.” After a round of instrumental solos that featured Scheila Gonzales playing two saxophones at once, Zappa veteran Ray White belted out improvised lyrics dealing with the ever-relevant topic of unctuous offspring.

The show also featured Zappa favorites like “City of Tiny Lites,” “What’s New in Baltimore?” “Willie the Pimp” and “Joe’s Garage.” Since his cover band embarked on its first tour last year, Dweezil has mastered about 70 of his father’s songs, selecting from a seemingly inexhaustible pool of work that includes popular favorites and obscure rarities.

After the band took a bow and left the stage, exultant fans spilled onto the Hampton Beach strip. One red Volkswagen chugged along the road, flashing an “FZAPPA” license plate on its tail end. The master had been invoked.