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Weekend Wrap-Up 2.15.12

Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa at Uptown Theatre.  Thursday, February 16th 7pm.  1350 Third St. Napa.  Guitarist Dweezil Zappa has cocooned himself away in the studio this past year engineering his own metamorphosis. “In order for me to play my father’s music correctly I needed to understand the fundamentals of his music more thoroughly, which meant a lot of studying.” His goal was to emerge as a “better musician” as well as a “better guitarist.” The autodidactic Zappa utilized the fruits of his labor to startling effect on his first album project in more than six years – Go With What You Know – featuring a unique guitar rendition of the elder Zappa’s classic instrumental, Peaches En Regalia. “I actually played along with Frank’s guitar solo from the original ‘Hot Rats’ master tapes. He had dedicated that album to me since he was working on that around the time I was born. It’s cool to hear us playing together note for note in a stereo time machine.”

The album will be independently released to coincide with the “Zappa Plays Zappa” European tour which hits the road this May. This is the first official live concert event of Frank Zappa’s Music since his untimely passing in 1993. Joining Dweezil on stage will be a hand-picked band of new, young musicians.

Dweezil has recorded under his own name and with his brother, Ahmet, in their band Z. Six-string heroics aside, Dweezil has nurtured a successful television career, starting early on as an MTV veejay when he was only 17. He has appeared in films (Pretty in Pink, The Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and composed the music for several television shows including the Ben Stiller Show and the hit WB comedy, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment. In addition to cauterizing his fingertips learning to play the music of Frank Zappa for the upcoming tour, and lending his studio wizardry to the Zappa archives (his multi-channel production work on the recent Frank Zappa release, QuAUDIOPHILIAc, is positively mind-blowing), Dweezil has this to say about his upcoming album,”To me the record is like a weird audio movie. I really tried to create an interesting flow with it.” And the tour rehearsals, “Prepping for the tour has been like preparing for a medieval battle where going into it your sharpest weapon is a spoon. But I’m pretty deadly with that spoon now.” (http://www.uptowntheatrenapa.com/2011/11/dweezil-zappa-plays-zappa/)
http://www.uptowntheatrenapa.com/2011/11/dweezil-zappa-plays-zappa/

Have a lovely President's day weekend, and check out these other events that are taking place within driving distance:

Love Fool at the Last Day Saloon.  Friday, February 17th 8pm.  120 Fifth St.  Santa Rosa.

http://www.lastdaysaloon.com/

An Evening with Leo Kottke at the Mystic Theatre.  Saturday, February 18th, 8:30pm.  21 Petaluma Blvd. Petaluma.

http://www.mystictheatre.com/

Writers with Attitude, 8th Annual Festival of Short Play Readings at the Throckmorton Theatre.  Saturday & Sunday February 18th & 19th 7:30 & 5pm.  142 Throckmorton Ave. Mill Valley.

http://www.142throckmortontheatre.com/event.php?eventid=1597

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony at George's Nightclub.  Saturday, February 18th 10pm.  842 4th St. San Rafael

http://www.19broadway.com/show/detail/53888