"And Now, True Religion!"
New York 1978, #3
Well folks, the week got away from me and I wasn’t able to finish the post offering $5 PDF copies of my books, look for that next week! In the meantime, let’s get back to the Palladium for the first show of another twofer in the Big Apple…
October 28, 1978
Palladium, New York, NY (early show)
120 minutes, AUD, B+
100 minutes, AUD, A-
with L. Shankar, violin*
New York #3 Walk On (2:01)
Persona Non Grata (7:43)
Dancin’ Fool (3:18)
Easy Meat (5:08)
Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me? (4:23)
Keep It Greasey (4:51)
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing (3:26)
City Of Tiny Lites (10:12)
A Pound For A Brown On The Bus (4:53)
Thirteen (9:12)*
A Pound For A Brown On The Bus (13:29)
Bobby Brown (2:50)
Conehead (4:26)*
Little House I Used To Live In (10:41)
Magic Fingers (2:34)
Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow (2:22)
Nanook Rubs It (7:33)
St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast (1:51)
Father O’Blivion (2:22)
Rollo (3:34)
FZ Introduction (0:54)
Dinah-Moe Humm (5:25)
Camarillo Brillo (3:24)
Muffin Man (5:37)
Peaches En Regalia (3:31)
The second night at the Palladium sees the band playing another two-fer, the last of the tour. We have two audience tapes to document the early show, the first being of very good quality, though a notch down from the superb audience tapes of the two shows the night before. The second is excellent quality but missing bits and pieces. Taken together, the show runs 124 minutes.
Tonight’s intro guitar solo vehicle is once again “Persona Non Grata,” the last time this will be employed for this use on the tour. Frank’s solo is shorter than most for this piece, but the interplay between FZ and Vinnie is peak-performance stuff. It really does seem like they are of one mind here, conversing instrumentally in the manner of the finest jazz musicians. Their chemistry, after playing onstage together for less than two months, is unstoppable.
“Dancin’ Fool” is notable for Frank delivering the ending pickup lines to a girl from the audience, ala the Saturday Night Live performance of the song. Frank dives right into the solo on “Easy Meat,” attacking the guitar with the usual fury that this metal-ish vamp brings out of him. “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Like Me?” is as fun for the audience as ever, and Frank takes time to collect gifts from the faithful (only in New York, folks) during “Keep It Greasey.” Some of these gifts have references to Zappa songs, namely “Penguin In Bondage” and “Punky’s Whips.”
“The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing” is the gateway to the Heavy Business portion of the program. This starts with “City Of Tiny Lites.” Denny whips another swamp a go-go slide workout on the crowd, with liberal use of his phasing effect, but Frank is ferocious from the first moment of his solo, bludgeoning the Hendrix Strat for all its worth. He’s gotten pretty proficient with that whammy bar; James Marshall would no doubt be proud. Denny loses his places for a moment during the last verse but recovers quickly.
Tonight’s Big Event once again involves one L. Shankar. “A Pound For A Brown On The Bus” starts off with Ed’s sweet vibes solo, but this is merely the calm before the storm. The “Thirteen” vamp breaks out, and we get a heavy dose of mind-blowing violin goodness courtesy of Shankar. As Frank notes, “His intonation is deadly,” and indeed it is. The way he glides effortlessly from note to note is very Minimoog-esque, and it takes him no time at all to win over this demanding New York audience. After a loud and deserved ovation, FZ comes in, working out in rhythm guitar mode. This builds up into an all-out Guitar God frenzy, Frank matching Shankar in intensity. As had been the case the previous evening, we get a stimulating FZ/Shankar duet to cap this section off, Frank toying with his octave pedal effect, presumably in an effort to match Shankar’s deadly intonation. This finally collapses in a meltdown.
Returning to “Pound For A Brown,” the rhythm section kicks into a relatively relaxed groove, allowing Peter Wolf to come forward with a Minimoog solo. This builds up in classic fashion, bit by bit, powered by furious drum hammering from Vinnie. As the rhythm section backs off, Peter adds in his trademark echo/delay effect but the solo doesn’t peter out into an unaccompanied space. Instead, Patrick comes to the fore to be the engine behind Peter as he wails away some more.
Finally, the bottom drops out, and it is time for Tommy to take up the reins. He begins this on the Vocoder, in a sort of duet with Patrick. Tommy then moves to the piano, playing against Patrick and Vinnie. This evolves into a more traditional Mars vocal/Electrocomp workout, which threatens to dissolve into randomized chaos, but instead winds up as an absurdly quick jazzy vamp, festooned with Minimoog, piano and Electrocomp by Tommy. What better way to conclude 28 minutes of majestic instrumental virtuosity but to come to a dead stop, am I right? An edit of the keyboard solos was deservedly released in 1991 on the You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 4 album.
Terra firma is now firmly reestablished with “Bobby Brown.” “Conehead” features the usual “Remulak” refrain, after which Frank hands off to Shankar for yet another sweet solo. This one is a killer as any of his solos from this run, and it was rewarded with release on the 2003 DVD-Audio disc Halloween. As is typically the case, Shankar easily locks in with Vinnie, who seemingly can lock in on and easily complement any instrumentalist.
We get one more blast of anything-can-happen musicianship with “Little House I Used To Live In.” Tonight’s conducted vocal intrusions include barking for some reason(!). Tommy slides into his vocal/piano breakdown, which sounds like it is going to mutate into the “Hail Ceasar” theme, but instead becomes a Vocoder/Electrocomp bit, wherein he is joined by Vinnie. A mid-tempo vamp then becomes the setting for a final Minimoog/piano solo before it gives way, bit by bit, to another dynamic drum solo from Vinnie, which also happens to be his longest yet.
We can now see the finish line of the main set. An enthusiastic “Magic Fingers” takes us to the “Yellow Snow” suite, the New York crowd ready for the audience participation bit by now as many audience members attended all six of these New York shows. Franks gives a shout out to our buddy Butch, who had participated in the Dance Contest the night before. There is real jubilation in the air as the set concludes with “Rollo.” Oh, to be in the audience for these shows!
For the encores, Frank gives the choice between new and old, and thus we inevitably get that super-heavy-duty famous, can’t lose trilogy of “Dinah-Moe Humm” (FZ noting that he has sung this song live for a hundred years), “Camarillo Brillo” and “Muffin Man.” A final burst of guitar mangling from FZ on the last of these is always a nice way to close out a show, but we get a final treat with another can’t lose favorite, “Peaches En Regalia.” This now features a slightly rearranged ending, incorporating what Frank would call the “Fake Devo” texture, a reference to the American New Wave band that Frank was a fan of at the time.
During “Persona Non Grata”:
FZ: Good evening! How you doing? OK. Alright, alright. Alright, welcome to the third Halloween show. I’d like to introduce the members of our rocking teenage combo tonight. Vince Colaiuta on earmuff, Arthur Barrow on bass, Patrick O’Hearn on bass, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Denny Walley on guitar and vocals, Peter Wolf on keyboards, Ed Mann on percussion. And oh, what a lovely audience we have here! Alright, let’s get on with it, and the name of this song is “Dancin’ Fool.”
Before “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing”:
FZ: And now, true religion!
Before “Thirteen”:
FZ: Alright folks, we have a special guest performing with us tonight. Like you to give a nice round of applause to L. Shankar, who’s gonna be (…) on violin on this (…). Now, I want you to be very careful now because his intonation is deadly!
Before “Conehead”:
FZ: Watch me now, because the name of this song is “Conehead.”
After “Rollo”:
FZ: Vinnie, Artie, Patty, Tommy, Denny, Petey, Eddie and Frankie. Thanks for coming to the show tonight, thank you New York #3!
Before “Dinah-Moe Humm”:
FZ: Thank you! Alright, what do you want? Old or new?
Audience: OLD!
FZ: OK, alright, alright, alright, alright, OK, I get the picture. The name of this song is “Dinah-Moe Humm.”
Before “Camarillo Brillo”:
FZ: Alright alright alright, and now for the second part of our traditional yearly encore. You already know this song too, so you’re gonna sing along with it, eh? The name of this song is “Camarillo Brillo.”
Before “Muffin Man”:
FZ: And now it’s time for “Muffin Man”!
Before “Peaches En Regalia”:
FZ: Well, that’s it! Thanks for coming to the show! You wanna hear one more? OK, since you guys are into oldies, here’s an oldie for ya. This is a song from the Hot Rats album; the name of this song is “Peaches En Regalia.”
After “Peaches En Regalia”:
FZ: Goodnight, Eric!