The Grandmothers of Invention at Stubbs

Second Time Around

Fourteen months have passed since I last saw the Grandmothers of Invention. When I saw this show announced, I knew I had to go. After meeting the band last time, I feel like the members of the band are old friends.

The lineup

The membership of the Grandmothers has changed. The most noticeable departure being Tom Fowler, who is now playing with another Zappa Tribute band, the Band from Utopia. The current lineup consists of:

• Napoleon Murphy Brock - Lead Vocals, Tenor Sax, and Flute. An original Mother
• Don Preston - Keyboards. The other original Mother
• Chris Garcia - Drums and backup vocals
• Max Kutner - Electric Guitar
• Dave Johnson - Bass

Set-list

The band played two sets that were approximately 70 minutes in length. Unfortunately, I did not keep track of the set-list. The 2013 tour was being billed as the One Size Fits All tour, and they did in fact play every song from that album. The highlights for me were the Sofa No. 1 and No. 2, and San Ber'dino for the encore.

I do now that they also played selections like Village of the Sun from Roxy and Elsewhere, and Burnt Weenie Sandwich.

Prior to the show, Napoleon circled through the crowd, shaking the hand of anyone and thanking them for coming. My respect for this great artist grew exponentially. As always, his vocals and playing were amazing. In fact, the entire band was tighter than a whale's asshole.

Even though there was no VIP access this time, I got to speak to the drummer, Chris Garcia, between the sets. I was happy that he remembered me, from the previous show.

All in all, it was fantastic night of music.

The Grandmothers of Invention

I'm not sure how I found out about this show, since it wasn't well advertised. None the less, I was not about to pass up an opportunity to see 3 members of the Mothers of Invention, perform Frank Zappa's music.

Meet and Greet

When I purchased this ticket, I noticed that a VIP ticket was only $20.00 more, so I bought one. Showing up an hour early, I was immediately escorted to the dressing rooms, and backstage area, to meet the musicians:

• Napoleon Murphy Brock (with the Mothers from 1974 - 1984) vocals, tenor saxophone, and flute
  
• Tom Fowler (with the Mothers from 1973 - 1978) bass
  
• Christopher Garcia - drums, percussion, marimba, and vocals
  
• Miroslav Tadic - electric guitar
  
• Don Preston (with the Mothers from 1966 - 1974) on piano, keyboard synthesizers, electronics, magic, and vocals!
  

What a fantastic time, it was an absolute pleasure to be able to speak with Don, Tom, and Napoleon about their tenure in Frank's band, and most importantly get their audition stories, particularly after having the same conversation with Adrian Belew several months prior.

Since I happened to have a King Crimson - Discipline T-shirt on, I immediately struck up a conversation with Chris Garcia the drummer, who just happened to be a huge Bill Bruford fan. Wow, it seemed like we had almost identical tastes in music, and it was a rare pleasure to talk to people who shared one of your passions.

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The Show

The show started a bit late to a light crowd, on the indoor stage. I was actually trying to recall the last show I had seen inside, other than some Gospel Brunches. It has been well over a decade.

I estimate that the Grandmothers played for about 90 minutes, and covered the most of the material on the Roxy and Elsewhere album. If I remember correctly, the Roxy album was also featured prominently during the first ZPZ tour, with Napoleon. So, perhaps there was a bit of a statement being made, with this particular song selection. In addition to the Roxy material, they also played Peaches en Regalia, and one of my favorites during their encore, the Sofa.

I was truly blown away by this band, although I was not surprised, knowing their history. I should also add that Napoleon had the funniest comment of the night, in response to the persistent requests from the audiences for certain songs. He held up a zip-lock bag containing a 10 Finnish Mark note. And said, that requests would be happily taken from anyone present able to pay in this currency. (He also mentioned that this had backfired on them, during a stop of a European tour).

Here are few picture of these terrific musicians, on stage: