Zappa vs. The Austin Lounge Lizards

This past week we attended two musical performances in Houston.

One was Zappa Plays Zappa ("ZPZ"), where Frank Zappa's son Dweezil's band is playing Frank's music; and two was The Austin Lounge Lizards ("ALL").

Perhaps the only common thread running thru both bands is sarcasm: both Frank Zappa and The Austin Lounge Lizards swim deeply in the sarcastic pools of language. Beyond that, however, the acts couldn't be much further apart.

ZPZ is your classic arena rock act. About 1,000 fans showed up at The Verizon Wireless Theater, which holds around 2,500.

ALL is your classic small-room, near-acoustic act. ALL played to a packed McGonigel's Mucky Duck, but "packed" at the Duck means there were about 100 people present.

Walking into the Verizon, the house lights were up and sitting in our seats was like being interrogated under harsh lights. When the show began, the sheer volume of sound coming from the stage was deafening. Our ears were ringing for two days afterwards.

Walking into the Mucky Duck, with their cozy subdued lighting, felt more like visiting a friends living room. Only the Lounge Lizards bass guitar was amplified, but it must have been turned up to about "2" on the dial. The other instruments, banjo, steel guitar, acoustic guitars, violin, etc., were not amplified, but it didn't really matter, since we were sitting only 20 feet away from the stage.

ZPZ was mostly about Dweezil playing guitar. For the opening tune, Frank himself was cast upon a giant video screen, and Dweezil and Frank traded licks during the tune, the name of which I can't even remember. But the effect was chillling and awesome. But then they turned off the screen and didn't use it again for the rest of the time we were there. Since this is your typical arena rock atmosphere, the crowd was separated from the stage by an orchestra pit of sorts. In other words, you will not get close to the stage.

At the Duck, the members of the Lizards were sitting around in the crowd and milling about before the show began. ALL is currently a five-man ensemble, and each one sings and plays more than one instrument. The recent pilot of the Shuttle was in the crowd tonight, and they tried to get her to get up on stage, but she was afraid. Not afraid to sit on top of 1000 tons of rocket fuel, but too afraid to get up on stage. Go figure.

The food at the Verizon is your typical large-venue variety: popcorn, hot dogs, beer and soft drinks. All overpriced. You don't go here if you are hungry. T-shirts were for sale in the lobby for $30; CD's for $20. You're going to pay $6 to park in the underground parking at the Verizon, and you can even valet your car for another $5.

At the Duck, they have an entire menu of all sorts of foods, and about 100 beers from around the world. You can have a full dinner with your show. T-shirts were $15, and so were the CD's. And it costs nothing to park around the Duck. In fact, there are no parking places at all. You have to park along the street somewhere. Valet? What's that?

Most of the ZPZ show consisted of Dweezil playing guitar solos. I admit that I am not a die-hard Frank Zappa fan that knows every bit of his prodigious output, but I had several of Frank's LP's back in the day (before they were stolen), but I still could only recognize but two of the tunes the band played. After about 90 minutes of the show, the wife started getting cramps in her back and her neck, due probably to the most uncomfortable seats on the floor of the Verizon. We left before they got around to playing some of the most recognizable tunes, but by that time, we were so beat down by the volume level that leaving was practically a blessing. Geez, I felt pretty old in that crowd. Not that it was a young crowd. Oh no. Much of Houstons aging hippy community was also in attendance. Haven't seen so much tie-dye since the 60's. And there was a hint of hard drugs hanging in the air. We didn't smell any weed, but the looks on some of the faces suggested hallucinogens or perhaps heroin. It was a rough-looking crowd.

The crowd at the Duck for ALL was almost the same: definately some old hippies in tie-dye or tropical shirts, but this crowd had a moneyed edge I didn't see for ZPZ. There was a lot of jewelry and some pretty hot babes in attendance, none of which I saw at the Verizon. I knew every tune that the Lizards played, and still they were funny. It's good to LAUGH during a show, which I did plenty at the Duck, but not once at the Verizon. The seats at the Duck could be moved, turned, whatever you needed. Not bolted to the floor like the Verizon, so the wife was much more comfortable. "The Drugs I Need" is the Lizards latest release, and I already posted the video for it earlier on this blog. At this point in our lives, we are pretty much beyond the arena rock experience. Give us the homey small-room venue, where we get to shake hands with and talk to the band after the performance. Yep, we're officially old.

Finally, ZPZ tickets were $50, and it felt like a rip-off, and the ALL went for a flat $20, and worth every penny.

Winner by a knock-out: The Austin Lounge Lizards!!

No more concerts planned until the Asylum Street Spankers touch down at the Duck in late December. Now THOSE guys are nuts.