THE
GRANDMOTHERS
(feat.
Jimmy
Carl Black, Don Preston,
&
Bunk
Gardner of the original
Mothers
Of Invention)
LIVE
at
I-Spy in Seattle
Photos
& text by Rob Morgan
Pics
of Rob w/ the band by Jean Gauthier
(c)
2000 Poplust
Don
Preston &
me (Rob)!!!
On Monday, October 2nd in the year of our Lord 2000, those few lucky souls brave enough to risk getting their asses kicked by venturing into downtown Seattle at night were rewarded a million times over for any discomfort by way of one of the most mind-blowing displays of musicianship & downright PRO'FESHNULISM I've seen in this town for YEARS. For on this magical night, the almighty GRANDMOTHERS brought their "What's Zappening? Tour 2000" to I-Spy, a jet black nightclub with a speakeasy style foyer & an alley entrance (formerly the location of The Teathered Ball) & treated us all to nearly 3 hours of prime GRADE-A ZAPPA MUSIC- as performed by the actual men who recorded much of it- with a healthy dose of their own originals like "Great White Buffalo", "Trail Of Tears", & "Did He Really Shit On The Stage?" thrown in for good measure. And all for only twelve bucks!!! WOO HOO!!! That's right, we're talking about sax man BUNK GARDNER, keyboard virtuoso DON PRESTON, & the irrepressible JIMMY CARL BLACK ("the INDIAN of the group")- ably backed by 2 swingin' Italians and some guy from Amsterdam, all of whom seemed born for the job. Or at least WAY UP for it. Needless to say, this show FRIED PEOPLES BRAINS BIGTIME- I mean, THIS WAS THE REAL SHIT, man! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST O'MIGHTY!!! I mean, we're talking about THE MOTHERS here, folks- probably my favorite band of ALL TIME!!! Can you DIG IT?
Jimmy
Carl Black sings "Willie
The Pimp" ("Hot
ZITS!
Hot TITS!...")
The Squirrels meet The Mothers!
L to R: Me, Jimmy Carl Black,
G.M. guitarist Sandro
Oliva, & SQ. bassist Kevin Crosby.
Right: me with Bunk
Gardner.
The
list of songs performed by The Grandmothers that night was enough to make
any
Zappa fan practically
GIDDY with delight- highlights included "King Kong", "Call
Any Vegetable", "Brown
Shoes Don't Make It", "Holiday In Berlin", "Flower Punk",
"Orange County Lumber
Truck", "Son Of Mr. Green Genes", "Oh No", "Who Are The
Brain Police", "Big Leg
Emma", "Willie The Pimp", Capt. Beefheart's "Neon Meate Dream
Of A Octafish" (!!!),
a weird cover of "Money (That's What I Want)" (???), &, of course,
the
obligatory performance
of "Lonesome Cowboy Burt". And about 80 billion more I
can't think of right
now (a lot of stuff ran together in medley's).
In other words, it was
UN-FREAKIN'-BELIEVABLE.
Jimmy
Carl Black served
as 'method frontman' & percussionist-
and
he sang PRETTY DARN GOOD, too!
Don
was simply AMAZING on both
keyboards & vocals-
I mean, these guys
can still WHIP IT OUT!!!!
Don
doing
his "repent, you sinners" schtick-
"
...I know you've been outside smoking that marijuana-
well,
free yourselves of that evil weed, Brothers &
Sisters!
Throw it up here on the stage, & we'll
take
care of it for ya... and we know there
are
some loose women out there
in
the audience... we'll take care
of
them, too!"
GRANDMOTHERS
cont.
on PAGE 2...