Customer Reviews

Zappa In Barcelona: European Tour May 1988

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I saw clips for this on YouTube, and then discovered this DVD, and bought it based on the clips I saw. A great performance ... but what a disappointment!!

This is clearly a 2nd or 3rd generation dub from some videotape, so already, it's NOT the best video. Given that, I could deal with it, and occasional additional distortion to the picture, but what's incredibly frustrating are the drop-outs in the sound! At least every 5 or 10 mins, there's NOT just a click, but an actual drop-out! At least 20-25 drop-outs are scattered throughout the whole thing, and occasionally, other minor distortions in the sound, which I could ALSO deal with, but NOT DROP-OUTS! It's basically unlistenable, and it's unlikely that I will watch this again, despite the fact that the performance is cool -- it's just an excercise in frustration.

I was warned by some of the guys on the Zappa.com forum, and they were right. I wouldn't pay 3 dollars for this thing.

Maybe 2.

It's not an official legal Zappa release. You can get it for free on torrent sites, possibly a better copy. It's a good quality video taken from a TV special. It's great, but you shouldnt pay 30 dollars for it. For an unrelated reason, maybe, visit Zappateers.com. It's an awesome 1988 concert with Bruce Fowler, Walt Fowler, Ike Willis, Ed Mann, Bobby Martin, Scott Tunes, Chad Wakerman, Mike Kenelly, and I forget the other horn players. Some of the songs are The Black Page, Big Swifty, Black Napkins, Sofa, a cover of I Am The Walrus, Strictly Genteel and many more great songs. By the way, that IS Strictly Genteel at the end and not a Sofa variation as another reviewer said, Sofa is played in the middle of the show. I'm a musician, I know and play both pieces quite well, I am very familiar with the different arrangments of both over the years, and I can tell you without a doubt that the concert ends with a great performance of Strictly Genteel.

Yes, this is a copy. And as far as I know, this is not authorized from the ZFT... but, it is good music. Hell, this is great music. And if you are like me, and I think you are if you are reading this, you have everything that FZ and the ZFT has put out in the market already, so this is a four star based on this information...

We would, I speak for a lot of FZ fans, love to have the ZFT put this out proper. The music deserves it, the fans deserve it, and obviously FZ wanted to do it or he would not have filmed it. So, do us all a favor DZ, GZ and put this out so I can toss this bad copy of very good music into the bin.

Mondo

Of course the Zappa tour of '88 is the stuff of leg ends, Scott Thunes squaring up to Ed Mann (you looking at my bass percussion boy?) etc. So it was which much anticipation that I purchased this DVD of the Barcelona concert, however upon viewing I was initially pretty disappointed. The quality of the picture is not good by today's large screen standards, it has a hazy, contrast-and-definition-lacking, fuzzy bear quality to it. I suspect this concert was broadcast on Spanish TV back in '88 and this is a 'cash in' transfer to DVD. It looks like someone who works at El Spaniol ITV has got a VHS out the back door and burned it to DVD on a PC in their bedroom. Now to the sound quality, well it's kinda Lo-Fi at best. It's stereo but the mix is BASS HEAVY, lacking in top, detail and some instruments (trombone) are not even in the mix, eg. when Bruce Fowler takes his solo! The worse part is there are drop outs, and very bad clicks and pops all the way throughout which really does interfere with your enjoyment of the material, especially when you crank it up. This is a travesty really when you consider Frank Zappa's continual quest to make his recordings the best possible sound quality he could all throughout his career. I don't quite know what's going on here, I mean this is not an 'official DVD' and I suspect royalties are not making their way to the Zappa estate from it, you certainly could never buy this on the high street, should it even be for sale on amazon? Also the photo on the front of Frank is not congruent with his look in '88, it's from a totally different era when he had long hair.

Now to the up side. what makes this DVD is the actual musical content and that band. This really is the Best Band You Have Never Heard in Your Life! They swing from classic reworked vocal Zappa, through reggae Bolero & Stravinsky references, to 80's catalogue and of course top notch instrumentals like Big Swifty and Water Melon in Easter Hay, which are nothing short of SUBLIME. These guys really can play, the band are very tight and the arrangements are complex - it is simply a joy to behold. Verdict? I would say ultimately it's only a tenner or so delivered so buy it and if you can't live with the sound once you watched it a few times sell it here again. Finally, the Zappa estate must know about this DVD, here's an idea: Get hold of the original footage and clean it up, and if there is a UMRK recording of the concert use that for the sound. Then we could have a pristine remastered version of this concert with 5.1 and all the bells and whistles, it would sell like hot cakes. They could maybe even get some interview footage of the participants for the DVD extras and then we could finally find out what went down on that '88 tour which caused it to implode and leave Frank $400,000 in the red.

Dweezil?

It's always fun to see something of Zappa, but the transformation of the concert to the DVD was done poorly. One of the songs was cut in the middle and there are jump cuts in the sound throughout the DVD.

This video, while not authorized by the Zappa Family Trust is a cool document of the short-lived 1988 Zappa big band. A warm introduction is given by Frank in Spanish (learned "parrot fashion) and the tight, well-seasoned band of the "Broadway The Hard Way" album kicks in with a mixture of fresh material and old favorites. Five horns, Ike Willis on vocals, Mike Keneally on stunt guitar, and a real-live Synclavier on stage. And some truly mind bending guitar solos by the maestro. Great fun. The aspect ratio is 4 by 3, the audio is stereo, and the video quality is ok, but not great. It's all about the music. If you enjoy this type of entertainment, you will not be disappointed.

If this is a Zappa Family Trust approved DVD I'll eat my hat. So you might want to get this before they do. That said, this is decent stuff. An obvious dub from VHS of a Spanish TV show broadcast in 1988. It seems to be the whole show. The sound is good, video OK and it is professionally shot. One note - last song is a "Sofa" variation, not Strictly Genteel.

This is difficult to rate. This performance was from the 1988 tour that has been regarded as one of the best live bands Frank ever took out on tour. It was the band behind such great cds as The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life, Broadway The Hard Way and Make A Jazz Noise Here as well as some performances on the later YCDTOSA discs. That alone should make this a worthwhile investment. This DVD only received 3 stars from me for a few reasons. First off the multi-generational copies that are being sold from vendors really makes for a tough video to watch. I didn't notice the sound drop out on my copy as much as other reviewers did but maybe I just didn't pay attention. Possibly some discs are worse than others. The disc for sale here says it's only 90 minutes long. That may be a mistake as the copy I purchased quite a while ago is over 2 hours long. Though I did purchase it elsewhere. You can download for free the 2 hour plus performance off You Tube if you like and the picture is remarkably clean. I've been watching it for a better part of an hour now and I haven't noticed any sound problems. All in all I am genuinely pleased with the quality of the sound and picture of the download. I'm watching it on a large screen high def monitor and it looks and sounds great. I don't necessarily agree or support pirated material but if Gail and the ZFT clan don't see fit to ever release this material, I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to grab it. (ZFT clan, where are The Roxy performances??) When I purchased this way back when I did assume it had some ties to Frank or the FZT. Apparently not. On a side note, you may want to pick up a copy of the new book by Andrew Greenaway called "Zappa The Hard Way". It documents the 1988 tour. It's a great book and is full of interviews with the band and FZ himself.

Normally I would review anything related to Frank thoroughly enough that I didn't have already and wait in anticipation! If Frank saw these folk putting out whatever they can for whatever reason, he'd be pissed, simple enough! So much work goes into any production not put out yet by the ZFT, these con artists are like any other out there!
If you want to spend some money, go to the Dweez's site for the Zappa plays Zappa shows coming up and help decide on the material for the shows coming up, and then go see them!!!

Although this is not the best audio or visual experience you could hope for, it is the only documentation of the 1988 tour. And that is enough said, and why I gave it 5 stars.