FRANK ZAPPA — You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Volume 2 (review)

FRANK ZAPPA — You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Volume 2 album cover Live album · 1988 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Warthur
The crown jewel of Zappa's You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series. Whilst the other double-disc sets were grab-bags of recordings from a range of performances, for this release Zappa chose to focus on the tapes from a small set of performances over a couple of days in Helsinki. The album does not present a recording of any one concert in particular, but is compiled in such a way as to provide a cohesive concert experience for the listener and to cram as many of the different tracks into the set as possible.

As far as editing goes, it's absolutely seamless - then again, Zappa had decades of tape manipulation under his belt at this point. The particular care and attention given to these performances suggest that Zappa considered them a particular high point of his concert career, to the point where he felt they deserved a complete YCDTOSA set devoted to them. On balance, I really can't disagree with him: the performances here are superb, easily the equal of Roxy and Elsewhere, but this album goes one better than Roxy by providing more material (including the amazing instrumental workout that takes up most of the second disc, from Dupree's Paradise to Building a Girl), as well as ensuring that the material captured is always entertaining to listen to. (I always thought the Bebop Tango from Roxy and Elsewhere was the sort of thing that was more fun to watch than to listen to.)

In short, this - and not Roxy and Elsewhere - is the definitive live document of the mid-1970s incarnation of the Mothers of Invention, and the care and attention with which Zappa has produced this comprehensive overview of the Helsinki performances is time well spent.
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