Tady: From Ambridge to Zappa, let's talk concerts

2022-06-10 21:11:58 By : Ms. Ashily Xiong

Might be a good time to invest in a portable lawn chair.

Because the outdoor concert season keeps blossoming here in the Beaver Valley.

Starting this very Sunday, the Performing Arts Legends Museum in Ambridge begins its Celebrate America outdoor concert series.

Showtimes are 2-4 p.m. with a stellar lineup:

June 26: Donna Groom and Mark Groom of The Skyliners

July 10: Hat Trick Band (Jimi and Dena Miller).

July 24: Stellare Strings from Youngstown.

Aug 14: Tony Barge and The Honky Tonk Heroes

Aug. 28: MoJoDia and the Usual Suspects

Sept. 11: The Guise Band (Todd Tusick & Ambridge musicians)

Sept. 25: Villain (with hard-rock stalwarts Dan & Dave Climo)

Tickets cost $10, which includes Performing Arts Legends Museum admission throughout 2022.

Ellwood City's free summer concert series gets rolling June 18 with the Wrangler Band.

Saturday shows start at 7 p.m. at Ellwood City's Community Plaza at 524 Lawrence Ave. If there's rain, shows move to Lincoln High School auditorium. Wednesday shows begin at 5:30 p.m. and are part of Wander Ellwood’s Open Street events.

• June 18: Wrangler Band • June 25: Hopewell Community Big Band • July 6: "American Idol" contestant Morgan Gruber • July 16: RMS Trio • July 23: Tony Barge and the Honky Tonk Heroes • July 30: Lawrence County Brass • Aug. 3: The D-Tour Band • Aug. 13: Allegheny Brass Band

"Here's the deal. We'll get tuned up. I'll introduce the band to you. Then we'll play you one helluva show," Frank Zappa promised an Edinboro College crowd on May 8, 1974.

Zappa and his Mothers of Invention delivered that evening in northwest Pennsylvania, with a loose, musically prodigious performance available now as part of a six-disc boxed set/digital collection, "Frank Zappa/Erie" containing seven hours of unreleased audio from the iconoclastic legend's three 1974-76 Erie area concerts.

The sound quality is sharp. The marimba of the Mothers' Ruth Underwood sounds like it's in the room with you. You'll hear rowdy fans' remarks, and Zappa's clever retorts.

"We must be very close to New Jersey," Zappa jokes amid bellowed song requests preceding "Cheepnis," a song celebrating cheesy horror movies.

In several instances, Zappa encourages the rambunctious Edinboro crowd to take a seat.

"Give a guy a college degree, and he has to stand up," Zappa says.

Zappa temporarily stops the show during "I'm Not Satisfied," saying, "Look if you want to have a concert, sit down and relax and you'll have a concert."

Musical gems abound such as "Cosmik Debris" with out-of-this-world synth, harmonica, and Zappa's famed electric guitar freakouts setting up the timeless lyrical question: Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?

"Bruce Fowler now will play you something on trombone you'll forget immediately," Zappa says in that arid tone of his before an acid jazz romp through "Montana," his true-to-form off-kilter hit where he yearns to open a dental floss ranch in Big Sky country.

"Dupree's Paradise" becomes a 22-minute exploratory romp.

"We know a lot people are here for the old stuff," Zappa says, promising the band will "puke it out like a giant flesh jukebox," before a set of counter-counter-culture tunes from his '60s catalog.

He reintroduces the band's members and says "Wait, we have time for one more quick thing," ending the Edinboro show − without a cliched encore − by performing "Camarillo Brillo."

The Nov. 12, 1974, show at Gannon University in Erie is even rowdier, with Zappa not letting a runny nose damper his dry wit, and song intros like, "This next song is 'RDNZL' and it goes absolutely nothing like this."

There's a tiny delay during "Penguin in Bondage" as the band searches for its duck call device.

Zappa repeatedly pleads for fans to sit down, and quit pushing toward the mass of humanity wedged in front of the stage.

"Look we're going to be here a long time so why don't you sit down ... we would like everyone to enjoy the show not just the ones hanging in the front of the stage. .. Hold the boos. It would be different if it was an English group," he says.

Worried the risqué lyrics to the famed "Dinah Moe Humm" might be "too delicate for a place like Erie, Pa.," Zappa nevertheless encourages fans to simultaneously "release" themselves at the song's climax, so to speak.

During the Gannon rendition of "Montana" he jokes about running away to that western state to get away from Erie concertgoers who stubbornly refuse to sit.

They know about snow in Erie, which must have fueled extra excitement for the classic "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow," played by the maestro and his band, including future Genesis tour drummer Chester Thompson, at a languid speed, counterbalancing Zappa's super fast lyric reciting.

Zappa begins the Nov. 12, 1976, show at the Erie County Fieldhouse with another request for fans to take a seat.

The band, now including drummer Terry Bozzio of future Missing Persons fame, rampaged through songs like "Stink-foot" and "Wonderful Wino." The guitar solos sound more demonstrative than at the other two Erie area shows.

Available June 17, I recommend "Zappa/Erie" as a glorious time capsule from a legend in his prime, with a bit of western Pennsylvania concert history as icing.

Overseen by theZappa Trust, "Zappa/Erie" includes detailed liner notes with insights from Dan Schell, author of the encyclopedic "9 Years Of Rock: The Story Of The Concerts At The Erie County Fieldhouse."

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*Pittsburgh rocker Byron Nash and his band Nash.V.Ill will entertain Sept. 23 on the outdoor stage at Beaver Station Cultural & Event Center. It's a truly back-by-popular demand show, Nash and vocalist Jacquea Mae amazed the crowd that saw them this past April in a more stripped-down setting inside Beaver Station. Nash & Nash.V.Ill will be part of a three-show series with Buffalo Rose on July 22 and Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers on Aug. 26. Tickets are $75 for the three-show series at beaverstation.org

*Pat Monahan says skip the babysitter and bring along the kids to see his pop-rock band Train ("Drops of Jupiter") on its AM Gold Tour. On most dates, including The Pavilion at Star Lake on June 17, children 10 and under get in free with a paid adult. This is for lawn seats only, and redeemable at the box office. Jewel and Blues Traveler are the support acts.

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Scott Tady can be reached at stady@gannett.com.