The Furious Bongos

Featuring Chad Wackerman

We’re only in it for the money.

HAHAHAHA

OK, OK...we’re just a bunch of professional musicians with pretty diverse backgrounds who decided to take on a pretty big challenge and have some fun in the process. 

Now, you might ask, “Oh yeah? Professional musicians, eh? What makes you think you can play Frank’s music as well as [insert Zappa family/band member here]?”

Well...maybe you haven't heard of us individually, but <sing> "we're pretty good musicians" </sing> and you probably have heard of the folks on our resumes: 

Yo Yo Ma, Mick Fleetwood, BB King, Vinnie Colaiuta, Dweezil Zappa, LA Philharmonic, Arthur Barrow, Munich Philharmonic, Bryan Beller, Popa Chubby, Limelight: A Tribute To Rush, Pinetop Perkins, Chicago Lyric Opera, Madison Opera, blah blah blah....you get the idea.

As for Frank's music, he was constantly changing things, both for his own creative choices and to adapt to the different musicians he had over the years. He also understood that his live performances were entertainment: it's supposed to be a rock show, not a piano recital.

With all that in mind, we don’t think playing Song X from Album Y note-for-note while staring at our shoes is the proper way to go about this.

The result of that approach (combined with a lot of homework) is a show that pays respect to Zappa’s legacy, but is also new and different and dangerous and FUN, with lots of eyebrows.

Kinda like Frank.