I've seen him several times. Really great fun, but also a 'reproduction' - not like seeing Frank in his heyday (I was a Zappa fanatic in the mid-to-late 70s and would hitchhike down from college to NYC and spend a week seeing as many shows at the Palladium as I could afford). Dweezil is an AMAZING player, but t's a VERY odd thing to me, that at the ZPZ shows, the 'old vibe' only shows up when some of the old guys show up - and I don't mean Steve Vai. I mean guys like Napoleon Murphy Brock, Tom fowler - any of the old crew from the time period I revere - from about '73 to '80, or some from later too, like Ray White. Among other things, Frank had a lot of great African American vocalists, and a lot of his music ain't right without those guys, and George Duke etc. singing. The show is well worth seeing, but it is a bit tighter and maybe more 'antiseptic' than the tight-but-freewheeling formula that Frank created. Frank's band was razor-sharp, like Jame's Brown's - but also hada loosey-goosey feeel to them (check out the 'You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Helsinki Concert CD to see whatI mean). I've actually seen other Zappa tribute bands, most notably 'Project Object' that I think capture that old magic better. Dunno why - it all comes down to alchemy between the players.
