ZAPPANALE 2022 - #1

This year, our Zappanale adventure kicked off with a Steve Vai concert in Antwerp.
Of course, Steve's concert was not really part of the Zappanale festivities but the concert was on Sunday evening and our trip started on Tuesday, so it felt like a pre-pre-Zappanale concert.

The OLT in Deurne, near Antwerp is a superb location. Most importantly, it's an amphitheater so everybody's got a good view.

Nicholas Meier opened.
Electro-acoustic guitar. Oriental flavoured jazz sound. Also fretless electro-acoustic and a 10-string guitar of which I forgot the name.
Vai’s show started pretty loud. Too loud, actually. I’m still wondering why.
Is it because the guys at the mixing board are getting deaf? Is it because they measure the sound level only from the p.a.?? I don’t see the benefit of a band being amplified too loud and the audience needing earplugs!?! Earplugs never not do justice to the actual sound balance…
Halfway through the show, I decided to continue without the earplugs. A wise decision sound- wise, if you discard the ‘heavy head’ afterwards.
Still, over two hours of instrumental wonderment. 

(picture by Frank Laforce)

On Tuesday, we left for Hamburg. Arriving in the evening, we went for tapas in the Karolinenviertel. Nice.
The next day, we had to return to the same neighbourhood as it's also the location of some fine record shops: Fischkopp-plattenshop, Groove City and Zardoz are only a stone's throw apart.

Last year, I picked up the 2019 re-issue of Sun Ra's "Space Is The Place" at Groove City. On blu-ray and DVD.

This year, I brought home a copy of MF Doom's "MM.. Food?" album, a repress from 2020 on green and pink vinyl, from the Zardoz record shop.
(track1, 'Beef Rap' includes a sample of Zappa's 'Would You Like A Snack?', track 8, 'Gumbo', includes samples of Zappa's 'Holiday In Berlin, Full Blown' and of 'Would You Like A Snack?'.)

A fine start it was, and it was only Wednesday afternoon...