ZAPPANALE #35 - - - PART 17 - - - HAPPY TOGETHER

 Saturday, July 18, 2026,

Dear diary,
I enjoyed another episode of "Peter's Adventures in Zappanaleland".

The Yo Cats trio started the festivities over at Café Zikke.
Keyboards, guitar and drums.
Playful and funny.
Fred (on keyboards) had brought along a new album. Sort of a bootleg. Solo piano performing Zappa. More on this later.

The second morning event saw Pamela Des Barres reading from her "I'm With The Band" book.
I've read the book and I expected translations into German (which is nice but also very time consuming), so we skipped this.

In all, the Café Zikke location was very nice. It's sort of a pedestrian passageway to a parallel street where the Café Zikke terrace and some additional benches give room to the audience and the band is staged on the other side of the passageway.
Lovely.

Our afternoon started with Octafish on the Arf Stage on the festival ground.
An energetic and powerful opener. Exactly what a festival needs.

Next, the Hilo Jazz Orchestra brought the energy level down again with their Hawaiian reggae, only to revive it with some Frank Zappa tunes. Nice.

At 16h30, the highlight of the day: Tante Tofu performed their rock opera.
We've seen Tante Tofu in several incarnations but this new band is the best we've seen so far.
Great vocals, two guitars, a great sounding electric wind instrument,...
Loved it.
Being all mesmerized, I forgot to take a picture but I'm sure some will turn up soon. 

Also right up my alley was Mentat Routage.
Vocal artist (and jazz cornet player) Médéric Collignon lifted the performance to an extra level.
I loved their improvisation and the way that they approached the Zappa compositions. My only remark would be that they shouldn't have used the lyrics of the Zappa songs. It sounded a bit sloppy (and even onomatopoeic most of the time).
But as I said, I did like their improvisations and the way the approached the compositions. A lot.

And then, the Filthy Brillos took over the Arf Stage.
Energetic, chaotic, funny, and musically brilliant.
Born out of necessity at a previous gig, the band featured members of Yo Cats & the Husos (MSRBLN HRNSN).

This was FUN (in capitals).
There were too many great moments: Christian's guest appearance on vocals, the a cappella version of 'Happy Together', the switching of instruments, the amazing guitar solos,...

Our day finished with The Mahavishnu Project, performing Mahavishnu.
Amazing.
What a day.

ZAPPANALE #35 - - - PART 16 - - - THIS IS WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR

Friday morning felt like Saturday morning. But that was because of the extended pre-party on Thursday.
It was an additional day to the festival that took place at the Arf Stage, a very nice gift from the Arf Society.

Friday morning started with two concerts in the center of Bad Doberan, at Café Zikke.
Smalltape was the first one to take the proverbial stage. Performing a solo set, we heard more intimate versions of some of the songs that had been performed by the larger band on Thursday.
I really like it.
Philipp (Nespital) made great use of his loop station, resulting in optimal use of guitar, keyboards and vocals. Progressive rock in a solo setting. Very nice.

Smalltape performed at 11h00.
At 12h00, the (Petit) Halo Jazz Orchestra was up.
Lounge jazz, a couple of Frank Zappa tunes ('I'm The Slime' and 'Road Ladies'), and a handful of Hawaiian reggae tunes.
A fine start of the day.

And, yes, the Mexican Pope was there as well :-)

(Mick, Angel & yours truly)

Around 14h00 Doom Gong set things in motion on the festival ground.

We walked in just in time to hear a snippet from "200 Motels" after which they switched to an exhilarating version of 'King Kong'. Goosebumps.
Doom Gong's original material is pretty high-energy. Great to listen to and great to watch as well.
I'll be on the lookout for some video snippets...

"VKB Plays Tom Waits" was nice. Great voices, lovely harmonies, surprising instruments and sounds.

Lovely. And they performed a Zappa tune. I can't stress enough how much I like that bands do the effort to add a Frank Zappa tune to their setlist when performing at Zappanale. That's what makes the Zappanale experience even more special.

And the expos, of course. Here's Angel with the expo on his latest project, which started as a t-shirt design.

At 18h00, from London, UK: The Lovers Of Invention.
An amazing show !!
Trombone, saxophone, marimba, guitar (x 2), bass, drums, keyboards,...
What a sound. And Jonah Hitchens, what a voice.

And shortly after the concert had finished, we were informed of the upcoming storm. It would be short and powerful, but it would also be gone within an hour, so everybody was advised to leave the festival ground and to take shelter.

The schedule was moved back with one hour.
We didn't stay and drove back to the hotel.

So we missed Agitation Free and their video show, but that's OK as we were more than happy with what we had seen and heard.

ZAPPANALE #35 - - - PART 15 - - - "HEILIGE TAUSEND GRANATEN", WAS FÜR EIN GEWITTER

What a joy it is, to arrive in Bad Doberan.
All friendly faces.

The festival started with Superthousand, a band with a Pink Floyd vibe. They sounded great.

Next up was Smalltape. Melodic progressive rock. Loved it. Perfect festival vibe.

In between, I did have a short chat with Gregg Bendian and Neil Alexander from the Mahavishu Project.
Ben Rubie was still in Hamburg as his violin needed repair, but everything should be fine before they hit the stage on Saturday (and Sunday).
Two different sets. I'm really looking forward to this.

We also ran into Turbulator (who performed at Zappanale last year). After his move from Australia to the UK, he's finished the work on his studio and he's making progress working on original material as well as working on some Zappa material. Sounds promising.

I also talked to Fred Händl who shared the reason for the delay of his "Zappa Album": the artwork is being done by none other than Cal Schenkel (and that takes time). Wowie zowie !

And shortly thereafter, a heavy downpour and accompanying thunderstorm took over the festival.

Despite the changing weather conditions, Icarus Burns had taken the stage. Don't know what happened to Black Zappath...
As the rain didn't stop, we headed back to the hotel. I'm also curious to find out if Chato performed at the Zappateers tent later on...

Anyway, it's Friday now. The weather's looking good and today's line-up is very promising.
To be continued.

ZAPPANALE #35 - - - PART 14 - - - MUSIC FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE

"Music from the other side of the fence", as Captain Beefheart once said.

The phrase perfectly summarizes the spirit of Zappanale, the legendary annual Frank Zappa tribute festival held just outside Bad Doberan on the German Baltic coast. 

Zappanale isn't a traditional festival; it celebrates progressive rock, jazz, classical, and avant-garde music—deliberately stepping "to the other side of the fence" of mainstream music.

This year, the rock sound seems more present but that's just a coincidence.

The best thing about the festival is that you get to watch and listen to the music alongside like-minded people.
They’re few and far between where we live, but here in Bad Doberan, there’s an exceptionally high concentration of them.

I’m looking forward to sharing my fascination with Sun Ra or The Residents, but I'm also eager to learn about music and musicians that I've never heard of.

Next to the freaks and friends that I'll be meeting tomorrow, I also re-acquainted with some childhood buddies. It seems that they have this thing going with HVV. Good for them.

And I forgot to mention the Michelle Records store yesterday. Also in Hamburg.

A nice shop & a happy customer :
Sun Ra's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", an expanded re-issue of the 1977 album.

ZAPPANALE #35 - - - PART 13 - - - THE ROAD TRIP TO BAD DOBERAN

What's a road trip without a mandatory stop to some of your favourite record stores?
In this particular case, it's Zardoz Records and Groove City Records in Hamburg.

I was convinced that my little list would lead to positive results, but I guess the items were not that obvious.

With both record store having a vast selection of soul, jazz and hip hop, I was looking for
- a coloured vinyl re-issue of J Dilla's "Donuts"  (sampled FZ)
- another coloured vinyl edition of Madvillany's album (sampled FZ)
- the coloured vinyl version of Madlib's "Rock Kondukta Pt 2" (sampled FZ)
- another coloured vinyl edition of Med, Blue & Madlib's Bad Neighbor" (sampled FZ)
- the coloured vinyl edition of Quasimoto "The Further Adventures Of..."

I did come across the black vinyl edition of the Quasimoto album, with very interesting artwork, referring to Sun Ra and to Frank Zappa on the album cover, but I ticked this one off my list quite a while ago already...

Anway, we have another day in Hamburg today.
No record stores, I guess, but mentally preparing for Zappanale...

ZAPPANALE #35 - - - PART 12 - - - THE SUNDAY PREVIEW

The third day of a festival.
Everyone and everything will move slower.
Even the obsrever.
Especially in the morning.

Looking at the bands, however, Sunday will be far from slow.

There will be no warm-up shows in the village center, but that's OK because the festival ground will start shaking around 12h00 already.

12h00 Hala

Emphasizing on the narrative aspects, Dutch band Hala brings fairy-tale like compositions.
Seems perfect for a Sunday morning.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/hala-nl

13h30 The Hilo Jazz Orchestra

On Sunday, for their second performance, the Hilo Jazz Orchestra will perform the music of Frank Zappa.
There's an excellent video on YouTube of one of the Zappa concerts. It's the concert they did with Dweezil Zappa and with Ike Willis.
In Bad Doberan, it will be without the special guests, and with a smaller orchestra, but we'll only get one chance to see this (unless we travel to Hawaii, that is).

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/hilo-jazz-orchestra-usa

16h00 Die Miserablen Husos

Zappa in German.
Translated, phonetically reproduced, or re-imagined.
I've seen them a couple of times and this is fun.
It will be an entertaining break between the Hilo Jazz Orchestra and the Mahavishnu Project.
Featuring Chato Segerer (whose Zapped band made a remarkable appearance at Zappanale last year) on bass.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/die-miserablen-husos-de

17h30 Mahavisnhu Project

For their second Zappanale gig, the Mahavishnu Project will perform the music of Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer.
That's a lot of Zappa on Sunday, but probably / hopefully with a different approach by each band.

And this will lead into the Goodbye Session, and then it's finished on the main stage.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/mahavishnu-project-usa

21h00 Putan Club

The final concert on the Arf Stage will be by the Putan Club, a groovy, energetic duo from France and Italy.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/putan-club-it-fr

ZAPPANALE #35 - - - PART 11 - - - THE SATURDAY PREVIEW

 Saturday, again, will be a packed schedule.

Two additional morning sessions at Café Zikke (Alexandrinenplatz 2):

11h00 Yo Cats

Featuring Fred Händl (keyboards) and Jakob van der Linden (bass), the duo will perform the music of Frank Zappa.
Fred mentioned that he is bringing some goodies along: A limited edition CD(R) with a live recording of some Frank Zappa pieces. He also said  that he has good news to share about the Frank Zappa tribute album he's been preparing (for quite a while).

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/yo-cats-nl

12h00 Pamela Des Barres will give a lecture, also at Café Zikke.

For those at the festival ground, Jim Cohen will do one of his famous lectures. This will be fun as well.
I've seen and heard Jim on various occasions, and this has always been very interesting.

11h00 Jim Cohen

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/jim-cohen-usa-de

And then it's time for the wake up call as Octafish will take the Arf Stage.

13h30 Octafish

This will be good. I've enjoyed their previous Zappanale appearances, and I love their albums.
Recommended !!

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/octafish-de

15h15 Hilo Jazz Orchestra

For their first main stage performance, the Saturday one, the Hilo Jazz Orchestra will be performing the music of Trever Veilleux.
Think Hawaiian reggae.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/hilo-jazz-orchestra-usa

16h45 Tante Tofu, feat. Pamela Des Barres

Masterminds Christianne Seebach and Andreas Steinhardt, plus Christian Frerichs, Bernd Matthias, Marc Rinderspacher, and Claire Reich will be performing their latest production: rock opera "ScheiLa".
And, yes, with a special appearance by Pamela Des Barres.
This should be fun.
Tante Tofu performed a play last year, "When Zappa Met Bach" and that was hilarious.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/tante-tofu-de-feat-pamela-des-barres-usa

18h30 Mentat Routage - The Brothers Of Dimension

French collective Mentat Routage with special guest Médéric Collignon will pay tribute to the music of Frank Zappa.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/mentat-routage-brothers-of-dimension-fr

20h30 Filthy Brillos

Born out of necessity, the Filthy Brillos combine musicians that happened to be around during the latest edition Heubach festival. Appearantly, it worked.
Expect the music of Frank Zappa, maybe even with a twist.

I really like the concept. In my mind, Zappanale should try to emphasize on these kind of projects. One-off experiments.
I remember the time when bands that performed at Zappanale added a Frank Zappa piece to their repertoire. Just for the occasion.
Or musicians from one band, sitting in with another band.
It's a pity that we lost these kind of surprises.
Let's see if the Filthy Brillos can turn the tide for more future experiments.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/filthy-brillos-nl-de

22h00 The Mahavishnu Project

The Mahavishnu Project will be performing on Saturday and on Sunday.
On Saturday, the band will focus on the music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/mahavishnu-project-usa

00h30 Guts Pie Earshot

Guts Pie Earshot will close the night. Check out the video in the below link. It's just two musicians: Patrick Reerink on cello, and Jean Jacobi on drums.
But their sound is huge.
"Instrumental psychedelic dance- punk" might indeed be an apt description.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/guts-pie-earshot-de

ZAPPANALE #35 - - - PART 10 - - - THE FRIDAY PREVIEW - - - WHEN PLANNING WILL BECOME ESSENTIAL

On Friday, the musical activities will kick off in Bad Doberan town.
Two 'warm-up' events have been scheduled at Café Zikke (at Alexandrinenplatz 2).

11h00 Smalltape

The Thursday gig will be with a larger band, while this more intimate setting will be a solo concert by  Smalltape / Philipp Nespital.

12h00 The Petit Hilo Jazz Orchstra

10 musicians from the Hilo Jazz Orchestra are flying over to Bad Doberan. They'll perform on the main stage twice, but part of the ensemble will also do a 'warm-up' at Café Zikke on Friday.

In the meantime, the Kosmische Brocken documentary is shown at the Kamp Theater, and things will start over at the Rennbahn as well.

12h00 Pamela Des Barres Meets Jim Cohen

At the same time, over at the festival ground, Jim Cohen will invite Pamela Des Barres in his red sofa.

Around 14h00 the actual festival will start, switching between the (smaller) Arf Stage and the (larger) main stage.

14h00 - Doom Gong

This sounds like fun. Lots of energy.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/doom-gong-usa

16h00 - the VKB band

"Re-inventing the music of Tom Waits."
The VKB Band will be performing at the Arf Stage. Judging by the clips I've seen on YouTube, this seems to be the perfect place for them.
Looking forward to this !

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/vkb-band-usa

18h00 - OFFICIAL OPENING, and concert by The Lovers Of Invention

The London-based Lovers Of Invention.
The band that I definitely want to see. I even considered going to London to see one of their gigs.
It was said that there were plans to get them to perform at the MOSAE Zappa festival last year, but, for some reason, that didn't or couldn't happen.
Very excited to see them.
If you check out some of their YouTube videos, you'll notice that at one time, Emma Rawicz was part of the band. Give her recent projects a listen as well.
Also worth mentioning is guitarist and lead vocalist Jonah Hitchens's "The Snake Boys" project. They have an album out (on Bandcamp) with their version of FZ's 'Cosmik Debris'.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/the-lovers-of-invention-uk

20h00 - Brique

There will be no cooling down after The Lovers Of Invention when Brique will take the Arf Stage.
Experimental music. Featuring Luc Ex (from The Ex) on bass !

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/brique-fr

22h00 - Agitation Free

German krautrock / space rock pioneers Agitation Free will take the main stage at 22h00.
Founded in Berlin, Germany in 1967 - Disbanded in 1974 - Reunited briefly in 1998, 2007 and 2012, and they're performing again !!
The band has released 10 albums (half of these being live albums) and has another live album scheduled for later this year.
I'm listening to their "Live Kesslhaus Berlin 2013" while I'm typing this !!

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/agitation-free-de

24h00 - W3LTR4UM

German psychedelic improvisation band W3LTR4UM will be the final band on Friday.
Sounds like a fitting finale for Friday.

https://www.zappanale.de/en/artists-z-35/w3ltr4um-de

STEVE VAI UPDATE

BREAKING NEWS FOR ALL STEVE VAI FANS

JUNE 2027 IS “VAI IN HOLLAND” MONTH

JUNE 2027 MARKS AN UNPRECEDENTED PROJECT FOR A SINGLE COMPOSER/PERFORMER.

IN A SERIES OF EVENTS THE LEGENDARY STEVE VAI WILL PRESENT AND BE PRESENTED AS ONE OF THE MOST RELEVANT COMPOSERS AND VIRTUOSOS OF HIS TIME.

June 3:
The Chamber Music Of Steve Vai
In the Singer Theatre in Laren, Steve’s chamber music will be performed by violinist Joe Puglia, the North Sea String Quartet and pianist Ralph van Raat. The evening will be hosted by Steve Vai himself, together with his long-time associate Co de Kloet. The evening will consist of Vai classics in special arrangements as well as two world premieres. More information available soon!

June 6:
Steve Vai & Residentie Orkest: A Symphonic Celebration
Steve Vai’s orchestral works with two world premieres
Yes, Steve’s birthday!
Steve himself will perform with the legendary Residentie Orkest from The Hague, under the baton of Jukka Iisakkila. Besides some repertoire pieces, never before performed orchestral pieces, two world premieres will be featured.
A special project with young composers will be presented as well.

June 11:
Steve Vai & Metropole Orkest
A reunion!
Vai and the Metropole Orkest will present an exclusive live performance of Vai’s compositions for orchestra and rock band. The show will include previews of a future release of new Vai/Metropole studio recordings! Again, Jukka Iisakkila conducting.

ZAPPANALE #35 - - - PART 9 - - - UPDATES FOR THURSDAY

In recent years, when arriving in Bad Dobaran on Thursday afternoon, we would usually park the car near the Drümpel Parkplatz and take the short walk to the Zappa statue.
It's the best place to realise that one has entered the Zappa universe as there will be other music freaks checking out the statue, and it's close to the place where those who have arrived by train will get on the Molli (in the Mollistrasse) to go to the festival ground.

Up until a few years ago, upon our arrival, we would also visit the expo at the Zappanale office at the market place (Am Markt). Unfortunately, this space is no longer available but the good news is that the expo has moved to the festival ground.

And we don't want to loose too much time as this year's pre-party has evolved into an entire day of music.

The pre-party will take place on the festival ground, at the "Arf Stage".
Free entrance for those who have a festival ticket !
For those who want to attend but don't have a festival ticket, a contribution of 10 euro will be asked.

14h00 = opening or the pre-party
14h00 - Superthousand
16h00 - Smalltape
18h00 - Blanck Zappath
20h00 - Icarus Burns

And not at the festival ground, but scheduled to appear at the Zappateers tent at the camping ground:
22h00 - Chato Segerer

Wolfhard Kutz, the main man behind the festival, added that Zappanale is the only festival that can take place at the Rennbahn this year. 
Restrictions and even bans have been imposed on all festivals, but fortunately an exception was made for Zappanale because it has been running for so long.

I'm glad that this exception was made and I'm already looking forward to all of the familiar (and new) faces. And ready to discover some new music.