Frank Zappa - Back on the Road: The Hologram Tour

Frank Zappa - Back On The Road: The Hologram Tour

Eyellusion, live music’s premier hologram production company, today announced that it will work closely with the Zappa Family Trust to produce hologram performances of Frank Zappa, giving fans an opportunity to experience the prolific, eclectic and critically acclaimed music legend live in concert again. Production for the Zappa shows will kick off in late 2017, with performances announced later in 2018.

“I’m thrilled that Frank Zappa will finally be going back out on tour playing his most well-known music as well as some rare and unheard material,” said Ahmet Zappa, co-Trustee of the Zappa Family Trust. “We can’t wait to bring his creative work back to the stage with the musicians he loved to play with, such as Steve Vai, Ian Underwood, Adrian Belew, Arthur Barrow, Vinnie Colaiuta, Scott Thunes, Mike Keneally, Denny Walley, Warren Cuccurullo and Napoleon Murphy Brock among others who are committed to being part of this epic endeavor. When I spoke with them, they were excited at the prospect of performing alongside Frank once again and can’t wait to give fans an unforgettable experience.”

I’m kinda speechless. Lots of backlash on Zappa’s Facebook announcement for this, which popped up about 20 minutes ago. Of all the musicians that people clamor to see that died, Zappa was sort of the last one I thought would be the subject of such a tour.

 

I wonder if Hologram Frank will have to pay royalties to ZFT.

 

He goes on to mention having Moon and Dweezil involved...that's nice, I guess.

 

Will the hologram Frank be smoking and drinking coffee?

 

I can't wait!

.... to go see Dweezil again.

This hologram thing is absurd whether it be Frank, Tupac, Dio or whoever. It reminds me of the "Elvis' coat" faux commercial on Vintage SNL.

 

fan reaction appears to be overwhelmingly negative (and i agree). no surprise. this can only go wrong. i can't see many seeing this if reaction was positive, but this way it's guaranteed to be a waste of money for Ahmet. Waiting for it to be quietly cancelled any minute now.

 

I can't see a lot of Zappa fans liking this. Funnily enough it sort of reminds me of when Zappa talked in his book about wasting his time trying to invent a hologram television. Probably not a good idea.

 

Holograms, or some variation of, will be a major part of live concert entertainment.
(An alternative variation is/will be the "impersonator" which easily verges on to a parody all too easy.)

Regarding Zappa - I've always thought of him as innovative, idiosyncratic, and irreverent to the "norm"... So having a HoloZappa seems kinda fitting.

 

Yeah I'll stick to seeing Dweezil live to get my Zappa fix.
I will say though that having all of that Zappa alumni playing live together does make it very tempting...

 

So the Trust has money for this? No, no, no, no, a thousand times no!

 

Holograms don't have eyebrows...

 

Actually, that makes it even less fitting in my mind. A hologram can't improvise, interact with the audience, change things up and dozens of other things. This is not a travesty, this is a perversion of all he stood for. This is FZ on Ice: Las Vegas.

 

That's a given.

 

Yes, but only in bitcoin.

 

Agreed, the reason you go see Zappa is to see something different every show. A hologram can't do that. I think Dweezil's live video duet with Frank on the ZPZ tour was fun...once. Frank would rather they set up the synclavier and let it rip than see a hologram of himself.

 

Sad

 

With the other musicians involved, this might actually be a cool show. But Zappa is the last person I would have expected to have a 'hologram tour'. I can't imagine many of his fans going for this.

 

Is it April 1 already? Wow I must have slept in.

 

I really hope no one actually pays to see this. And I say this as someone who's (happily) paid to see Dweezil's ZPZ band twice.

For a minute or two, as a gimmick? Like when Freddie Mercury showed up on the screen to sing a few lines during those Queen + Paul Rodgers/Adam Lambert shows? Sure, okay. But building an entire show and tour around one is horrifying.

 

I hear what you're saying...
But obviously the improvisation will have to come from the other live musicians. Hopefully they will be up for the challenge, to provide justification of this concept...
It'll interesting to hear how they perform, knowing what demanding, dismayed hardcore fans are bemoaning.

 

F ZFT. There is NOTHING "live " about a hologram. This is wrong on so many levels.

 

Note that the release says all those musicians have "committed to being part" of this. It doesn't say they'll actually be onstage. I can't imagine Belew and Keneally would put their other work aside for a hologram tour, and we remember what happened last time Scott Thunes was in the band.

 

Oh why did the ZFT have to squander Frank's financial legacy on legal fees and find themselves compelled to give the world Hologram Frank?

 

If you are referring to the '88 tour, Thunes did a tour with ZPZ a few years back. As I recall there was an understanding he was only there temporarily, but no incidents as far as I know.

 

It suddenly makes sense why they sued Dweezil to stop him from using his own last name. They couldn't compete with a real live performing musician named Zappa.

I certainly hope they achieve all the success they deserve with this greedy hair-brained scheme.