Live Review: The Magic Band, Grandmothers Of Invention

The long-haired, middle-aged, mostly male audience eagerly assembles around the stage. Though many express their obvious glee by standing still and expressionless, as if about to spot a rare train, anticipation crackles. Soon, the somewhat older Grandmothers Of Invention amble on, smile, and ease into Call Any Vegetable. You don't have to be a manic Frank Zappa fan to see that his one-time sidemen have had extremely interesting lives, and know their way around their instruments. It's this last point they seem most interested in exploring: bass solos, drum solos, flute, guitar, gong solos – it's all here, with varying fidelity to actual Frank Zappa songs. Addressing something we all wish to know via a song called The Eternal Question, its chorus “What was Zappa really like?/Did he fly into a rage?/I bet he smoked dope all the time/And did he really shit on the stage?” is answered amiably by the song's writer and band saxophonist Don Preston (“Uh…no!”). At the end of a set that makes us appreciate how Zappa injected humour into jazz, we get his most pop moments and set high-points – Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder and Peaches En Regalia – by which time the audience are largely onside and the band seem delighted.

From a bandleader who celebrated his musicians' creativity by giving them room to stretch out, we get one who channelled musicianship into songs spanning several minutes that explode with ideas. “We are The Magic Band playing the music of Captain Beefheart!” the band members shout helpfully in unison, before jumping in the air and exploding into My Human Gets Me Blues, the first of many songs from the game-changing Trout Mask Replica album. Led by one-time-drummer Drumbo, the show highlights his incredible voice, musicianship and personality. Were it not for the utterly unique force of personality/songwriting genius Captain Beefheart, it would be at risk of becoming The Drumbo Show. The bluesy Low Yo Yo Stuff and Diddy Wah Diddy follow, but rather than play it safe the band – comprising sexagenarians in cargo pants and loose t-shirts – go for, and nail, some of the most complex sounds ever to crack a Top 50 album chart.

The band themselves are phenomenally sharp with only guitarist Zoot Horn Rollo's smiling, sagging visage betraying any errant years, even as his fingers move like Errol Flynn undoing a blouse. Hot Head, Click Clack, Golden Birdies, Owed T'Alex and an almighty Steal Softly Thru Snow are only narrow highlights over a set full of jaw-dropping rhythmic shifts, stabbing guitar riffs and deep bluesy rasping vocals. It's a privilege to witness such influential pioneers in 2014 and to hear these distant transmissions burn so brightly