Dweezil Zappa DZ20: Like Father, Like Son

Dweezil Zappa plays the Celebrity Theatre on Thursday, October 22, as part of his DZ20: Like Father, Like Son tour. It's a long night of music—more than two hours of work pulled from Frank Zappa's career, with improvisational moments and surprises mixed in. The set covers a lot of ground, and since it's a Zappa show, that means rock, jazz, orchestral, fusion, and experimental traditions all in one evening.

Zappa is a Grammy-winning guitarist and Frank Zappa's son, and he's spent two decades assembling elite musicians to play his father's material. He doesn't just run through the records as they were; he reshapes fan-favorite songs into hybrid arrangements and brings back rare compositions that don't usually make the setlist. The DZ20 tour marks twenty years of him performing his father's music, and the program reflects that span.

He describes the work as something that continues to challenge and inspire him, and says that every tour gives him a chance to revisit his father's music from a new perspective. That's a good way to think about the show: it's a career-spanning look at Frank Zappa's catalog, played by a guitarist who's spent twenty years living inside it.

The concert is at the Celebrity Theatre, 440 N 32nd St, Phoenix, AZ 85008, on Thursday, October 22, starting at 7:30 PM.