Tenacious tribute in Zappa tour

An ingenious crank with the ears of Stravinsky and the soul of Alfred E. Neuman, Frank Zappa is credited in the straight world with a handful of novelty songs ("Valley Girl," "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow") and, as a result, with a dubious rep as the hippie forefather of Weird Al Yankovic. When in fact he cuts much deeper than that.

Always more of a musician's musician than a give-the-rabble-what-they-want kind of guy, Zappa produced albums - bizarre, labyrinthine hybrids of jazz, rock, prog and doo-wop shot through with satire, burlesque and fart jokes - that would become a rite of passage for aspiring malcontents and freshman dorm nonconformists. They've become a cause celebre for a brainy cult of future civil engineers and IT guys who've held onto their air-guitar chops well into middle age, and an undeniable influence on the Jam Band Nation.

Still, from his 1966 debut (The Mothers of Invention's Freak Out!) to his death by cancer in 1993, Zappa could never bring himself to take the world seriously, and it was a favor the world returned.

Correcting that perception is, in part, the impetus for Zappa Plays Zappa, the touring Zappa tribute ensemble led by his son Dweezil, which turned in a generous 21/2-hour salute to his dearly departed dad Thursday night at the Fillmore.

As expected, there were epic guitar solos of the cat-strangling variety, which inevitably led to self-indulgent call-and-response among the three guitarists. There were never-ending drum fills leading to stop-on-a-dime pregnant pauses, busy-fingered counterintuitive bass runs, and the dizzying calculus of ever-shifting time signatures - as well as songs with titles like "The Illinois Enema Bandit," "Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy" and "G-Spot Tornado" - all delivered with a tenacious fidelity to the original recordings by Dweezil and his six-piece band.

Vocal chores were shared by Dweezil, who mimicked his father's droll nasality, and longtime Zappa Band alum Ray White, who did all the actual singing. Harmonizing impeccably with flutist/saxophonist Scheila Gonzalez on the Flo & Eddie parts, he brought heart and a much-needed dose of soulful elasticity to the jagged rigidity and groove-killing gymnastics of the compositions.

Frank Zappa himself took lead vocals on "Dumb All Over," towering mustachioed over the band from a giant screen as he delivered the bawdy rap intro with stand-up-comic aplomb. While the old heads got what they wanted, I'm not so sure Dweezil fulfilled his stated mission of introducing his father's music to a new generation.

Message to Dweezil: Consider updating the arrangements for modern listeners. Seriously, dude, there's only so much over-compressed guitar shredding and cymbal abuse that these 21st-century ears can take.