Low YO-YO STUFF, review

UIT: Technopolis, weblog
From Amsterdam: a musical play about Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet, Captain Beefheart

The legacy of Don Van Vliet, his art and music, endures in a number of ways, including occasional tribute concerts, especially those of Gary Lucas, former Magic Band member and now noted jazz musician. For both new audiences and older fans, the internet is well stocked with Beefheart recordings (both legit and bootleg), videos, and memorabilia along with photos of Don's paintings and drawings, his sole artistic pursuit from the early 1980s til his death in December 2010.

Recently, I received news of a Dutch musical theater piece, "Low Yo Yo Stuff," based on the life of Captain Beefheart and staged a couple of weeks ago in Amsterdam. Ferry Rigault, an acquaintance of mine from the early 1970s with whom I attended a Beefheart concert and after concert drinks with Don, alerted me to the production. Here (slightly edited) are his comments on what he saw and heard.

It was in a theatre called Bellevue, not so far from the hotel we talked with the Captain. It really was a very good play, with a great actor, Frank Lammers, and a fantastic band. Frank plays a crazy fan who thinks he is born in the head of captain Beefheart after he visited a Beefheart concert in the small village of Roden in the east of Holland in 1980 (historical). He's looking for Beefheart's Lost Record, that never came out due to conflicts with studio bosses.

The decor is a sixties/seventies boysroom with a fourarmed pickup, a giant taperecorder (Sony), old album covers and a table full of empty bottles. In fact the play is about a search for regaining artistical and social freedom.The text is very weird, associative, surrealistic and sometimes ununderstandable,
just like the Captain.

Of course there is a lot of great Beefheart music: "Electricity," "Zigzag Wanderer," "I'm gonna Booglarize You," "Low Yo Yo Stuff," "Abba Zaba," and many more. Even the dialogue "Fast 'n Bulbous" with the Mascara Snake from Trout Mask Replica was there. The play ended with a Beefhartesque song in Dutch. Also his painting are in the play, and even some live painting. [?]
There were also quite a lot of young people in the audience (under 20) and, as far as I could see, they enjoyed the play.



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Mr. Rigault was nice enough to send along a video promo clip for the play along with two songs tastefully and energetically recreated by by Frank Lammers and his version of the Magic Band -- "I'm Gonna Booglarize You, Baby," and "Electricity."