YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON STAGE ANYMORE, VOL. 2

I used to wonder why is particularly volume 2 of the "You can't do that on stage anymore" collection the one that is considered one of the best Zappa's live albums ever, why not the volumes 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6? Well, I haven't heard the other 5 volumes yet but my curiosity led me to listen to this record and I agree it is one of the best live performances of the Zappa band of the middle '70s. This concert was recorded in Helsinki, Finland in 1974 (September 22 and 23) and the musicians that were in charge of this mind-blowing show were Ruth Underwood, George Duke, Tom Fowler, Chester Thompson, Napoleon Murphy Brock, and of course Frank Zappa.

Unlike most of the Frank Zappa live albums, "You can't do that on stage anymore, vol. 2" doesn't include a lot of songs that didn't appear on other records, actually most of the songs on this album can be located in several Frank Zappa albums published before and after this concerts ("Joe's Garage", "Apostrophe", "One size fits all", "Studio tan", "Roxy & elsewhere", "We're only in it for the money", "Uncle Meat", "Over-nite sensation" and "Waka/Jawaka").

"Dupree's Paradise" is an excellent 24-minute track with an extensive narrative as "Billy The Mountain" or "The adventures of Greggery Peccary" but in this one, the lyrics are not overwhelming and there is more space for the musical madness. "Satumaa" is a Finnish Tango, very popular in Finland, Zappa and his band made an excellent performance that was well received by the audience.

So, what makes this record so great? Well, this is absolute because of the music: the quality of the performances, every instrument sounding as its best through the most intense and well-rehearsed and recorded songs. There is no need of describing each song since, as I said before, most of them are already on other albums, but as a whole performance I'll say this album is probably the most complete Zappa live album there is.

I guess the audience of these shows got extremely satisfied with the performances; not even my mother was born when these shows occurred, so I can only dream about being there but if there is someone out there who attended any of the Helsinki shows (or both), congratulations, you must have had a very good time.

SONG RATING: Tush tush tush (A token of my extreme), 4 Stinkfoot, 5 Inca roads, 5 RDNZL, 5 Village of the Sun, 5 Echidna's arf (of you), 5 Don't you ever wash that thing? 5 Pygmy twylyte, 5 Room service, 4 The idiot bastard son, 4 Cheepnis, 4 Approximate, 5 Dupree's Paradise, 5 Satumaa, 4 T'Mershi Duween, 5 The dog breath variations, 5 Uncle Meat, 5 Building a girl, 3 Montana, 5 Big Swifty, 5

AVERAGE: 4.65

PERCENTAGE: 93

ALBUM RATING: 5 stars

I ranked this album #94 on my TOP 100 favorite Progressive Rock albums of all time.

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