Break's over...

Well, it's time to get back to work, both with Gryphon Labs and with DZPZ.
You've got 2 chances to see Gryphon Labs coming up, first on May 11th opening for the incredible Scott Henderson Trio at Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach. Should be a really fun night, Scott's got my friend (and occasional Lab rat) Andy Sanesi on drums and the always amazing Rufus Philpot on bass.
Then, on Saturday May 15th, I'll be playing a double-header at the Baked Potato. First at 9:30 I'll be playing with Jeff Kollman and Shane Gaalaas with Cosmosquad, then Gryphon Labs will take the stage around 11:30. I'm really excited for this lineup, and not just because I'm playing bass in both bands...
Meanwhile, as I'm rehearsing and gigging at night with those bands, during the day we'll be back at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen getting ready for this summer's Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa tour. Two solid months of touring is a lot, but we'll be doing all sorts of fun and different things like the Dweezilla music camp, plus we'll have our new keyboardist, as well as a new batch of songs. Keep checking dweezilzappaworld.com for details on all this stuff, and come on out to a show!

Down Time

After enjoying some much needed couch time, my schedule starts to get pretty crazy soon. First of all, Gryphon Labs will be playing a club show at Molly Malone's in LA on Sunday 4/11 at 9pm. Then a crazy week of rehearsals for the next weekend, during which I'll be playing 3 different shows with 3 different bands.
Friday, April 16th I'll be at the Baked Potato with the amazing technical fusion of Cosmosquad, with Jeff Kollman on guitar and Shane Gaalaas returning to the drum chair. I'm really excited to play with these two killer musicians again, we may even break out one of the new tunes we've been writing together.
Then, April 17th, Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa opens for the legendary Jeff Beck at the Nokia in downtown LA. Being slightly younger than the rest of DZPZ, I'm not as familiar with Jeff Beck's earlier work, but I loved his last few records ("Jeff" and "You Had It Coming") for their mixture of Jeff's old school playing and more modern production. If you don't have tickets for this event you should get them soon. Plus, Jeff has the amazing Rhonda Smith (from Prince's band) on bass!
And finally, on Sunday 4/18, Gryphon Labs will be descending upon the Baked Potato one more time. We'll have Paul Barrere from Little Feat sitting in again in the first set, and in the second set Ben Thomas from DZPZ will be joining us for some cover tunes (no Zappa music, though.)
Then we'll be auditioning new keyboard players for DZPZ, several people have posted some pretty impressive clips of themselves on youtube, so maybe you'll be seeing one of them on tour with us this summer. And speaking of tour this summer, check out all of DZPZ's dates for the US, Europe, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo.