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Unmatched talent of Motherhood

It was a bit like being transmitted back to the world of pre-Beatle American rock, looking on at the curious collection of duck tails, ooh-wahs, and the spastic guitar riffs through a distortion mirror. "Here for all you Canadian children is a sample of the musical heritage of America." Then the hallowed theme of "Wipe Out" and other two-note ditties.

As the reader might guess, it could all only come from the Mothers of Invention, under the direction of the mad maestro himself, Frank Zappa. To say that the Mothers are ingenious and strange would be the essence of understatement. While other groups strive for musical proficiency, the Mothers begin with it and work their way down. Their strange allegiance to good old greaser rock'n'roll disguises a kaleidoscope of talents that few groups on the scene can match.

Zappa is the originator of the miscellaneous forays into hilarious freakdom. He is a grade-D drummer and only an average guitarist, but as a coordinator and a creative mind he is superb. There is no doubt he is the tea-party president of his Motherhood club and his pompous flamboyant and exaggerated efforts at conducting the rag-tag looking assortment of horns, guitars and gong where as efficient as they were funny.

In their curious collection of Mad March Hare music offered at the Agrodome Friday night, the Mothers touched all of the limits of modern profundity. What all that means is simply that the cuts they performed from their latest album, Uncle Meat, were very sound, musically. There are more than a few classical traces under the facade of carelessness, and although some of the solo work got a bit tedious, the results were undeniably well thought out.

In order to bring off their curious brand of satire and humor — and any group that hopes to equal their standards — must be polished instrumentalists. Alice Cooper, (a group) however, proved to be little more interesting than sitting in on a jam session in an insane asylum. Light show excepted, these freaks pranced around the stage like the house band at a spastic reunion, playing with all the finesse of a kindergarten percussion group. The most interesting part of their act was trying to figure out if Alice Cooper was a girl, boy or neuter.

First up were Canada's own Guess Who. With this group there is certainly no guess work about their musicianship. They understand orchestration and give out with some very tight rock sounds. Unfortunately there is very little about their look, sound or actions to distinguish them from every other group on the market. Perhaps if they developed in a more distinctive western or northern direction, like Lightfoot, they would be on to some subject matter that would give their otherwise bright creative minds some fresh food.