HALLOWEEN 73

Two full Zappa shows with the crazy-greatest line-up he ever had. Then there's a rehearsal disc taped a week before that's a great microscope into how this configuration worked together to stuff Zappa's musical frameworks full of funny and fascinating detail. Most of this material with this band is already well-served, but there are really cool highlights like the 20+ minute Farther O'Blivion suite with Greggery Peccary segments incorporated in. For as great as this is, I find myself being conservative with the rating. There are several tracks here that I'll file away in the memory banks to listen to again, but with such quantities of quality Zappa live material at our fingertips, this release as a whole can be hesitantly filed in the non-essentials.