To paraphrase Frank Zappa, hologram concerts aren’t dead. They just smell funny.
It’s Friday, April 19th, the day that Frank Zappa goes back out on tour.
He and his band are doing nine shows in the U.S. and seven more in Europe.
Now if you’re scratching your head here and saying, wait, isn’t Frank Zappa dead?
Well, yes, but that’s not going to stop anybody these days.
Promoters have for decades been putting on shows in which live musicians perform alongside big-screen projections of Elvis Presley, and audiences have been plenty happy with that.
And this year there are plenty of dearly departed musicians who are touring as holograms – or what appear to be holograms, anyway – from metal icon Ronnie James Dio to Amy Winehouse.
The new tour from Roy Orbison, who died in 1988, just got a good review from the LA Times!
Now if you’re also saying to yourself, well, aren’t these just going to be rehashes of the performances they did while alive, even if they’re backed by living musicians?
It’s not like they’re going to do new songs, right?
Well, the Zappa tour is based around performances that were recorded on a soundstage in 1974 but never released.
So it’s a series of live shows featuring brand new music by someone who died over 25 years ago.
What a time to be alive – or at least a hologram.
It’s a holiday weekend for those celebrating Passover and/or Easter, and Newport Beach, California may be the best place to spend that weekend.
It’s home to Bunnyhenge!
A park called Civic Center Park is home to sixteen concrete bunnies, arranged in a circle and ready to celebrate with you and/or freak you out.
No industry is weirder than the dead celebrity hologram industry (Vox)
It’s Official: Dead Musicians Are Now Touring as Holograms (Philadelphia magazine)
Bunny Henge (Weird California)
Photo by YY via Flickr/Creative Commons
