This was my first exposure to Bogus Pomp. It was January 16, 1999 at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Florida Orchestra began the 
show, were joined by Bogus Pomp for two numbers, there was an intermission, and then Bogus Pomp came out and did a real jazzy set with Ike Willis joining in on guitar and vocals.
The event was part of a New Music series at the Mahaffey Theater. New Music Series concerts are traditionally very sparsely attended events. Just like in pop music, orchestral patrons also crave the familiar. They want their safe, 300 year old pieces the same way today's adults want their safe classic rock shows, usually for free at a downtown concert series, where everyone goes to socialize and chat and maybe pay attention when the band plays their 2 or 3 big hits during the encore. Absolutely wretched affairs, whether at the orchestra hall or on a blocked off city street.
Well, this event was not sparsely attended. As a matter of fact, it was sold out. And the audience represented the entire spectrum of American culture. Some people were dressed quite well. Some people were dressed business casual. Some people were dressed in jeans and polo shirts. Some people looked like they were ready to go to a tractor pull. But the majority of us, the ones who were not season ticket holders for the Mahaffey Theater's New Music Series, had one thing in common: we knew Frank Zappa's music up and down, left and right. There was a charge in the air. And when the Florida Orchestra took the stage and began to play, the audience hushed up. Because we weren't there to see a spectacle, we were there to listen to some music.
We were not disappointed.
This is a copy of the show that I got from a guy who sat in front of me with his own recording apparatus set up. He used one of those devices for the hard of hearing that concert halls are required by the ADA to supply and plugged a little battery operated Sony DAT Walkman into it, thus getting a copy of the board feed. Wasn't that clever of him? It's a little on the dry side as the mix was for house sound, it wasn't being recorded by a recording engineer in isolation. Just two lines out into the DAT. The original recording had some nasty noises at the end of a lot of the tracks, where it was apparent he was shutting the device off manually whenever a piece didn't seque into another. I did my best to edit it seamlessly, but sometimes there was just not enough lead in or lead out time on the original recording to do it right, so forgiveness on my behalf is expected from the listener. Enjoy.
