Fuzzy’s Freak Out

Our booking agent describes improvisational rock in two categories, says Dave Domizi of the Athens-based band Fuzzy Sprouts. There’s the Grateful Dead side and the Frank Zappa side. I guess we are closer to Zappa.
Domizi and fellow Sprouts Tim Conley and Seth Hendershot have been busy working up a set of career-spanning Zappa material to perform at the Brandy House’s Halloween Zappa Party on Sunday, Oct. 29. The show will also be broadcast live on (WZGC-FM) Z-93’s “The Dunhams show, starting at 11 p.m.
The annual Zappa Party, complete with related door prizes and giveaways, won’t be the first such theme show for the Sprouts. Since their move from Amherst, Mass., to Athens in ‘91, the band has performed two “live karaoke Halloween shows, with audience members singing their favorite cover songs while using the trio as live backing music.
The band recently won the Best Groove Rock/Funk Band award at the 2000 Athens Music Awards. The previous year, they were voted the Best R&B/Soul Band.
In addition to their genre-bending music — a hybrid of rock, soul, funk and “whatever else is fun — the band have also performed complete albums by the Beatles and David Bowie, not to mention a warm and Fuzzy “group hug show.
Fuzzy Sprouts seem more interested in establishing a party atmosphere than focusing on serious music, Domizi explains. “But we stay tight and take pride in our songs. When people are out there shaking and jumping around, that’s when it’s the most fun for us. We just like to make people freak out.
Fuzzy Sprouts play the Brandy House, Sun., Oct. 29.