Though it seems that he never played a proper show there with his own band, Frank Zappa was a champion of the Max’s Kansas City scene. With Max’s being a place that promoted freaks, freaky music, and freakish behavior, there could be no better person for the hang than Zappa. From the beginning of his career, Frank Zappa had been ridiculed for his “freak-out” style, so it’s easy to understand why he would want to be a part of a place that openly supported it. Going to check out the bizarre-psych-rock band the Ears, you might be lucky enough to find Zappa giving the band a formal introduction on stage. The likes of Captain Beefheart and Alice Cooper, two very close Frank cohorts, could also be found playing gigs there.

Frank Zappa felt so comfortable at Max’s, he would go there just for the food. Former employee, Cliff Hausman, remembers him ritually coming for just a burger and coffee and lots of cigarettes whenever he was playing down the street at the Palladium. Whether it was showing up for a bite or going to see some act you couldn’t see elsewhere, Frank Zappa  was sure to make a stop in Max’s when he made it to NYC. He put it best in a Songwriter Magazine interview, ˜But when I go to a place like Max’s Kansas City in New York and see a group like Annie and the Asexuals, I can really enjoy it. I don’t know if that band will ever get a record contract and I don’t think they care. I watched them for an hour, painful as it was – their show was real personal and disorganized. This girl was wearing winter underwear with a black leather coat on top of that, and she had a paper bag with a bottle of vodka in it, and she was backed up by five guys who had just bought their instruments, apparently. She was screaming about Thorazine and being in a mental hospital and it was real! You don’t get that commitment to just spewing your guts out among L.A. groups.”

-Wilder Schwartz (Chin Chin)