i'm seeing king freakin crimson!

A King Crimson concert wihtout tokin' up? Sounds odd. Should rock!!! Enjoy.

 

TLev's not playing with KC on this tour--he might join them in the studio for the album that will be recorded in January 2002. Trey Gunn has been handling bass duties since the recording of The ConstruKCtion of Light, and been doing a fairly good job of it, as the live album Heavy ConstruKCtion attests.

I'm going to be seeing them at SUNY-Buffalo on December 4th, or failing that, in New York on December 13th.

 

I saw them on the opening night of the current tour. As much as I love Tony Levin, you will not miss him in the least. This band is still an absolute monster. Fripp will most likely be seated sideways, facing the band, and in the dark. Adrian is his usual casual self at the point, and Pat Mastellotto and Trey Gunn are the monster anchors of the band. The night I saw them (I took my 15-year-old daughter, who liked them), it was about 95 deg. in the hall, but they did over an hour's worth of material. Funny night - the Tool crowd immediately ran to the front while the geezers hovered in the rear looking for chairs! Great songs on this tour:
Dinosaur (my daughter's fave)
Red
Frame By Frame
The World's My Oyster Soup
Lark's Tongue in Aspic pt. 4
Deception of the Thrush (here's where Trey Gunn blows the house down)
"Something we're working up" - according to Adrian.

Others I don't remember...

 

I saw them earllier this year.

First set, 35 minutes.
45 minute break.
Second set, 25 minutes.
One song encore.
All new material.
37 bucks.
I saw my last King Crimson show that night.

Scott

 

In the words of Fripp, Scott: "Move on."

I'm waiting with bated breath to see them in Buffalo on the 4th of December. I have no expectations but a solid musical performance. I think it's mighty presumptuous of a concertgoer to demand that the performer play all their "greatest hits." Just because it's common practice among mullet-sporting classic rockers doesn't mean that it's an inherently good practice; the same goes for the encore, which was originally supposed to be a spontaneous thing but has ossified into a contractually-obligated institution (example: Jimmy Buffett is often legally required to play "Margaritaville" during his encore, with any deviation subject to heavy fines). For a group as improvisational as King Crimson, I think it's unfair to expect that the old material be rehashed again and again, night after night, over the course of decades.

In the '70s or '80s (I don't remember which) Miles Davis said, "If you want to hear me play 'My Funny Valentine' again, go listen the record." That's a pretty neat summation of my opinion on the matter.

BTW, why the long intermissions? Were there technical problems, or did somebody take twenty flash photos during "FraKCtured?"

 

Since you know the phrase "Move On", you also know that a single flash bulb signals the end of the show - PERIOD! One of the things I love about King Crimson is that they do not fit a mold. I saw the very first show of this tour in July, and they were still working out the songlist. For example, I know they are doing "Heroes" as an encore, but it wasn't done the night I saw them. They also have a nice blend of new/old/improv/unknown stuff this time around. True to old school fashion (for those of us who remember), they were honing a few songs in preparation for the recording of Nuovo Metal later this year. The night I saw them, Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille was hovering in the back for the entire show.

 

I like getting flashed on stage.
In fact, the more we get flashed - the longer we play.

 

To each his own. I've never seen a decent concert photo taken with a point-and-shoot color camera and flash. High-speed film helps but only a bit.

My main beef with "getting flashed" (it's happened a couple of times) is that if I'm staring out into the crowd so as not to look like it's 1991 and I'm in My Bloody Valentine, and I'm playing a technically challenging part, it all falls to pieces if a flash goes off.

The suggestion that Fripp makes is that if one is going to take pictures at a concert, one should either use high-speed black-and-white film, or else a very high-quality digital camera that doesn't need a flash or uses an infrared one. Anything else is just way too invasive.

 

Actually, at the show I went to, they were actually searching for cameras, which were a big no-no. So was smoking, but they asked if I was going to smoke when I went in. Huh?

 

Yeah, I was thinking that too, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. 7 years using the Internet and still too trusting...

 

I've seen three incarnations of the KC band (70s with Wetton, 80s with Levin, 90s with the double trio) as well as a ProjeKct performance. You will love Trey Gunn's playing. I mean no disrespect at all to Tony, but Trey does things on Warr Guitar that will go beyond what Tony generally does and will astound you. Some of my favorite "guitar" parts on, say, the Fripp Sylvian CD turned out to be Trey and not Fripp. And some of my favorite Stick lines are things that Trey did with Sunday All Over the World before he switched to Warr Guitar. I play Stick, so I have a real appreciation for what Trey does. Maybe it's because he was in the League of Crafties before he switched to Stick at Fripp's urging, but this guy will not disappoint. What I'm really interested in checking out is John Paul Jones as an "opener"--it will be a blissful bass night. I see the show on December 2 in the Pittsburgh area (Greensburg, to be exact). Personally I wish they'd do more of the material they recorded with this version of the band and not dredge up the greatest hits anyway. Crimson does far too much repackaging and repurposing of the old as it is.

 

That's not what I meant. I didn't go see King
Crimson again (this wasn't the first time I saw
them) - to hear them rehash Frame By Frame
or anything else "noteworthy" - I went because I
have a long running
interest in them and specifically what Adrian
Belew is doing. I am a fan. But for 37 bucks,
I don't think it is unreasonable to expect:

a) that the show would be longer than 1 hour.

b) that something (ANYTHING) would have
been played that I recognized - remember, I have
good familiarity with the band.

I was not alone in this assessment. When the
band came on for the encore, the room was
quiet and someone on the balcony yelled.
"37 bucks, guys!" - that's exactly what I was
thinking. I'm not paying 37 bucks to see ANYONE
that is going to play for only an hour and who isn't
going to play some of the terrific pieces that
made me a fan of theirs in the first place. If I
want to get familiar with the new creative projects
of a given band, I can do that over and over
again with the CD player in my living room.
A "once every 6 years" concert event like KC is
NOT the place for that.

Scott

 

News for all Bay Area TalkBassers:

King Crimson will be performing at the Warfield in San Francisco on november 14 with special guest John Paul Jones. Not sure about ticket prices though.

 

Oh, so King Crimson is "freakin" now? Where the hell have I been?!

 

BWB, I think it's fair to have a certain expectation as an "entertainment consumer" that you should get what you feel is fair value for your buck. Make that bucks. Many, many bucks. But it's like what's going on with pro sports these days. There are consumers, and there are fans. The consumers want a certain type of product, while the fans are just fans and are pretty much happy with whatever they're presented with. Neither is right. Neither is wrong. Now, KC's fan base is a bit more rabid and clannish than most (visit elephant-talk.com any time and check out the minutia that these guys chew over endlessly. The phrase "get a life" comes to mind.) Me, I don't care if I hear what I'm familiar with or not. I treat it more like a jazz show. I enjoy the band, the personalities and the performances and have every time I've seen them or Adrian or the Bears or any related Crim project. Make that projeKCt (clever spelling, I can do without it--what are you doing, writing for the high school literary magazine?). But an hour is a bit skimpy. Seeing them at the beginning of a tour is always dicey, because they seem to work with and work out the set quite a lot on the early stops. By the time they hit the Pittsburgh area in early December the set will be written in stone, I'd imagine. But it sounds like they're doing a lot of ConstruKction of Light and some "hits"--Dinosaur, etc. It's probably the best combination you could expect at this point. Without Levin, they probably wouldn't do "Elephant Talk," since Tony's Stick line so defines that one. What else could they do? A hit factory they ain't. It's not like the back catalog is filled with well known chart-busters. Sorry you had an unfulfilling experience. Next time, before you go to see them, check elephant-talk.com and you'll know exactly what you're in for. Then you'll go out and get a life.