Tony Levin and the 3 Drummer Mix

Bass drum mics + subwoofers = inaudible bass.

 

Bummer about the mix at that show. I keep wanting to like this latest iteration of KC, but annoying stumbling blocks -- such as your report & similar ones with teh same complaint, or, even more compellingly, that crappy Live At The Orpheum disc they released in '15 -- continue to give me pause. Also, fwiw I've heard various Crimheads talk about how the whole notion of the three drummers "fronting" the band is an intentional approach to not just their staging but also how their sound is mixed/perceived, so perhaps what you heard was what they wanted. Sigh...

I don't now, but on a number of occasions in the past I've played in bands with multiple drummers, and I never had trouble being heard ...onstage. I have no idea what it was like out in the house. Then again, we weren't playing venues the size of The Chicago Theater so we were almost certainly dealing with a far more modest PA.

 

Shades of Joe Bonamassa's Royal Albert Hall performance. One stage. Two drummers. Zero reason for it.

 

When I saw Crimson in NYC with Bill on kit/synths, Tony's bass tone was incredible and fit beautifully into the three drummer sound. The show was one of the most sonically "dialed in" I've ever seen. Sometimes the best seats for visuals aren't the best for audio, IME.

 

nm

 

Saw Tony with Peter Gabriel and Sting on the Rock Paper Scissors tour
Sadly, his tone was generally the victim of the bass drum mix.
He was fun to watch though.

 

Maybe you had a bad seat or they didn't mix the room well. Tony Levin always sounds like gold on the live board recordings. Though I will say that I have both the new Live in Toronto they did a year or two ago with this band and the "official bootleg" Absent Lovers from '84 and the bass on the earlier recording just kills versus the other.

 

I saw the KC show at Massey Hall last night and Tony's bass was loud and clear.
He was a monster!!!!
I was focused on him most of the night.
Just a brilliant musician
Glen

 

I saw back-to-back shows of the 2014 tour in Philadelphia, and this was my experience. I had very different seats for the two shows, and the sound --including Tony's -- was just astonishing in both places.

 

Reviving the thread because I bore witness to King Crimson last night in Austin at the Bass (like the fish) Concert Hall. This room has notoriously bad sound even after a multi-million dollar renovation. The legroom was pretty great, though.

Amazing show.
Pristine sound, full, loud, and clear.
It was the tour opener and they crushed it from the opening notes.
Definitely go to a show if they're coming near you. It's an experience. Video and audio cannot capture or replicate what it's like to be in the room.