I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 13, 2014] King Crimson

When I saw that King Crimson was touring I asked some friends if I should go see them.  I’ve been a fan more in theory than in practice.  I like a lot of their stuff, always planned to listen to them more, but I barely scratched the surface of their output (they’re the kind of band who has released dozens and dozens of things with varying project names and incarnations and since they’ve been recording since 1969, it’s daunting to say the least).

So when two friends basically said they’d give their eye teeth to see the show, it was a quick decision to get my tickets.

It was time to brush up on my back catalog.  I had no idea what they’d be playing, so it was something of a crap shoot what discs to look into.  As it turned out between the two old CDs and the one live CD that I bought, I covered nearly everything that they played.  And that was pretty awesome.  I had grown to really enjoy the CDs over the last few months and to see it done in front of me was… well, it was amazing.

King Crimson haven’t toured since 2008, and I have never seen them before.  This line up was new for the touring band as well.  It was the first time that Adrian Belew hadn’t toured with them in decades.  But there were some old favorites playing:  Tony Levin, frequent KC contributor and amazing bassist (bass and more); Mel Collins, played with KC in the 70s but hasn’t since, and here he is (Sax, flute); Jakko Jakszyk, recent contributor to Fripp’s projects and the real unknown for me (guitar, vocals).  And then the three, yes, three drummers: Gavin Harrison has played with KC before (drums), Bill Rieflin, mostly known for playing with Ministry (!) (drums), Pat Mastelotto has played with KC before, including with Bill Bruford (drums).  And of course Robert Fripp (guitar).

So, do you need three drummers?  Isn’t that overkill?
Yes and yes.

The three drummers were utterly amazing and they were the focus of the show.  As you can see from the photo, the drums were out front so you could watch everything.

Before I get into the show, The Kimmel Center is beautiful and the sound was amazing.  I had first row balcony seats.  My one seating gripe: I was in front of Fripp, but he basically sat sideways facing the stage (and his wall of gadgets) so I never really got to see him do anything. He was in profile most of the night, and I saw his hands moving, but that was it.  So, next time, pick stage left to sit.  Also, bring binoculars, because why not.

Back to the three drummers up front.  Mastelotto on the left (I could see him perfectly), Rieflin in the center and Harrison on the right (profile, but he was very visible).  Behind, l-r Collins, Levin, Jakko and Fripp.

As I said, though, it was all about the drums.

Mastelotto had a lot of weird percussion (sheets of metal and other effects) and when he wasn’t making weird noises, he was banging the hell out of the drums.  It was a little scary.  He is one of the most intense looking drummer I’ve seen.  And I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone hit them harder.  Rieflin had a small kit and a keyboard and he played a lot of textures and sounds when he wasn’t keeping beat.  And then Harrison was like the prog drummer he is–super fast, lots of rolls (a huge set) and really nice light touches.  Sometimes they all played the same thing (which was intense), sometimes they played off of each other (which was so cool).  At one point it looked like Mastelotto was challenging Harrison to a duel.  Sometimes one of them would do nothing but hit a cymbal every few measures while the other two went to town.  At one point they were all playing the same thing but timed their snare hits to within seconds of each other so it sounded like an echo. They even played some gentle percussion sections (on various electronic gadgets).  I never knew where to look.

And that’s all going on in front of the other guys–the guys who are actually playing the (super complicated and intense) music.  There were times when the guitar and sax were wailing away and you could see they were doing intricate stuff but the drums were always out front drawing in your eyes.

Collins played a lot of solos (sometimes Fripp’s guitar sounded like the sax as well), and he used the bass sax like a bass guitar (while Levin was doing his own thing) a lot.  I really enjoyed the sounds he got out of his horns (except the one sound, more on that).  And I just loved when he busted out the flute a few times–a wonderful contrast to the guitar and drum noise.

As I say, the drums were really loud which was very cool, the only problem was sometimes Levin got lost in the mix, especially when he was playing the Stick (which I was watching him do amazing things on but barely could hear it–or maybe it was mixed perfectly and I was listening for more bass notes when the stick plays more tenor sounds).  But when he pulled out the bass guitar, blam, that was loud and rocking.

They started the show with the drummers playing around, and it was really intense to watch these three guys with very different styles bash away.  I never would have guessed that they were playing the percussion intro to “Lark’s Tongue in Aspic Part 1.”  The three drummers suddenly made a lot of sense as one handled the beat, one handled the wild percussion and one played the fills–and then they all played together too.  And then they played “Level Five.”   A huge complex instrumental with a wall of noise and distortion–just on the edge of being too loud, but actually mixed perfectly for the venue.  I was smiling for the first twenty minutes.

Then they played “A Scarcity of Miracles.”  I admit that I don’t quite get Fripp’s love of cheesy ballads.  Almost every album has a mellow song that’s borderline cheesy.  The older stuff I attributed to being the 70s, but even his latest albums have these jazz-lite experiments.  This song has a sax right out of a Kenny G song.  I guess it was a nice palate cleanser, but it was so weird to come off all that noise and then get this delicate sax ballad. (People gave standing ovations for all the loud songs, but for none of the delicate ones, ha).

Speaking of the crowd…  you could hear a pin drop, (and there may have even been one with all that percussion).  At one point the percussion was so quiet and we all focused as each drummer delicately hit the side of one cymbal followed by another and another going on a circle.  And no one breathed while each note rang out.  Best audience ever.  By the end of the show they were a bit more raucous between songs, but in the beginning it was pure reverence.