King Crimson Count Basie Theatre 7-9-17

Thanks Chuck, glad you are feeling better

This one is for you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM_G0IRLEx4

A clip of King Crimson's legendary performance at Hyde Park, supporting the Rolling Stones, 1969.
 

Very nice review Chuck. Very glad you went.

Great review, Chuck! I'm going tonight, so you're getting me psyched!

Chuck amok!

Glad you're out & about.

Hey Chuck, lost ticket fiasco delayed are arrival. The lovely staff remedied the situation in the nick of time.

• Less than half the show were repeats from the show I saw in '14, Fripp keeping it fresh.
• Lilting beauty following a sonic assault of the senses.
• Mel Collins was front and center through most of the show, and how often do you see dual flutes at a rock concert?
• Jakko is lacking the vocal punch on the Belew tunes, but he is wonderful with the rest of the catalog.
• I danced during Heroes, (meat doesn't move from any of the seats at these shows)
• Fripp is a tremendous treat to observe.
• Great theater, only the should sell refreshments after 10PM

Nice to see the Jerseyland and PA folks had a great time.

Count Basie Theatre is a wonderful little venue.  I've seen Dr. John and David Byrne there (different nights).

They have done a sweet job of renovating that place.  Was crumbling away at that 1990-era Dr. John show...  looks much nicer lately.

Congrats ChuckM. on your show-attending Mobility !!  Good to hear that you are getting around once again.

It's very Cool that the Box Office staff stoked you out with the El Primero ADA seats 

Here's my attempt to review the Monday, July 10th show at Count Basie Theatre:

I scored 10th row center seats for a fabulous exploratory set of incendiary Prog Rock from Robert Fripp and King Crimson last night at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank. "Uncle Robert" sat perched out of the way to the back right of the stage ensemble with his guitars and small keyboard within easy reach. Dominating the stage in the foreground, however, were 3 large drum kits. It was a powerful display of percussive attack, as The 3 drummers led the eclectic assortment of multi-instrumentalists. The wide assortment of musicians included Mel Collins,  who played various flutes as well as alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. To my ears, this brought back that ethereal flowery sound that harked back to the Greg Lake era. But mostly the music was aggressively percussive, with the singer, Jakko Jakayla, also playing 2nd lead guitar. the drummers used all kinds of percussion aside from their snares & bass drums. They were locked in and very tight! There was a primary keyboardist/mellotron player, Bill Rieflin (Fripp only used his keyboard occasionally), legendary monster bassist Tony Levin using a variety of stand up and stick electric bass guitars. It was a thrill to take this ride with KC for the first time in so many years for me. My favorite song of the night was 'Epitaph', sung brilliantly by Jakko Jakayla. The audience was very responsive too.
Thanks to Eddie Z for the ride and an enjoyable pre-game!

Thanks for the reviews.

I'm looking forward to a show in my vicinity on the fall tour. <sigh>

>> I always did find it funny that Fripp prefers to stay in the shadows & let the rest of the band take the front. Very unusual for a founding member of any band. 

I was fortunate to get back stage at a HORDE festival show in 1996 in Cincinnati. I got to meet Tony Levin at the gate and he was very gracious. Adrian Belew was very accommodating. I even have a group photo with my show mates and Adrian where he has his arms around the shoulders of two of us. I attempted to meet Fripp. As I approached to greet him, he quickly grabbed his tea and scurried away. Moments later as he tried to enter the WAY Backstage area he was accosted by a 16 year old Riverbend employee who asked for his credentials. D'oh, she had no clue who she was shaking down. He had to search around in his pockets for his back stage pass.         I called out to Fripp in that moment, "I just wanted to say 'Thank you'."

Fripp can be quite persnickety. I saw him do a Q & A  after a League of Crafty Guitarists session in Brooklyn once, and he basically told one person their question was stupid, ha ha!

Mr.  ChuckM --

Don't know if you will ever be back at that  PT / Rehab place,  but if so get in touch and I'll bring another Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken.  Those folks really do it Absolutely Perfect.  Many Galaxies beyond the typical Supermarket example of the genre.

Their Ceviche or similar dish was also Great.  Now I'm getting Hungry.  Suppose it's about time to get more Sandpaper or shiite at the Harbor Freight and claim my free Batteries or flashlight.  Chicken place happens to be next door.

Was in Club Benê Dinner Theatre for one Hot Tuna show,  early-mid 1980's.

We did get a table up front,  and I can honestly say that I can not recall all the fine details of the Cuisine.

I'm thinking pot-roast or prime-rib (each would look the same there)  with mashed potato and canned string beans, your basic 1964 hospital cafeteria food or fancy high-school lunch.  Then again, maybe it was Chicken.

So pretty typical for North Jerseyland ca. 1984.  

We caught a Soundscapes show at The Bottom Line once in NYC. About an hour in, someone stood up right in front of the stage and snapped a picture - something you just DON'T DO!  Well, Fripp instantly grabbed his guitar by the neck and bolted. Needless to say, no Q&A session that night.

They could learn something from the Dead

Tony Levin:

"

Some of my friends in the audience thought tonight’s show was even better than last nights, and maybe it was. 

But there was one train wreck. And a Crimson train wreck is, well, not like other bands… a King Crimson train wreck takes out the whole train station. And maybe the town it’s in!

Allow me to explain.

It happed during “The ConstruKction of Light”, a particularly complex piece. I’ve mentioned in a few interviews that to me, Trey Gunn’s touch guitar part on that piece is the best I know of, for utilizing what the instrument can do, and complementing the music in a unique way. 

But it’s really tricky… took me ages to learn, and even now that I’ve got it down, things can go wrong at any point.

And tonight, things indeed went wrong. It’s hard to say where it began… hard, not because I don’t know, but because I know it was because of me!

Only a little error… pausing four beats instead of six. (there are various pauses of both lengths in the piece.) But in this piece, we’re not all playing in the same time signature, so the two guitarists, hearing me enter early, didn’t know when to enter with their parts… opted instead to let me keep going on my own.

And I did keep going. The drums are out in that section, so it was just me, playing on and on in a complex eighth note pattern, hoping someone would come in. That lasted for ages (to me) and finally the drummers and I came together with the 15/8 figure that signals the end of what could be called the verse.

But then, a new issue.. would the guitars enter with verse two, or, not having played anything yet, start in on verse one. Alas, they didn’t agree on that. They came in with both, hence in different keys! The ensuing harmonic mess left them no choice but to stop again, leaving… you guessed it, just me playing alone again. 

By now, we certainly knew we had a problem about how to bring this piece together. There’s no just counting ‘one two three four’ when one player’s in 28/8 and others in 7/4 offset a quarter note from each other, and the drummers waiting to join in in 15/8 to signal finally getting beyond the verses!

I could have just stopped and admitted defeat (maybe thrown up my hands and shouted “Thank You” in a Spinal Tap maneuver.) But, right or wrong, (well, wrong or wrong) I persisted.

It was about as organized as this before show 'fists' we'd done before coming onstage."

USA Fall 2017 dates announced...
King Crimson will be returning to America later this year. The dates see the group performing in some states and cities that have not been visited in a while. Atlanta in Georgia, for example, last had live Crimson music in 2001, while Texas has experienced something of an epic Crimson drought since 1974, not counting ProjeKct Three’s week-long residency in the Lone Star state during March 1999.

19 Oct Bass Performance Hall, Austin
21 Oct Music Hall, Dallas
23 Oct Center Stage, Atlanta
24 Oct Center Stage, Atlanta
26 Oct Duke Energy Centre for the Performing Arts, Raleigh
28 Oct Lisner Auditorium, Washington D.C.
29 Oct Lisner Auditorium, Washington D.C.
31 Oct New Jersey Performing Arts Centre, Newark
02 Nov Merriam Theatre, Philadelphia
03 Nov Merriam Theatre, Philadelphia
06 Nov Orpheum Theatre, Boston
08 Nov The Egg, Albany
09 Nov The Egg, Albany
11 Nov Miller Symphony Hall, Allentown
17 Nov Beacon Theatre, New York
18 Nov Beacon Theatre, New York
22 Nov Michigan Theatre, Ann Arbor
24 Nov Hard Rock Cafe, Cleveland
26 Nov Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee

Purchase details will follow.

Ahhhhh, wishes granted!

Ann Arbor and Cleveland calling