Just curious: has anyone attended any of the nostalgia-oriented concerts by the current edition of King Crimson.
For years, Robert Fripp shunned old Crimson material, but lately he’s been touring with various and sundry ex-members and a few new guys doing mostly the Sixties and Seventies songs.
A few questions:
How’d they sound?
Why is Fripp nostalgic NOW? Just trying to get one more big payday before retiring from the road for good?
Why THIS lineup for performing older material? Why not get together with Greg Lake, Ian MacDonald and Michael Giles? Or John Wetton, Bill Bruford and David Cross? Why play old Crimson material with guys who (except for Mel Collins) weren’t ever part of the Sixties/Seventies band?
Funny how on the one hand you dismiss the current project of revisiting the early Crimson repertoire–rearranged for a unique instrumental lineup unlike any previous version of the band–as “nostalgia,” then you carp about Fripp not reuniting with his old bandmates, most of whom are retired and/or long past their prime. Would there be any reason other than nostalgia to get Greg Lake up there croaking his way through “21st Century Schizoid Man”?
Not “carping,” really. Just 1) curious how they sounded, and yet 2) wondering why Fripp chose to go old school with THIS lineup, after decades of shunning the old Crimson material.
Look, there’s no perfect analogy, but consider…
Diana Ross has every right to go on tour and sing old Supremes songs. Why SHOULDN’T she? But some years back, she announced a Supremes Reunion Tour and then went on the road without Mary Wilson (much less the late Florence Ballard). Why call it a Supremes tour at all?
Similarly, Robert Fripp has a right to play music he wrote with any band he likes. But after 40+ years of NOT playing “21st Century Schizoid Man,” why play it now with Bill Rieflin and Jakko, rather than with the guys he made that music with?
Could be. Could also be he holds a grudge a looooong time and is still mad at the other guys for bailing out of the original lineup (he seemed to get a lot of glee from breaking up the band in 1974 right after inviting Ian MacDonald to rejoin).
A guy who pointedly removes Gordon Haskell’s vocals from “Cadence and Cascade” definitely has a vindictive streak.
I’m opining based on one interview I saw of Fripp, so take this how you will, but he seems to be a very anal and uncompromising perfectionist. That’s probably why he’s so amazing, but I imagine his old bandmates got sick of it after a few years.
The interview was part of a bio feature, and it showed footage of all his guitar students performing. They all sat in a circle and the camera was at the center. Each student held identical guitars at the exact same angle and posture. Each student wore glasses, white shirt, and dark pants, and had their hair styled the same way. They all looked like Fripp clones, no matter their nationality. They all played a relay exercise, one at a time, one guitarist taking over for the previous, and the flow was flawless. The camera followed their relay in a complete circle. It sounded like one performer. While amazing, it was also creepy.
Me too!
I heard about it late and got a couple of the last tickets available, way up in the Gods. In fact, their website says ‘because it is very high up, it is not suitable for anyone with vertigo. Even those with a mild dislike of heights should consider sitting elsewhere’. But they say the sound is excellent.
The other time I saw them was around 20 years ago; we ended up standing near the back of an almost unraked floor with a terrible view and a noisy bar behind us. Not ideal and this has to be better!
I’m only a casual Crimson listener, but they played it at the Budapest show in 1996. (However, point taken: the last show I saw in Budapest, in 2003, they played all new stuff from my recollection.)
I haven’t seen KC live since the 80s. At that time, they played two tracks Fripp had done with Bill Bruford in the Seventies: “Red” and “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part 2.” They didn’t play anything else from earlier incarnations of the band.
John Wetton and Bill Bruford are neither retired nor incapable of singing/playing at a high level. Why not ask THEM if they’d like to play “Starless” and “One More Red Nightmare” again?
After pulling the rug out from under them without warning in 1974, I’d think he OWED them that much!
Bill Bruford is indeed retired. Whether Wetton still has what it takes is a matter of opinion, but I gather he’s been doing better lately since getting sober. He has, however, had some health issues (recent cancer surgery) that would probably stand in the way of going out on tour with a rock band.
I saw them last fall. I enjoyed it a lot but frankly was expecting to be challenged a bit more. I found the percussion particularly striking (sorry)… I liked the way the three of them interacted.
Saw the band on Thursday. And Friday!
I had only bought tickets for the one night (I hadn’t even realised until a week ago that they were playing two nights) and my partner was humming and hawing about buying tickets for the 2nd show so I finally did just a few days ago.
They’re not likely to play her again (they last played Edinburgh in 1972, I’m told) and they’re her favourite band so I figured that if they were good, she’d regret not seeing both shows and, if they weren’t, they have a chance to redeem themselves the 2nd night!
First night watching from the balcony was great, 2nd night sitting in the stalls was also great but went by so quickly - yet they played all the same songs… Over two hours each night. The three drummers added a certain…ooomph! Like a herd of rhinos charging!
And, yes, she was really pleased I made the decision to go both nights but a bit guilty about not paying for one night at least…
