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King Crimson Setlist
Tour Dates
06/30/2017 Rochester, NY Kodak Hall 07/03/2017 Montreal, QC Festival International De Jazz 07/05/2017 Toronto, ON Massey Hall 07/07/2017 Quebec City, QC Centre Vidéotron 07/09/2017 Red Bank, NJ Count Basie Theatre 07/10/2017 Red Bank, NJ Count Basie Theatre 07/14/2017 Mexico City, MX Teatro Metropolitan 07/15/2017 Mexico City, MX Teatro Metropolitan 07/16/2017 Mexico City, MX Teatro Metropolitan 07/18/2017 Mexico City, MX Teatro Metropolitan 07/19/2017 Mexico City, MX Teatro Metropolitan Lineup
Robert Fripp - Guitar
Jakko Jakszyk - Guitar, Vocals Mel Collins – Sax/Flute Tony Levin - Basses, Stick, Backing Vocals Pat Mastelotto – Acoustic/ Electronic Percussion Gavin Harrison – Acoustic/ Electronic Percussion Jeremy Stacey – Acoustic/ Electronic Percussion/ Keys Bill Rieflin – Mellotron/Keyboards/Fairy Dusting Read More
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Some shows attract a slightly different audience—
There are concerts and then there are concerts that other musicians want to attend- to marvel at the dexterity of the performers on stage, maybe learn a thing or two, and the type of show a working musician would happily take a night off, to experience.
With bassist John (Semisonic, New Standards) Munson seated directly behind me, members of Boiled in Lead to my right, and various other musicians dotting the capacity crowd, the musical court of radical action was in session as King Crimson made a rare appearance in Minneapolis at the State Theatre.
The venerable progressive rock outfit (who last played the State in 1995) has been in existence since forming in London in 1968 and has had a somewhat rotating lineup in its on-again/off-again history, but the current eight-person double quartet formation featuring three drummers at the front of the stage, may be its most formidable and musically complex configuration yet.
The “evening with…”performance consisted of two sets, the first being just over an hour, and the second (after a twenty-minute intermission) going ninety-minutes, stopped only by the venue’s hard curfew time. Like an orchestra (and as well dressed as one- in suits, ties and vests of black and white) the octet entered and took a brief bow before beginning work.
With the three drummers taking up the front, the remaining five members were on an elevated platform behind them; stalwart Tony Levin who deftly moved from Chapman stick, to upright, to his yellow Three of a Perfect Pair bass, was near center and leader/guitarist Robert Fripp huddled in the far right corner, with headphones on, often twiddling the knobs of his machinery.
The eclectic setlist covered the bands forty plus years, beginning with 1973’s ‘Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One’ earmarked by one of several Mel Collins’ exemplary solos, then jumped a decade later for the fluid ‘Neurotica’ with Fripp’s hyper-kinetic guitar riffs perched alongside a dizzying high tempo jazz beat.
In classic Crimson form, longer instrumental passages eventually gave way to songs with lyrics and guitarist/vocalist Jakko Jakszyk ably covered tracks originally sung by the likes of Greg Lake, John Wetton, and Adrian Belew.
The band’s latest full opus is Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind (DGM Records), a box set of mostly live material from Japan 2015 with a few new passages (which also gives the current tour its name) and also a live Heroes EP which is, in part, a tribute to the late David Bowie.
The uniqueness of seeing each of these seasoned musicians working is near indescribable and has to be experienced live, to fully embrace their vision--- think of eight master painters working in their own style, but on a common canvas, and you begin to get the idea of things.
The drummers (Pat Mastelotto; Gavin Harrison; and Jeremy Stacey) alone were a marvel to behold- playing in synchronicity, finishing each other’s musical sentences, or providing their part to the whole, with precision and grace.
Harrison (ex-Porcupine Tree) seemed to be doing more of the electronic work and standard drumming, while Stacey (Noel Gallagher, Sheryl Crow) split his time on the keys, and Mastelotto played the mad scientist, tinkering with strange instruments and trash metals to embellish the songs.
Longtime fans were thrilled to hear the back end of 1970’s Lizard, the band’s third album, with ‘Hell Hounds of Krim’ following, which showcased the percussion trio. Keeping with a setlist mainly focused on songs from 1968-74, ‘Fallen Angel’ (of which Levin wrote a reminder on his setlist to make sure to come in on time) and 1971’s ‘Islands’ brought the first set to a close.
If you didn’t get the message on the tickets, doors, and announcements about no cell phone use or photography, two signs on stage brought up front during the intermission, were also there to remind you. The band launched into its longer second set with the early ‘80s ‘Indiscipline’, sounding more jazz-based and experimental with this lineup before jumping into this century, with 2000’s ‘The ConstruKction of Light’.
Second-half songs like ‘Easy Money’ and main set closing ‘Starless’ brought to mind who much the prog rock world misses John (Asia, UK) Wetton, the original singer of those songs, so impactful in his couple years with the group, sadly felled by colon cancer this January.
Songs from 1971 would soon give way to much newer pieces, including the new ‘Meltdown’ (co-written by Jakszyk and Fripp) and 2001’s spanning ‘Level Five’. With a “hard curfew time” for the venue looming, unfortunately two songs (‘Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two" & ‘The Court of the Crimson King’) were trimmed from the encore, but the unmissable wailing drone of Fripp’s guitar on their cover of ‘Heroes’, reprising his work on the Bowie original forty years ago, made everything right in the world.
A song written in 1969 has become as much or more relevant today (and unfortunately fitting), as ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ would close the evening, a perfect soundtrack to the upside-down world that was just beyond the venue doors. The standing crowd roared in approval as the octet bowed, with Fripp and Levin taking crowd pictures, leading many to finally get out their cell phones for that picture they’d been waiting all night to take.
The musicians around me all stood clapping joyously, a sign that this was one of those musician’s musicians’ concerts and that the performers on stage truly impressed what could have been a more critically judging audience. And with Fripp’s recent radical action to re-invent the group approaching its fiftieth year as a juggernaut double quartet formation, King Crimson continues to successfully re-define the boundaries of progressive rock.
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King Crimson, photo by Spike Mafford, provided by the band |
Audience, photo courtesy of Tony Levin |
King Crimson setlist and set times courtesy Tony Levin |
King Crimson Mpls State 062617 setlist courtesy Tony Levin |
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King Crimson at State Theatre, Minneapolis (26 June 2017) Photo by Spike Mafford, provided by the band
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