What we did on our holidays (part two): King Crimson

I have been a fan of King Crimson since about 1971 when my then best friend introduced me to In the Court of the Crimson King, the band’s influential debut. In the intervening 44 years they have had their musical ups and downs between numerous line up changes and hiatuses (hiati?), but with some notable exceptions, they have produced more music that I like than they have that I don’t.

When they toured the UK and Europe regularly, I was too young to get to see them and later, never had the money, opportunity or passport (or confidence to wander off abroad solo even if I had got a passport) to see them play live. Then they seemed to either be in hiatus or touring only in the US or Far East. To be fair, who can blame them? For some reason progressive rock has become the one musical genre that dare not openly speak its name in the UK. I accept that fashions change and that at its height prog was remarkably pompous and self-regarding, but similar things can be said of other styles that may now feel dated or unfashionable, but which retain at least the glow of nostalgia

I digress. The point is, I assumed after 44 years of enjoying their music, that I would never see them play live. About 12 years ago, I attended 3 gigs by the 21st Century Schizoid Band (reviewed on this very journal), a band made up of ex-Crimso Alumni plus Jakko Jakszyk and thought that would be as close as I ever got.

But I was wrong. They are currently in the middle of a world tour and I got tickets for their gig at the Hackney Empire on Monday 7 September. All the result of an idle internet search after Furtle had scored tickets for UK’s farewell tour back in March (possibly noted in LJ, possibly not).

So there we were: Hackney Empire to witness the latest line up, a seven piece including no fewer than three drummers. I didn’t recognise all the numbers they played, but there were enough from what I (and I believe most Crimso fans) regard as their golden era to keep me happy. The three drums set up gave me some pause for thought before the gig, but it worked. Not every song required three sets, so the middle drummer doubled up on keyboards, while Pat Mastelotto provided “percussive layering” from time time to time (by which I mean he wound up a clock into the microphone, hit metal thingies and riffled aluminium foil into the microphone). I don’t quite know why, but it worked.

At other times the three drummers played related, but different rhythms that provided a rather richer tapestry (!) before coming together for some quite pulsating output where they each played the same riff.

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Set List:
Walk On: Monk Morph Chamber Music (Pre-recorded outro to Islands)
1. Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One
2. Pictures of a City
3. Radical Action (To Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind)
4. Meltdown
5. Hell Hounds of Krim
6. The ConstruKction of Light (Instrumental)
7. Level Five
8. Epitaph
9. Banshee Legs Bell Hassle
10. Easy Money
11. Interlude
12. The Letters
13. Sailor's Tale
14. One More Red Nightmare
15. Starless
Encore:
16. Devil Dogs Of Tessellation Row
17. The Court of the Crimson King
18. 21st Century Schizoid Man

Personnel:
Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Pat Mastelotto, Tony Levin, Mel Collins, Jakko Jakszyk, Robert Fripp