King Crimson (version 8.0) consists of Fripp, Mel Collins, Tony Levin, a guitarist who sings in a baritone not unlike John Wetton, and three (3) drummers. No band needs more than two guitarists, so this amount of percussion seems a little unnecessary. They do look fine arrayed across the front of the stage, and there is some pleasure in seeing them all simultaneously flick at a cymbal during a unison section. Fripp, unlike Mel Collins, is willing to appear as his real age. He sat at the back in an unassuming way which fooled nobody as the audience knew where the crunching riffs were coming from. Tony Levin played bass a lot of the time, which was good as that stick thing is pretty stupid
This was a seated concert, which was for once OK as I had paid through the nose to be in the front section. This was treated as a recital, which overall worked pretty well, though it could have benefited from slightly better sound quality. There is no talking to the audience, apart from a pre-recorded skit which mostly successfully persuaded people not to wield cameras. The show started more or less on time, which is a nice habit I would like to see copied. A crazy person wanted to dance in a rather deadhead style which was deemed acceptable once he was ushered out of everyone's view.
They played a mixture of pre- and post- 1974 songs. Played live the two eras blend well but the audience only gasp with pleasure at the older things, perhaps reasonably as a song like Starless is pretty perfect.
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