Oakland Friday - meet up?

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Hi - is anybody going to be at the same show as me? Care to meet up before hand?

I'll be the fat balding guy (I know, I know) with a Van Dyke beard and a Discipline t-shirt. Say hi.

[Paulrus]

I'd say "You bet!", but I'm going to tonight's show.

And by the way, for those reading this and wondering what the hell we're talking about, King Crimson is playing tonight and tomorrow at the Fox in Oakland. More to come...

[rapidfirerob]

Have fun! I know you will. Going to see David Crosby at Napa Uptown Friday. Deep Purple Sunday at The Warfield.

[Paulrus]

The KC show at the Fox last night was good, but last year's (it was last year, right?) was better. Partly because last year I didn't have the woman with Tourette Syndrome nearby laughing loudly and then going "Woooo!!!" every 30 seconds. At least she could control it during the quiet bits.

But poor Jeremy Stacey -- hopefully his keyboard tech will have figured out a way to keep his rig from collapsing mid-song. And hopefully Mel Collins will have all his battery packs recharged tonight.

But I think I'm done with the whole 3-drummer concept. It's gotten to the point of being a gimmick, a schtick, and I hope RF decides he's had his fun with us and it's time once again to re-invent King Crimson. I'd love to get a new studio album out of this group -- they certainly seem to have enough new material by now. Although I can imagine the nightmare a recording engineer would face trying to record 3 drummers and come up with some kind of sane balance between them all. No wonder they just keep putting out live records.

[Mister Triscuits]

Partly because last year I didn't have the woman with Tourette Syndrome nearby laughing loudly and then going "Woooo!!!" every 30 seconds.

Funny, the first thing our group talked about when we got back to the car tonight was the Tourette's guy in front of us (actually directly in front of me) who obsessively rocked back and forth nonstop through the entire show.

Awesome as the show was, I left feeling disappointed because they didn't play anything from Lizard, which is about my all-time favorite album, and I've never gotten to hear any of it live. Missed the last tour when they debuted that material, and I've been kicking myself ever since. In fact it was the only classic-era Crimson album not represented in tonight's set list. I'll bet they played all of those songs last night. At least we got "Fracture," which was killer.

[Paulrus]

Funny, the first thing our group talked about when we got back to the car tonight was the Tourette's guy in front of us (actually directly in front of me) who obsessively rocked back and forth nonstop through the entire show.

Awesome as the show was, I left feeling disappointed because they didn't play anything from Lizard, which is about my all-time favorite album, and I've never gotten to hear any of it live. Missed the last tour when they debuted that material, and I've been kicking myself ever since. In fact it was the only classic-era Crimson album not represented in tonight's set list. I'll bet they played all of those songs last night. At least we got "Fracture," which was killer.

On Thursday we got "Cirkus" but nothing off of Wake of Poseidon. We got "Moonchild" -- which wasn't on the setlist last year -- but no "Schizoid Man", which I was expecting seeing as it's the 50th anniversary year of the debut and all. There was an over-representation of Those King Crimson Songs that start off with a nasty, heavy riff, then modulate around a bit before returning to the nasty, heavy riff where Mel Collins would start wailing on flute and/or saxes, more modulation and maybe a quieter respite before a reprise of nasty, heavy riffing leading up to the abrupt ending. You know that song. There's about a dozen of them in the repertoire at this point and I feel like they played most of them on Thursday.

[Lebofsky]

I live in Oakland (about 20 blocks from the Fox) but still sadly missed both shows due to work/life/budget.

Also... I admit by far my favorite live KC lineup was when Fripp, Gunn, and Mastelotto were backing up David Sylvian ~25 years ago........

- Matt

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Michael, were you on the floor, well back, to the left? If so, you were right behind me - the person on my left was playing violent air-drums the whole time, while the person on my right spilt his beer on my leg.

Still, it was a good show.

In fact, the first set was simply astounding. The set began with the "Drumsons" trio doing their thing; next up was TcoL, where Mel seems to have found his place very well. Then came powerful versions of "Neurotica" and "Level Five." All this was pretty amazeballs.

But for the rest of the set we witnessed the music playing the band. "Islands" caught fire, beautiful and gentle. This was followed by another Drumson set, then "Cat Food," which had at least some people up off their seats. "EleKtriK", "Moonchild", and the cadenzae all drove the concert forward to the set ender, "Fracture."

Wow.

I don't know what happened, but I have a clue.During "EleKtriK", Fripp pointed at someone in the audience. All I know is that the second hand, while it was performed admirably and honorably, lacked something. It made me think of Fripp's frequent remark about the air being let out of a balloon.

It was a good set, just not a magical one. Drumsons #3 led into "Easy Money," which was delightfully vicious and had new lyrics (which I think were about American politics and especilly the current Resident of the White House). "Red" was well played but I've seen/heard it too many times; I really think it's time to give that one a rest. "Epitaph". The intro to "Indiscipline" brought laughs as the drummers tossed riffs back and forth, with funny facial expressions (especially Pat M.); the song itself was strong. The set closed with "Starless," where the magic tried to come back but didn't quite make it.

The encore - as expected - was 21CSM. They have restored the improv section which had been replaced by Gavin's drum sola. That's actually still there, but after the improv. In the improv the magic did poke through for a while.

All in all, an extraordinary musical event.

[Mister Triscuits]

Michael, were you on the floor, well back, to the left? If so, you were right behind me - the person on my left was playing violent air-drums the whole time, while the person on my right spilt his beer on my leg.

Nope, I was way up in the nosebleed seats. And went with a group, so at least I had sane people on both sides of me.

[Garyhead]

On Tony Levin's website Bill R. was backstage....did he perform?

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

No. Though apparently he was at the meet & greet part of the royal package.

[Gizmotron]

I was at Thursday's show.

Just amazing in every way.
Because I have not been able to catch any of their previous shows (other than in 1981) I guess I am pre-disposed to only say positive things.