Fortunately, for their 2016 tour King Crimson decided to play in my current hometown Barcelona and not just for one evening but two, November 24th and 25th. At 68 euro for a decent ticket (not the best) I settled for just one show, that of Friday 25th. The last time I had seen KC live was at the Power To Believe tour so it was a long awaited event (although I recently saw Adrian Belew with his band and of course they also played a few Crimson songs).
The venue was the Forum Auditorium at the CCIB (Barcelona International Conventions Centre) which has 3,100 seats. I had my doubts that KC could fill this up for two consecutive evenings but at least on the Friday show there was not one empty seat left. It's a very nice venue for watching concerts, with sloping stands allowing a good view for most attendants, we were seating at the area marked with the red circle, not outstanding but close enough. Fripp played at an angle facing mostly to the band which meant that we could not see much of his playing from front, but the positive side is that we had a great view of Gavin Harrison in particular and all the other band members. We also brought some binoculars which enabled some more detailed view.
The sound was simply amazing, so clean and perfectly balanced mix, you could hear all the subtle nuances for example of Mastelotto's endless array of percussions. The mix favoured Gavin Harrison's drumming slightly over Mastelotto and Rieflin's, but after a while it became evident that it was on purpose, Gavin took most of the leading role. I had already seen him with Porcupine Tree but this guy impressed me a lot yesterday, what an outstanding young drummer.
All the instruments could be perfectly discerned even in the subtlest moments. Definitely one of the best live sound quality I have ever experienced. There was basically no light show, for the most part the stage was simply lit with white light, with only a few dimming - brightening effects and some subtle colour transitions.
Jakko Jakszyk's singing is very fitting to the band, I would say that he sounds the most like John Wetton, which obviously means that he also fits well the Lake and Haskell era songs. Not so similar to Adrian Belew but he managed to sing his era songs well too, albeit more soberly, less extravagant.
To be honest there were some tracks which I did not recognize, or not fully, you know like those you know you have listened to but not enough to put their name, there are some KC albums I'm not so familiar with. So I have had to pickup the setlist from a website this morning, I assume it's accurate. Here it is:
Walk On: Monk Morph Chamber Music
Hell Hounds of Krim
Pictures of a City
Cirkus
Lizard (Dawn Song)
Suitable Grounds for the Blues
VROOOM
Epitaph
The ConstruKction of Light
Interlude
Meltdown
Radical Action II
Level Five
20 min break
Peace: An End
Drums solo - Indiscipline
The Court of the Crimson King
Easy Money
The Letters
Devil Dogs of Tessellation Row
Red
A Scarcity of Miracles (Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins cover)
The Talking Drum
Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two
Starless
Encore: 21st Century Schizoid Man
So, what a setlist for a classic Crimson lover! With Mel Collins on board a lot of the classic period songs were undusted and it was great to see them playing gems like Cirkus, Pictures of a City, The Letters or Lizard which I believe they hadn't played live for quite some time, and of course the not so rare classics like Epitaph, In the Court..., Red, Easy Money or Lark's Tongues in Aspic Pt 2 and obviously Starless and 20th Centrury Schizoid Man!!
And I loved too the more clinical and mathematical songs of the latter periods. After the break and after the short Peace: An End, the 3 drummers engaged in a terrific solo displaying every kind of mastery, from parts in which each of them alternated for some bars to show their individual talent to part of pure coordination and synchronization among them which put all the audience standing up.
Levin played a lot the normal bass, much more than I had seen him in the last years, owing to the big share of pre-Levin classics, but he alternated also with the Stick and the upright NS double bass. Outstanding musician as always.
Well, I'l leave it here, for anyone still having the chance to see them in this tour, if you can afford it do not miss them!!!
Edited by Gerinski - November 29 2016 at 03:09
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King Crimson in Barcelona 25 Nov 2016
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