King Crimson USA 2017

The sound at the Beacon Theater (at least in the lower balcony) was perfectly dreadful. 

The drummers (it would really help if you put bottom heads on your over-used toms, guys) often drowned out everyone else. 

Mel Collins was usually audible, but when he was playing while Jakko sang, he drowned out Jakko's vocal. 

I never heard Jakko's guitar playing except during Cirkus. 

Levin was audible only during the early, soft parts of Indiscipline and in the opening of Starless.  Also, his solo on the upright during Meltdown (I assume, since I heard no lyrics) was audible and terrific. 

Fripp was always audible, both on guitar and when his synth was set to faux-mellotron, and that was all great. 

Keyboard guy in the upper middle (name?) was only audible on piano at the beginning of Cirkus and when his synth (I think it was his, it was hard to tell, but it wasn't Fripp's since he was playing guitar) was set to faux-mellotron. 

I would assume that The Beacon (opened in 1929) is one of the oldest venues played on this tour, and I think the physical acoustics of the hall might have limited even the best sound engineers.  I could hear them course-correcting during the first 20 minutes or so and things did improve a bit.  But this was their 2nd night at the Beacon, so where was THAT at?  Quite possibly, the sound was better downstairs. 

What I did hear was fantastic save for the drummers who, while undoubtedly very talented, seemed to be in a contest to outdo each other and who rarely played with the subtlety this material often requires.  I hadn't expected Bruford, but comparisons were inevitable.

Sorry, folks.  I wish I could report the same enthusiasm that the rest of you have.  I certainly went in really, really psyched and expecting to have my brain melted.  If they tour again, hopefully with Adrian, I'll be a lot more careful about where I choose to see them.  A close friend saw them in a much newer hall in Dallas, and reported none of the sound mix issues (although he agreed that the drummers could have been more subtle - when I talked with him this morning, he compared them to 3 John Bonhams - great if you're listening to Zep circa 1975, but we weren't).

I saw the Washington DC show bank on October 29. It was a great performance as I thoroughly enjoyed the show. I won 4 tickets from the local radio station which was a nice bonus. I took my friend, my wife, who just wanted to be with me, and believe it or not my 11 year old daughter.

I took someone to the Boston show who had never heard a single note of Crimson prior - they were blown away

Just saw King Crimson. Absolutely amazing performance!!!

^ Nice to read! All the reviews coming in have been glowing thus far so the anticipation for me is growing out of control. 

When I saw them in Minneapolis in July Reiflin played keyboards exclusively, up on the second stage tier between Jakko and Tony. As a drummer he was interesting to watch, but as a keyboardist he was stonefaced and stiff. I found myself watching him just to see if he would change his expression. Not complaining though, the Trons sounded great. Pat was a blast to watch, Gavin was a technical master but didn't seem to exude as much personality as Pat. You can't watch Jeremy without thinking Bonzo. It's the interplay of the 3 drummers that matters though. The way they passed the focus from left to right and back again was pretty cool.

The only negative things I can remember are Cirkus and Pictures of a City. They just didn't come across very well live. And they didn't do LTIA PT 2 or Talking Drum.

Will be at the opening shows in Austin and Dallas....anyone else on PA going to be at either show?  If so, a pint is in order!

Going to the Boston date in November! Four drummers bring it on!!!

Looks like Fripp and Belew are having a bit of a tiff about Crimson playing Indiscipline with vocals. Belew thought they had an agreement to only play his stuff as instrumentals. Bit of dirty laundry being aired on the acrimony surrounding his departure. Apparently he wanted everyone in the band except him and Fripp to be treated as hired sidemen rather than equal split 8 ways.

Hi, I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this, but I am trying to find which version of "Frame-by-Frame' this video is using? I am particularly interested in the bass playing on this version (I play bass :) Thanks!