Review King Crimson 31 October 2018

I'm happy to have seen them another time yesterday, this time in the Roman arena in Verona, normally a world famous opera venue, and an incredible setting for the band. It was again an unforgettable experience. They only managed to fill the venue about half, which doesn't really surprise me as, legends or not, they never had the commercial appeal of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Radiohead etc. I'm happy that they did it; I hope they didn't lose much money in this way. It may win them some new fans there because I saw a good number of young faces, parents brought their children and some certainly decided to go because the venue adds to the attraction. 

They apparently always change the set list. Some things that I haven't seen on the set lists here and they hadn't played in London when I saw them in October last year were Cat Food, Frame By Frame and The Sheltering Sky. Discipline has always been my favourite album and I was very happy that they did these (plus the reliable highlight Indiscipline that should always be there and in fact mostly is), both in shiny new arrangements. The Sheltering Sky in particular was a real highlight, here and in some other parts they left themselves some space for improvisation, and Sheltering Sky has such a unique relaxed atmosphere and is in quite some contrast to the heavy sound elsewhere. Frame by Frame got quite some makeover started off with melodic percussion and pretty laid back vocals before eventually all seven band members get busy. Very interesting, although I prefer the leaner version on Discipline. There was one pretty good song that I didn't recognize. I wouldn't guarantee that 100% of their catalogue is on my radar but surely the vast majority is. I'd be delighted if this were a new one, maybe they come out with some entirely new music apart from their creative new arrangements and drum interludes? After all that touring what about doing a studio album for a change? Surely they proved already that the spark is still there!

Another thing that they hadn't played when I saw them before (neither last October nor in any earlier incarnation I had seen) was Moonchild, mentioned already by others on this tour. Moonchild was really, really wonderful. They shortened the instrumental part a bit but what they did was minimalist, meditative, artful and impressive, You could hear a needle drop.

Compared with the London concert in my impression the melodic parts and songs shone more whereas for me at least there was less of a surprise factor in the interplay of the drummers and the drumming dominated parts weren't changed or rather reduced a bit. Further highlights included once more Island, The Court of the Crimson King and predictably the ending section with Indiscipline, Starless and the encore Schizoid Man. I liked occasional jazzy bits and rare hints at "contemporary classic"/minimalist music.

A criticism is that they have a lot of tracks that are based on heavy guitar riffs varied and modulated through the keys, and in the first half for my taste they picked too much of that stuff, ConstrKction of Light, Level Five,  LTIA IV, also many older songs such as One More Red Nightmare have parts of this kind (there's even more such as Red that they didn't do), and this gets a bit repetitive, be it their signature sound. 

And then (but this isn't a criticism, just a thought) it always strikes me that some of their music is quite physical, yet (apart from Masteletto and Harrison on occasion) it is all presented in a quite body-less, intellectual way and surely they wouldn't want to see anyone run to the front and dance. Everybody is seated and hardly anyone is moving. Of course one can say "all are listening, what could be better" but it's rock music, isn't it, so some rocking should be fine!? I also wondered whether this is quite a male thing (the line-up itself is heavily imbalanced but of course they're not alone), although this time the audience was balanced better than in London (where it seemed 80-90% male) with many fathers bringing their teenage or twen daughters who seemed to have a good time. Any thoughts?

Yes this certainly marries up with the experience I had at the Bournemouth Pavillion a few days earlier.

Cheers!

I saw a similar show in Chicago in 2017, and it was truly remarkable.  I'm jealous about the Brazilian dinner however!!  Cheers, Charles in Chicago

I saw KC two times in the mid to late 90's both times in Chicago. I hope to see them again should they ever return to Chicago....

Actually yesterday I received my Meltdown - Live in Mexico CDs/DVD and watched the DVD last night probably about the time you were leaving the show there.  I got to relive it again!  The DVD I thought was awesome.