LIVE AT THE ORPHEUM

A band with three drummers? If this could have happened when I was a teenager (and it was more than 30 years ago!) I could have been very "excited" and "surprised" ("A band with three drummers? Wow!") to see and to listen to this "experiment". But...in the present for me this "experiment" only sounds more like another one done by Robert Fripp in a very long list. It is not the first time that KING CRIMSON has more than one drummer in the line- up, but I still think that with one very good drummer in any band is enough. Fortunately, one of the drummers in this new line-up (Bill Rieflin, with the other two drummers being "old" members Pat Mastelotto and Gavin Harrison) plays keyboards in some parts of some songs (particularly in the songs from the seventies "The Letters", "Sailor's Tale" and "Starless"). And my main interest to listen to this album was to listen to those songs from the seventies (which also include "One More Red Nightmare", from their "Red" album) played again with Mel Collins playing flute and sax. For me, the best period from this band was the 1969-74 period. Alll these songs are very well played, but with three drummers they sometimes sound with some excess....but very well anyway. It could have taken a lot of rehearsals to the three drummers to coordinate between them about who was going to play "what and when" in every song.

In this new KING CRIMSON line-up there are two former members of the 21ST CENTURY SCHIZOID BAND (Mel Collins, who also was a member of KING CRIMSON between 1970 and 1972, and Jakko Jakszyk, lead singer and guitarist who does a good job in this live album). Also Tony Levin plays bass and stick (with him being also and "old" member of the band from the eighties and nineties, a period of the band which I don`t like, due more to the musical influences of Adrian Belew than from the musical influences of Levin and other members from that period). From the Belew line-ups there is a song called "The Construcktion of Light", with the typical "obsessive" interplay from the guitars (a thing which I never liked from the Belew line-ups), but with very good flute and sax played by Collins. "Walk On : Monk Morph Chamber Music" is a brief instrumental "experimental" musical piece which works more as an introductory piece to the concert while the musicians walk to the stage. "Banshee Legs Bell Hassle" is another experimental instrumental musical piece which for me sounds a bit influenced by their "Larks Tongues in Aspic" album from 1973.

A four star rating for this live album from me, only for the inclusion of some songs from the seventies. But I still think that it is not necessary to have three drummers in a band....in any band.