Here's another review from Frank Marotta.
"A packed World Cafe was treated to two hours of wonderful music last night. The audience was perhaps 1/3 Crimson fan & 2/3 friends and family of the School of Rock members. Set list was mostly as previously listed, except LTIA II was played, not I.
The School of Rock opened with a blistering version of Schizoid Man, without Wetton. Lead vocal was handled by the sax player. Then Wetton came out & joined the band. He was in excellent voice, and played bass & 12 string guitar. A couple songs by UK & Asia were mixed with the Crimson material. John took a break while School of Rock did a song each by Rush & Yes, then returned. Hearing Fallen Angel & One More Red Nightmare was worth the price of admission alone, but all songs were very well played. Heat Of The Moment was the last song of the main set, then School of Rock returned without Wetton for Three of A Perfect Pair. Wetton then returned to end the show with a lovely Book of Saturdays.
In deference to the age of his bandmates, John changed the lyric to Easy Money. No "leaking fudge" last night. I was seated right in front of Wetton. Once between songs, I stood up, showed a $10 bill & told John I’d give it to him if he played Doctor Diamond. John had a good laugh & said "Maybe next time".
Perhaps the coolest part of the show was all the teens & tweens wildly clapping for songs written ages before they were born.
How did
they pull it off? I was seated with the parents of the violin player
& asked. Once Wetton agreed to do the tour, the School of Rock
listened to the music, many for the first time, and practiced it.
Wetton came in for 3 practice sessions of 4-6 hours each & off on
our they went. "
I saw John Wetton as part of the “Paul Green School of Rock” in Philadelphia on 8 March 09. As stated in a previous post, the Paul Green School of Rock consists of teen-age music students, many multi-instrumentalists. The students switched with every song. Wetton did not play on every song in the set. Here is the set list and a few observations. (Band in parentheses if not King Crimson).
21st Century Schizoid Man (without Wetton)
Red
Lament
Days Like These (Asia)
Easy Money
Tom Sawyer (Rush; without Wetton)
Mother Goose (Jethro Tull; without Wetton)
In the Dead of Night (UK)
Only Time Will Tell (Asia)
Exiles
Larks Tongue in Aspic, Part II
Don't Cry (Asia)
One More Red Nightmare
Fallen Angel
Three of a Perfect Pair (without Wetton)
Tempus Fugit (Yes; without Wetton)
Rendezvous 6:02 (UK)
The Night Watch
Fracture
Encores:
Book of Saturday
Heat of the Moment (Asia)
A few notes and reflections:
JW remarked after Red that playing this a couple hundred years ago would get someone kicked out of church, as it was full of tritones, which were regarded as “the devil’s music”.
JW stated again that before this series of 5 shows, he had never before sung One More Red Nightmare live. It was a very impressive display and very well received by the audience. And I thought I was the only person who loves this song! (I know better).
At one point, someone yelled, “play Starless”. He said, “Next time.”
JW introduced Fracture as “a nasty little pop song.”
JW played 12-string guitars on Exiles, Fallen Angel and Night Watch.
It was exciting to see kids and young people get into the King Crimson songs as well as the progressive pieces. The audience especially got into Red and LTIA part 2. I especially enjoyed Wetton’s vocals on the KC material. Celebrating those songs was special to me.
Seeing girl guitarists doing KC songs was neat too. I thought of them as Roberta Fripp’s, if that expression hasn’t been coined yet.
When the show ended, the speaker system started playing the Gentle Giant song Proclamation. Kids in my vicinity started singing along. It was a further example of young people embracing progressive music that I so enjoy. A very satisfying experience! "
