Heroes   January 4, 2008
Written by Spingere
A consistant set (to these ears) witht he best ’Prozakc’ so far, an amazingly creepy (in the good sense) Improv, a  smoking ’Sex, sleep, eat, drink, dream’ a a touching ’Heroes’. A band playing such complex stuff so well and yet sounding like... a band. Amazing.

Fabbo Indeed!   October 23, 2007
Written by arrcee

Paris in July - the fabled Olympia Theatre - King Crimson back together. What a fantastic combination, and the payoff lived up to the billing.

Prior to the event itself, Adrian had fallen ill and a performance was cancelled. Robert had threatened to cancel the Paris show because DGM viddying of the performance was not going to be allowed. Much to our relief the stars aligned and the show went on as planned.

My wife and I had journed from the US to attend (and spend time on the continent doing other fun things). We were seated behind the soundboard in the balcony. The band was apparently in great spirits this evening, and the audience was perhaps the most supportive of any performance at which I have been present. It was a magic night from the first notes to the last. I caught myself tearing up during Frying Pan - it was the strangest darn thing - one that I cannot fully explain. I guess I was just overwhelmed. Unbeknownest to me, a similar thing happened to my wife.

The quality of the download files is superlative. If you seek a great 2000 show, this one is highly recommended.

Memories from the Olympia   September 1, 2007
Written by tomfish

I was at the Olympia back at the time, and this DGMLive release serves as a great reminder of this classic KC 2000 show.

I remember coming out of the concert feeling that something quite special had happened (even by KC standards), and even old school fans who came to the show expecting Schizoid Man or at least a few classics seemed genuinely impressed, not only by the music itself but even more by the spirit with which the band was engaging it. The comments that appeared later on band’s members diaries confirmed that the collective, subjective feeling that most people felt that night had also touched the musicians.

Clearly the audience was part of the thing happening, supporting the band rather than expecting to be given in return. I had seen two previous shows from the european leg of the 2000 tour, and one of them especially was marred by the lack of audience engagement, giving the band no springboard to jump on. Funny how radically different two shows from the same tour can be, in terms of body and gut response.

My point of view is that 00’s KC, probably more than the earlier incarnations, needed to rely on a caring and engaging audience to make its music blossom : the band had deliberately chosen to tread an uneasy path (short set, intricate music, few crowd pleasers, challenging drum sound) in order to put itself in danger, but without the audience accepting the danger itself as part of the musical intent, the aim seemed unattainable.

That night in Paris, what seemed unreachable flew very close from us indeed.

2 souvenirs from the concert : during the (magnificient) Improv, Adrian took over bass duties for a few minutes, pumping a bouncy rhythm over Robert’s searing guitar. Later during the set, Robert paused for one second to blow on his fingers in the middle of the FraKctured fast section, a gesture full of humor and honesty.

Monster!   June 25, 2000
Written by Bernard A. Dardinier

It is difficult to see any weak part in this show.  Maybe "One time" was a bit out of place in the middle of such sonic assaults, but, it was also a quiet moment to breath more slowly. Adrian Belew seemed to have some vocal problems (still recovering from illness?): his voice was not so clear than usual.  He did a great performance in "ProzaKc blues", with a natural "bluesy" treatment instead of the electronic one of the  CD. Alas (no Yorick intended), in certain songs, his voice was a bit "forced" and a bit too loud in the mix.

The V-drums had a far better sound than in the CD, much louder and clearer. Pat Mastelotto won his athletic contest again with the little pads. Good fight! In a completely different style (than BB's), he was great: a new standard for KC drumming, heavier.

During the long improv, a 3(?) sections development, which ended with a heavy riff (as in some PX pieces), Adrian Belew played the little (rubber?) bass.  During "Cage", Adrian Belew played acoustic and Trey Gunn (great player) played the little bass.  On another song, Robert Fripp played the bass line with his guitar.  Some songs were better played by the half octet. An example: "SSEDD", a song I didn’t like very much played in the studio, that I found better live, is now a monster, with some great humoristic splashes by Adrian Belew at the guitar.  Another humouristic snapshot: during the “racing section” of “FraKctured", Robert Fripp stopped playing a few seconds, shaking  his  fingers, like saying "Uhh, it hurts ! ". This piece was one of the highlights of the show, with “Larks” IV", “Oyster Soup” with its incredible piano frippering, and. many others. like I said: Monster!

I can't figure they will play heavier or more aggressive or “destroy” in the future: KC 2000 is a killer.  Conclusion: we don't regret paying our hard-earned money for the show.

Crimson In Paris   April 13, 2005
Written by John Bungey
OF THE once pioneering bands of English progressive rock, King Crimson
are the great survivors. While Yes, Genesis and the Moody Blues long ago
gave up musical adventures for the gentler pastures of Radio 2,
nostalgia or the golf course, Crimson are still hacking their way down
unfamiliar paths.

Not that Robert Fripp, the hugely gifted, notoriously prickly guitarist
leading this umpteenth incarnation would thank you for lumping his
efforts under the dread label "prog rock". Certainly in Paris we are a
world away from the dopey concept albums and terrible trousers of the
genre's heyday. Crimson 2000 are a lean and mean four-piece, whose agile
manoeuvres - from heavy metal to ambient to avant-garde - at no point
threaten a return to the Court of the Crimson King.

Fripp sits on his customary stool expressionless, refusing to
acknowledge the audience, only his hands moving. As he clangs through
Lark's Tongue in Aspic Part IV it's hard not to sympathise with those
who wonder how a happily married, middle-aged man living in a Dorset
mansion can produce music of such fury.

The rest of the team is American: Adrian Belew is the genial front man,
Pat Mastelotto plays electronic drums which sometimes sound like the
future, sometimes like dustbins being thwacked, and are probably a
mistake. The bass parts and a lot else come from Trey Gunn playing a
ten-string super-guitar.

The band's musical interests lie in intricate guitar interplay and
dense, shifting rhythm patterns, with melody and harmony rather lower on
the agenda. Fripp once grandly announced that Crimson was an experiment
to see how Hendrix would have sounded playing Bartok, and as he skitters
through the dissonant breakneck run of FraKctured (sic) from the new
ConstruKction of Light album you understand what he's aiming for.

Of course, what this approach also means is that you don't get that
traditional rock show staple, the hummable tune. Belew's voice has to
negotiate determinedly obtuse melody lines in Into the Frying Pan and
ProzaKc Blues, a brutish mutated 12-bar. Nor do the band play the old
repertoire. Only during the three encores do Crimson perform anything
from earlier than 1994, ending with a mighty rendition of David Bowie's
Heroes, a tune on which Fripp played guitar back in 1977.

The current tour won't be coming to Britain - save for a lone date at
the Shepherds Bush Empire, London, on July 3. Economics and Fripp's
long-held distrust of the English music press and, indeed, the
expectations of English audiences, have conspired to keep the band away.
It's a shame because far from the gaze of the czars of popular taste,
this wayward outfit is conjuring up utterly individual, occasionally
astonishing music.

   June 26, 2000
Written by Robert Fripp
00.13
The backstage area of the Olympia is controlled by the house crew to serve the house crew. King Crimson were an intrusion to their space.

The centre of the backstage area had a television blaring the latest Euro 2000 football match. Clearly, musicians practising were likely to get in the way of the security staff tv. Also placed onto this central area (or internal "courtyard") was a bar for the house staff, itself with a separate tv.

As an aside: it is very dangerous to establish a liggers' area within a place of work (as at Island Records on its move from Portobello to Hammersmith in 1972/3): it builds waste & redundancy into an energy generator. I saw the same with IBM in the Hudson Valley while working In Woodstock (Sylvian - Fripp & KC during the early 1990s). Unaware of the difficulties at IBM, I could see by their architecture that they would collapse sooner, later.

A recurrent question I've been asking myself on this tour - "What are we doing here?" - was answered at this show: to play in Paris, tonight. But why Paris? Actually, this was not a matter of this particular town, or country, or venue: this was a function of the audience. I had no sense of the kind of audient feeding which has characterised much of this tour. Not quite a "hunger" needing to be satisfied; more a pumping down of anything which moves. "I want anything I want, I want it now, and I have the right to both" is a descending development from this (cf agape>gourmandising>eating >gorging).

This audience was, for me, the best audience of the tour: supportive, considerate, sophisticated, responsive, engaged, active; but not "we come to worship so do anything you like". We had freedom, but not license (to quote Neill of Summerhill). Overall, this was of the kind of performance which I kinda take as a working norm: the people come to listen & watch. This is the beginning point from which something of value becomes possible. This was not a photo session. This was not a crowd assembled arbitrarily or accidentally in a town square. This was not a meeting of consumers with rights. It was an audience.

In response to their support & demand, we gave a good performance. Not perfect, but when you take a shot, sometimes you miss. Somehow, that doesn't always matter & tonight it didn't. Sometimes it's taking the shot which hits the mark, not the arrow. This is what an audience (in the proper sense of the word) makes possible: "Go on! Well, nice try anyway! Now try again!".
?

King Crimson TV & BootlegTV:

And, online in Europe at last, I received two e-letters from David Singleton letting me know that the KingCrimsonTV site is now running. BTV has not publicly announced it, as the site will go through a number of revisions. And although very much a test transmission, it seems appropriate to announce it to Crim enthusiasts & engage them in the development of the "station"; and who might otherwise miss the shows that are presently on offer.

The widespread posting of the current King Crimson 2000 tour has encouraged BTV to speed up the release of this, the first BootlegTV artists' site. Free streaming audio of the first four Crim pre-tour warmup shows are available at:

http://www.KingCrimsonTV.com

These shows were recorded at 12th and Porter, Nashville, on May 19, 20 and 21, and are available in their entirety. Trainwrecks and all.

Video clips of two TCOL songs - "The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum" and "Into the Frying Pan" are ready for streaming at three different bit rates, depending on the speed of Internet connection. As BTV proceeds with editing and encoding, more shows will be posted on the KingCrimsonTV site.

BTV are open & available to enthusiasts who would like to share in the process as we debug and refine KingCrimsonTV. Please use the Guestbook to let us know what you like and with suggestions on how to proceed, and/or write to:

info@BootlegTV.com

Also a significant development, already informally announced, is this: each of the concerts on this current tour will be made available on CD, as soon as is possible after the London performance on 3rd. July. From David's letter:

There are two different systems being set in place - the long term solution, which should be in place for the Autumn tour of the US (which could be a fairly quick turnaround), and the "stop gap" solution, which is being put in place for the current European tour.

For the European tour, the turnaround time is at least 6 weeks, so CDs and videos will not be available before the middle of August (at the earliest). There is already great interest, so we plan to invite people to make pre-orders. They will not part with their money in advance, but will choose what they want to buy.

This gives us the opportunity to gauge interest for individual shows large demand for a particular show can lower the price for everyone. Clearly if a large number of people order the same show, our costs per unit are greatly reduced.

By July 3rd, the website will contain a web ordering page, where people can register and make their choices.>

Manager to the Stars Richard Chadwick visiting us in Paris, he brought with him an official application for a license allowing Howard Stern to use ITCOTCK for his battle of the bands (reported in the Guestbook & ET). My answer was yes, and with good wishes.

Not as exciting as any of these other new items, but it is a pleasure to begin my day practising guitar as an alternative to travelling or e-frenzy. I'm not sure if this is of any interest, but in Paris I have begun refingering single string ascending & descending lines, using an alternative approach to conventional fingering.

And from yesterday's e-flurry, to a troubled correspondent:

which the world presents to us is through a practice; that is, by acquiring a discipline. Surprised? What actually happens is, that the discipline "acquires" us. Then everything changes. Everything. What was impossible for us is still impossible for us, but not when the "discipline" is doing the work. The "discipline" can only do the work if we provide it with the vehicle. Then, this becomes a practical matter: how may we become a vehicle?

You have to find a way of forgiving your father. Even this is possible. If I can forgive Sam Alder, you can forgive your father. But help is needed. So, you must ask for help. Help is ALWAYS waiting to be invited in. Over to you!>

23.58
Hotel Acceptable, Madrid.

In the lobby at 09.00 and then a long day travelling from Paris.

Europe's flying was disrupted by a French air controllers' strike. We drove 3 hours to Brussels to join lots of other re-routed flyers. Our flight was itself late & re-routed to accommodate overloaded / affected flight lanes. Into the hotel here around 18.45. I traded my room down, from an executive suite with space so badly designed it felt unsettling & claustrophobic, to a more modest but concentrated room. It has aluminium windows. I hate aluminium. Now back from dinner with Trey, Pat & Laurie in an old district near the cathedral.

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