i remember...
i was at this show. its a show ill never forget as long as i live. one of my best friends was Ken Latchney, who was Adrian’s tech. i found myself in the L.A. area and he put me on the guest list, with a backstage pass. as i walk up to the will-call booth to get my ticket, who is standing right in front of me? none other than Mike Keneally AND Joe Travers! i had met Mike a few times before, and i was very surprised to see him! This was the first tim...
i was at this show. its a show ill never forget as long as i live. one of my best friends was Ken Latchney, who was Adrian’s tech. i found myself in the L.A. area and he put me on the guest list, with a backstage pass. as i walk up to the will-call booth to get my ticket, who is standing right in front of me? none other than Mike Keneally AND Joe Travers! i had met Mike a few times before, and i was very surprised to see him! This was the first time i had met Joe. It appears that Ken had also put Mike and Joe on the guest list. so we all walk in. i had never been to the LA HOB, so i just followed Mike, thinking hes been here and knows where hes going. -he sure did. he went straight backstage and knocked on the dressing room door. Trey Gunn answered and let us all in. there was a set of couches set in a U shape, and Joe took one couch, i took the one in the middle, and Mike took the other. Neither Fripp nor Adrian was there. Neither was Ken, so i felt like a total oddball. After about 10 mins that felt like an eternity, in walks Fripp. he walks right past Mike (who had his back to the door) and he saw all these "strangers" in the dressing room, and he looked uneasy, until Mike spoke up and said "Hi Robert". Fripp turns around, sees Mike, and VERY enthusiastically says hello and shakes his hand. MK and RF havent seen each other since the end of the G3 tour a year or so earlier. Mike then introduces us. "Robert, this is my friend Joe Travers, and this is my friend Jim Jewell". -i nearly gasp out loud, as Mike Keneally has just introduced ME to Robert Fripp, as "his friend". Fripp turns to Joe and asks, "Oh, are you the artist formerly known as fuck-face?" -Joe looks vey puzzled... then Fripp looks at me and asks the same question. "Well, im not" Joe says. -"Neither am I" i say. It took me years to figure out what Fripp meant, but i wont go into it here. All i know is, those are the only words Fripp and I ever exchanged. Finally, Adrian and Ken walk in, and i breathe a sigh of relief. I really felt uncomfortable being there, as im just a guy who got a very lucky break being there. After some talk, Fripp excuses himself and isolates himself away to practice before the show, presumably, running scales up and down his guitar. Ken and I walk to the house floor and catch up. After a while, he’s got to go to "work" mixing the show, and I see Mike and Joe, and I decide to stick close to them. P2 comes out and EXPLODES! Im not sure anybody in the audience knew what to expect, but from the opening drums to the final crunch of the opening improv, it was full throttle! Adrian had suggested backstage that rather than easing into the set, like they had been doing, they should come out rocking, and they certainly DID! After about 4 tunes, Mike turns to me and says goodbye. He and Joe left, and I stayed for the rest of the show. I dont remember alot of the show, but I remember looking over Ken’s shoulder as he was mixing, and I was surprised at how little there was to mix. If memory serves me correctly, all he was getting was a stereo feed from all 3 musicians. 6 tracks total, direct to ADAT. After the show, the curtains closed and Ken brought me up on stage to take a look at all the gear. Here I was, on stage, looking at a tremendous amount of electronic equipment that had just blown the doors off the place for the past 2 hrs. i looked at Fripps setup and the stool he sat in, and Adrians VDrums. I actually sat behind the drums and tapped on them a bit. Later, I revealed this tidbit on a fanpage on the Adrian website, and Ken got in trouble for letting people "play" with the gear. Let me say here that I was very respectful of the gear and who it belonged too, and the privilege it was to be there at all. and a year or so later, when i visited Ken in Nashville (and met Adrian again) it was all water under the bridge and we laughed about it. Ken got my copy of Space Groove autographed by Adrian and Trey and I left. It became my favorite new CD of the summer and played it continuously for 6 months solid. I cant wait to hear this show again. Ive got memories that go waaaay beyond the music. This was a VERY important show in my life, for obvious reasons.
