“No smoking, no video-taping, no photography, and no fun whatsoever” cracks Belew after a fun-packed double-whammy intro consisting of Curves and an almost laid-back Frying Pan. It’s a solid gig with more than a few twists and turns along the way, Vrooom being especially intense, and parts of Virtuous Circle sounding as though it could be an outtake from Talk Talk’s classic post-rock album, Spirit Of Eden. An article about Crimson on the tour from the pages of Pitch sums up Crimso’s changes in sound thus.
"King Crimson has evolved, though its constantly changing roster makes it difficult to chart the process on an album-to-album basis. Some of the band's fans continue to debate the merits of various records and configurations, with many favoring King Crimson's early recordings. (It takes four King Crimson fans to change a light bulb, according to a joke posted on one of the group's unofficial Web sites -- one to install the new one and three to wax poetic about how great the old one was. And people thought prog rockers were a humorless lot.)
But the ones who have stuck with the group throughout its permutations and sonic switch-ups embrace King Crimson as a concept rather than a tangible entity with a signature sound. To these enthusiasts, King Crimson means exploring adventurous musical terrain, whether with unorthodox time signatures, unusual instruments (Gunn currently plays the Warr guitar, a ten-string touch guitar that offers the range of a piano), patience-trying virtual-standstill solos or avalanching crescendos. The result often approaches musical pointillism -- intricately arranged dots of sound that ultimately constitute majestic compositions.
"The language is more sophisticated," Gunn says, comparing King Crimson's work with the output of a traditional rock ensemble. "There's different shades, different chords, different rhythms and a broader emotional spectrum, which allows us to connect with the audience in infinitely different ways."”
