Meltdown
Excerpts from RF Journal: July 2017
Hotel Sufficiently Acceptable
Mexico City.
Friday 14th. July, 2017; 24.12
Show held fifteen minutes for heavy rain, beginning at 20.15. The band were good. The audience were great.
Three hours and ten minutes. The audience, the most enthusiastic we have seen, even wild at places; but mostly exceptionally courteous.
Saturday 15th. July, 2017; 24.21
Showtime held for fifteen minutes. Overall performance: two hours and fifty-five minutes. Excellent audience. Felt like the second in a sequence for me. Interesting setlist, many young women dancing, singing along. Quite remarkable and very moving to see how КС music has touched so many.
Sunday 16th. July, 2017; 23.15
Good performance with astounding clunkers. Wonderful audience. Overall performance: three hours and twelve minutes.
Tuesday 18th. July, 2017; 12.42
David joined me for an excellent DGM Breakfast Meeting, beginning with a question to David: his views of the English Reformation. Our discussion moved to the Defining and Definitive Formations of King Crimson.
1969 Definitive.
1974 Definitive. But only at the last live performance in NY Central Park (July 1st. 1974) and on Red.
1981 Definitive.
1994-97 The Double Trio: a special band, not a defining band.
1999-03 The Double Duo: the sum of the parts was greater than the whole.
2008 The Quintet was unsatisfactory.
2017 The Eight-Headed Beast Of Crim: my fourth Definitive Formation.
The Seven-Headed Beast (2014) can be seen as КС 8.1 and Jeremy replacing Bill (2016) as 8.2. So, from one point of view, the present Octet might be 8.3. For me, it’s something more, and qualitatively different: King Crimson v. 9.1. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, the parts added together already impressive. But the focus of my interest is the overall performance of the group. In this incarnation there is no member/s who believes themself to be special, or their contribution privileged in some way.
"This was maybe the most enthusiastic audience we’ve ever had, and after my 36 years in the band, that’s saying something!"
TONY LEVIN
24.07 Onstage at 20.15 for our longest ever performance: three hours and twenty minutes. A very good band, a very good audience. One character viddied with constant light for about two minutes in Meltdown impacting both Jakko and me, the disruptions continuing into Level Five. (An alternative title for Level Five is Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part V. The change of naming indicates a change of level within the Larks’ stream). The second set came together well. Lots of movement throughout the performance from men with beer, coming and going.
A different audience tonight, it seemed. One characteristic of all the shows here so far: lots of smiling women. Enthusiastic men point and declaim. The women smile.
A swift return to the hotel.
Reflecting. My two prime aims for the reformation of КС in 2014 were Redemption and Completion. This stems from a dissatisfaction with the Noughties Crims. A revised КС in 2004, with T Lev replacing Trey Gunn, was halted by the death of our then-manager Charlie Hewitt in his early forties. The return of double-drumming with Gavin in 2007 and T Lev on bass promised something, but didn’t seem to engage Adrian. So my overall sense of both КС 1999-2003 and 2007-2008 was of dis-satisfaction. Something was not quite realised. This was not how I wished to let go of Crimson.
On the evening of July 22nd. 2013, with Toyah visiting friends at St. Stephen’s Terrace, London, and asking myself the question - if King Crimson were performing tomorrow, what would it be? - in a flash, a picture of the Seven Headed Beast and its onstage configuration presented itself. Crimson acts-of-redeeming took place during 2014, 2015 and 2016, with a sense of completion. Completion is a new beginning, and the 2017 eight-piece a new beginning in King Crimson’s long process. This beginning-again КС can be seen as Formation 8.3. But, for me, the beginning-again-again КС is properly Formation Nine, appearing at the Teatro Metropolitan, Mexico City on the evening of Friday, 14th. July 2017. The wonderful audience made the transition possible. In a sense, this audience was the midwife to Formation Nine.
And on we go, KC now an ongoing venture.
Wednesday 19th. July, 2017; 08.58
David Singleton, Minister Unto The Greater Crim, commented in his DGM Diary for 16th. July that after our first performance here, questions began to be asked along the lines of: Can music change the world?
Were I to be asked the question, on this morning, my answer/s would be...
1. That the question is asked, suggests to me that the world has already been changed by music.
2. Yes, but music doesn’t act like a lobotomy. There are subtleties involved.
3. Music speaks directly to us, acts directly on us, if we are available. So let’s not concern ourselves with subtlety! Jump in with open ears, open eyes, open heart.
4. Explaining how and why this is, and might be, can get complicated. The good news is, being touched by Music is simple. It is experiential.
5. The act of music is the Music.
RF on Facebook July 13th. 2017: People travel long distances, buy expensive tickets, and get stuck with bad sonics. Acoustics are only one of the dangers and hazards of contemporary live rock performance. Like drunks, conversationalists, photographers, recordists, theatre persons privileging their own interests over players and audients. And the players themselves have invested a great deal in getting to the stage. So, an ongoing concern until a new breed of humanity appears, where conscience is active, courtesy in effect, and good manners an external indication of such?
A different approach is where I am, here and now. Perhaps even at a КС performance: simply by listening with intention. I tell myself, listen, putting aside all other concerns. And the world has changed. There is a second approach: to intentionally refrain from an act that I know to be wrong, mistaken or non-consensual. Like, putting away my cellphone. And the world has changed! by one audient accepting their responsibility within the act of music. The act of music is the Music.
24.35 excellent completing performance. Three hours and fifteen minutes overall.
The band joined in champagne, with David Singleton and Tour Manager Dave Salt. I proposed a formal toast to King Crimson: Formation Nine.
Thursday 20th. July, 2017; 19.59
Bill has landed safely in Seattle a few minutes ago. My bags have been collected.
A thinking: КС moved to another level in Mexico City, likely reasons including...
1. The nature of the Mexican audience, with feelings engaged/expressed to a greater extent than further North.
2. The audiences heard/saw the band from outside the prism of Prog Rock. To be free of that categorisation is a joy.
Hopefully, this КС will increasingly be heard and seen for what it is. And it is remarkable. The best band I’ve been in, musically, personally, professionally.
Bags have been collected. To the lobby for 20.20 and a flight home to my much missed Wife at 23.55.
 
 
 
Setlist:
Set One
01. Walk On 3:28
02. Neurotica 4:51
03. Pictures Of A City 8:23
04. Cirkus 7:34
05. Dawn Song 2:19
06. Last Skirmish 6:10
07. Prince Rupert’s Lament 2:26
08. Epitaph 8:31
09. Devil Dogs Of Tessellation Row 3:09
10. Fracture 11:05
11. Islands 9:25
12. Intermission 0:45
Set Two
01. Indiscipline 8:03
02. Peace - An End 1:56
03. Easy Money 9:55
04. Interlude 2:47
05. The Letters 6:13
06. The Sailor’s Tale 6:23
07. CatalytiKc No 9 1:13
08. Fallen Angel 6:00
09. The Talking Drum 3:48
10. Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part 2 6:51
11. Starless 13:24
12. The Hell Hounds Of Krim 3:39
13. 21st Century Schizoid Man 13:58
 
Extended Concert Audio
Set One
01. Walk On 3:45
02. Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part One 9:26
03. Neurotica 4:56
04. Cirkus 7:41
05. Dawn Song 2:20
06. Last Skirmish 6:11
07. Prince Rupert’s Lament 2:28
08. The Hell Hounds Of Krim 3:44
09. Red 6:43
10. Fallen Angel 6:08
11. Islands 9:03
12. The Talking Drum 3:49
13. Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part Two 7:08
Set Two
01. Indiscipline 7:59
02. The ConstruKction Of Light 6:04
03. Epitaph 8:33
04. Banshee Legs Bell Hassle 1:38
05. Easy Money 9:57
06. Interlude 2:44
07. The Letters 6:14
08. The Sailor’s Tale 6:24
09. CatalytiKc No 9 1:12
10. Meltdown 4:23
11. Radical Action II 2:27
12. Level Five 7:09
13. Starless 13:28
Set Three
01. Peace - An End 1:56
02. Pictures Of A City 8:22
03. Devil Dogs Of Tessellation Row 3:10
04. Fracture 11:02
05. The Court Of The Crimson King 7:04
06. Heroes 4:40
07. 21st Century Schizoid Man 13:30
Bonus Tracks:
01. Discipline 5:21
02. Moonchild 2:22
03. Tony’s Cadenza 1:24
04. Jeremy’s Cadenza 1:04
05. Breathless 5:02
06. Cool Jam
 
Line-Up:
Tony Levin Basses, Stick & Backing Vocals
Mel Collins Saxes & Flute
Jakko Jakszyk Guitar, Flute & Voice
Bill Rieflin Keyboards
Robert Fripp Guitar & Keyboards
Gavin Harrison Drums
Jeremy Stacey Drums & Keyboards
Pat Mastelotto Drums & Percussion