Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: King Crimson
Label: Discipline Global Mobile
Release date: January 4, 2015
Duration: 40:56
Rating: 4/5
The progressive rock titans King Crimson headed out on the autumn ‘The Elements’ tour in 2014, which, for reasons known only to ‘His Majesty’ – the supreme ruler, guitarist Robert Fripp – ran exclusively in the US. That means the American ‘Yanks’ got to see the legendary band several times in September and October 2014, even though, thanks to Fripp’s whims, you never know when they’ll play their last show. One time the blame for a breakup is the ‘approaching apocalypse’, another time it’s ‘corruption in the music industry’, and a third time it’s ‘theft of the guitarist’s intellectual property’. Californian fans got to see the latest incarnation of King Crimson a whole four times, twice in a row in Los Angeles.
Both shows at the Orpheum in Los Angeles, between September 30 and October 1, 2014, were recorded for the live album »Live at Orpheum«, but this time King Crimson made an incomprehensible mistake and left off quite a few excellent songs that the extremely ambitious septet played that night: Fripp, cult bassist Tony Levin, the ambitious Jakko Jakszyk on vocals/guitar, old hand Mel Collins on sax/flute, and drummers Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison and Bill Rieflin. Jakszyk, who has plenty of experience singing and instrumentally ‘reworking’ older King Crimson material as a member of 21st Century Schizoid Band, where he played alongside Collins, has no problem at all singing the classics from the ‘olden days’.
The opener from »Red« (1974), the stomper »One More Red Nightmare«, which kicks in after Fripp’s soundscape »Walk On: Monk Morph Chamber Music«, comes off really well, helped along by his vocal interpretation, while the triple-drummer lineup proves that the band’s newest crazy experiment paid off. Overall, the King Crimson setlist has become really interesting again after Fripp’s almost shocking decision to finally play evergreens from the 1969–1974 era again alongside the newer stuff, and it includes a few pieces that haven’t been played in ages. So after a long time, King Crimson fans can enjoy live versions of standards from »Islands« (1971) while listening to »Live at the Orpheum«, like the phantasmagorical »Letters«, where Jakko’s vocal talent shines especially bright, and the wild instrumental »Sailor’s Tale« with its unforgettable, almost iconic Fripp guitar solo.
After »Banshee Legs Bell Hassle«, a short drum improvisation directed by Gavin Harrison, the ‘Crimson Kings’ tackle the ambitious instrumental »The ConstruKction of Light« from the album of the same name, which glows in a completely new light with Collins’s sax, while the rest of the band, with the three newcomers (Jakszyk, Harrison and Rieflin), proves they know how to serve up newer material (in King Crimson’s case, the stuff created at, more or less, long intervals in the nineties and after 2000). The bad news for everyone who loves King Crimson’s eighties material is that, after Adrian Belew’s ‘frozen membership card’, they’ve stopped playing songs from that period altogether, at least for now, and it’s sadly the only era left neglected on this tour.
For the finale of this recording, King Crimson picked the epic »Starless«, even though both Orpheum shows also had their ultimate classic in the encore, namely »21st Century Schizoid Man«. They played it on this tour for the first time since the show in Mexico (August 26, 1996), when they performed it for the first time (and for a long while the last) since 1974. As for the songs played on both nights, »Live at the Orpheum« is missing »Pictures of a City«, »A Scarcity of Miracles«, »Hell Hounds of Crim«, »Red« , »VROOOM«, »Coda: Marine 475«, »Level Five«, »The Light of Day«, »The Talking Drum« and the first and second parts of »Larks’ Tongues in Aspic«, which means that instead of putting »Live at Orpheum« out as a double album, they left too many goodies off this concert document.
»Live at the Orpheum« doesn’t have enough performances from the two nights to give listeners who haven’t (yet) seen the latest version of King Crimson the full concert experience, but there’s still enough good stuff on it to get at least a rough idea of how the current seven-piece incarnation of the prog rock champs works ‘live’. Going by what we’ve heard, all we can do is hope the current lineup stays together for a long time, since King Crimson haven’t had such a fearsome rhythm section, mostly thanks to Mr. Levin, since the ‘double duo’ era, while the three-headed drum phalanx, which still has plenty in ‘reserve’ on this recording, will surely ‘grind everything in its path’. Fripp’s independent label will almost certainly put out a more objective live document in the near future, one that manages to capture the whole show of the most important, if not the best, progressive rock band of all time.
Lineup
Robert Fripp – guitar, guitar synthesizer, keyboards, soundscapes
Jakko Jakszyk – guitar, vocals
Tony Levin – bass guitar, Chapman stick, backing vocals
Pat Mastelotto – drums, percussion
Bill Rieflin – drums, percussion, synthesizer, backing vocals
Gavin Harrison – drums, percussion
Mel Collins – saxophone, flute
Production
King Crimson
Track list
1. Walk On : Monk Morph Chamber Music (2:34)
2. One More Red Nightmare (6:07)
3. Banshee Legs Bell Hassle (1:40)
4. The Construcktion Of Light (6:31)
5. The Letters (4:57)
6. Sailor’s Tale (6:51)
7. Starless (12:15)
