king crimson - hackney empire 08 september 2015

King Crimson has been around, in some form or another, on and off, since 1969.

But never quite like this.

The new, seven man, line-up of Crimson is fronted by three drummers. And I mean fronted. Right across the stage, with the remaining four musicians ranged across a riser behind the formidable percussion sets. Robert Fripp, the guitarist who claims not to be the leader of King Crimson (the band is still, it seems, merely 'a way of doing things') is nonetheless the only musician to have been a member of every Crim formation.

The rest of the current band is:

Mel Collins on saxophones and flutes (previously a member of King Crimson between 1970 and 1972).

Tony Levin on basses, stick and vocals (previously a member of King Crimson at various times since 1981).

Jakko Jakszyk on guitar and vocals (and occasional flute). Never been in Crimson before but has worked extensively with Robert Fripp and fronted the 21st Century Schizoid Band which was made up of King Crimson alumni (including Mel Collins) and which played much of the KC 1969-74 repertoire when the actual Crimson was not doing so.

Pat Mastelotto, Bill Rieflin and Gavin Harrison on drums and percussion. Pat has been a member of KC since 1994, Gavin since 2008 and Bill (who also plays digital mellotron) has worked extensively with Fripp for many years.

Introductions out of the way. What about the performance?

In a word - magnificent.

But I can't just leave it at that. I just can't. 

The show began, promptly, just after 7.30. Lights down, the various Crims took to the stage after an amusing 'please don't take photos' announcement, and the lengthy percussion intro to "Lark's Tongues In Aspic (part one)" started, almost imperceptibly. Gradually the tinkling noises got louder, the insistent rhythm of the piece more urgent, and the whole thing got louder. Much louder. In the ornate and historic Hackney Empire King Crimson seemed determined to shake the foundations loose. But although the gig was loud, the sound was brilliantly mixed. You'd think that the frontline of drums would utterly overpower the rest of the music. I can't speak for the front row of the stalls, but up on the front row of the balcony the sound was superb and somehow the drums were, impressively, an integral but not dominant part of the mix.

The songs simply flew by. Mixing relatively recent Crimson pieces like "The ConstruKction Of Light" (a complex guitar duet over baffling rhythms) with tracks like "Epitaph" (absolutely spellbindingly beautiful, drenched in mellotron strings, a soaring vocal from Jakko, and not performed live since 1969) this truly was a career spanning set. Virtually all previous Crimson line-ups have all but ignored preceding incarnations - not any more. The Adrian Belew era songs seem to have been dropped (Fripp has indicated that he's more than happy for Belew to carry on performing these with his Power Trio or with the Crimson ProjeKct, a sort of modern Crim offshoot / tribute band with Belew, Levin, Mastelotto and Markus Reuter), but instrumentals from that period remain, and Mel Collins plays saxophone where Belew's vocal lines would have been on "The ConstruKction Of Light".

But mainly it's the 1969 - 74 repertoire that has been re-invigorated by this new band. Songs like "Easy Money" and "The Letter" simultaneously remain scrupulously faithful to their 1970s studio versions, whilst also sounding totally fresh new and extremely modern. I'm not entirely sure how this is possible, but somehow that's what happens. Instrumentals such as "The Talking Drum" are frighteningly fearsome, the sheer power of the band pushing the intensity of the piece to new levels. "The Sailor's Tale" remains a live highpoint - just as it was in 1971/72 when it was last performed. The mix of threatening guitars and percussion giving way to Fripp's astonishing slashing solo before the 'tron fires up again for the home straight. It's a bit of a shame that an actual mellotron doesn't grace the stage, but I imagine that Rieflin's digital version is about a billion times more reliable than the notoriously temperamental real thing.

In amongst the oldies were a number of brand new pieces, the first new Crimson material in over a decade. And, gratifyingly, all these pieces held their own when slotted in next to a propulsive "VROOOM" or epic "Epitaph". Some of the new tracks were percussion workouts, but a couple had vocals - "Meltdown" and "Suitable Grounds For The Blues" - and were grinding, werning tracks, perfectly Crimson.  

For me though, the concert really blew the roof off towards the end. "21st Century Schizoid Man" was always going to be a monster, but this version was incendiary, complete with a frantic Gavin Harrison solo - how does he manage to hit so many things, so quickly and with such astonishing precision? It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, I was captivated by the maelstrom of music blasting from that stage. I genuinely thought that nothing could top this, but then King Crimson played "Starless".

"Starless" is an acknowledged classic, arguably the greatest song in the Crim repertoire, but until last week it had never ever been played live in the UK. Beginning gently, beautifully, with a lovely vocal over a calming mellotron / guitar duet, the song deceptively draws you in. Fripp's pure guitar tones are just magical. After the initial sung part the song dissolves into an complex guitar motif over Levin's superb bass - Jakko began this, before somehow Fripp took it over without anyone noticing... This part ratcheted up the tension to almost unbearable levels, before the band seemingly explodes all over the place, Mel's sax going nuts, Fripp, sitting calmly as ever, but playing some incredibly powerful slashing chords. The percussionists were again quite stunning. The initial melody eventually reasserts itself but this time full of such power and fury. It's an awesome track, and this was probably the best I've ever heard it (and I've heard, literally, dozens of versions of "Starless" thanks to Fripp's meticulous issuing of the Crimson archives). This was simply amazing. I've never experienced music quite like it.

After that the encores could only be a slight anti-climax - but only very slightly as the encore was the storming 1 2 of "The Talking Drum" into "Larks Tongues In Aspic (part two)" followed by a majestic "Court Of The Crimson King". This seemed like such a perfect song to end on that it's a surprise that tonight was the first time it actually closed the show.  

All in all, it was an 11/10 gig, surpassing my expectations by quite some margin. I'd read lots of good things about this new version of King Crimson, and I'd seen the set lists so far performed, but I still wasn't prepared for the sonic experience. There was no banter, no Hello London, not even a thank you, actually. The band simply let the music do the talking. The sound was superb, extremely clear, loud, powerful with loads of dynamics and space - this must have taken some doing considering the sheer amount of music that was actually being played. Just balancing the percussionists must have been a nightmare, but the sound was excellent. I especially liked the way the three drummers complemented each other - one would begin, another would continue and the third would complete the run, as if it was all one six handed drummer. The precision and attention to detail was amazing. The sheer amount of things they had to hit was mind boggling. 

From the balcony we had a wonderful view of everything that was happening on the stage. The lighting was simple, just clear white lights on the band for the whole gig, except for a moody deep red that descended over the musicians during "Starless". But we didn't need a lightshow, it would only have distracted from the skillful musicianship on show - there was so much of that to see anyway. 

Enough rambling. I hope that this isn't the last time I get to see the King, but I suspect it might be. Revisiting all periods of Crimson is so uncharacteristically crowd pleasing of the contrary old goat that is Robert Fripp that I can't help thinking it's perhaps the last hurrah for this band. If it is, what a way to bow out. If it isn't, and I really hope it isn't, then I'm definitely on for the next time!