Tony Levin - 5 strings upright bass, one string bass, 5 strings electric bass, baby bass, 12 strings Chapman stick
Trey Gunn - 8 strings Warr guitar
Pat Mastelotto - V drums and percussions
I saw both nights of Projekct Four shows in San Francisco. No need to say how awesome they were and how much I LOVE anything by King Crimson. I decided to buy the ticket of the second night just 2 days before. I can't miss any show. This would be my last time seeing King Crimson in the States I'm not sure, if they won't do any tour in 1999. But who knows...
FIRST NIGHT
We had to wait in line for quite a while before they let us in. They say in the ticket that the door opens at 7 p.m. but it wasn't. I did not have BASS tickets for both shows because I purchased the tickets via Ticketweb on line and they were will call tickets. That's okay for me. But I still need to have real tickets for the bands I really like.
I can tell that I saw the same faces of fans from the Projekct Two shows at the Great American Music Hall last time in March. Some people were driving and flying from other cities/States just to see the show because these 2 shows were the last shows for this leg. I'm glad they did 2 shows in San Francisco.
They started around 8:30 p.m. straight after playing soundscapes for a while, then Robert came out with his guitar and a smiling face. (He's really in a good mood last night.) Robert played soundscapes for a couple of minutes and then Pat, Trey, and Tony showed up. Wow! The first song was about 18-20 minutes long and fast and quite heavy I'm not quite sure because I was totally blown away. Tony used his funk fingers on the first song with his 5-string-bass. I believe it's pink. Trey's like a center part of the band. I was standing in the second row on Robert's side.
The second song was very sweet. Pat played some dance beat sometimes. His drum sound was pretty low in volume if you were not in the front rows. I'm not sure if this is the intention of the sound engineer or not. I think they played about 3 songs for the first set and 3 (short) songs for the second set. You know, when you were there you would not even look at your watch how long they played because you have to look at each of them doing the improvisation.
Tony played almost every kind of basses including ones that I have never seene in my entire life (upright, baby bass (so tiny), chapman stick, 5-string bass, etc). He's a man! I only saw him playing with King Crimson in the THRaKaTTaK tour but that's not as close as this show.
And one encore with "Vrooom". Last time P2 played Vrooom for the encore but this time's different. It's heavier. I like it when Tony did slam his bass during the middle of vrooom. And Robert's playing WAS very agressive and fast last night. Really! It looks like he enjoyed a lot and after the intermission he actually SPOKE! He advertised his sister, Patricia Fripp, because she's some sort of a speaker in SF.
This lineup's perfect but I still think Pat's a bit out of place sometimes. But you know we can't have Bruford on drums for Projekct Four. But if he could make it that would be incredible.
I only bought the second sampler cd of DGM, sometimes god smiles. This time
they had a DGM guy coming from England not from CA. A lot nicer I guess.
They might have Gates of paradise cd at the show. I'm not sure. I will look
carefully tonight. They're giving "I've been FRIPP notized" buttons at the
show, too. I think I got 4 buttons last night.
This is the second sampler cd from DGM, The Young Person Guide To Discipline Volume II - Sometimes God Smiles.
SECOND NIGHT
I had more time to prepare for the show, so I was standing in the front row on Tony's side this time. Jusdt one metre from Tony! :)
They started with soundscapes but this time Pat came out to play the V drums, then Trey, Tony, and Fripp. It's heavier than the first night. One thing I noticed about KC shows, the second night is always aggressive and harder. Don't know why.
The first night Tony did not play his one-string bass because it's broken. He got it fixed and played it on the second song. It's incredible to see how many notes he could play with this one string bass. I was blown away!
Tony also used funk fingers with the 5-string upright bass on the second night.
Robert did not solo that much tonight. He played really crazy on the first night. It's fun to watch Robert did solo his guitar so hard but he's still sitting on a chair with that cold face. haha....
KC never played the same on each night, so you have to see them both shows if you can make it.
Oh one more thing, after the encore the band's gone. They did not come out to talk to fans this time.
AE
Progressive Rock / Metal Concerts