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Rating: Let's start by saying that the definition of "musical group" is quite limiting for King Crimson; in fact, more than a real group, they have always been Robert Fripp's "favorite creation," which, as creator and absolute leader, he has always shaped as he wished, always careful never to be banal. And when no one dared to hope anymore, he breathed life into his creature once again, this time inventing an absolutely unprecedented and innovative form. It can be said that this time Fripp wanted to synthesize in the new seven-member formation the best of what the band's past line-ups had to offer with new, perfectly fitting additions. He, Fripp, is always in his corner with his inseparable guitar, keyboards, and mellotron, alongside Jakko Jakszyk, voice and second guitar, already present in the last version of the Crimson; alongside them, we find the highly experienced Tony Levin on bass, with the band for thirty-five years now, and a fantastic callback from the formation of the '70s, the amazing Mel Collins on winds, who since the times of "Red" and "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" seems to have even improved. In front of these four wonders, we find three aligned drums, the great novelty of this formation: on the left, the group's veteran Pat Mastelotto, on the drums since 1994, in the center, this year's new addition Jeremy Stacey, replacing Bill Rieflin on drums and keyboards, while on the right is Gavin Harrison, probably the drummer that Robert Fripp has been waiting for since Bill Bruford's retirement for his ability to perfectly adhere to the leader's sound and ideas.
Usually, at rock concerts, during the songs, there are those who cheer, those who accompany the performance with claps, those who jump, etc. But not here. When the band enters the stage, there's a round of welcoming applause, but as soon as they start the first piece, an almost religious silence falls over the hall, probably driven by the awareness of those present that they are witnessing something unique, never seen before. Yes, because the other great novelty of this incarnation of King Crimson lies in the fact that for the first time in almost fifty years of activity, Fripp & Co. have decided to perform live repertoire pieces, moreover choosing to cover the entire career of the group with selected pieces. For forty-five years, Fripp had insisted on offering improvisations, experiments, some famous cover (like David Bowie's "Heroes"), pieces from the latest released album, and only sporadically, a couple of classics (often "Red" and "Three Of A Perfect Pair") at the Crimson concerts. This time, the lucky ones who attended and will attend the concerts of this tour can claim to have heard live things that had been proposed only in the tours of the albums from which they originated.
The opening is entrusted to "Larks' Tongues In Aspic - Part One," and the performance, as will be for all the pieces presented, is perfect, clear, almost to the point of mania, both in the choice of sounds and in the new approach dictated by the formation with three drums, which instead of playing the same thing in sync, engage in role exchanges and divisions of extremely difficult and yet extraordinarily effective scores. Immediately after, they draw from "In The Wake Of Poseidon" with "Pictures Of A City" and "Peace: An End," where the vocal similarity between Jakszyk and the then young Greg Lake becomes immediately evident to all listeners, who listen moved to the guitar and voice execution of "Peace: An End," which the new vocalist renders to perfection. It proceeds with a mix of pieces that, as mentioned, covers all forty-six years of the band's career, reaching particularly high peaks in the performance of masterpieces like "The Court Of The Crimson King" and "Epitaph" (for the latter, it is not in vain to speak of genuine emotion), in the hard and experimental rock of "Level Five" or in hearing Fripp's solo in "Easy Money," one of the rarest solo virtuosities the leader has ever granted and which he reproduces live without a flaw. The idea of dividing the performance into two sets with a twenty-minute intermission helps maintain attention. In the end, a parade of timeless classics arrives: "Red" and "One More Red Nightmare" showcase the purest rock side of Fripp's creation, the most captivating live, while the most intense, epic, and moving moment (I know, I'm overusing this adjective, but those who were there will understand that I'm using it even too little) is entrusted to "Starless," one of the compositional peaks not only in the history of rock but probably in all music of the '900 in general, whose live performance does not betray the studio recording one bit and which the new formation renders even more engaging than it already was. Our heroes leave the stage and return for an encore, consisting of the single, extraordinary execution of the piece where it all began in 1969, "21st Century Schizoid Man," capable of getting everyone up from their seats and drawing applause throughout its duration, also thanks to being interspersed with Gavin Harrison's perfect (and never was a term more appropriate) drum solo, able to restore on occasion that religious silence that reigned at the beginning of the concert and that is the only possible response in the face of such perfection of sound, technique, and inspiration that was unfolding as if nothing happened in front of an audience at the peak of enthusiasm, which at the end of the solo and then of the piece greeted our guys with an explosion of applause that brought Fripp and associates back to the stage and pinned them there to receive the tribute of a crowd that will not easily forget what they saw and heard that evening...
In short, at over seventy years old, the crimson king not only has returned but is more in shape than ever!
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