The Windows Opens
After attending the TOAPP Music Camp, I was a little bummed about the fact that tour wouldn't be coming through Texas. Fortunately, the winds of luck changed, and the opportunity to catch them on the second to the last tour date, presented itself. So, I made my plans for a one day trip to Nashville, TN.
Meet and Greet
The show was at the historic, Belcourt Theater. It's actually a two screen movie theater, with one of the rooms used for music, but typically acoustic acts. King Crimson however, has played there on multiple occasions.
One of the nice benefits of attending the camp was that I was able to attend the Meet and Greet
, for any show on the tour, for which I had a ticket. I ate at one of the restaurants down the street and showed up at the theater door, at approximately 5:40PM. I did run into Adrian and Julie out front, and we exchanged hellos, as soon as they recognized me.
I got in promptly at 6PM, just as they were finishing their Sound Check. As it turns out, I was the only camper
for this show, although I know from Facebook posts, that fellow campers had been present at many of the shows.
I must say, my life has taken a surreal turn. I was greeted by Pat as he came off of stage, saying with a big smile and handshake, What are you doing here? Glad you could make it!
This made my night. Pat also let me in on some Austin dates for certain acts in the near future.
I had to smile to myself, as the other people in VIP were wondering who I was, and why the band and crew seemed to know me, not realizing that I had spent 5 days in Catskills with them all. Needless to say, rather than be an autograph hound, or get myself into pictures with the band, I opted for a picture of two of my new friends:
After the Meet and Greet, the band left to go eat dinner together, so most of us sat in the theater and picked out our seats in the first 3 rows. I plopped down in one of prime seats, right at the end of the row. The only mistake of the weekend was my forgetting my ear plugs.
Stick Men
Stick Men started the show with their 45 minute set. Markus was the only musician of the 6, not able to make camp, so I really didn't get to hear much of the Stick Men material, during the camp rehearsals. I knew they would be good, but I was blown away by the stoic, but amazing Markus Reuter.
Tony mentioned that both trios had agreed to save the King Crimson material for the Crim-centric
set, but they had loophole, so they were going to play Breathless. All I can say is, Wow. Hearing this song from Exposure was a pleasant surprise.
The Stick Men set included:
- VROOM VROOM
- Supercollider
- Improv
- Relentless
- Slow Glide
- Breathless
- Firebird Suite
Adrian Belew Power Trio
After a short intermission, Adrian's Trio took the second 45 minutes set. It was equally powerful, and they maintained the full court press. I was further blown away by Tobias Ralph and pleasantly surprised when they played Young Lions
, one of my favorites. ABPT also snuck in a KC song, too, Neurotica. They hit that one out of the park.
The ABPT set included:
- Young Lions
- Beat Box Guitar
- Neurotica
- Of Bow And Drum
- e
Crim-centric Set
Crim Quartet
After a second intermission, the 3 Crimson Alumni were joined by Markus Reuter, who did an incredible job covering Robert Fripp's guitar parts. I also had to laugh at Adrian's intro for Red,
when he said:
This next song is the oldest King Crimson song that we will play tonight. It's from before any of us were in the band. In fact, it was written before I was born.
The quartet played 3 songs
- Three of a Perfect Pair
- Elephant Talk
- Red
Double Trio
The night ended in full Double Trio mode, and was thundering. This was as close that you could get to King Crimson, without Robert Fripp. I must also add, that it was nice to see the rehearsals and then a show at the end of the tour. It was interesting to see how much tighter they had gotten with a month of road practice.
They played the following songs, to finish the night:
- B'Boom
- THRAK
- Dinosaur
- One Time
- Frame by Frame
- Indiscipline
- Encore: Thela Hun Ginjeet
Post Show
The show ended shortly after Midnight, and the other theater had a special Halloween showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I spent a little time afterwards, talking to John Sinks, Markus and Pat as they were packing up afterwards. I then went out to the lobby and looked at the merch table, and to say goodbye to Ade and Julie who were signing CDs and merch.
There was a woman at the merch table, with two young daughters. I quickly realized that it was Ade's wife, Martha, and two of his 3 daughters. I told Martha I would buy something, if I didn't already have all of the CDs on the table. She promptly produced a copy of the Acoustic CD, which I had to buy.
While waiting, I had to laugh though realizing that Ade's daughters (and in fact, anyone under the age of 30) has no idea what the Rocky Horror is. So, imagine the looks on their faces as a young waifish guy, in black fishnets, and a corset, walked through lobby.
Of course, when they realized I was a camper, his daughters started peppering me with questions about the Full Moon. Understanding why Adrian did not bring them along, and that they apparently had wanted to go, I made sure not to sell it too much. I did however, tell them that they had one of the Coolest Dads on the planet.
