Errors-To: admin at elephant-talk dot com Reply-To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Sender: moderator at elephant-talk dot com Precedence: bulk From: moderator at elephant-talk dot com To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com Subject: Elephant Talk #901 E L E P H A N T T A L K The Internet newsletter for Robert Fripp and King Crimson enthusiasts Number 901 Friday, 30 November 2001 Today's Topics: NEWS: ET answers to Inquiries [ and Moderator's reply ] NEWS: Guitar Craft Southern California Course is KC a prog band? Candy ..ear..n all that What's that? Speak up, sonny ITCOKC Comments on the current tour ItCoKc Steely Dan Ear Candy and more Drugs, Crim, and Prog and Roll Crimson fans taste Foriegn Tours Re: King Crimson Chicago Gig, 24 November at Chicago Theatre Re: QUIT CRYING Re: Surprises Re: Red again hell yea A Follow up On "PREMIUM" SCI ticketing Birthday excitement!!!!!!! GIG REVIEW: 11-21 St.Paul GIG REVIEW: St. Louis ------------------ A D M I N I S T R I V I A --------------------- POSTS: Please send all posts to newsletter at elephant-talk dot com To UNSUBSCRIBE, or to CHANGE ADDRESS: Send a message with a body of HELP to admin at elephant-talk dot com or use the DIY list machine at http://www.elephant-talk.com/list/ To ASK FOR HELP about your ET subscription: Send a message to: help at elephant-talk dot com ET Web: http://www.elephant-talk.com/ Read the ET FAQ before you post a question at http://www.elephant-talk.com/faq.htm Current TOUR DATES info can always be found at http://www.elephant-talk.com/gigs/tourdates.shtml You can read the most recent seven editions of ET at http://www.elephant-talk.com/newsletter.htm THE ET TEAM: Toby Howard (Moderator), Dan Kirkdorffer (Webmaster) Mike Dickson (List Admin), and a cast of thousands. The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors. ET is produced using John Relph's Digest system v3.7b (relph at sgi dot com). ------------------ A I V I R T S I N I M D A --------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 13:40:01 -0800 From: "Mark Tucker" Subject: NEWS: ET answers to Inquiries [ and Moderator's reply ] re: >>One question only this time around: Who's Kris M that ET moderators allow >>him/her 350 posts per issue and budget the rest of us to one every so many >>issues? >[There is no budgeting whatsoever of posts. If your post doesn't get into >ET it may be for a number of reasons. For example, it may be deemed >"offensive" by me (very rare), or it may have an unhelpful "Subject" line >like "RE: Elephant Talk #897". or no Subject line at all, or it might be a >weird format HTML-encoded mail which the ET software can't handle, or you >may have quoted an ENTIRE previous ET in your post, etc, etc. If you post >and it doesn't appear and you don't know why, all you need to do is ASK me >about it! -- Toby ] Toby: Thanx for the reply. I had indeed asked, several times in the past, regarding several posts I made that went unpublished. I never received an answer to any of them, though you did, in one issue, publish one of my inquiries...without a reply. From that, and from a few e-conversations with people and critics who've experienced the same thing, I had understood the ET staff was a silent one. I'm happy to see that's at least sometimes not so. As all my posts carry subject lines, are not HTML-encoded, and have never quoted ENTIRE previous ET posts, I imagine, as it's the only reason given remaining, that you found offense in my words somehow. If that's the case, and if you yet retain those posts, I would indeed like to find out what was offensive, as at least three posts went unpublished in a row (as versus the "Kris M" chains I've noted), one of which was only a citation of a local paper's great KC pre-review (you haven't mentioned it above, but perhaps there are copyright problems in that?..although I seem to recall other ET issues with appropriated enthusiastic reviews). However, you as well cited "any number of reasons", which leaves pretty much anything as a causative agent, so there may have been a pertinant reason not cited in your above reply. In any case, I'll be happy to receive that answer either publicly or privately now. Since you have instructed me to ASK about it, I'm doing so and will await your reply with bated breath. Much thanks. P.S. - it might be instructive to others to post this in ET, as, again from my small feelers out into the community, there seems to be a fairly prevalent mystery re: ET posts and their appearances/non-appearances. [ From Toby: I would like to address these points. At the risk of repetition, let me say again that posts are rarely deliberately rejected by me, unless they contain offensive or libellous/slanderous content. And that's where my judgement comes in. Oh, I also reject posts from people who appear to be mentally unbalanced. Sometimes I respond to the poster, other times I do not. You would mot BELIEVE some of the mad rubbish that gets posted to ET, which never makes it into the newsletter. But that's what "moderation" is all about, and why I started ET as a moderated forum in the first place. If you want FREE UNCENSORED CHAT -- and the CAPS are meant to be IRONIC -- head for your favourite chatroom or newsgroup. In an "average" week, ET receives "about" 100 posts. sometimes more, sometimes less. Last week we had about 150. All posts to ET first pass through a filter (procmail) that checks for common problems like: - no meaningful subject line - missing subject line - no valid sender ID - request to subscribe/unsubscribe sent to wrong address - entire issue of previous ET quoted in post - unwelcome attachments of pictures or sounds - junk mail/spam Because these checks are automated, sometimes they make mistakes and the wrong posts get rejected. I apologise for this. After the automated filtering, ET is moderated by hand, and it takes me between 30mins and 60mins per issue. I clean up paragraphing, format quoted posts properly, fill paragraphs, wrap long lines, etc etc. Again, you probably would not believe the diversity of formats in which posts arrive at ET. And I try to decide what is and what is not appropriate for ET. I do not always get this "right" and I never will be able to. Sometimes posts just get lost in the system -- it happens. Sorry again. I respond to enquiries as best as I can. But I cannot guarantee a 100% personalised service. I would like to ask everyone to remember that ET is FREE, and it's run by volunteers for no money. Myself, Dan and Mike each spend *at least* 5 hours a week on ET in various ways. That's 15 hours of unpaid person-hours per week. I'm not asking for sympathy! But I think it's helpful that people should know what goes on underneath the hood. So, although a particular poster rightly expects full and proper attention from the ET team, the ET team has hundreds of posters to deal with. So people and posts sometimes slip through the net. I'm sorry about that. There is obviously a limited extent to which I can track and monitor individual cases. So I hope his helps everyone understand a bit. As for moderating a newsletter, I really wouldn't recommend it as a hobby! :-) Cheers Toby ET Moderator ] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 00:52:13 EST From: DanKirkd at aol dot com Subject: NEWS: Guitar Craft Southern California Course To: newsletter at elephant-talk dot com A message from Bill Forth: Hi there! It would be entirely Criminal to miss our upcoming Guitar Craft Level 1 and Level 2+ courses, scheduled for Santa Barbara, California, February 11-17, 2002. =A0Robert Fripp will direct the courses, assisted by Bert Lams, Paul Richards and Curt Golden. Frank Sheldon will present the Alexander Technique. Please direct inquires to: GCSoCal - Registrar 411 E. Huntington Dr. #107-357 Arcadia, CA 91006 Email: GCSoCal at yahoo dot com Best wishes, Bill Forth For Guitar Craft, Southern California ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 19:36:05 EST From: Obelisk123 at aol dot com Subject: Candy ..ear..n all that candy fer the noggin Ozric Tentacles - Live in NYC fall of 2000..*Boot* Project Object with Ike Willis - Halloween 2001 in NYC*boot* Gorillaz - Whatever the new one wuz from a few months back Richard Thompson - Mirror Blue Phil n Friends - Last Night At the Beacon in NYC King Crimson - Islands Gong - every recording I have.. Any Bill Laswell remix cd everything n everything else In rotation between local radio WFMU in NJ - WBAI,WKCR,WPKN,WBGO,WFUV, *New Yawk n beyond* n our lil train that could. www.radio.infoweb.net... I am workin on finding a ticket for the NYC shows..I hope they are still on sale.. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 23:58:38 -0800 (PST) From: earl of surl Subject: What's that? Speak up, sonny > From: CARROBSON at aol dot com > Subject: QUIT CRYING!!! > I have never felt the need to post to the forum until now-I have read a lot > of petty bickering and overall nit picking on this forum but I have never > been as disgusted as I am now-Please stop crying about the music being too > loud-you all sound like a bunch of old ladies. Suck it up!!! It's a > Rock-n-Roll show. I know that most Crim fans are older than me but MY GOD do > you have to act your age? Let me tell you a story. I went to Bob Mould's show at the (SF) Fillmore a few years ago. I didn't have earplugs. My ears rang for the next four days. Get a clue, kid. Sonic damage is real, and you better take care of your ears if you want to be able to enjoy listening to King Crimson until you're an "old lady". Rock concerts nowadays are simply too damned loud, and earplugs are a necessary evil. rone ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 09:17:36 -0000 From: "Martin Temperton" Subject: ITCOKC Congratulations are in order to the "'Indispensable elephant-talk.com" who get a credit in Sid Smiths amazing book 'In the Court of King Crimson.' Keep up the red work! Martin ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 10:09:28 -0500 (EST) From: Art Cohen Subject: Comments on the current tour One correspondant writes: >KC must need Christmas money. I just can't figure out why they would >tour now and delay work on the new music. Perhaps they consider the tour *part* of the work on the new music?? Most musicians find that compositions tend to record much better after they've had some time to "grow" in live performance. I think a comparison of the TCoL album vs. Heavy Construction (or performances from last fall in the USA) would bear out this theory. Or maybe it's just that they enjoy performing music! Although Fripp's contrarian diary entries would tend to suggest the opposite, I suspect that he does get some measure of personal pleasure from hearing the crowd go apeshit when he rips it up on "Frakctured". Another writes: >Even though Mr. Fripp seemed to be having a wonderful time last nite, how >much longer can we really expect him to tour? His age is a # of yrs older >than mine & another 6 year wait would really put him up there. I'm not >saying he's not physically up to it(altho that would be a >consideration)it's more mental & w/all one has to deal w/when "heading up >a band " it would be hard going at say 60+! Geez, give the old fart *some* credit, willya? I spent the last weekend going to see Bob Dylan (twice) and Phil Lesh (once; he's the ex-bassist of the Grateful Dead). Both of them are over 60, and both of them, I'd wager, did more drugs on a good weekend in their youth than Fripp has done in his entire life. Yet both of them tour relentlessly (much more than Crimson) and Dylan is selling out large hockey rinks on his own for the first time in years (and both of them, I might add, stand up for the duration of their concerts, and, in Dylan's case, even dance a little!). Jazz great Tommy Flanagan passed away not long ago in his 70s, and he continued to tour and record up to the end. BB King still tours. I'm sure there are dozens (if not hundreds) of examples of blues and jazz musicians touring into their 60s and 70s. I'm sure that as long as there is music that needs to be played by King Crimson, Fripp will be willing to drag his body out on the road to play it. --Art ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 13:26:40 -0500 From: Jim Bailey Subject: ItCoKc Hello all, Received my (autographed) copy of In the Court of King Crimson (#424) yesterday. Whoopee!! Signatures from Sid S., Peter G., Mike G., Jamie M., Ian W., Bill B., Tony L., and one unidentifiable which I'll have to work on. I'm hoping that, with lots of luck, I can get four more on Dec. 5th. It does indeed look like it will be a great read. Jim Bailey ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 11:39:54 -0800 From: Jim Bricker Subject: Steely Dan Ear Candy and more I'll bite on Mike (Kissman24's) curiosity ... Doesn't that sound yucky? I'm also a huge Dan fan. Apple and oranges; but both can be sweet and juicy. They're the opposite side of the musical spectrum for sure, but they're in no way mutually exclusive. Awesome facility and taste. Guitars - Fripp and Belew compare to Carlton and Derringer Drums - Bruford and Mastellotto compare to Gadd, Pocarro or Purdie Bass - Levin or Wetton compare to Rainey Don't know if I'd categorize SD as laid-back. Kid Charlamagne? Peg? Two Against Nature? > > P.S.-I'm also curious to know what are some of your favorite KC albums, and > some of your favorite albums of all time? Any takers? > KC - Discipline, Great Deceiver Box Set Steely Dan - Aja, Royal Scam, Katy Lied Pat Metheny - Travels, First Circle, Imaginary Day, Beyond the Missouri Sky Miles Davis - Kind of Blue Bill Evans Trio - Waltz for Debby Jim Bricker San Jose, CA, USA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 12:53:28 -0800 (PST) From: Adam Subject: Drugs, Crim, and Prog and Roll I just wanted to post to say how sick I am of hearing everybody referring to prog-rock as "the music to listen to when you get stoned". What is the deal with that. Why would anybody want to be under the influence of drugs while listening to such great music? This is beyond me. Forget drugs, I don't care what your excuse is, or if you can rationalize it to yourself. But that is all that you are doing is rationalizing. Take your drugs and stuff them up yer ass!! I am so sick of people saying that drugs inhance music. The fact is "Dark Side of The Moon" is a phenomenal album, and if you have to be trippin' on LSD and hittin' the bong to realize it, then you are a moron. You can not appreciate anything while under the influence of these things. At the risk of sounding like I am some guy that would come to your school and lecture you on how bad drugs are, well I don't want to be like that. You can shoot up until you piss your pants for all I care, just don't try to tell me that the only way to enjoy the likes of Genesis, King Crimson, and Pink Floyd (etc.) is to alter myself. Does this make me not a true fan? I think not. I don't know what Fripp's stance on drugs is, but I do know that Frank Zappa ( a true genius ), although a bit weird, did not need drugs to create great music. And if that is not proof that it doesn't take drugs to be in tune to the music then I don't know what does. Sorry to go on so long, but maybe by now your buzz has worn off and you can go back and throw on Starless and realize that you have been missing something. The music sounds great without being high, what a genious concept!!! (Here's a hint: it works with all music, prog or otherwise!) One final note to American ETers: turns out I can not go to the show in Buffalo, NY, I would appreciate it greatly if there were a lot of good gig reviews to read about the show that I am going to miss. Thanks. ===== ...and so with gods and men, the sheep remain inside their pen, though many times they see the way to leave.-from "Firth of Fifth" by Genesis. Selling England by the Pound 1973. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 20:52:32 -0000 From: "Linda Crumlin" Subject: Crimson fans taste Hi there I find it interesting that ETers like such a wide variety of music. Personally, I am not interested in bands like Yes, Genesis, Tull, Floyd etc Or Anthrax, Tool, Zeppelin or most of the others namechecked in ET (although its nice to know that there are some Sun Ra fans out there). I'm not knocking anyone who is into these bands. It's just that the only other band that I can think of that appeals to such a wide range of music fans would be The Beatles - not bad company to keep! I won't bore you with my own favourites except to say that anyone with ears and a taste for adventure should seek out the first two CDs by This Heat - brutal but brilliant. Keep up the good work. Alan ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 21:44:25 GMT From: adrian_sutton at talk21 dot com Subject: Foriegn Tours Interesting idea that KC should tour where according to the number of subscribers. Where are the most??? - Answer in the UK. How many shows did we get??? - ONE. So how about a few more maybe then I will get a chance to see them. I have been a fan for many years and have still not seen them. I was unable to get to the show - due to prior commitments. An unimpressed fan ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 16:50:18 EST From: LabCSA at aol dot com Subject: Re: King Crimson Chicago Gig, 24 November at Chicago Theatre I attended the JP Jones & King Crimson gig at the Chicago Theatre on November 24, having received guest tickets from JP Jone's guitar tech, Hugh Manson, who is my luthier & friend...if you have seen this tour, you saw Hugh running across stage, bringing Jones his various instruments (electric mandolin, 8-string bass etc.) which Hugh builds himself. Jones introduced Hugh to our crowd, and we all started to chant "Hugh!" "Hugh!!" Thanks, Hugh...the show was GREAT! What a gift!! I cannot add much to the reviews for other shows that have been posted on ET...our show sounds similar to the Minnesota and Missouri shows in terms of set list and performance. Volume was NOT loud (I was in Row 6, Main Floor!) for a Crimso set!! Believe me, I have heard louder out of Fripp!! (LTIA tour, Kinetic Playground-Chicago, 1973 was a real head-splitter!!) Anyway...JPJones was excellent, he certainly is a nice addition to the DGM label!! He warmed the crowd up nicely and even tossed in a touch of Led Zep, which I was not expecting...he has a nice singing voice, & at times his new music was positively Crimson-esqe! As for Crimso...I think that Adrian is having some problems with vocal cords on this tour, he lost his voice after Thela Hun Jinjeet & did not attempt any more singing. We did NOT hear Elephant Talk, which was too bad as that is a personal favorite...however, the material that Fripp & Co. offered in Chicago was played with great skill & precision, as always!! Other ET reviewers have commented upon Bob's tendency to turn his backside to the audience...I think he is concentrating upon leading this newest formation of Crimson (double-duo) face-to-face as they don't have the history of playing together that Bruford, Levin & Belew had! (Note: Fripp did NOT sit in the darkness, but was prominently displayed up front, bum & all!! Thanks for the moon-shot, Bob!!) Trey was phenomenal on his Warr touch guitar, Pat played with precision and the overall sound of the band reminded me of the earlier Discipline-era band, with more mistakes & jokes going around, more energy & musical tension!! Anyway, this is a show that should NOT be missed! To those who posted negative reviews, I say...HUMBUG!! Cheers to ET worldwide, Charles Stack, Chicago IL ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 19:52:30 -0500 From: Martin Roberts Subject: Re: QUIT CRYING Right! For goodness sake pick up some foam earplugs. They come in a variety of decibel reduction levels and take the edge off the sound while allowing full range of listening enjoyment. Additonal benefits are consrervation of your eardrums and a marked reduction of inane chattering. Relax and enjoy the music. Martin ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 21:48:40 -0500 From: ibizabar at mindspring dot com Subject: Re: Surprises Mike wrote: >I'm going to a couple east coast shows and as much as I love >suprises I'd >like to hear the new stuff before I go. Is there someplace online or >elsewhere I can go to listen does anyone know? > > Personally, if you are into the element of surpise, then just go by what you know best, and simply... go to the show and BE SURPRISED!! :) I heard their new stuff for my first time back in July in Atlanta, and was totally BLOWN AWAY by Fripp's maniacal riff pounding during tracks like "Cyriel" or "Response to Stimuli", or better yet the complexities of "Level 5". Both of these tracks of course I had never heard ANYWHERE before! And just THAT element of surprise made it MORE THAN WORTH the suspense. Another one was the typical 2001 opener "Dangerous Curves", adding the slowly, yet steadily-increase of volume throughout. Sort of a Kcacophonic effect, if you will. "Crimson Blue" is another odd one(sort of a KC-like bluesy parody - had to be Belew's idea ;) Reminds me a little of Pink Floyd's throwaway tune from Meddle, "Seamus". Just with a KC touch! So always, always welcome the surprise! You will leave that show and wonder for days on end, "What the bloody hell was THAT?!!!?!!?" Then once you actually buy the album with that very track on it, you will go, "Wow! That was such a cool number that night!!!" I said that after the celestial and Starless-like "Deception of the Thrush" which I heard live at the Nashville 2000 shows. And that was before I had heard the Project X album. So... in any event, simply enjoy the show and let your mind be your guide :) Peace and prog (always), Brian ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 23:12:07 -0500 From: "Jordan Clifford" Subject: Re: Red again hell yea Dan writes: >I guess I should feel lucky that I'm going to see >Crimson for the 10th time next month (Lisner >Auditorium in D.C.). But I am tired of hearing them >play "Red." Are there that many people who are going >to a Crim concert for the first time that the band >feels obligated to still play some of the old stuff? >Thye've played "Red" every time I've seen them. I >WANT FRAKTURED!!!!!! Yes i think there are quite a few people going to their first KC show, or their second show, who really want to hear Red. Im damn excited to see them play Red. Id be excited to see them play anything from the 70s. i want them to play both Red and FraKctured. a lot. id be very disapointed if they didnt.. and i take it that means they dont play FraKctured? that is REALLY insane, why the wouldnt play that makes no sense to me. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 23:32:51 -0500 From: "Jordan Clifford" Subject: A Follow up On "PREMIUM" SCI ticketing A little while ago there was some discussion on what exactly "Premium" Ticketing means, as promised but not defined by our friends at SCI ticketing. I started wondering again just what Premium Ticketing is and what it entitles the customer, if anything. So I wrote them an email. I got a ticket in Row H.. i guess that is a good seat. its not a great seat. but i thought Premium might entitle me to something .. 'premium', not just a seat number.. i acted early and ill maintain that that is why i got a seat in Row H, apparently i didnt act early enough (if that is humanly possible) because i didnt get a seat in Row AA. anyway here is all they had to say- 'Premium' means that SCI Ticketing will be allotted good seats to sell for reserved seating King Crimson shows. It simply means that all of the tickets we are selling are good seats. make of that what you will Jordan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 05:10:26 From: "Dan Ceo" Subject: Birthday excitement!!!!!!! I'm extremely excited about seeing King Crimson on my 25th birthday (this Saturday, Dec. 1st)! Sorry if I seem a little juvenile with this post. Saw them on Nov 5th, last year, at the Majestic and I was blown away! This time I'm bringing my whole family (and a newcoming friend). Of course, along with a birthday comes a wish: I'd like to wish for them to play Elephant Talk, Matte Kudasai, or--this will be very far fetched--21st Century Schizoid Man. It would also be great to meet JPJ and the members of Crimson. Pipe dreams? Maybe, but everyone needs a wish sometimes! Dan Ceo ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 23:16:08 -0600 From: "Tracy Family" Subject: GIG REVIEW: 11-21 St.Paul Just back from Thanksgiving holiday so please excuse the tardy post. What a holiday it was. After driving 9 hours to catch the show I was thrilled to be seeing Crimson live! The "Grand Ballroom" was grand alright, a convention hall with a carpeted floor and rows of chairs set up facing the elevated stage; (. Not what I was expecting but livable. The JPJ portion of the concert was quite good. My only problem with His bands portion of the show was watching the stick player. (sorry I don't know his name) Wearing his short vest and kilt, he would bop around the stage, creating a mental picture of Mark McKinney's chicken-lady character from the Kids in the Hall. Music and Sound - good. Visuals - influenced by an obscure Canadian comedy troupe? As for the sound of the venue, I had no problems with it. The mix seemed good. I was wearing ear plugs, which I think helped filter out some of the white noise, for lack of a better term. I could distinctly hear each insturment and the band was thight! As for the new compositions, I'm impressed. I esp. liked Dangerous Curves, minus the "You make a better door than a window ASSHOLES!!" that came from somewhere behind me, and the guy with the PDA who had to record Dinasaur for his son. After 20+ years of being blown away by Crims lp's and cd's seeing them live was incredible! Keep the music coming! Curt Tracy P.S. How about Elton Johns "Captin Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" as a cool album cover. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 20:55:15 -0500 From: "JB Anderton" Subject: GIG REVIEW: St. Louis long time reader - first time poster to the list. The St. Louis gig was my first ever Crimson show, even though I've followed the group off and on since the early 80's. The mighty Crim were merciless last saturday at the Padgent. Fripp sat on his stool on stage in darkness the whole show. My friend and I had reserved seats in the upper level on stage left. Fortunately that was the direction Fripp was facing the whole show. He sat there demurly while his fingers were going a thousand miles an hour. Very cool. Had my binoculars and had a great, if dim, view of the master. The only old (pre '94) stuff they did were "Elephant Talk" and "Red". Was really impressed with Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto. Gunn had a lovely sound coming out of his Warr bass. Mastelotto was solid and tight, keeping up with all the various time changes. He was subtle and powerful at all the right times. It's a pity I never saw Bruford or Levin play with Crimson, but I didn't miss them too much. Adrian Belew was very playful, but for some reason he just didn't hold my attention as much as the other three, except when he soloed or did the interweiving bits with Fripp. He only sang about 20 percent of the show. John Paul Jones, frankly, didn't impress me as much. He's no slacker in the bass playing, but his bass sound was just awful - no low end and all distorted. the first song he and his band did - i couldn't make out a damn thing they were playing. He had a stick player and a drummer (a total Bohnam disciple) in his band, and a lot of his solo stuff sounded like late 70's Zeppelin (only without Page and Plant). They appeased the crowd with several Zeppelin tunes, such as "That's The Way", "When the Levee Breaks", and "Black Dog" (with the beginning of "In My Time of Dying"). JPJ was playing on a slide guitar doing his best Jimmy Page impression. He played the vocal licks on Black Dog instead of singing it. Interesting, but not engaging. I picked up two Crimson CD's at the merch table - the Level 5 EP (a great souvenir from the night) and "The Beginnners Guide to the King Crimson Collectors Club" (favorite track is "I Talk To The Wind" recorded at the Marquee in '69 - played in the key of A, not E - very nice). The audience was mostly an age 30 and over crowd. Of course we had a few stoners in the crowd shouting for "Schizoid Man" and "FRIPP!!" at the top of their lungs. What made me and my friend laugh was while we were waiting in line to get in, several people asked us who's in the band. Was nice to see a couple young females in front of the stage waving their arms totally into the music. It's very encouraging that Crimson has found an audience of the younger generation (I'm in my mid thirtes). My friend and fellow musician was totally blown away by Crimson. this was his first show as well, though he's very familiar with the band. He joked that he wanted to retire from playing guitar after seeing these guys. ------------------------------ End of Elephant Talk Digest #901 ********************************