What Rough Beast? – King Crimson Returns to Touring

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? ~ Yeats

The beast stirs from fitful sleep, opening voluminous eyes – slowly becomes upright. This beast, this Crimson beast, is awake and ready.

Credit DGMLIVE

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What instruments? What batterie? What music?

In this world, a fourth world, normal is abnormal, expectation is shattered, all bets are on and off, time past-present-future is both linear and spiraled.

This is no polite English tea party. Hell’s bells, boys.  This is Crimson, King Crimson.

This is a band that wants to melt your face, fracture your skull, then suddenly lead you to restrained introspection, delicate chamber interplay, nuance, color and light.

Credit DGMLIVE

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This is a band where a man plays his electric bass with sticks attached to his fingers, where exotic percussion instruments are scraped, swiped and sticked by three drummers. A band whose blue-flame serpentine guitars announce, with all the vigor of St. John’s Revelations, the dawning apocalypse.

To this mix, we add woodwinds of all shape, size and sound.

Credit DGMLIVE

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But you say, “This is trickery! The deception of the thrush! All is preplanned, informed and overly considered. This is merely the wizard’s art: slight-of-hand, frippery and rehearsed spectacle!”

Nay.

Not even The Wizard Priest knows what will happen. This band exists in the moment, the precise moment – the moving razor’s edge of music.  Crimson improvisations are not the solo-over-the-known-and-carefully-charted-chord-progression species, but the whole band creating a collective once-in-a-moment music. What you hear at a Crimson concert is a unique incarnation, a creation only found in that time and that place. Time is both linear and spiraled.

This is why KC fans are buying tickets and extra dates are being added. This is why shows are selling out. Because in today’s world of autotune stars, lipsyncing and prerecorded tracks, listeners want something real. Something daring – live without a net.

No other band comes close to this high-wire act. Go see them.

with KING CRIMSON  Canada 2015
Nov 13   Palais Montcalm / Quebec
Nov 14   Palais Montcalm / Quebec
Nov 16   Theatre St. Denis / Montreal
Nov 17   Theatre St. Denis / Montreal
Nov 19   Queen Elizabeth Theatre / Toronto
Nov 20   Queen Elizabeth Theatre / Toronto
Nov 21   Queen Elizabeth Theatre / Toronto
Nov 24   Jack Singer Concert Hall / Calgary
Nov 26   Vogue Theatre / Vancouver
Nov 27   Vogue Theatre / Vancouver
Nov 29   Royal Theatre / Victoria

with KING CRIMSON  Japan 2015
Dec 7    Bunkamura Orchard Hall / Tokyo
Dec 8    Bunkamura Orchard Hall / Tokyo
Dec 9    Bunkamura Orchard Hall / Tokyo
Dec 10   Bunkamura Orchard Hall / Tokyo
Dec 12    Festival Hall / Osaka
Dec 13    Festival Hall / Osaka
Dec 21    Century Hall / Nagoya