In the court of the crimson king...

Playlist

King Crimson - Live at the Orpheum
King Crimson - The Elements Box Set 2014
King Crimson - The Elements Box Set 2015

What a lovely day - the day on which I would see one of my all-time favourite groups, King Crimson, live for the first time...

Anne met me uptown in the early evening and we headed to the Usher Hall - I had gotten tickets for us to enjoy a pre-performance talk by David Singleton, co-oner with Robert Fripp of DGM, KC's record label...

Some interesting insights onto how things are done and the workings of the music business - including how DGM makes its highest earnings from Kanye Wests's originally unauthorised sampling of the band's seminal track "21st Century Schizoid Man"...

Also in attendance was our good chum Mr Sid Smith, prog writer, upholder of the DGM website and general all round nice guy...

He'd been so ill recently that he'd missed a few of the dates on the UK tour - but was looking good tonight...

Our seats afforded good views

Having the three drummers at the front was a master stroke - the performance had a kind of classical air to it - not a word was uttered by the band - they "merely" played the music and the audience sat in rapt silence during each songs...

There were of course the usual comings and goings to bar and, due to the bar, toilets...

On the upside though, anyone leaving was not allowed back until the end of a piece...

I must say it was much better than I was expecting, having originally found the 40 minute live album from last year's US tour a little lacklustre - but this is being revisited now and I am also enjoying the 2CD Elements Box, purchased this evening - along with a ticket for tomorrow sitting a couple of rows behind where we were tonight...

An excellent evening indeed...

Highlight of the Day : King Crimson...

Setlist
Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One
Red
Suitable Grounds for the Blues
Radical Action (To Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind)
Meltdown
The ConstruKction of Light
Level Five
Banshee Legs Bell Hassle
Pictures of a City
Epitaph
Hell Hounds of Krim
Easy Money
The Letters
Sailor's Tale
Starless

Encore:
Devil Dogs Of Tessellation Row
The Court of the Crimson King
21st Century Schizoid Man