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King Crimson gives art rock a good nameBy PETER SMITH
© St. Petersburg Times, Art rock: easily one of the most daunting concepts in pop music. Ponderous, fake-classical, well-played drivel. Think Emerson, Lake and Palmer, think no fun. But Sunday night at Jannus Landing, one of the last remaining art-rock bands, King Crimson, put on a delightful show of contrasts, wit and intelligence for a crowd that recognized what was going on. The band is still, after almost 35 years, creating some of the most interesting music around. Robert Fripp, the group's founder, is a brilliantly organic guitarist, with a strong sense of melody. (If you want to hear one of the best guitar breaks ever, listen to Fripp on Hammond Song, which appears on the Roches' first album, which he produced. Exquisite.) But Fripp prefers to avoid the spotlight, standing off to one side, barely acknowledging the audience. He leaves that to lead singer and second guitarist Adrian Belew, who seems delighted to do it. Belew is one of the world's finest electric guitarists, having played with Frank Zappa, Talking Heads and his own brilliant pop band, the Bears. Belew and Fripp play oddly together, Fripp's smooth style contrasting with Belew's angular bloops and bleeps, just as Fripp's Yodalike attitude on stage contrasts with Belew's cheerful ebullience. With Trey Gunn on "touch guitar" and Pat Mastelotto on drums, the current King Crimson creates finely textured music that stirs the listener as little rock does. Their trust in their audience is heartening. They played largely unrecorded songs at Jannus Landing, counting on their own abilities and the good will of the crowd. Four soloists each playing at full tilt should create chaos, and Fripp insists in interviews that this is what he is looking for, but as they listen to each other, the chaos simply works, as melody is formed from reckless abandon. After an evening of largely unknown instrumentals, their final encore was Elephant Talk, one of the (intentionally) funniest art-rock songs ever. Belew bellows alphabetical synonyms for the word "talk" and plays tuned elephant noises on guitar. "Babble, burble, banter, bicker, brouhaha, it's all talk," he reminds us, making words seem inessential. King Crimson (and Fripp) enter the 21st century with wit, grace and power that few other bands could even imagine. When they come around again, you will be pleased to remake their acquaintance.
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