[UPDATE 6/7/21]: After forfeiting a planned tour in 2020 due to the pandemic, King Crimson will head out on a lengthy North American jaunt in the summer of 2021.
As was intended for the 2020 trek, the second leg of the tour—billed as Music Is Our Friend—will feature support from The Zappa Band, which features former touring members of Frank Zappa‘s backing band (Mike Keneally, Scott Thunes, Ray White, and Robert Martin) as well as Joe Travers, who played in Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa‘s band Z in the early 1990s. The earlier dates on the tour will feature support from the California Guitar Trio
“The Crimson Beast Is in Go! Mode. Totally excellent news! Much hooraying! Glad times are here!” King Crimson’s Robert Fripp exclaimed in a statement about the 2021 tour, which will feature the most recent KC lineup of Fripp, Pat Mastelotto, Jeremy Stacey, Gavin Harrison, Mel Collins, Tony Levin, and Jakko Jakszyk.
The ecstatic Fripp continued, “The Crimson Beast Of Terror has woken from its enforced slumbering and is venturing out to stomp flat the psyches of innocents not yet experienced in the hammering onslaught of King Crimson’s uncompromising pounding – bish! bish! bish! – before turning on a beat to jellify hearts with gut-wrenching passion and soul-squeezing epic unfoldings to remind us that we are all mere subjects in the unfolding drama of the universe’s unfathomable mysteries while simultaneously rocking out and having a great time bopping about with Tony and Bobby and Gavin and Jakko and Mel and Pat and Jezza too.”
Tickets for the newly announced King Crimson Music Is Our Friend tour with The Zappa Band and California Guitar Trio go on sale later this week. See below for a full list of dates. For more information and ticketing details, head here.
[3/9/20]: King Crimson has revealed the dates for their upcoming tour. The trek will kick off with four shows throughout Florida at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater (6/4); The Amp St. Augustine in St. Augustine (6/5); Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton (6/6); and Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orland (6/8). The tour will also include stops in Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Ottawa. Except for select shows/festivals such as the Ottawa Blues Festival, all the dates will be double bills with The Zappa Band.
Since returning to live performance in 2014 with critically acclaimed sell-out shows all over the world, King Crimson’s three-hour shows regularly include material from twelve of their thirteen studio albums, including many of the songs from the band’s seminal 1969 album, In The Court of the Crimson King, described by Pete Townshend as an “uncanny masterpiece.”
The new 7-piece line-up (Pat Mastelotto, Jeremy Stacey, Gavin Harrison, Mel Collins, Tony Levin, Jakko Jakszyk and Robert Fripp) plays many historic pieces that Crimson has never played live, as well as new arrangements of Crimson classics – “the music is new whenever it was written.” There are also new instrumentals and songs, as well as the compositions by the three drummers, Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison, and Jeremy Stacey, which are a regular highlight. A unique show, where seven of the best musicians in the world play music without distraction or adornment.
As King Crimson’s Tony Levin notes in the announcement, “It’s great to be going back to outdoor venues, some of them the ‘sheds’ we played in the 1980s. And we’ll be travelling by tour bus, old school! As for what pieces we’ll play, that hasn’t been decided yet, but will likely be a wide selection from the 50 years of Crimson repertoire. With 7 players on stage, we can cover it all.”
For a full list of dates, head to the band’s website.
[2/10/20] King Crimson has announced an upcoming tour of North America this summer alongside former members of Frank Zappa‘s backing band. The King Crimson lineup will feature
In a post shared to King Crimson’s Facebook page on Monday morning, the band revealed that they will be on the road for six weeks throughout June and July in the United States and Canada. The announcement only included a vague outline of the impending tour, although it did reveal details for one lone performance which will take place at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, VA on June 30th.
Additionally, King Crimson will be joined by former touring members of Zappa’s backing band, comprised of Mike Keneally, Scott Thunes, Ray White, and Robert Martin, as well as Joe Travers who played in Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa‘s band Z in the early 1990s.
Last year, King Crimson celebrated its 50th anniversary with the release of 50 rare tracks from its vaults and embarked on a five-month-long world tour. The band’s most recent performance took place on October 13th, 2019 at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile.
Tickets for the Wolf Trap concert go on sale Saturday, February 15th, with exclusive access going to 1000 Club members and subscribers to the band’s DGM website.
[Originally published 2/10/20]