This week brings Thanksgiving, plus a bounty of other exciting happenings to be thankful for, from Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour to BEAT – Belew/Vai/Levin/Carey play 80s King Crimson and from Kumail Nanjiani: Doing This Again to the kick off of Winterfest.
TUESDAY
LIVE MUSIC
BEAT – Belew/Vai/Levin/Carey play 80s King Crimson
Most folks—including this writer—consider UK prog-rock legends King Crimson’s peak to span from 1969 to 1974. However, the three sporadically brilliant albums that master guitarist/leader Robert Fripp and a different crew cut in the first half of the 1980s have their champions, too—KC guitarist Adrian Belew and bassist Tony Levin among them. Now, those two badasses, plus guitar maestro Steve Vai (who’s assuming the Fripp role) and Tool drummer Danny Carey, have formed the virtuosic group BEAT in order to play songs from Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair. These records combine art rock, new wave, disco, and a Westernized strain of gamelan into eventful and complex compositions that sound little like “21st Century Schizoid Man” or “Starless.” Eighties tracks such as “Elephant Talk,” “Thela Hun Ginjeet,” and “Sleepless” even got dance floors moving—something that first-phase Crimson never really did. The BEAT repertoire also includes some glistening ballads, serene ambient pieces, and contorted art rock. If you can handle Belew’s David Byrne-alike vocals, you’re in for a powerful treat. STRANGER CONTRIBUTOR DAVE SEGAL
(Moore Theatre, Belltown)
