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Tuesday, June 19th, Columbus, Ohio
Welcome to the tour. I'll start by explaining who the bands are.
The Crimson ProjeKct is comprised of King Crimson members Adrian Belew, Pat Mastelotto, myself (Tony Levin), with Markus Reuter on touch guitar,
Julie Slick on bass, and Tobias Ralph on drums.
Another way of looking at it is as Adrian Belew's Power Trio & Stick Men.
Yet another way is that it is the Two of a Pefect Trio lineup that we toured wil last Fall.
Anyway, however you look at it, on this tour, we'll be doing a set of all King Crimson music, opening shows for Dream Theater, except a few shows we've got booked on our own - on those we'll do the full 3 hours, with a set of Stick Men, then Adrian's band, then a joint extended
encore set.
All in all, it should be an exciting Summer, with 24 shows and 9,500 miles of travel.
The StickMen guys, Markus, Pat, myself and engineer Robert Frazza, will be in our usual rented van with our gear. Adrian's trio will travel separately, with
John Sinks, his tech, driving a separate van with their gear. I'm not sure how Dream Theater is travelling, but I'm sure there will be trucks involved, for
their gear.
Things got started yesterday, in a quiet way, in Kingston -- my gear out in front of the house awaiting Robert and the van. It was just him and me driving
to Columbus - the others will arrive in different ways.
But now here in Columbus, and things are looking exciting.
We arrive early (2pm) at these venues, to load in - they're testing the lights for Dream Theater's show, and it's pretty impressive!
The wild shaped projection elements onstage allow some unusual effects when seen from the audience.
The Dream Theater guys arrive - here are all the drummers having a powow. (Mike Mangini, Pat Mastelotto, Tobias Ralph)
Mike's drum setup
Nice hooking up with my old friends from our Liquid Tension Experiment days - Jordan Rudess
John Petrucci
A couple of shots from their soundcheck:
(That's a new Music Man Bongo bass that John Myung is playing -- I'll have to take a closer look at it later!)
Time for our soundcheck
Then, audience comes in... we play early on these shows - at 7:30.
Backstage, the drummers convene again...
I don't believe I've ever known anyone who eats raw habanera peppers before his show
I take a peek at the house ... oops, they saw me!
And we're on.
Our set starts with B'Boom, a drum duet that leads into the full band Thraak
I only got one audience shot tonight - typical when a tour is starting out - I'm too busy with other things.
Show went very well. Audience was into it (which isn't always the case when you're the opening act) so we're really happy.
The Dream Theater show is spectacular - virtuosic playing and an exciting light and video show too
Wednesday, June 20th, Columbus, Ohio
Heading out for Clevland today, you're not really on the road until you've stopped at a Waffle House...
checked out what's new on the juke box,
and had some cheese eggs with hash browns; scattered, peppered, covered, smothered...
Good or bad, it doesn't get much more American than this!
Night off in Cleveland ... didn't do much, it's really really hot here.
Thursday, June 21st, Cleveland
Even hotter today. The venue is the outdoors Jacobs Pavillion - down at the river. We've played here before, with King Crimson.
Still hot, though, as we unload our gear...
Even though our gear is waiting beside the stage, there are things to do like make a loom of the drum mike cables
and stack some of our gear in front of stage, ready to haul up when Dream Theater has finished their soundcheck
This big tent is built around an interesting structure - I think it used to be a bridge across part of the river, that opened sideways
Another view of Mike Mangini's amazing drum kit...
and finally, our quick setup and soundcheck
Soon, audience is coming in
we head for the stage
and it's showtime
Whoa... the wind is making the back curtain attack the drummers!
Everyone's okay!
Next up, headed tomorrow to Detroit and onward!
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