BEAT
San Jose Civic, San Jose
November 20, 2024
Photos by Paul Piazza
There was no announcement or fanfare before BEAT took the stage at the San Jose Civic last Wednesday. The lights dimmed and almost immediately Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai, and Danny Carey walked onstage to a monumental applause that died down once the four looked at each other, all ready to play the first song. Belew blew into a whistle, spit it out, and the entire band launched headfirst into “Neurotica” from King Crimson’s 1982 album Beat, which the band is named after. The song was relentless, Carey tearing through his drum kit like his life depended on it while Levin’s fingers glided over his Chapman stick, all of the members slowing down only during the quieter moments as Belew sang, “Arrive in Neurotica, through neon heat disease.” After a frantic ending, all four musicians stopped, and the crowd picked back up where they left off with another monumental applause.
So what exactly is BEAT? BEAT is comprised of Adrian Belew and Tony Levin, two of the four members of King Crimson’s line-up in the 1980s, with Steve Vai on guitar and Danny Carey on drums. The quartet’s set is comprised almost entirely of King Crimson’s material from that decade and the three albums that they released between 1981 and 1984: Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair. The show, which saw the band playing two sets, with the first seeing a spotlight shone on Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair, and the second mostly being made up of material from Discipline. Definitely not a tribute or cover band, I look at BEAT as an unofficial King Crimson “ProjeKct,” a word that Robert Fripp used when creating various King Crimson off-shoot groups throughout the 2000. Although Fripp himself is not involved with BEAT, he did give Adrian Belew his full support when Belew first pitched the idea of BEAT to him five years ago.
All four of the musicians in BEAT are among the best in the world, with all of them frequently appearing on “best-of” lists of their given instrument, and to see them all together playing some of the most technically demanding material that King Crimson ever put out felt like a fever dream of sorts. But no, there was Steve Vai tearing through the guitar solo of “Sartori In Tangier” while the rest of the band never let up behind him. There was Danny Carey effortlessly shifting between time signatures on “Frame By Frame.” There was Tony Levin playing the keyboards and bass at the same time throughout “Industry.” And there was Adrian Belew making his guitar sound like anything but on “Dig Me.”
King Crimson only did a brief tour for Three Of A Perfect Pair before breaking up for the better part of a decade, so to see the songs from that album were the ones I was looking forward to seeing the most. And BEAT did not disappoint. From the spacious and free-form “Dig Me” to the more conventional “Man With An Open Heart,” all of the songs from the album felt like a treat to see in a live setting. The first set ended with the final song on the album, “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part III),” which may have been the highlight of the entire show for me.
The second set opened with Danny Carey taking center stage to play a set of electronic drums with Adrian Belew. Soon Tony Levin and Steve Vai came onstage to join them and the band performed a touching rendition of “Waiting Man.” After that the band played the first song from Discipline in the set, the instrumental “The Sheltering Sky.” If I were to name my single favorite King Crimson song, it would be this one. Originally just over 8 minutes long in its recorded version, the band stretched it out to over a dozen minutes long, Steve Vai playing off of Robert Fripp’s original guitar part and making it wholly his own. At multiple points while making some of the most beautifully chaotic guitar noise I’ve ever heard he would grab his instrument by the whammy bar and swinging it to and fro. The song was a very close second favorite of the evening for me.
The rest of the set was mostly material from Discipline with two more songs from Three Of A Perfect Pair thrown in: “Sleepless,” which saw Tony Levin using his trademark funk fingers as he belted out a relentless bassline, and the title track, which saw Adrian Belew using an electric drill at one point to play a guitar solo. They were surrounded by tried and true classics from Discipline like “Elephant Talk” and “Indiscipline.” One of the most memorable moments of the evening came during the latter when, after an instrumental break, Belew belted out, “I repeat myself when under stress I repeat myself when under stress I repeat myself when under stress, I repeat!” The moment exists on the recorded version of the song, but the power of the exclamation was more potent live than any recording could ever capture. The first set ended with the conclusion of the song and the band took their leave offstage.
The band soon returned onstage following one of the shortest encore breaks I’ve ever seen. Belew took to the microphone to say, “We would like to thank the other two people who helped to make this music with Tony and myself, Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford, and this next song is dedicated to them.” It was the one song of the evening that hadn’t originated from the King Crimson of the 1980s: “Red,” the title track from King Crimson’s 1974 album of the same name. Adrian, Tony, Steve, and Danny made it their own while paying respect to the fifty-year-old song. Danny Carey has cited on multiple occassions that Bill Bruford has been a big influence on his own playing, and during this song you couldn’t miss the giant smile on his face. The show ended with another staple from the 1980’s era of King Crimson, “Thela Hun Ginjeet,” which, much like the song that opened the show, saw every member playing their instruments like their life depended on it. The song ended with a blistering solo by Belew before coming to a close. Adrian, Tony, Steve, and Danny all bowed together to the audience and took their leave. The show definitely left me wanting more, but if BEAT never tours again the memory of seeing them play some of my favorite songs from my favorite decade of music will be enough for me.
