King Crimson and the Windy Green City

King Crimson
Park West
Chicago, IL
Saturday, March 15th, 2003
Section/Aisle: DANCE (General Admission)
$40

This is Part 2 of my King Crimson in Chicago series.

The next day, I had an epiphany. It wasn't about King Crimson. It was about Chicago. Chicago is a big city! A real, walkable city, with lots of stuff going on. Logically, I knew this already, but I really felt it for the first time that Saturday. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then went for a walk. I went to Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile, and it gave me the same feeling as walking in Manhattan or my hometown of Philly. I was getting my city-fix! I didn't even buy anything, but being around the people, the atmosphere, the vitality of the sidewalks and the outdoors, I was in my element.

Roy and I did a couple things that have become our Chicago tradition. We debated what time to get in the general admission line. I decided on 4:00. It was based on the number of people who had already been in line the day before when we got there, and the fact that this day was a Saturday when most people would have off from work and could get in line earlier. I have a good feel for what I need to do at general admission shows. Roy thought it was ridiculously early and didn't take me seriously at first. I won.

Since we'd be in line over dinner time, we had a late lunch near Michigan Avenue, at Mike Ditka's restaurant. Neither of us are fans, but it's become a tradition and we eat there almost everytime we're in town. We also stopped at the Borders on Michigan to pick up some stuff to read while waiting in line. It was a fun day in general to be out. The city was celebrating St. Patrick's Day and dyed the Chicago River green.

We took a cab to the club and got in line. Roy was disappointed that the Ben and Jerry's down the street was closed. The wait passed easily, and we grabbed a great spot in the front row, center. Roy told me that the wait was worth it for this view.

King Crimson concerts are always different. With my favorite band Yes, I'll see them live multiple times on a concert tour, but it's about the joy of seeing my favorite music over and over again. Crimson both does a lot of improvisation and also changes their setlist from one show to the next. They keep most of the same songs, but change the order and drop in some different songs along the way.

This led to one of my favorite Crimson live moments of all time. I'm definitely in the "song" camp when it comes to Crimson. As I've said already, their heavy instrumental stuff is exhilarating live, but not what I like to listen to at home. This night, they played one of my favorite songs from Thrak, One Time. I was so happy to hear it and see it being performed. It segued into a newer piece. Musically, it worked well, but I had all this happy energy and I wanted to applaud One Time. And then, they segued back into One Time to finish the piece. It was just a beautiful moment and a happy surprise.

Yeah, I know. I saw five shows by the double trio lineup playing lots of songs from Thrak; I don't want Crimson to live in that time period, but it's when I became a fan and a nice place to revisit. A visit to the King Crimson live website tells me they also played Dinosaur and Vrooom that night. I think Dinosaur has been played at all twelve Crimson shows I've seen.

We hung around after the show. I chatted with another fan who was very mellow. He also liked Yes, and said how much he liked Jon Anderson's god awful The More You Know album. We bumped into him at another show one time, and he told us that strange fact again. We got to talk to Adrian again, and Roy told him how much we enjoyed One Time mixed with The Power to Believe. Adrian told us whose idea it was, but neither Roy nor I can remember now.

The next morning, we went back to the little deli for breakfast, but it was packed. So we did the fancy Sunday brunch at the hotel. It was delicious and a great way to end the trip. We drove home with me thinking how much I learned about Chicago. I didn't have to wonder when we would make this five hour drive again. We were returning the very next week to see the Tony Levin Band at Martyr's.