King Crimson in Chicago 8/07/2008 - Day 2

King Crimson
Park West
Chicago, IL
Thursday, August 7, 2008
$67.50
General Admission

Even though I went to bed the night before around midnight, I woke up at 6:30am. It was another beautiful day outside, a full 15 or 20 degrees cooler by the lake than it would be in St. Louis. The weather was such a relief. I got ready for the day and went for a walk down and back up Michigan Avenue before Roy woke up. Most of the stores were still closed, but I got to do some window shopping before the street got too busy. I'm wearing a pedometer for a walking contest at work, and I ended up with over 23,000 steps that day.

Once Roy got up, we went out for the day. We didn't have any real plans. Vague ideas to go to a modern art gallery that Roy visited last time we were in the city. Maybe just walk around until it was time to get in line. We did find the gallery, but decided not to go in. Roy said it had been free last time, and that was part of the charm. I didn't want to pay and only be there a short time. We walked down Lake Shore Drive and ended up at the Navy Pier. It's a big tourist attraction, but I had never been there before. Part of it was a touristy mall, and the outside part reminded me of the boardwalks along the Jersey shore. We walked outside to the end of the pier, and then we sat and looked at Lake Michigan for awhile. There's a museum of stained glass that we walked through.

I wanted to get in line by 2. We took a cab back to the b&b and rested a bit, which we both needed. We walked to the Park West and we were first in line. I was happy and we high-fived each other.

It's fun to play "spot the Crimson fan" at events like this. You look at the people walking by, and try to figure out if they are there for the concert or not. Two college-aged women walked past us, talking in a foreign language. I didn't think they were King Crimson fans. I was proved wrong when they got in line behind us. They came from Sweden just for these concerts in Chicago. It turned out that they had been to the Park West earlier that day and no one was in line yet, so they went to the petting zoo in Lincoln Park for awhile. They saw Roy and me do our high five and decided to get in line behind us.

Roy had gone back to the diner he found Wednesday to get some lunch for us. One of the Swedish women asked me a question, which helped to break the ice. We talked for a good part of the day. Their names were Karen and Kit, and Karen was the more talkative one. I don't know if Kit didn't speak English as well or if she was just shy, but they were both very friendly. They only had tickets for Wednesday and Thursday. The Friday show went on sale afterwards, and they weren't aware of it until they got to Chicago, and the show was sold out. They often went to shows in Europe, but this was their first visit to the US. They never had the chance to see King Crimson before, but they had seen Porcupine Tree a number of times.

I had to laugh hearing them trying to order some food. It can be confusing enough to order for a delivery when you're waiting in line outside a concert venue. They were trying to explain it over the phone. But when they were asked for their phone number and had to explain it was an international phone number where you had to dial +42 first... I was half expecting the restaurant to think it was a prank. However, the food got delivered.

While we were waiting in line, I got to meet Sid Smith, the author of the King Crimson biography and webmaster for DGM Live. He was taking pictures of people in line. I pointed out we were three women in front of the line, so he interviewed us about that. I don't see that part on-line yet, but check out DGM Live News. You can see us at the front of the line in "DGMLiveTV Episode XII: Turning This World Around". Roy is interviewed at the start of "DGMLiveTV Episode XIII: On The Frontline" talking about Adrian Belew. When Karen was interviewed, she wisely mentioned that she needed tickets for Friday. She didn't ask for help, but maybe someone would be able to help her out.

The doors opened, and I was a little frustrated to see there were already people sitting in the theater. Some people were friends of the band and had access to the theater before the doors opened. They grabbed the front center seats. Thankfully, our seats in front of Tony were still available. It just bugs me that I waited in line so long and other people can walk right in. I just think the general admission shows should be more fair.

This show took a while to hit me. I talked to Roy about it later, and he described it better than I could. It's like we were spending too much time listening to the individual instruments than the show as a whole. While I could hear all the instruments clearly, the bass was loud in the mix. I had to concentrate on the various instruments, and it was pulling me outside of the full impact of the band.

It wasn't until towards the end of the show that it really became transcendent for me. It was Sleepless, which surprised me. It's a song I enjoy, but I don't expect to be blown away by it. But they reworked it from the night before. It had a drum duo and bass part in the middle that really lifted it and made it exciting. The rest of the show kept up this momentum.

This is the setlist, although I got the physical sheet of paper the next night. I'll tell that story in my next blog.


I've been trying to work out what my goals are in a concert. I certainly enjoyed the entire show, but I was observing the performance rather than being in the moment for the first part of the show. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But I want that adrenalized rush from a concert. It's a lot easier for me to reach that and focus on the music when I'm moving to it. Sitting, especially so close that I can see all the little details, puts me into observing analytical mode. Some people want that at concerts and I like being able to do it sometimes. But I'd rather have the rush of feeling like I'm part of the music, and that wasn't happening for a lot of this night.

I had some good contact with the band. Adrian and Tony both saw me in the same seat as the show started, and they both acknowledged me. Did Tony take a picture of me? He was holding his camera and I thought he mouthed the words "I got you" to me. He's uploaded his pictures of the Thursday night show and I'm not in them. Roy is though. Here is the link. I can see Roy on the left in the two last pictures of the audience on this page. Pat gave me a little wave after the show as well. Adrian spoke 50% more words this time: "Thank you very much, thank you".

We had a bit of action near us. The seats were set up by long tables running perpendicular to the stage. There was a slight aisle near my seat. Right before the encore, some guy ran up the aisle, crouched down in front of the stage, and held up his iPhone to take a picture of Tony. People were telling him he wasn't allowed. Tony shook his finger no at him. The guy was still holding the camera up. Finally, Tony leaned down over the stage and said "You can't do that". He put the camera away but stayed next to me, crowding us more. He's lucky he didn't get thrown out.

The show ended and we decided to hang out again to try to meet the band. There were two guys trying to sell an extra single ticket for the next night. They had gone to Thursday's show and planned to see Friday, but decided to see the Smashing Pumpkins instead. I knew our Swedish friends needed tickets, and I wasn't sure if they had been able to procure them yet. We waited a while, and then decided to just buy the extra ticket. Even if the girls didn't need it, someone else would want it, and it would save these guys from having to come back the next day to sell it. They gave it to us below face value, for $60.

Robert Fripp's sister Patricia was at this show. After the concert, she was outside mingling with fans and signing autographs. I didn't get anything signed, but I lent her my Sharpie pen to sign autographs with. She's fun to listen to.

We met another guy, who I think was an autograph seller. He hadn't gone to the show, and peppered us with a lot of questions like, what time did the band leave the night before, what doors, who signed things, and not a single question on what songs the band played or how the shows were. And then later on, he had to ask which one Pat was.

Roy was waiting towards the back of the venue, and I was waiting on the corner. I saw Pat Mastelotto walk by. This was one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. He didn't stop to sign anything the night before, but I was the only person there this time. I asked him if he could sign something for me. He did, and he asked me more questions and carried the conversation more than I did. It was a very nice feeling, like he wasn't being bothered at all by me.

Pat knew I had been sitting in front of Tony both nights. He asked me about my tshirt. It was a Crimson shirt from the double trio era, that has pictures of album covers in circles. He knew it was older and asked if I got it from the DGM website. No, I bought it at a show in 1996. He signed my tour box. I told him I thought Sleepless was really good that night. His response was something like "oh, you liked it?" like he was surprised.

The next part got surreal for me. Pat was holding a cup. It was full of M&Ms, and he told me to take some. I grabbed a few, and Pat told me "No, you have to take more. Otherwise I'll eat them all." He poured M&Ms into my hand overflowing. He left at this point. I had a cupped hand full of M&Ms and my other hand was full too. I found Roy, told him the story, and we ate the M&Ms. This is when the autograph guy asked me which one Pat was and runs after him. He got a signature too, but not any candy.

We saw Tony Levin leave from the front door. The autograph guy had a bunch of things for him to sign. It worked out well, because we got to chat with Tony while he was signing things for this guy. Roy asked him if the Tony Levin Band will tour again soon and later if he'll tour for the Stick Man album. Tony is putting a new band together with another stick player in order to play the Stick Man material. I hope we get a chance to see it. I told Tony that I thought Sleepless was my favorite that night. He said "Sleepless? We did the drum bit on that one" Hm. It was like he was collecting data on everyone's favorite song and processing my answer.

We hadn't seen anyone else in the band leave, and we hadn't seen the Swedish girls. Some guy who had been backstage was outside and told us everyone in the band had left. I didn't know whether to believe him or not. (Someone had told me the same thing before Pat and Tony left.) I told Roy I wanted to wait a little longer. We waited, and we saw Karen and Kit again. They had gotten backstage passes and had been able to meet the band. They still needed tickets, but said Pat was going to see if he could get any extras for them. I told them we had a ticket for them, and they were so relieved. Now they only needed to find one more. It was below face value too. Kit tried to give me some extra money for it, but I didn't take it. I'm glad we waited long enough to see them, and I believed them when they said the band had left.

Roy and I walked back to the bed and breakfast. It seemed to take a lot longer than our walk there this afternoon. I felt safe though. We walked through a lot of busy nightlife type areas in Old Town and on Rush. I had thoughts of going out to dinner after the show, but it was almost midnight and we were too tired. We ended up raiding the fridge in our room and eating some muffins that were there for our breakfast. Not quite what I planned, but I had had those M&Ms to tide me over.