Adrian Belew at BB King August 8, 2006

Adrian Belew at BB King August 8, 2006

One cannot really separate a concert experience from the venue in which it takes place. In this case the venue was B.B. Kings on Times Square. In some ways it is a nice, intimate club where you can see great artist up close, in other ways the places makes me want to set the tables on fire.

B.B. Kings usually features artists whose hey-day has long passed, anyone from Peter Frampton to Little Richard. This means the club usually caters to an older clientele. Most shows have dining tables lined right up to the edge of the stage. The waitresses try to force strangers to cram into these tables so tightly that you can’t move your knees or elbows without bumping your neighbor. Sometime the place seems so aimed at emptying the wallets of yuppies and tourists that it makes one nauseas.



One this night, before Adrian took the stage I ordered a skirt steak and a glass of red wine. I was still working on the food when the warm up act came on. It was a lone guy with a guitar whose name I have forgotten. The current trend is that all warm-up acts are a guy with a guitar and no band, since this is inexpensive and requires little set up.

This night’s guy with a guitar was inoffensive and completely mediocre. During his set a very large man at the table behind me passed out, his table falling away as he landed face first on a chair on the opposite side of the table. As he lay there everyone, including his friends moved away and stood staring. My date who happened to be heading for the ladies room bent down and asked him if he was alright. He responded by giving her a thumbs up, yet made no effort to move from where he had fallen. Finally a couple of large bouncers came and took him away.

When Adrian finally took the stage he was flanked by a young brother and sister team on bass and drums. Both were excellent musicians, and the 19 year old drummer was an extraordinary monster behind the kit.

For those not familiar with Adrian Belew’s history, he was discovered playing in a blues bar in Ohio by Frank Zappa, who asked Adrian to record and tour with him. After a couple years with Zappa he began recording and touring with David Bowie. From there he joined the Talking Heads on their Remain In Light album and the tour that followed. That was followed by working on the Tom Tom Club’s hit debut album.

Around that time Robert Fripp invited Adrian to join a reformed King Crimson as lead singer and second guitarist. The three albums he recorded with Crimson in the early 1980’s represent some of both his and the band’s best work. Especially their groundbreaking Discipline album that blended prog rock technical acumen with punk rock minimalism.

During they 80’s Adrian also recorded a string of solo albums as well as earning the titled of most valuable studio musician by working with everyone from Laurie Anderson to Bette Midler.

In the 90’s King Crimson reformed with an expanded line up, but with less satisfying results. Their new work tended to be more cerebral and lacking in the primal grooves and tight structures of the 80’s albums.


Adrian’s claim to fame arose from his guitar virtuosity. Like Hendrix before him, he approached the guitar from every angle as he tried to discover new ways to create sounds from the instrument. Likewise his use of electronic devices to color and distort the sound was taken to heights no other guitarist has ever approached.

Given Adrian’s extensive output over the years I entered the concert assuming I would only be familiar with a small amount of the material he played. The first four or five songs were upbeat rockers, although each one was made unique by using unusual chord progressions or unexpected rhythmic techniques. The only song I recognized was “Dinosaurs,” one of the better tracks from Crimsons 90’s work.

The middle section of the concert focused on instrumental pieces where Adrian was able to expand on his soloing. His solos were often a surprise from phrase to phrase. Each line seeming to jump from one stylistic technique to another, or radically changing the sound quality between in each line.

Often the guitar squonked and squealed as he tickled the whammy bar, bent the instrument’s neck, and plucked the strings above and below the bridges. One of the high points was a section where the rhythm section left the stage and Adrian sat down on what looked like an old-fashioned diner counter stool. He then laid down an ambient sound loop then began to solo over it. At one point making the guitar sound like an Indian sitar then playing the melody line from George Harrison’s Beatle’s classic “Within And Without.”

The final section of the concert was the crowd pleaser, starting with two early solo album tracks, Lone Rhino and Big Electric Cat. Both of which featured guitar solos that imitated the animals named in the titles.

The show finished with four Crimson favorites; Elephant Talk, Three Of A Perfect Pair, and an encore of Frame By Frame, and Thela Hun Ginjeet. These final songs were explosive and tribal, complex yet hook-laden, employing repeated patterns while building to results that felt chaotic and out of control.

During the final solo of Thela Hun Ginjeet Adrian was on his knees simultaneously tweaking gadgets while assaulting his guitar with plucks, pulls, slaps, shakes, and bends. The result was a violent, psychedelic, chaotically mind-blowing expression of post-modern rock and roll passion.

When it was over the middle-aged audience rose to its feet for a much-deserved standing ovation while the musicians stood center stage taking bows. Adrian looked happy as could be to be playing his music for this crowd. I left wondering why such exciting and innovative music is so lacking in mainstream recognition, even among rock fans.