There was some twitching within the band and the sound crew when the concert from Northampton was relocated to the Springfield Symphony Hall. The words “Symphony Hall” bring back painful memories of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, which was so resonant that the band were struggling to know if they were playing the same song, or the same bar, let alone the same beat.
It seemed somewhat bizarre to have been relocated due to the weather on what turned out to be a wonderful sunny day – but the hall proved to be very forgiving, and the band actually preferred the sound onstage to the outdoor gig at Saratoga the night before.
The audience at that Saratoga show may have noticed an unusually long pause before The Court of the Crimson King – as explained by Gavin Harrison at the Royal Package in Springfield : He had finished playing Level Five, which often precedes Starless at the end of the set. He sat back to relax, as he doesn’t play for the first five minutes or so of Starless, and turned down the sound in his monitors to give his ears a rest. He waited for the opening mellotron swell from Jeremy to know that the piece had begun. And he waited. And then noticed that everyone was looking at him. A quick glance at the setlist showed that the next piece was actually The Court of the Crimson King, and everyone was waiting for his opening drum roll… Everyone within the band has misread the setlist at some point and skipped to the wrong song.
Two photographs from Springfield. It is challenging to keep photographing the same thing. I am no Claude Monet. Although each venue does thankfully usually offer a distinct viewpoint and character. The review of the King Crimson show at The Greek made a comparison to the Duke Ellington band, a reference Robert himself has made, so maybe a retro-feeling black and white is today’s answer…
"Listening changes what we are listening to."
