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September 24, 2005

Stupid Curfew: Adrian Belew at Nightfall review

"See you next year!"

That was all Adrian Belew could say Friday night as his monstrously wonderful power trio launched into their last tune, a crowd thumping version of King Crimson's "Thela Hun Ginjeet" just before being forced off the Nightfall stage at 9:30 p.m. The band played for 90 minutes, garnering passionate audience response throughout, and increasingly rapturous audience response towards the end of the show, sparked by funky, danceable(?!?) versions "Thela" and two other Crimson tunes, "Frame By Frame" and "Three Of A Perfect Pair," after the latter of which Belew congratulated the crowd: "You just danced in 7/8!"

Upon leaving the stage, Belew and the rest of the trio -- the funny, biker-styled bassist, Mike Gallaher, and the Tony Levin lookalike (with pecs) drummer, Mike Hodges -- stepped out onto a balcony above the still-begging-for-more crowd and waved down to them with a happy-yet-frustrated "sorry, but they just won't let us play anymore" look on their faces.

Stupid Curfew.

The set featured mostly new material, including a version of "Walk Around The World" that should have made all guitarists in attendance want to go home and practice. Belew's voice was crystal throughout, too, proving the perfect counterpoint to the band's heavy, busy bag of musical tricks.

Due to Belew's lengthy tenure in King Crimson, most of the older tunes performed Friday were seeing, sadly, one of their first solo Belew tours or, in the case of Op Zop Too Wah's "All Her Love Is Mine" and "Of Bow And Drum," their very first Belew tour. The band took advantage of this new opportunity to tweak many of the songs' arrangements, most notably on Here's "Color Futurevision," which was only further enhanced from its original brilliance with the addition of some tag team-tight instrumental breaks reminiscent of the tune, "Success," by Belew's other other band, The Bears.

Seeing an artist like Adrian Belew at a venue like Miller Plaza as part of a free concert series like Nightfall is one of the few ways remaining for people to stumble upon mus