BEAT @ Eventim Apollo
08/06/2026
BEAT
Setlist
(All King Crimson covers obviously)Set 1:
Neurotica
Neal and Jack and Me
Heartbeat
Sartori in Tangier
Model Man
Dig Me
Man With an Open Heart
Industry
Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part III)
Set 2:
Waiting Man
The Sheltering Sky
Sleepless
Frame by Frame
Matte Kudasai
Elephant Talk
Three of a Perfect Pair
Indiscipline
Encore:
Red
Thela Hun Ginjeet
In case you're new here, King Crimson are pretty much my favourite band... along with Between the Buried and Me and Autechre also. This is the first time I've actually gotten to see former King Crimson members perform King Crimson music live in person though. I was especially gutted to have missed King Crimson themselves playing in London back in, I wanna say, 2018 or '19, especially given that they played 'Frame By Frame' (my favourite 80's KC song) on, I think, each and every one of those 3 nights they played, which that KC lineup haven't played in any official or at least high-quality live releases, and that's all especially considering that I will most likely not get another chance at seeing KC themselves live now.
Of course, all things considered, I was quite lucky to get to go to this, given it sold out real quick from what I recall. I own and have seen their officially released Blu-Ray live video before, but that was maybe last year, and I've been graced with the gift of awful memory, which I let work in my favour here. More on that as I go on...
(I realise in hindsight that this is full of setlist spoilers, so I recommend not reading any further if setlist spoilers are something you'd prefer to avoid...)
Adrian Belew is also my all-time favourite guitarist, and even though I came in intending to focus more on the rhythm section (I'm a nerd for bass and drums anyway, but in this case, given who's performing here, do I really even need to elaborate myself further? I mean... Danny Carey from Tool performing 80's KC! What a treat!), I still ended up having my attention won over multiple times by not only Belew, but also, Steve Vai. Everyone is stellar here! Of the things I do recall from the live video I saw, there's Vai's take on Fripp's 'Frame by Frame' riff and what he does on 'The Sheltering Sky' also, and that was all great to see live for myself, as well as... well, everything else of course, but even Belew doing his thing on guitar on the latter, 'Dig Me', 'Industry' and so on. All of this to say I love how Vai works his playing style into the music, though he also pulls off some Fripp-isms a lot more seamlessly than I could recall him doing on the live video. I do recall Danny Carey starting up 'Waiting Man' in the live video too, and he and Belew killed it here too!
Literally the only thing remotely negative I could point out is that there were times when I couldn't hear Levin all that well. I'm pretty sure his stick audio was cut out completely during, I think, 'Dig Me'? Then again, I wasn't sure if that was actual technical issues on stage or issues with my own hearing, which I have been having around this time. Also, just as an aside, can someone put out more live BEAT drum cam recordings? Thanks!
Tallying up setlist stuff here, since this is a supergroup dedicated to KC's 3 '80s albums: We got the first 5 out of 8 songs from Beat, all of Three of a Perfect Pair besides 'Nuages' and 'No Warning', and all of Discipline except the title track... and yeah, the absence of said track aside, plenty satisfying! The electronic/industrial tomfoolery that happens across half of Three of a Perfect Pair has a lot to do with why I prefer that album just that little bit more than Beat, and it's very cool to see them still playing 'Dig Me' and especially 'Industry' live. 'Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part III)' felt like kind of a curveball to me at the time, but actually, I only really noticed just before writing this entry that this setlist is identical to that of the official live video anyway. Like I said earlier, my poor memory worked in my favour, and even then, I felt there was a slight possibility that they'd shake things up in the setlist a little bit, though tbh, they didn't even really need to so much. For me to even consider asking for more feels a tad greedy to me. Speaking of which...
Dream setlist nonsense
We're on this part of the live entry! Woo!This is more to do with King Crimson in general anyway. Which lineup? Their live 2010's 3-drummer lineup!
I tried to create a dream setlist in order but failed. I wonder what their process has been regarding the balance of instrumental songs, non-instrumental songs and the different feels across each of those songs when coming up with setlists and shit. Same for BEAT, though at least they mainly just had those 3 albums at their disposal. I will just list songs I would really wanna see them play, in order on how they were released, aside from simply just all of In the Court of the Crimson King and basically all of Red...
Islands
Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part I)
The Talking Drum
Larks' Tongues in Aspic (Part II)
Fracture
Frame By Frame
Indiscipline
Discipline
Level Five
Of course I wouldn't at all be opposed to them playing a lot of the other stuff they were playing over the 2010's, like 'Pictures of a City', 'Lizard', 'Easy Money' and whatnot. It's also funny how, without having really thought about it until I wrote it all down, of that list of songs I just put down, only 2 or 3 are not instrumental, depending on whether or not you'd call 'Indiscipline' an "instrumental track" like I would've tended to, even if just "mostly instrumental" or whatever. 'A Scarcity of Miracles', 'Meltdown', Fripp's 'Breathless', and the percussion-centric interlude-y tracks I would also very much look forward to seeing them play!
'Starless' is my favourite song... probably ever! So obviously, that is a must! All of In the Court of the Crimson King is also a must anyway, but I have to highlight 'I Talk to the Wind' in particular here just because they legit just haven't played it, basically since it was originally released in the late 60's. Luckily for me, there are a good few 21st Century Schizoid Band recordings of them playing that song anyway.
Somewhat of an aside, but someone next to me in the line for this BEAT concert, who's seen KC several times, as far back as the 90's or maybe 80's, spoke quite highly of Markus Reuter from the Stick Men supergroup, and gave me the impression that it'd absolutely be worth me seeing Markus do KC stuff live if given the chance... and yeah, still, I'd ideally like to see KC alumni at least play stuff like 'Starless', 'Epitaph', '21st Century Schizoid Man'... y'know, a good deal of pre-80's stuff at least.
I highly recommend the official live album/video they did anyway, but just for King Crimson in general, live albums and such, I wanna give big shoutouts to Radical Action, Meltdown, and Live in Vienna in particular as especially fantastic live albums from their last decade of touring. Physical editions with the live videos on Blu-Ray for the former two are especially worth seeking out imo, and I'd say the same about the BEAT live album too.
Awesome!/10