Crate Digger’s Corner: 3/6/19 Adrian Belew live at the Fine Line; Minneapolis, MN
Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich
If you are Frank Zappa, David Byrne, Robert Fripp, David Bowie, Trent Reznor or a host of others and need a guitarist to round out your album and/or touring band there is one name that has shared time with all…Adrian Belew. At the Fine Line Music Café Adrian Belew took the stage as the leader of his own quartet and as the frigid Minnesota temperatures fell outside, he heated up the several hundred in attendance on the early March evening.
I arrived with two friends and we came in on the tail end of the first song, but he quickly shifted into his second song on what would become a (welcome) recurring theme of the night. He played the title track to the 2002 King Crimson EP “Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With”. I don’t own an extensive amount of his solo albums. I am definitely not familiar with his newer material, although, from what I have wandered across today, he headed a power trio (maybe actually named that) for an extended period. I mention this, one, because I cannot give you the titles of a lot of the songs they played. Two, I was definitely unfamiliar with some of the songs as well. One solo song that I knew and knew the name of was ‘Men In Helicopters’. It’s a thoughtful song about the toll that man puts on the earth’s resources. His band consisted of himself on guitar, a bass player, drummer and a second guitarist/multi-instrumentalist. He did a short set with just the power trio (I’m assuming all of the songs came from that era as well), and that was part of the highlight of the night. When stripped down to a three piece, it was fun to hear them and it felt a little more aggressive (note this was just the 8th show with the multi-instrumentalist, and he mentioned that the other two had been part of the trio, so I think with some more time that will help with the cohesion of the quartet. That being said I had absolutely no issue with the play of the quartet, either). He also played ‘Troubles’ from the album “Side Three”. That was the third of three experimental albums he released featuring him solo on the second album (with a few miscellaneous musicians, and with Les Claypool (Primus, Frog Brigade, Oysterhead) and Danny Carey (Tool) along with the few other musicians on the first and third albums.
Throughout the show, besides revisiting lots of snippets of Crimson licks within solos, he also had that recurring theme, which was playing King Crimson songs that he had been a part of during his time with that group, which spanned over two decades. Along with the one that was already mentioned, he played two in a row, the blistering, angular ‘Frame by Frame’ and ‘Neal And Jack And Me’, which is a bit gentler in sound (both from the early 80′s). He also ripped through a version of ‘Three Of A Perfect Pair’. His final song, which had tons of looping and effects (maybe off of “Twang Bar King”, one of those I know but can’t pinpoint) was a great workout and afterwards many in attendance left, and admittedly, he made it sound like the last song of the set should be expected as an encore as well (I felt). They also turned up the house lights which is usually a sign of no more music. Then, he came back, and all that were still in the building gathered back into the center of the room as the band came back and played an absolutely wonderful, menacing ‘Thela Hun Ginjeet’ for the final song, also a Crimson tune.
His band was on fire. Adrian was on fire. If you are into guitarists who are complete masters of their craft, Adrian Belew is still at the top of his game. At 69 years of age, his voice isn’t quite what it used to be, but I don’t imagine that there was anyone left disappointed because of that. I would say, as if it wasn’t implied already, is that it feels a little like he’s putting together a band to resemble the ‘80s Crimson band he started with. If that’s the case, and even if it isn’t, what matters is that it is working. You won’t see many more talented. They are obviously enjoying themselves, and most obviously, the crowd had a great time. If Adrian Belew is headed to your town on this tour, and it is still in its beginnings, get out there and catch the show.
Some of the many albums he shows up on (for other artists or as part of a band) [obviously all recommended]: The Bears- s/t, David Bowie- Stage, David Bowie- Welcome To The Blackout, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones- Outbound, King Crimson- Discipline, Cyndi Lauper- True Colors, Nine Inch Nails- The Downward Spiral, NIN- The Fragile, NIN- Hesitation Marks, Porcupine Tree- Deadwing, Paul Simon- Graceland, Paul Simon- The Rhythm Of The Saints, Talking Heads- Remain In Light, Tori Amos- Strange Little Girls, Frank Zappa- Sheik Yerbouti
A few recommendations from his catalog: “Twang Bar King”, “Young Lions”, “Inner Revolution”, “Side Three”
To see photos of albums in my collection follow me at djmusicallyrich on IG.
Here is a clip from a live show of his from a few years ago...
