King's X Dates

[Yesspaz]

Saw King's X last night. Good show. It started off on a bad note, but ended terrifically. Let me explian.

Doug was having problems with his rig. The band was on stage for at least 10 minutes before they got started. Ty was telling stories, teasing the double live album, interacting with the crowd, etc. Doug eventually said "let's just play," but you could tell he wasn't happy. They opened with their standard opener, "Groove Machine." The crowd was singing along heroically: "Welcome to the Groove Machine. Welcome to the Groove!" While Ty and Doug held out the last chord, Jerry started the metronomic beats of "Believe." Halfway through the song, Doug just stopped playing and was mad. He said, "I'm sorry, but I can't play like this. Ya'll please give me about 10 minutes to fix this." Sure. Ty told more stories. Someone asked him if they were playing "Cigarettes" and he said not this tour. As soon as they got Doug's rig fixed, Ty's mic went out. They ran the cord that had the short in it and replaced it. Still out. It was the snake, so they moved it to a different fader. Perfect. Played "Believe," "I Can't Help It," and "Dogman." "I Can't Help It" was phenomenal. It was the first time I'd seen them play it. "Dogman," of course, was a crowd favorite and really kicked gluteus maximus. I was going crazy. Yeah, they play it every tour, but it's like "And You and I" - they have to play it every tour, and no one ever complains. Ty then went into the opening arpeggios of "Mr. Wilson." This was a highlight for me, as it's one of my favorite songs on my favorite KX album. Besides, that main riff is just devastating. After that was over, the sound-man told the band he'd lost Jerry's vocal, so they re-snaked that. Nope, it was the cord. Changed cord. But Jerry then said he'd lost himself in his monitor. So they fixed that. Doug was slightly miffed still, but it was fixed all in about five minutes. Doug said, "Let's do Cupid." This was a fun song. It's just a nice little groove with good guitar work. Doug mentioned the new studio work and they played "Freedom." It was similar to Bulbous vocally, with Ty and Doug trading leads, but musically reminded me of a cross between Faith Hope Love and Black Like Sunday (trust me).

They lost Jerry's vocal, again. They patched it, again. Then they did "Julia." Yay! Something from Bulbous. At this point you could tell that the crowd was mostly people who forgot about King's X after Dogman, because not many knew "Julia." It's a risky song to do live because it is very slow at first (think opening of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" tempo). The folks who didn't know it were a little distracted, but right after the second chorus, just before the big bridge (fans know what I mean), someone on the other side of the room yell "Break Stuff!" BAM! He timed his yell so perfectly that if you were counting 1, 2, 3, where three is the first note of the bridge, "break" and "stuff" were one and two: "Break Stuff BAM." One guy, after the song, said, "Damn, that rocked. I gotta buy that album." Next up was a new song Doug called "If." I yelled "Pink Floyd cover?" and about six people laughed. The rest had no idea what I was talking about. Doug laughed on stage, said, "no" and started. Good song in 6/4 or 6/8. After a guitar switch and a tuning check, in which Ty asked the audience "Is that low enough for you?" they did "Screamer." It appears that "Screamer" will be a permanant setlist feature with "Dogman," "Sometime," and "We Were Born to be Loved." This song just slays audiences. Since this was my third time to see them do this song, instead of watching the band I scanned the audience's reaction during the song, assuming many of them didn't know it. If you've never heard "Screamer" and you see them perform it live, not knowing what's coming, well... let's just say some people looked a little freaked. Just imagine an innocent's face after:

Dow dow da-dow Oh,
Dow dow da-dow No...
Dow dow da-dow REAAAAAAAAAAHOOWWWW!

Doug had a huge delay/echo on his mic for this song too. Whew! I cannot praise this song live enough. Next was yet another Jerry vocal problem. While the roadies were attempting to figure out the problem, again, even the chirpy Ty was getting exasperated. Doug said he didn't believe in the devil but there was a demon in the wiring. Ty then stretched out his hand and said "begone short cord!" During this lull I yelled out "We need a Jelly Jam tour" and Ty looked at me and said "we do need a Jelly Jam tour." I hollered "John's [Myung] just got finished with Yes and Rod [MortegenstienerwhateverIalwaysgetitwrong] ain't doing anything." Ty said, "We're doing some shows after I get through this tour. Oh, but it'll probably only be East Coast because that's where those guys are." Someone to my left said "Boo, come to the South." I said "At least play Atlanta." Ty went, "Yeah, I'll try to get us to Atlanta. That might be doable." (If this happens Roger.Lee, I'll buy supper, you lend me a bed??? ). Ok, problem fixed TOTALLY, last time, YAY! Let's play the new song "Open My Eyes." Solid rocker with proggy chops. "Finished" was next. This is one of my favorite Ty solos, because he get's to switch up styles so that it's like two solos back to back. Next was a song I really like but didn't translate as well live, again because not many knew it and the audience didn't vibe with it. Ty started the arpeggios and I recognized it immediatly as "Charlie Sheen." It was cool that just before the second chorus came in with Ty singing "Kill the king," The band did a really tight stop so that the dozen of us that knew Bulbous well were heard to sing "Kill the king" by ourselves, the band laughed, and one beat later they came in. Tight. The fifth and final new song "Allison." I was kind of dreading this song because my ex is named Allison. Yuck. But I ended up loving it because the chorus was "Allison, that's just like a hurricane." Ha! Take that, villainess!


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