Fripp in the PNW 11/16 and 11/19

[Buster Highmen]

If interested, go check out one of the most interesting, controversial, innovative and amazing musicians of the last 35 years:
Robert Fripp
10/16:

http://www.seattlecircle.com/perfitem.asp?perfid=1042

10/19
http://www.thecrocodile.com/ (scroll down to Oct 19).

Should any Seattle Mags want to go, rsvp...

[Dr. Gaper]

From www.capnmusic.org (probably one of the funniest rock reviewers on the web) -

"I've got this strange thing about Mr. Robert Fripp, founder, guitarist, and resident musical professor extraordinaire of the longest-running progressive rock project ever, King Crimson. See, the dude's this complete smug, prissy, pretentious, eggheaded English twit, or at least he chooses to come across this way in public. And more than that (the preceding description pertaining to possibly the entire musical population of the 1970's prog rock movement), he's a real asshole to his audience. Here are these perfectly nice folks who come down to support this marginally known band (more a cult band than anything), and the typical response to a 'Hello, Mr. Fripp' or autograph request is either A) being ignored, as if one isn't there; B) a wordless gesture of rejection; C) Fripp turning tail and running (!); or, if you're lucky, D) 'No, thank you.' (Informational source: check out the archived Fripp postings on the Elephant Talk KC message board at www.elephanttalk.net, REALLY funny stuff). And when you call him on his strange fan interaction technique, he first expresses his right to privacy, which is admirable and understandable, but then proceeds to tear down said fan by means of playful, but not necessarily kindhearted, insults. All of this lends itself to Fripp coming across as something 'higher' than the rest of us hairy masses, and I'm not even going to go into how Bobby talks (and I mean vocabulary, but his accent is something else entirely). He also makes a big deal about being photographed at concerts (confiscation of cameras is one thing, stopping the show to catch a sneaky fan snagging illicit snapshots is another), and he performs sitting down and in near darkness. I mean, this is truly a singularity in the world of popular music: a musician who truly doesn't give a fuck what you or anyone else thinks of him.

On one hand, this is laudable when he applies it to his approach to art. Robert seems to truly respect the music above all else (above personnel, sales, popular opinion, etc.), and demands the same of his collaborators. King Crimson and popular conceptions of what KC should be rarely cross each other, and the pursuit of experimentation (within a somewhat limited KC musical palette, anyway...these guys aren't Throbbing Gristle) takes all precedence over any pursuit of meaning or accessibility. Fripp is probably one of the least 'sold out' rock musicians ever, in other words."

[Buster Highmen]

If his performance philosophy were to be reduced to the desired level of rock journalist, he doesn't want to be mistaken for the art he produces.

Rankle all you want, the guy's a genius.