The Intergalactic Cowboy

‘Twas a night of youthful energy in Atlanta tonight. The Adrian Belew Power Trio performed at Smith’s Olde Bar to about 200 raging fans. I had suspected that the reason that this group was called a power trio was perhaps because Belew would be playing lots of power chords. The real reason for this group name is the powerful rhythm section of Eric and Julie Slick, ages 20 and 21 respectively. These two young players skillfully played unlimited scores of speedy 32nd notes with unlimited energy ! Belew looked rather youthful himself, with brown hair almost down to his shoulders. He also seems to have been visiting a weight machine.
Belew ripped out lead after lead of unusual scales with unusual guitar sounds. At one point he was using a violin sound; then he looped the violin sound and played another violin solo on top of that. Then he used a Fender Rhoades sound and played some jazzy sounding chords and melodies at a lower volume and tempo, creating a subtle dynamic for a few minutes. Then he played a solo using a reverse-gate violin sound. A couple of the instrumental pieces sounded like they could be future King Crimson songs. One sounded a lot like ‘ Indiscipline,’ with diminished chords and whole tone scales and a churning rhythm. Another was reminiscent of ‘ We’ll Let You Know,’ kind of quirky, trebly and jazzy. I should add that he played the K.C. tunes ‘ Dinosaur,’ ‘Neurotica,’ ‘Frame by Frame’ and ‘Thela Hun Gingeet’ during his set which lasted almost two hours. The rhythm section did a superb job of duplicating the drum and bass parts to these difficult progressive rock powerhouses. Eric played Bruford’s complex drum parts with the precision and energy that equaled Alan White when he replaced Bruford in the group Yes.
And speaking of entities named Crimson, Mr. Crimson himself was there with the lovely Laurie. He introduced me to Rob Murphree, the webmaster of the Adrian Belew website. Adrian’s wife Martha sold me a tee shirt which I will deliver to Troy Johnson in Thomaston. In eleven hours I need to be at a Nissan dealership so it’s time to go to bed.
Nighty night,
I.C.