October 29, 2012 marked a new era in Kiev’s music life. American-Austrian progressive trio “Stick Men”, consisting of King Crimson’s Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto and Innsbruck-based German touch- guitarist Markus Reuter played their very first gig in Ukraine’s jazzy capital. The art-pub “Bochka” (meaning “Barrel” in Russian and Ukrainian) had been selected as the venue for the show. The trio rushed in from Frankfurt for just one night to depart to Munster the following morning. The busy day for the musicians (and the fans too!) started with an emotional signing session in Muztorg, one of the city’s more prominent musical instruments stores, just around the bend from the venue. Quizzical fans couldn’t help submitting a handful of questions to the musicians, of which the funniest seems “Do you speak English”? The whole mini-event was properly videotaped and thoroughly photographed and has since been uploaded to YouTube. It was a delight to see the meet-and-greet attract quite a number of young Crimson aficionados, this instills with hope for the future of music, seriously. King Crimson are in a way akin to the famous ravens of the Tower of London. As long as they are there, no evil shall befall England… sorry, the prog legacy.
The meet-and-greet over, splashing through the puddles, but not intimidated by the soaking drizzle, the musicians and the personnel reached the art-club to occupy themselves with the crucial sound check. Despite a few faulty cables and a desperate half-minute search for a pillow to fit into Pat’s bass drum for the proper sound, the check went down extremely well. So, Pat perched himself behind a pretty decent drum kit, Markus’s instrument was his Warr guitar, whereas Tony Levin’s tool of trade would be his trademark Chapman Stick, as irreplaceable for the band sound as is Tony himself. The 66-year old prog legend was remarkably agile on stage, twisting knobs on the monitor, trying bars on the Stick, while finding time to exchange a quick word with Pat, Markus and the warm-up musicians.
By the way, time to say a few words about the warm-up. The guys perform under the name “Big Second”, they are two brothers, Dmitriy Radzetckiy on 10-string guitar and Sergey Radzetckiy on bass. Both classically trained guitarists, they manage to combine intricacy and complexity with genuine energy of performance. The show opened with “Big Second” doing a mighty and crisp warm-up, which they crowned with an accurate rendition of you-know-whose “Dangerous Curves”, thereby setting the right mood for the upcoming main part of the concert. It was past 9 p.m. when the small but very tight and super-booming crowd welcomed the maestros on stage. When Pat Mastelotto’s drums roared into life with a powerful kick-in, there was no doubt left – the Crimson energy was blowing minds and splitting ears for real now. But let me assure you, Stick Men are a force to be reckoned with, not at all a vestige of the glorious King’s past! The set list consisted predominantly from Stick Men’s 2011 and 2012 albums, and what a sound it was! The instrumental tracks delivered the raw vibe that was pretty much heavy prog than anything else. Tony took a minute to welcome Kiev and open up some of his own story along the way: that he had visited Kiev once before, and not just that, but a smallish town of Berdichev in central Ukraine his mother and grandparents were from. It was so nice hearing how your country is connected to such outstanding people.
And yes, the King Crimson stuff was not left out that night: we were treated to “Vroom Vroom”, “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic pt.2”, as well as Robert Fripp’s “Breathless”. The teeny-weeny stage and the crammed basement room of the venue (even though stylishly furnished, spick and span and sporting excellent meals and friendly personnel) did make it hard to get the most out of the performance. The level of the sound at the brim of the stage was indeed too ear-splitting to bear without ear plugs. Taking snapshots proved challenging for the same reason – someone’s cowlicked cranium would pop up the instant you found the right angle for the band shot. However, photos of individual musicians were quite manageable.
The encore delighted us with Big Second and Stick Men joining each other on stage to perform a track entitled “Soup” – it was a masterful ending to the glorious and unforgettable sonic experience of the night.
Following a short repose, Stick Men exited the backstage area for a heartfelt and cheerful signing session ( the folks lining up had all at least one CD in their hands, and a camera to snap the highlight for posterity!) and left their mark with a word of thank you on a basement pillar, on the club’s management’s request.
The maestros were then offered a generous late-night dinner and a shot of Ukraine’s most famous brew on request of one of them, and then there was a quiet chat and a flight to a new city on the morrow.
