New Wax Wednesday

Whenever I saw King Crimson play live — a mere eight times in total, between 1995 and 2019 (and, of course, I wish I had seen more of their shows!) — one thing I knew for sure is that I did not know what I would hear from them on any particular night, given KC founder/guitar iconoclast Robert Fripp’s penchant for playing music, quote, “new whenever it is performed.”

That M.O. was most definitely in place for King Crimson’s four-night run at what was then called the Best Buy Theater in the heart of midtown Manhattan between September 18-21, 2014 — and now there’s a forthcoming double-LP release celebrating some of the best, select performances from that run. To wit: the most aptly named 2014 NYC will be released as a 200g 2LP set on black vinyl via Panegyric on July 10, 2026.

The stats are these. The 15 tracks on 2014 NYC have all been culled from the live multitrack recordings from that four-night Big Apple run, as cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering. (Which night each song comes from has yet to be revealed/shared.) New liner notes from King Crimson biographer Sid Smith are also included — and, take it from me, I trust Sid’s words more than anyone’s when it comes to chronicling any and all Crim lore.

The 2014 NYC 200g 2LP set has an SRP of £31.99 (or, as of presstime, $42.91 U.S.), and it can be pre-ordered from Burning Shed here. For the digitally inclined and/or all my fellow KC completists, a companion 2CD set is also available from Burning Shed for £14.99 ($20.10 U.S.) — or you can just do what I did, and go for the £46.98 ($63.02) bundle.

Naturally, I cannot give a Sound rating until I have the 2014 NYC vinyl in-hand and in-ear, but the Music starts unquestionably at a 10, and it’s likely to go higher once I hear it all. I had the privilege of seeing three out of those four nights in person — namely, September 18, 20, and 21, 2014 — and each night was exciting, different, and KC-congruent in their own respective ways. I got to sit in a different row on the floor each night, and it was interesting to shift my focus from each of all seven bandmembers’ contributions, depending on the song and its soundscape in the moment.

Speaking of those all-important KC bandmembers, here’s the 2014 lineup in full, from left (as seen in the above photo taken by Scarlet Page): saxophonist/flautist Mel Collins; drummer Bill Rieflin; guitarist/vocalist Jakko Jakszyk; bassist, Chapman Stick meister, and backing vocalist Tony Levin; guitarist/keyboardist Robert Fripp; drummer Gavin Harrison; and drummer Pat Mastelotto.

More 2014 NYC info now, via the official press release along with the usual/expected MM additives. For King Crimson, New York City was always considered never to be “just another” tour stop, but rather a recurring stage in the band’s mythology. Starting with their 1969 Fillmore East breakthrough and running through their early-’70s returns, climaxing in the Larks’ Tongues in Aspic-era farewell to that chapter at Central Park in 1974, KC always made sure to make their mark on NYC.

And when Crimson kept mutating, the city kept calling them back. Fripp later pointed to the six nights at the Savoy in 1981 (after rehearsals tucked away in the garment district) as a high-water mark, and later line-ups — alternately known as the Double Trio, Double Duo, and a 2008 quintet with then-newly recruited Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, The Pineapple Thief) at the Nokia Theatre continued the Manhattan connection. The Nokia was, in fact, the very same Best Buy Theater locale, just under one of its different/earlier names — and, yep, I saw three of those 2008 nights too!

That 2014 band looked like nothing else on the circuit: three drummers lined up across the front (as seen above), an idea Fripp described as a sudden “point of seeing — turning rhythm into a moving, interlocked engine.”

Crucially, KC didn’t treat their back catalog like museum pieces; they played it as living material, rebuilt with microscopic attention rather than copied note-for-note. The “drumsons” delivered a choreographed surge and uncanny unity — Harrison joked that it felt like “one drummer with six legs and six arms” — and a calmer group chemistry let the seven-piece collective hit with brute force and fine detail all at once, in turn both refreshing older classics and giving newer pieces extra muscle.

In New York, moments like “Starless,” framed with a deliberate red-light nod to 1974, landed as proof that Crimson could honor its past without slipping into nostalgia: a band that kept reinventing its own language, still pushing forward with no obvious limit. Alas, it appears “Starless” is not part of the 2014 NYC release, as it doesn’t include every song played during that Manhattan run (nor was each night’s setlist the same as the 2LP set’s running order, for that matter).

I’ve also been told that 2014 NYC is just the start of a new 2LP (and 2CD) series that will continue to be compiled from multi-date runs of KC concerts at a single venue/city. Later this year (i.e., the fall of 2026), there will be a 2BD release of King Crimson’s entire 19-date 2014 U.S. tour, which will also include what’s here in the 2014 NYC compilation. Will it be mixed in Atmos, as the balance of KC Blu-ray releases usually are? Either way, I for one can’t wait to delve into that one too, when that next 21st century time comes.

KING CRIMSON
2014 NYC
200g 2LP (Panegyric KCLPX2014)

LP1, Side A
1. Introductory Soundscape
2. Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part I)
3. Pictures Of A City

LP1, Side B
1. A Scarcity Of Miracles
2. The Letters
3. The Sailor’s Tale
4. The Hell Hounds Of Krim

LP2, Side C
1. Red
2. Improv: Hoodoo
3. The Talking Drum
4. Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II)

LP2, Side D
1. VROOOM
2. Coda: Marine 475
3. The Light Of Day
4. 21st Century Schizoid Man