Weird Music Weds: BEAT - Neon Heat Disease - Live in Los Angeles

Oct 29, 2025

On Saturday December 14th, 2024 I found myself at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio, TX excitedly awaiting the beginning of one of the most anticipated concerts of my life. I had arranged to travel to San Antonio to meet up with a high school buddy (what’s up, Nubba!) to see the newly re-incarnated pseudo-Crimson project known as BEAT. Back in high school, my friends and I were budding progressive rock aficionados, and YUGE King Crimson fans, and we were listening heavily to the 80’s incarnation of the band in the form of three records: Discipline (1981), Beat (1982), and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984). I was never able to see them live at that time, but now in 2024, almost exactly 40 years later, I was about to realize a major life goal. Needless to say, this was a near-religious experience for me and I distinctly remember saying to my friend mid-show, “They better come out with a live record.” And roughly 9 months later, they did!

Backstory
For those that don’t know, King Crimson is an enormously influential English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968, known for their constantly evolving lineup and eclectic, complex musical style that spans progressive rock, hard rock, new wave, jazz, and classical elements. Led by guitarist Robert Fripp, the band has featured numerous legendary musicians over the decades, including Greg Lake, Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, Adrian Belew, and more recently, Pat Mastelatto, Jakko Jakszyk, and Gavin Harrison. Crimson is widely credited with helping to establish the progressive rock genre with their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), and are famous for their intricate time signatures, dark lyrical themes, and the use of cutting-edge technology and effects, effectively serving as an innovative, albeit frequently turbulent, musical laboratory.

On September 26th, 2025 the ‘80s-era King Crimson retrospective project, BEAT, featuring original band members Adrian Belew and Tony Levin alongside new additions Steve Vai and Danny Carey (filling in for Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford, respectively), dropped their live album, Neon Heat Disease - BEAT live. The “official” reviewers were practically tripping over themselves with hyperbolic praise, mostly falling into the category of “It’s not the original, but darn if it isn’t an equally jaw-dropping spectacle of technicality.” But the fandom was a bit mixed, which is honestly disappointing to me. Fans seemed at times to be more concerned with the album art and whether it was AI generated, than the music itself. A few were also critical of the mixes of the live record but for me, even if not 100% perfect, they were well within the ballpark of where they should have been and not at all a distraction from the listening experience.

As far as I’m concerned, the only thing that mattered was the sheer instrumental mastery on display. Steve Vai and Danny Carey, the ‘subs’ for Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford (a term which feels a tad insulting given their own stellar careers), were absolutely the right choices. Robert Fripp invented electronics in order to play some of the more complex patterns he wrote in the original music (AKA Frippitronics), but Vai opted to play them the hard way… manually! That’s one of the benefits of a career where your first real gig was with Frank Zappa. Danny Carey (of Tool fame) was obviously a huge fan of the music and approached it with the utmost respect for what Bill Bruford had written. Performing the original parts flawlessly while still letting his own distinct drumming personality shine through.

The original band members were incredibly thrilled to be playing this music again and that really comes through in the performances. Adrian Belew, also a Zappa alum, and a ferocious guitarist in his own right, is somehow able to lay down complex and intertwining guitar lines with Steve, while singing melodies and rhythms that have nothing to do with what his hands are doing. Tony Levin, best known for his work with Peter Gabriel, shows similar levels of virtuosity by playing competing patterns with each hand on the Chapman Stick, meshing seamlessly with the guitars while often singing backup vocals. His unique “funk fingers” technique (where he attaches mallets to his first 2 fingers) was also in full effect on songs like Sleepless… Crazy good!

The Live album chronicles the complete show at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, but an extended release comes with additional versions of songs from elsewhere on the 2024 US tour. As is often the case, some of these alternate versions are better performances of the songs and are fantastic additions to the overall live offering. Of course, “Better” is subjective, so you’ll need to make up your own mind assuming you’re able to get through it with enough brain cells left intact to run the comparisons. This is extremely complex, note-dense, music, but masterfully artful and melodic at the same time. You just don’t hear music like this being produced anymore and that is the real shame.