Four extraordinary musicians playing the music of one of the most extraordinary bands in the history of rock music, this is what BEAT brought to the famed halls of Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo, a sold-out audience hanging on every note.
BEAT
Eventim Apollo, London – 8 June 2026
Words: Paul Monkhouse
Photography: Phil Honley
One of the most innovative and wilfully headstrong acts to get labelled progressive, it could be argued that King Crimson embodied the term more than any of their peers, their skill in blending the accessible and the angular peerless.
Over a fifty-three-year lifespan, the outfit became a who’s who of world-class players and when they finally drew a line over their career in 2021, they left a catalogue of legendary albums that continue to thrill and inspire.
Paying tribute to these leading lights, former King Crimson alumni guitarist and singer Adrian Belew and bass player Tony Levin have been joined with Tool drummer Danny Carey and guitar virtuoso Steve Vai in forming BEAT, a supergroup in the true sense of the word.
Given the sheer complexity of the output, the quartet were perfectly equipped to tackle the rich textures of the music, and whilst on the other side of the Atlantic, the comeback of Rush the previous day had lit up the internet, in London it was an evening to bask in the equally breathtaking return of ‘proper’ music.
Opening with the frantic and fractured Neurotica, the quartet hit a natural groove, the stuttering rhythm and tortured guitars of Neal And Jack And Me providing a flashy one-two punch to kick things off with.
Giving Vai his due, the besuited six-stringer was happy to stay in the shadows and add just the right amount of colour as he and Belew brought the swirls and jabs of their guitars, with the respect given to the material and the focus above personal showboating.
Given the phenomenal talent onstage, the temptation to show off could have reared its head, but barring the welcome swing of largely improvised portions of Industry, everything was played fairly straight.
Truthfully, few bands can boast the range of the largely more straightforward Heartbeat, through to the cosmic jazz of Sartori In Tangier and onto the punchy drama of Dig Me, a number that must have been the touchstone for most of Primus’s sonic blueprint.
With a luxurious Larks’ Tongue in Aspic (Part III) closing the first half of the set, Levin and Carey effortlessly displayed their chops, and it would be impossible to find a more accomplished rhythm section on the planet, such is their groove and feel.
There is a tribal and natural atmosphere to Waiting Man that manages to bring together the same bounce as Paul Simon’s Graceland opus, with its latter section breaking loose into something much less structured.
The wonderful Sleepless, covered so beautifully by The Unthanks, is a cooling balm to the soul before Vai is given the chance to cut loose with his solo and contorts his guitar, making it howl, and a funky Elephant Talk gets everyone frugging in their seats.
Three Of A Perfect Pair is shimmering and magnetic, the mesmerising playing almost overwhelming the senses in a cathedral of sound before the maelstrom of the aptly titled Indiscipline brings the curtain down.
Returning for a romp through the heavy-duty Red and Theia Hun Ginjeet, the band took their bows to an ecstatic crowd, leaving them to emerge out of the venue to the grey concrete flyover and neon lights of Hammersmith, old friends reunited and smiling from ear to ear.
In a musical world full of fakery and no imagination, BEAT and the music of King Crimson bring that craft and passion to full, blooming life, and for that alone, they earn all the plaudits that rain down upon their heads.
A night to feel alive.
