The ongoing BEAT tour has been a true manifestation of the crème de la crème of prog-rock. With former King Crimson members on guitar and bass – Adrian Belew and Tony Levin, respectively – alongside the inimitable Steve Vai and Tool drummer Danny Carey, it's safe to say that it's been a victory tour for the whole genre.
Belew's contribution cannot be understated – and as a guitarist who, like Belew, was once part of the Frank Zappa camp, Vai tells MusicRadar that he “can't say enough about Adrian” and his distinct guitar work.
“I knew about his work with Zappa, but that didn’t show me all of his brilliance. You need to hear him flexing his muscles in different situations to discover the breadth of the man’s abilities. There are his contributions to David Bowie and Talking Heads, but what he did on those ’80s King Crimson records was monumental.”
Having two guitar virtuosos team up as part of a supergroup can either lead to one outshining the other or a scrumptious feast for the ears. Thankfully, for the BEAT tour, it's the latter. “Together we’ve merged our sounds in a way that creates a really dynamic show,” describes Vai.
“I would say Adrian is underrated in the echelons of guitar,” he asserts. “Nobody plays like anybody else, nobody can play like me, but they can get sort of close. Honestly, there’s no one close to Adrian.
“There’s a special way he’s crafted his own dimension of sounds. To see him play this complex polymetric music while singing at 75 is unbelievable. He still hits the notes with that silky voice. He’ll talk and joke around while I have to keep my head down. The man is a marvel!”
While the first run of the BEAT tour took place last year, the next batch of shows is set to kick off in April in South America.
