BEAT,
L’Olympia, Paris, France,
June 10.
If you missed BEAT at L’Olympia on June 10, you missed a supergroup turning prog-rock history into a live, breathing event. Two days later and Paris is still buzzing about it. BEAT isn’t a new band with new songs – it’s four legends reinterpreting King Crimson’s most technical, twitchy, and brilliant era: the 1980s trilogy of Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984). On this tour, they’re doing it with the kind of precision that makes you rethink what “tribute” means.
The band comprises a quartet akin to, say, “Avengers Assemble.” Singer and guitarist Adrian Belew and cool cat bassist Tony Levin make up what was an era of the legendary King Crimson. Steve Vai plays lead fresh off a tour with Joe Satriani, and arguably the best drummer in the world today, Danny Carey, looms large with a smile wider than the Golden Gate Bridge. The concept is simple: honor that specific King Crimson period without trying to replace Robert Fripp.
For this French show, the venue choice mattered; L’Olympia at 28 Boulevard des Capucines is Paris’s legendary 2,000-capacity hall. Intimate enough that every odd-time signature hits you in the chest, historic enough that every prog band wants the room. BEAT doesn’t do nostalgia cosplay. They play the music, not the mythology. The setlist pulls entirely from the ’80s trilogy. So you get “Elephant Talk,” “Frame by Frame,” “Sartori in Tangier,” “Thela Hun Ginjeet,” “Neal and Jack and Me,” “Three of a Perfect Pair.” This is Crimson as a lean, new-wave-meets-math-rock machine, and the devoted crowd, both old and new, is appreciative and enthralled.
Live, the difference between BEAT and a tribute act is chemistry.
Tony Levin’s Chapman Stick and bass handle the interlocking parts that made ’80s Crimson feel like 4 people playing 8 instruments. Adrian Belew still sings “Thela Hun Ginjeet” like he’s making it up on the spot – because he basically did in 1981. He wears a smile and looks like he’s about to crack several jokes to the fans in the front row, all while being a master of his craft. The jokes never come; he’s just in his happy zone. Steve Vai, a bona fide legend of guitar, just adds to his class by not being the center of attention. Vai has the charisma and chops to sell out this venue on his own, but tonight he lurks in the shadows and lets the others do the talking. But of course, his guitar can be heard, and when Vai steps out, the sound coming from his Ibanez is what will likely greet you in some sort of afterlife paradise. The man is liquid fire.
Adrian Belew speaks in voltage and vowels, a voice that learned to stutter in time signatures. His guitar doesn’t sing — it narrates, turning feedback into grammar. Forty years on, he still plays like he’s discovering the riff as it leaves his hands. In BEAT, he’s both the memory and the mischief of King Crimson’s ’80s brain.
Tony Levin treats his performance as if it’s his last. The Chapman Stick is his loom, bass and melody woven in parallel threads. Where others pluck, he calculates each note as a fulcrum balancing chaos and order. With BEAT, he’s the pulse that makes impossible time feel inevitable.
Then there’s Danny Carey. Tool fans know him for polyrhythmic avalanches, but here he’s channeling Bill Bruford’s hyper-precise, almost jazz-like touch. “Frame by Frame” live is a nightmare of syncopation, and Carey navigates it without making it feel academic. He makes you feel the math. That’s the whole trick of this music: it’s complex, but it grooves.
The old venue’s acoustics helped. The hall is tight, so Levin’s low end didn’t turn to mud, and Belew’s guitar cuts through without shredding your ears. For a band playing music this dense, clarity is everything, and BEAT delivered.
Compared to other 2026 prog tours, BEAT feels necessary. King Crimson proper is retired. Fripp isn’t touring. If you want to hear this music live by people who were in the room when it was written, BEAT is the only game. Vai and Carey bring new fans; Belew and Levin bring the authority.
The rest of the tour runs through mid-July with stops in Strasbourg on June 13, Prague on June 18, Brussels on June 23, and finishes in Norway on July 17. If you’re in Europe and you missed Paris, catch them elsewhere.
Tickets are at http://BEAT-tour.com.
Review and all photos by David Bronstein.
