Review and Photos by Fred Kuhlman
Venue: Fox Theatre, Tucson, AZ ( https://foxtucson.com/ )
Date: Sunday April 12th, 2026
Tour: Welcome Back My Friends
Up front, I have been an Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) fan since their self-titled debut album in 1970. I first saw them perform in 1974 during their Welcome Back My Friends, Emerson, Lake & Palmer tour in Tucson, AZ. Over the years I have seen ELP many times. Since 2015, I have seen Carl Palmers ELP Legacy Band multiple times, including their performance during the Royal Affair Tour in 209 when Arthur Brown joined them.
Keith Emerson died in March of 2016 and Greg Lake died later that year. Since then, Carl Palmer has been working with both the Emerson family and Lake family. They have written a book about the career of ELP. Then Carl and his team had an idea to put together a show that highlighted the career of ELP and put together this tour. This is the accumulated effort of Carl and his team and the families of Keith Emerson and Greg Lake. They secured rarely seen videos of the band in concert and integrated them into a full-blown visual effect show. So, Carl and his band are bringing their Welcome Back My Friends, ELP – An Evening With Emerson, Lake & Palmer Tour to all of their fans.
Carl and his drum kit are positioned in the center of the stage. He is flanked by 2 large video screens on either side and one behind and above him. During the show different concert footage of Greg and Keith are played on the screens. They also play some of the animated videos that were created for different ELP songs. Carl was joined on stage by his current band mates, guitarist Paul Bielatowicz and bassist Simon Fitzpatrick.
During the videos of Keith and Greg performing, they removed the drum parts of the video. During the show, Carl provided the drum parts in sync with the videos. Carl was so good, the drums were seamless with the videos being played. When Paul & Simon played their guitars, they were also seamless with the concert videos. I was shocked by how good their live performance synced with the videos.
I don’t want to give away too much of the show. You really need to see it to appreciate what ELP was and the influence they made on 70s music. Personally, it was 2+ hours of great memories and fantastic music performed my masterful musicians. I really liked that Carl would tell little stories about some of the songs including how they played with a live tiger when ELP initially performed “Tiger In The Spotlight”.
Prior to the start of the show, they played videos about the careers of Keith, Greg and Carl. This included the bands Carl was parts of including The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, ELP and Asia. They also had personal videos about each member. It was really nice seeing these videos.
The concert was broken into 2 1-hours segments. They started the show with videos of Keith, Greg & Palmer. Then Carl, Paul & Simon entered the stage and they performed “Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2”. It was amazing seeing Simon perform: “Pictures at an Exhibition” on his Chapman Stick. He was able to synthesize Keith’s keyboard sound. It was interesting to hear Carl sing “Benny The Bouncer”. For “Tarkas”, they played the animated video while Carl, Paul & Simon played. Paul even provided vocals for the song.
Seeing Carl perform his drum solo during “O Fortuna” really impressed me. As always, Carl drum kit included his 2 large gongs behind him and a bell over his head. When they finally got to “Fanfare for the Common Man “, Carl had already performed almost 2 hours and still had incredible energy. Carl is truly one of the greatest rock drummers.
If you are a fan of ELP and want to relive their live concert performance, then I can very highly recommend seeing this show. You get all of the great ELP songs including “Knife Edge”, “From The Beginning”, Greg Lake’s “Lucky Man”, Keith Emerson’s great “Creole Dance “ and “Trilogy”.
You can check out more about this tour on Carl’s social Media Site. He also lists their upcoming tour dates.
Carl Palmer Social Media sites:
Website: https://www.carlpalmer.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarlFPalmer/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlpalmerofficial/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/carl-palmer
Paul Bielatowicz Social Media sites:
Website: https://paulbielatowicz.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paulbguitar
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulbielatowicz/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PaulBielatowicz
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@paulbielatowicz
Simon Fitzpatrick Social Media sites:
Website: https://simonfitzpatrick.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simonfitzpatrickmusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonfitz123/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/simonfitzpatrick
Welcome Back My Friends – An Evening With Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Photos © Fred Kuhlman 2026, All Rights Reserved
Setlist:
Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2 (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
Hoedown (Aaron Copland cover)
Knife-Edge (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
Pictures at an Exhibition (Modest Mussorgsky cover)
Benny the Bouncer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
Creole Dance (Alberto Ginastera cover)
Tarkus (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
Intermission
Trilogy (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
From the Beginning (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
Still…You Turn Me On (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
O Fortuna (Carl Orff cover)
Tiger in a Spotlight (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
Paper Blood (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
Lucky Man (Emerson, Lake & Palmer cover)
Fanfare for the Common Man (Aaron Copland cover)
Peter Gunn (Henry Mancini cover)
