Stadhalle

It’s especially interesting to hear the band rolling out material that was still new and at that point unrecorded in the studio. Neal And Jack And Me is largely in place though they’ve yet to find the precise dynamics that would later give it an incisive edge. Fripp’s Roland organ provides a delicate, luminous web around Belew’s wild, swirling breaks in the ‘Seine alone at 4.00 a.m.’ With Belew constantly repeating the title as though it were a chant, Fripp offers some interesting melodic counterpoints, and Tony still hasn’t quite decided where his fingers would best be positioned in the coda.

“Thank you, that’s brand new,” says Belew at the end of the piece, and then goes on to say “This is even newer” as Tony Levin opens on the Stick with what we would later know as Sartori In Tangier. This may be the very first performance of the piece on this tour. There’s very much a sense that having got the train on the tracks, as it were, getting it to stop at the right station might be a bit tricky, hence the stop-start ending with Bruford attempting to direct from the back. All part of a band using the stage as a place to hone and develop their material. Even when the band loses their way during a storming LTIA Pt2, it’s a thrilling ride with Belew’s wailing solo in the final section coming from another planet altogether. Another good quality audience that gives you a sense of the heat this quartet was generating back in 1981.