Robert Fripp's Diary

Montreal There is a listening

Montreal.

There is a listening that contributes.

14.46 Crimbus Outside Hotel Professionally Functional But Style It's Not, Boston.

This hotel is where Crimson usually stays when in Boston. Its name has changed, along with a change of ownership. This change is noticeable in an increased blandness & absence of presence. I find myself leaving the room, preferring to be on the street & in the more-welcoming Crimbus.

A good call to David Singleton. The new DGM site is closer and its latest test is successful. Overall, the new world of DGM is beckoning. DGM has reformed itself to become the small, mobile & independent unit (that aspires to intelligence) that it was intended to be when created in the aftermath of the EG collapse.

Crimson is presently in the completion stage of a small cycle; the next step is a completion of a large cycle. A completion is a new beginning - something becomes available to the future. But this is not a mechanical action & there is nothing inevitable in continuation. What is available may be actualized, or may remain in potential. The next step in the world of Crimson is to conceive & present a view of Crimson as SMIU to the members & see whether it appeals to them. In the life of DGM, mobility is now mostly achieved. Crimson, however, has become locked into the functional restrictions of a professional touring & recording band. This is probably inevitable and has happened before, on a regular basis. Unfixing is the strategy that has conventionally followed fixing.

Last night's show in Montreal:

Tuesday 11th. November:

Living Colour were strong again. They are on a beginning trajectory in their particular new cycle, and it works for me. I prefer them this time around, and I loved them the last time around.

Crimson: I felt vulnerable, even before the performance. The venue was seated, after playing to standing. For Ade a triple-whammy of seating, bad sound, difficult lights. For me, add flash photography. But the players' perspective is often unreliable. Friends said the sound FOH was excellent.

My sense of vulnerability was surprising. I had difficulties with the sight-lines to stage right: the movements of stagehands & crew were a distraction. Actually, distraction is not a function of people standing in the wings per se: distraction is a function of the personal presence of the people standing in the wings. To see a member of Living Colour at the side of the stage adds to the performance: it is a plus. There is a listening, a presence, in the person.EleKtriK suffered from my distraKction, and I infected Adrian.

A flash during the acknowledgements of audience & players: I left. The encores were curtailed in response & then another flash during Red. I no longer stand onstage when photography is underway, so left immediately again. What a pity. The audience were generous and (mostly) deserved better.

The widespread assumption that performers must accept (almost) any form of behaviour, however rude & intrusive, onstage and off, is not an assumption that I accept.