Well and truly out of the intimate confines of the smaller clubs they’d been playing, Fripp addresses an enthusiastic crowd at Harpo’s - a larger theatre, with this plea: “I have to let you into a secret. I’m severely in the mood for a party so move your arse,” he says indicating the dance floor at the front of the venue. In an interview conducted on the tour a few days earlier, Fripp had, according to reviewer John Neilson, understood and “believes in the validity of the dance form he is exploring. Fripp explained. . .that he sees dance to be a liberating medium, and one that breaks down the audience’s usual patterns of listening. The active participation it demands enables the guitarist’s musical message to enter the ‘backdoor of consciousness,’ bypassing the preconceptions it might otherwise have to contend with. If anything else, he acknowledges that what he is doing is enabling him to survive without compromising in a very conservative marketplace.” The larger venue means there’s a rather boomy acoustic to this recording from the desk.
