Two days after finishing the UK leg of the G3 tour, the roadshow featuring Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Robert Fripp alighted in Paris. As with the other gigs, Fripp opened the evening with a soundscape although this wasn’t always appreciated by a significant number of punters.
Chris Hong offered this opinion at the time: “I went to the concert with a sense of respect and reservation for Robert Fripp after reading all your posts about how great the man is and hearing KC’s Red, Court of the Crimson King, Epitaph, Facts of Life, and Sometimes God Hides which I thought were quite good really... The good news was that I could actually see Robert even though he was still seated on a stool behind his “Lunar Module” rack of equipment holding his sunburst Gibson Les Paul. The Parisian crowd unfortunately were loudly jeering and booing Robert to finish quickly which was very sad.
I sat quietly trying to absorb the atmosphere and enjoy the “Soundscapes” BUT the bad news was that no matter how hard I tried and how patient I was I did NOT like it at all. What Robert played was ambient, swelling sounds, which one could call noise … no melody, no rhythm, … one could say no music, for 25 minutes... I wonder what kind of audience goes to a concert of “Soundscapes”???...as the third guitarist in G3 any G3 fan would have certainly expected more of “the amazing Mr Robert Fripp”.
Chris Hong offered this opinion at the time: “I went to the concert with a sense of respect and reservation for Robert Fripp after reading all your posts about how great the man is and hearing KC’s Red, Court of the Crimson King, Epitaph, Facts of Life, and Sometimes God Hides which I thought were quite good really... The good news was that I could actually see Robert even though he was still seated on a stool behind his “Lunar Module” rack of equipment holding his sunburst Gibson Les Paul. The Parisian crowd unfortunately were loudly jeering and booing Robert to finish quickly which was very sad.
I sat quietly trying to absorb the atmosphere and enjoy the “Soundscapes” BUT the bad news was that no matter how hard I tried and how patient I was I did NOT like it at all. What Robert played was ambient, swelling sounds, which one could call noise … no melody, no rhythm, … one could say no music, for 25 minutes... I wonder what kind of audience goes to a concert of “Soundscapes”???...as the third guitarist in G3 any G3 fan would have certainly expected more of “the amazing Mr Robert Fripp”.
