“I wonder if those of you who are at the back dancing would like to come to the front because being stared at is somewhat disconcerting,” says Fripp, several numbers into the band’s opening set. The good news about playing the small clubs and rooms on this tour is being able to connect with an audience on an up-close basis. That good news is also the bad news. The absence of a theatre-style stage meant that it was frequently the case that “earnest young men,” as Fripp might describe, were always wanting to crowd round and ogle at the guitarist at very close quarters indeed. Oh, and once or twice there’d be people at the front taking notes as the band played on. That said, you have to love the crowd who at the end of Boy At The Piano, when the bass and drums drop out on the coda, is revealed to be clapping along and offsetting the beat and again on a bracingly wacky Dislocated.
