14 dates into a North American tour and with Larks’ Tongues In Aspic having only just been released in the States, King Crimson is hitting its stride by the time they assemble on stage at Waterbury. Opening with a strident and magnificently confident Dr Diamond they move onto a version of LTIA Pt.1 that’s allowed to go gloriously off-piste. The boom of Wetton’s monstrous fuzz-wah bass provides carpet bombing while Cross’ violin solo offers serene safe harbour before the final rush into the coda.

After his customary têtê à têtê with the audience, Fripp announces
“and now in an attempt to push culture a little further, to ascend to a new height of creative inspiration we’re going to surge forth with a burst of enthusiasm and vigour into a song called Easy Money...” Tongue in cheek of course but he’s not wrong in his description of what’s transpired in what is only the first 20 minutes of the show.

As your ears become acclimatised to the somewhat grainy, sonic murk of this audience recording, there are many stand-out moments that make this a must-have gig not least of which is the Trio-like improv, populated with yearning lyricism and expressive spaces as the band steps beyond the set-list into somewhere that’s pure and untrammeled.

After a truncated Book Of Saturdays, we drop into an improv that has David Cross rhapsodising as the band build up the heat around him. It’s intense stuff, with Fripp adding layers of ‘tron while Wetton vamps it up and Bruford gets a rolling boil on the go. Brimming with energy and a devastating, heart-stopping conclusion, every reason why you love this era of Crimson can be found in this one superb 15-minute improvisation.