The fifteenth gig in almost as many nights, even though it’s an incomplete concert we hear, Crimson certainly hit the ground running after arriving in Quebec City. Opening the show with Schizoid Man is certainly a way of grabbing the audience’s attention, and in this case, grabbing them by the lapels and slapping them about a bit. Fripp is on form and David Cross’s violin solo adds a fiery piquancy. Even John Wetton gets to take a short, rumbling breakout solo between the handover between the string players.

Lament benefits from an amped-up Fripp solo break in which he employs the devastating Sailor’s Tale-style chordal attack. Perhaps having blown themselves out a touch, the improv preceding Exiles, which had often been a spring board into a pastoral interlude, sounds rather non-committal and half-hearted on this occasion. Exiles itself wobbles slightly after the first verse but also contains some good violin commentary from Cross.

Swinging out of Easy Money on a searingly brutal sustained guitar note, Cross takes the band into a confident but reflective mood at the start of the second improvisation of the night. For the first minute or so Wetton and Cross drift in a lilting duet with Bruford confining himself initially to small points of percussion before opening out on dramatic washes of gong after three minutes. Holding his own against Fripp’s twisting laser beam tones, Cross emerges as the moving force of this particular episode.

The gig’s excellent sound quality is marred only by the incomplete versions of Schizoid Man, which cuts in on “Cat’s Foot, Iron claw”, and Starless cutting out during Fripp’s final solo thus being robbed of the dramatic restatement of the main theme at the climax.
TRACK
TIME
01
21st Century Schizoid Man*
07:19
02
Lament
04:18
03
Improv I
01:18
04
Exiles
07:14
05
Easy Money
07:05
06
Improv II
06:31
07
Fracture
10:52
08
Starless*
10:43
Written by Jeff Auger
King Crimson - June 25, 1974 - Quebec City
I bought this one for a particular reason ! I was in the audience attending that show on june 25th 1974! I was 16 year old and it was my second show ever. I saw Genesis for my first show and it was on April 18 th 1974 in the same building, for the Selling England by the Pound Tour ! I was delightely surprised to have found that show on the Internet. It s a special show for me and I will never forget it ! Thanks for the person who recorded that jewel. The sound is very good and I appreciate it a ...
Written by Jack Floyd
'Twas Surprising!
Indeed, this has caught me offguard!Normally, reviews are enlightening here, with a somewhat fair number of clues as to what one could expect from a performance and its recording. This time, however, I suppose nothing could prepare me from a date which, I, in some ways, judged to be not much worthwhile...... It is good to be wrong! I found this to be very enjoyable and very muscular!I’m not a particular fan of "Schizoid Man", and though it is a confession which may/will make me a potential tar...
Written by Kevin Shelton
The Greater Accumulator
I have often said that I would buy every show of this Crimson’s Summer 1974 U.S. tour if they were all made available, and I still mean it. DGM is trying to oblige, which I appreciate dearly.The band may have been exhausted and irritable in June/July 1974, but they never played better music. What sort of stellar inferno they tapped into to replace their ordinary human energies, I have no idea, but these performances are superhuman, and among the few where I can actually accept the notion of "c...
DISCOVER THE DGM HISTORY
.

1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
.