Not Bad but Not Great
A bit rough with he audience talk and a bit muddy sound due to the source. Great historical piece from the tour, though.
“Sorry, we like to play in tune” says Belew after a barn-storming Discipline and Thela. “This is our first night in the great North West. How are we doing so far?” Pretty good going by the reaction of the punters at El Mocambo. It’s the first night of the tour that would deliver a radically re-tooled KC around 29 cities in Canada and America. “Easy Money”, “Peoria”, “Asbury Park”, “Sailor’s Tale” are just some of the numbers from KC’s back pages which the eager crowd shout-out for in this lively but eminently listenable audience recording. They don’t get any of those tracks of course but they do get some rip-roaring renditions of the then-newly released Discipline album and a foretaste of the future with work-in-progress versions of Sartori in Tangiers and Neal, Jack & Me, the latter featuring some vamps at the end of the song from Fripp that come as close to blues as you’re likely to hear. Crimson feel and sound like they’re in command here and clearly eager to get going, with Levin especially on fine form from start to finish. Frame By Frame scorches, The Sheltering Sky opens up the roof on the place and LTIA 2 blows the doors out. The Mocambo didn’t really stand a chance!
