Eight days into King Crimson’s North American tour things are going well with the band sounding extremely confident. This tour represents a consolidation of the toe-hold in America that the group established in the fall of the previous year. At times the quartet sounds like they are playing on ‘home turf’ and benefiting from the extra boost that bands receive in such circumstances.
This is evidenced early in the set with a particularly powerful and sure-footed rendition of Discipline. In these moments, the gamelan-inspired interlocking of the twin guitars captures something rather magical as the dizzying motifs circulate about each other. In some respects, it’s not too dissimilar to stumbling upon a murmuration of birds.
While audiences had largely accepted the material from the Discipline album, the band was also using the concert platform to introduce new numbers for the quartet's impending recording sessions for its second album.
Thus Manhattan, Neil And Jack And Me, having been premiered live the previous year while still under construction are now nearing the final stages of their completed form. The improv intro to The Howler provides a small glimpse of Crimson stretching out into an oblique, more abstract space which in retrospect could have been more fully explored given the general high-octane velocity with which Crimson set moved at this point.
Another new number, Absent Lovers, which would have the distinction of joining the ranks of the few tracks abandoned by the band in the recording studio, provides the closing track on what is a great-sounding audience recording of the band in top form.
Eight days into King Crimson’s North American tour things are going well with the band sounding extremely confident. This tour represents a consolidation of the toe-hold in America that the group established in the fall of the previous year. At times the quartet sounds like they are playing on ‘home turf’ and benefiting from the extra boost that ba...
I had listened to early King Crimson for a few years, but had no idea what to expect. There were complications in that our seats were in a balcony that had been damaged and rendered unusable due to rhythmic dancing at a B52s show a few weeks earlier. We were told to wait in the lobby. I thought "great, we're going to hear this show from behind a post somewhere." To my surprise the usher came back in a couple of minutes and said "follow me." We were taken to seats in the center, just a little abo...
I had listened to early King Crimson for a few years, but had no idea what to expect. There were complications in that our seats were in a balcony that had been damaged and rendered unusable due to rhythmic dancing at a B52s show a few weeks earlier. We were told to wait in the lobby. I thought "great, we're going to hear this show from behind a post somewhere." To my surprise the usher came back in a couple of minutes and said "follow me." We were taken to seats in the center, just a little above the stage, halfway between the stage and the sound board. We were fairly well buzzed and tried to sit still and not be obnoxious, but it was difficult. Someone looked at their watch and said "it's eight o'clock." Thank God for punctual Englishmen, they walked on at that moment. There was no warm up, no "hello Amherst." They just picked up the instruments and tore into it. I never imagined the things they could make the guitars do, and all at a heart pounding pace. They'd allow about ten second for applause between songs, then Adrian would lift his guitar, the clapping would stop, and they'd rip through another one. They played a bunch of Discipline, took a quick break, then played a bunch of Beat, which they were about to record. Can't recall what the encore was. Our heads were spinning. I have never left a show where so many people were struggling to find words to talk about what they had just seen. Someone said "it will never be like that again." And they were right.
