In a live setting, it doesn’t matter how many times it’s been rehearsed or played, the unexpected has a habit of joining you on the stage. Vrooom kicks along at a fair old lick tonight but where the fairy fingers are supposed to be, we hear the sound of Fripp’s feet failing to find the correct pedal. Smart recovery is the name of the game with Crimson and by the next time those magical digits are scheduled to appear they do so right on cue and this time without incident. Such is the nature of live performance - it can transport you to the heavens or become a brutal bear pit of a place that constantly threatens to unseat you. As it tips into Coda Marine 475, Levin’s upright bass chugs like an fearsome engine building up steam as Gunn’s touch guitar howls. It’s a particularly good reading of the piece. Also sounding good is the fierce improv in THRAK, a portion of which was edited into Mother Hold The Candle Steady While I Shave The Chicken’s Lip from THRaKaTTaK.
