The second of two nights at the Irving Plaza finds the band pacing themselves to a greater degree than the balls-to-the-wall, take-no-prisoners show of the previous evening. After a cautious House, the band start to open up with Heavy ConstruKction - Fripp offering a Thelonious Monk-like piano theme before engaging in some high-wire jousting with Gunn. Although Belew is hemmed in by the task of maintaining the grooves, his enthusiastic playing ensures things bounce along at a fair lick.

If you listen carefully beyond the brutal slabs of X-Chanyn-Jiz, the interplay between the three players is frequently jaw-dropping. Gunn’s solo after the opening sortie is another stunning example of his ability to be sweet and lyrical whilst carving your psyche into pieces. The second set is slightly more fragmentary with a couple Vector Shifts hither and thither but delivers some powerful ju-ju during a climatic Contrary ConstruKction, spreading out from the overlapping doom-tones and into some knotted, ornery soloing.

It’s easy to forget how bracing and downright challenging much of this music was for people at the time. With the double trio version of Crimson still very much fresh in people’s ears, P2 was still in the early stages of the FraKctalisation process - this was just their 19th gig - but both band and punters are clearly having a ball!