b r a n d o n

Live King Crimson from the Larks' Tongues in Aspic era is an embarrassment of riches, and would be even if the only document was the Great Deceiver box set. So to get straight to the point, the burning question is: why should I want yet another live album of this period of King Crimson? The closing four pieces on this album form the answer to that question. On "Fracture", Wetton's bass performance is stunningly virtuosic (or maybe just really, really loud), and gives the piece an almost funky flavor here that I've never heard on any other recording. Definitely one of my favorite renditions of this piece. The performance of "Starless" is blazing, and pretty close to the version that ended up on Red, although unfortunately the volume level seems to peter out a bit just as the climax hits. David Cross' performance on "The Talking Drum" is definitely notable, and this piece in general is quite brutal here. "Larks' Tongues Part 2" is almost anticlimactic as a closer, but still has sections that burn. Elsewhere, the improv "Cerberus" is pretty decent, though not the best that this band could muster; and "21st Century Schizoid Man" features a Fripp on fire. The sound quality of this recording is unfortunately not all that great - sounds like a good quality bootleg to me. A lot of the nuances get lost in the noise, but that's why this was released as a Collector's Club disc I guess. Robert Fripp claimed that this concert, the last concert King Crimson played in the 1970s, was the only one that matched the fury and intensity of the 1969 live band. I'd be inclined to disagree, but it's hard to deny that this is a damn fine performance. review by Brandon Wu — 3-8-03 —