King Crimson on July 03, 2000 in London

King Crimson

	July 03, 2000

	Shepherds Bush London, England

Notes
So here we are at the final date of Crimson’s 2000’s long, hard Euro-slog. Filmed by the Bootleg TV crew and included on the Eyes Wide Open dvd, the band work hard at a show that doesn’t always catch alight. Struggling with sound problems on the night, it takes a little while for the team to warm up. The first improvisation of the evening has a tentative feel where the band individually dip their toes in the water from time to time but don’t quite push the boat out.

A sprightly trot through Dinosaur and a barn-storming Oyster Soup feels like the coming together point, possibly accounting for a more success improv, C Blasticum. Containing some rare moments such as Adrian’s staccato guitar jabs that he would later recycle for Dangerous Curves, the Seizure bass beat (complete with samples from Easy Money), a feisty Fripp blast and Ade’s strangulated string-pulling. When combined together, they offer a compelling glimpse of the beast in action.

LTIA Pt V also has its fair share of thrills and spills with Fripp and Gunn’s unison work being especially noteworthy. Belew’s solo spot really gets the Empire crowd going, shining a well-deserved spotlight on this vintage number.

Tracks

Disc Number 1
1.	Into The Frying Pan	[PREVIEW]	6.32
2.	The ConstruKction Of Light	[PREVIEW]	9.00
3.	VROOOM	[PREVIEW]	4.26
4.	One Time	[PREVIEW]	5.34
5.	Improv I Blasticus SS Blastica	[PREVIEW]	13.16
6.	Dinosaur	[PREVIEW]	5.29
7.	The Worlds My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum	[PREVIEW]	7.02
8.	Improv II C Blasticum	[PREVIEW]	6.47
9.	Cage	[PREVIEW]	6.01
10.	ProzaKc Blues	[PREVIEW]	5.38
Disc Number 2
1.	Larks Tongues In Aspic Pt IV	[PREVIEW]	13.47
2.	Three Of A Perfect Pair	[PREVIEW]	3.45
3.	The Deception Of The Thrush	[PREVIEW]	10.16
4.	Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream	[PREVIEW]	7.57
5.	Heroes	[PREVIEW]	6.06

All previews are MP3 192kbps

Personnel
Robert Fripp
Adrian Belew
Pat Mastelotto
Trey Gunn

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Press Clippings

The Times Only Slightly Ludicrous Wed., Jul 5, 2000
Written by Adam Sweetings

After a mere 31 years, King Crimson continue not only to survive, but to evolve. Not that the current line-up, or the music they plays, bear any resemblance to the original band that appeared with the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park in 1969. The single surviving constant is Robert Fripp, whose boffinly excursions on guitar in time signatures that would baffle students of Pierre Boulez or Archie Shepp still sit at the molten core of the Crimson crusade.

Always the theoretician, Fripp thinks of the current Crimson not as a quartet but as a double duo, in which the so-called rhythm section might at any moment stage a coup and take over. This was the band’s first UK performance for four years, coinciding with the recent album, The ConstruKction of Light. The new music is a heady mixture of steamhammer rhythms, howling mutant funk and passages of seething noise, though in live performance they introduce some welcome light and shade. With Fripp seated stage right like a technician monitoring a complicated experiment, the frontman function devolves on to co-guitarist Adrian Belew, while Pat Mastelotto mans the drums and Trey Gunn plays "bass touch guitar" like an octopus tormented by fleas.

Musically, nowhere is off limits. Pieces might begin with slow, treated percussion and synthesised voice samples, separated by chasms of silence, then kick up a couple of gears into a smooth, flowing motion with Fripp sailing along in pastoral mode. Crimson’s version of funk resembles a multiple air crash, shaking the floor with enormous syncopations before uncaging interludes of freeform mayhem.

If there’s a question-mark, it’s over Belew’s singing, which is never entirely convincing, perhaps because he always looks as if he’s about to burst out laughing. He growled out ProzaKc Blues like a Howlin’ Wolf impersonator on amateur night, but was barely audible in an otherwise laudable take of Bowie’s Heroes. His finest moment was his solo treatment of Complicated, where he managed to remember all the words while finger-picking a fiendishly tricky pattern on acoustic guitar. Overall, Crimson 2000 are brainy, brawny and only slightly ludicrous.

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Fan Reviews

Heaven & Hell Unleashed, Mon., Oct 17, 2011
Written by TheMarkedMan
I’m not ashamed to say that when Thrak hit the retailers in 1995 and I purchased my copy I didn’t buy in to what I was hearing. Sometimes what we are seeking internally, perhaps even spiritually is not aligned with what we are hearing... or think we are hearing. At that point I pretty much hopped off the Crimso interstellar bus and, to coin a certain musical fellow’s term, "moved on". I still had tremendous respect for the driver but didn’t want to see the places he was driving through. Fast foward about 16 years - has it really been that long? I saw a copy of The Collectable King Crimson Vol 3 "Live at Shepherd’s Bush" in Fry’s Electronics here in Indianapolis and couldn’t resist having another go. Time does things to people and all I can say is wow. Wow Wow WOW! If I had to describe this in a single sentence I would say it sounds like Steve Reich meets Igor Stravinsky with 10,000 watts behind them - and that comments does this little justice. This show is taken directly from the band’s console and though you can hear the occasional ’moron in the audience’ the sound is wonderful. Without a doubt the most intense live recording I have ever heard. It’s like Zappa on steriods. This music definitely has eyebrows! The rhythms are hypnotic and the playing seems humanly impossible in places. What an amazing band this was. Shepherd’s Bush Empire sounds like Heaven and Hell unleashed. In places the music is incredibly barbaric and then suddenly it is achingly beautiful - but not for long, we are quickly plunged back into the sound of fire and brimstone. Sorry I couldn’t support the KCCC at the time but very pleased I was able to obtain a copy of this CD. Five Stars, absolutely.

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