Peaches, Ft. Laud., FL   May 19, 2011
Written by mrdickens

Robert Fripp’s name appeared on the marquee of this chain record store for about a week, and I was shocked.  I attended the concert on time and the store was already thoroughly packed.  So I had to stand in the back, and since it was a store floor after all, it was hard to see.  Also Mr. Fripp is relatively short in stature so that made it worse.

Mr. Fripp began with a surprisingly lengthy unamplified spoken preamble which was very difficult to make out, and audience members were shouting out from time to time with, "Microphone!  Can’t hear you!" etc.  One thing I recall him saying which surprised me was a comment on digital sampling and saying how wonderful it was that now we could use practically any sound in any manner, and he gave the example of using a door slam as a drumbeat.  Disregarding the audience’s outbursts, Mr. Fripp spoke in a very quiet manner.  He also mentioned something about the performer’s limited obligation to the audience, the "vampiric" relationship, and a prohibition on recording devices, since they diminish the possibilities of the performance.  With much urgency, someone finally appeared with a mic on a mic-stand and after weaving through the audience, placed it in front of Mr. Fripp.  Whereby, Mr. Fripp immediately concluded his monologue and began his guitar solo with Revox machine.

When that was done, Mr. Fripp stopped, rewound the tape, gave a brief description of the intention of the following overdubbed improvisation, and then proceeded with a rather scalding performance over top the previous foundation.

Quite soon after the performance I was obligated to leave for some reason that I don’t recall.  I was quite overwhelmed by the performance.

In the photo, you can see a "corn plant" which is a popular ornamental plant, and also large paper which was hung for the performance, over the enormous plate glass windows of the store. The store has changed hands multiple times, but still stands at 1500 E Sunrise BLVD.

J

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