Pistoia Blues Festival Pistoia Italy

For fans of incongruity, this being a blues festival, Fripp took the stage just after Buddy Guy left it. “Buddy blew us all off. He was authentic and powerful on both vocals & guitar” he noted. Compared to many of the previous gigs opening ‘scapes, the tone here is warmer and less pensive - Paradise in Pistoia, indeed but it’s only a brief wandering through Paradise before things get darker with Wailing In Paradise. Joining Fripp tonight were Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan, whose contributions the guitarist reckoned were "superb." He’s not wrong. Sheehan turns in some spectacular runs here and Vai’s piercing theremin-like notes left wailing in the air add an unexpected moment of drama to the Coda.

Tedchaz had this to say “I think Fripp is the perfect complement to Joe and Steve, and the whole show was structured perfectly; first with Fripp's multi-layered soundscapes, slowly building up with Vai solo, getting louder with his band joining him...A bit more about Fripp ; he was a silent star. He bowed warmly to the audience at the beginning, so anybody who thought that he was a roady doing a sound-check, as other reviewers have said, can't have been looking very well. His music flowed over us in wave upon wave, keeping the majority of the crowd mesmerized.”