After travelling from Boulder and grabbing a bit of RnR time, the team took to the stage in front of a capacity crowd at Richards on Richards.[endtease] The third gig by the band involves an initial amount of uncertainty in the early stages, yet they soon get into their stride. Around the 17 minute mark of this continuous first set Trey and Robert go into the Sus-Tayn-Z theme, which in turn leads to a spacious and indeed spacey solo fluttering above Robert’s melancholic orchestral voices. This section alone is worth the price of admission. Oh and listen out for a surprise guest appearance from Ade.
The second set begins with Robert “on the decks” as it were, dialing up On Acceptance from That Which Passes (and others) and then layering it with live soundscapes before morphing into Seizure. Though Tony struggles to find the right tempo, once the crew lock into the groove this little hummer really starts rattling the cutlery. Possibly not as righteously groovesome as the previous performance in Boulder but until that one appears online this'll do to keep the pulse moving along. Oh and this Hindu Fizz is the biz! As I noted at the time “This is extraordinary stuff for sure - very exciting and thrilling. Pat is pushing the others into unknown territory with this blend of live-time and programmed playing.”
After travelling from Boulder and grabbing a bit of RnR time, the team took to the stage in front of a capacity crowd at Richards on Richards.[endtease] The third gig by the band involves an initial amount of uncertainty in the early stages, yet they soon get into their stride. Around the 17 minute mark of this continuous first set Trey and Robert...
With only 7 concerts, you would think that there wouldn't be much variance in P4's sets in terms of structure but this gig stands alone amongst the others for a number of reasons. The most obvious is the unbroken first set that, while it does include some common motifs, approaches them quite differently to other shows with a lot more space in between (the "alternate Deception" around the 20 minute mark that utilises Belew's spoken word from Thela Hun Ginjeet is a particularly evocative moment).
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With only 7 concerts, you would think that there wouldn't be much variance in P4's sets in terms of structure but this gig stands alone amongst the others for a number of reasons. The most obvious is the unbroken first set that, while it does include some common motifs, approaches them quite differently to other shows with a lot more space in between (the "alternate Deception" around the 20 minute mark that utilises Belew's spoken word from Thela Hun Ginjeet is a particularly evocative moment).
The second is the soundscape intro to the 2nd set, which appears to be entirely unique across the P4 gigs and quite welcome. It would be interesting to know what the reason for this happening only once was. Was the intention to allow the rest of the group to not have to spend as long improvising and perhaps focus their playing as a result? Was there a significance to the date for Fripp that compelled him to use this particular theme?
This Deception Of The Thrush was always one of my favourite versions - it appears on the West Coast Live CD so I imagine it was someone else's too. Just about as perfect a reading of the piece as was ever given and, if it weren't already available elsewhere, would be worth the purchase price alone.
Hindu Fizz lets the set down a fair bit for me and shaves off the final star. Feels like inspiration has waned by this point of the evening. Mastelotto is giving it his all but Gunn and Fripp satisfy themselves with disjointed stabs and yet another retread of the ConstruKction theme. There's an attempt around the 8 minute mark to end heavy that kicks some energy into the track, which succeeds to some extent.. A slightly sloppy VROOOM closes the set, but sloppy in a good way - there's some unique and interesting sounds and notes being hit that usually aren't, almost like they tried to ProjeKctise it rather than just run it didactically. 4 minutes of ecstatic audience noise and a woman who really wants an encore closes the set.
I'm reviewing these in order so have yet to hear the following 4 dates, but so far I would say this is a tough one to beat but I enjoyed the 2nd night at Fox Theater more. However, the uniqueness of this performance makes it an essential purchase for anyone with not enough interest in P4 to buy the tour but enough interest to want more than what was made commercially available (and my advice to that unusual person is to just buy the tour!).
Written by Elijah Hibit
Truly Bizarre
This show is so unlike the rest of the ProjeKcts stuff. It’s nice to see the band switching it up every single night, and not just hitting us with the same thing over and over again. To get every show off this tour would be a treat. It’s so cool that the first set is totally uninterrupted (I can really only think of one place to cut it (The part where the jam kind of ends and then Pat starts with an entirely new beat),but what’s the point). This band just went wherever they felt like it an...
This show is so unlike the rest of the ProjeKcts stuff. It’s nice to see the band switching it up every single night, and not just hitting us with the same thing over and over again. To get every show off this tour would be a treat. It’s so cool that the first set is totally uninterrupted (I can really only think of one place to cut it (The part where the jam kind of ends and then Pat starts with an entirely new beat),but what’s the point). This band just went wherever they felt like it and had a few songs in the pocket if they ran out of ideas, but did they even need them? Highly recommended
Written by Michael Flaherty
One of the Best
I can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed listening to a new album as much as I enjoyed the new P4 download last night.The first set is 36+ minutes of seamless playing combining true improv with some familiar themes. The second set begins with a 12 minute soundscape. Robert does some incredible shifts in mood. At the end, the others join in and slowly transition into the killer final set.It doesn’t matter how many ProjeKcts you have--in fact, the more you have, the m...
I can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed listening to a new album as much as I enjoyed the new P4 download last night.The first set is 36+ minutes of seamless playing combining true improv with some familiar themes. The second set begins with a 12 minute soundscape. Robert does some incredible shifts in mood. At the end, the others join in and slowly transition into the killer final set.It doesn’t matter how many ProjeKcts you have--in fact, the more you have, the more sure I am you need this.By my count there are three P4 and two P3 concerts that have not been released in full. I hope we won’t have to wait long to complete the sets.
