“Great music,” exclaims a young man in the vicinity of the taper as Crimson finish their first number. Never ever underestimate the crowd control qualities of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part 2. Hitting the punters with the force of a water cannon, well-honed and intended to make people sit up and take notice, regardless of the band they might have been there to see, it announces in the most unambiguous terms possible that King Crimson is in the building.
While the audience is still dazed by what’s just hit them, the quiet intro to Lament slips out into the air, leading to yet more abrupt twists.
After the high-stakes drama of Fracture and Easy Money, they usher in a lovely pastoral improv, full of space and light. While Wetton chops and strikes the bass, David Cross’s freewheeling violin travels high, trailing delicate curves and long sonorous melodies. While it ultimately leads to The Night Watch, it’s very much a track in its own right and indicative of the gentler side of the band.
Although the climax of Starless suffers from the headwinds of a slightly detuned Mellotron, it’s still a remarkable rendition, as indeed the hurricane force version of 21st Century Schizoid with Fripp and Cross both taking excellent solos and a wailing duet. A somewhat boomy audience recording, this is an eminently listenable and rather exciting show.
“Great music,” exclaims a young man in the vicinity of the taper as Crimson finish their first number. Never ever underestimate the crowd control qualities of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part 2. Hitting the punters with the force of a water cannon, well-honed and intended to make people sit up and take notice, regardless of the band they might have bee...
Again, Fripp's solo on 21st Century Schzoid Man is smoking!!! Recommended.
Written by Simon Calkin
Missing track ?
Well, well, what have we here ? The audience version of this set, that's what. Minus "The Great Deceiver" which was likely played before "Lament". How do I know ? Well, I've had this show as "Heretic" for a long, long time. That vinyl bootleg from days of old is so good in sound (and it's in stereo, with RF over to the right), although the running order has been tweazed so that the music fits onto the record. That said, the transition between the end of "The Great Deceiver" and the beginning of ...
Well, well, what have we here ? The audience version of this set, that's what. Minus "The Great Deceiver" which was likely played before "Lament". How do I know ? Well, I've had this show as "Heretic" for a long, long time. That vinyl bootleg from days of old is so good in sound (and it's in stereo, with RF over to the right), although the running order has been tweazed so that the music fits onto the record. That said, the transition between the end of "The Great Deceiver" and the beginning of "Lament" sounds 'right'. This DGM audience version is far more complete, but not the easiest of listens ("boomy" is right !)
Written by Matthew George
One of the more "lilting" blows (read: improvs) apparently NOT recorded by the group for the group
Since sometime during the Spring of 1999, upon first hearing an echoey, somewhat muddied C+ audience cassette tape recording of this performance at the old Shrine Auditorium in South L. A. on 19/6/74 (when I was actually 3 days away from turning exactly half-a-year old!), I thought to myself, what a gorgeous, almost swaying, relaxed 6-minute improv called 'The Silver Walnut' spilling out of a high-pitched eardrum-splitting guitar shriek ending to 'Easy Money', now that DGM is releasing (graduall...
Since sometime during the Spring of 1999, upon first hearing an echoey, somewhat muddied C+ audience cassette tape recording of this performance at the old Shrine Auditorium in South L. A. on 19/6/74 (when I was actually 3 days away from turning exactly half-a-year old!), I thought to myself, what a gorgeous, almost swaying, relaxed 6-minute improv called 'The Silver Walnut' spilling out of a high-pitched eardrum-splitting guitar shriek ending to 'Easy Money', now that DGM is releasing (gradually) an archive of 'blast from the past' recordings of performances, given that this particular location holds a position so near and dear to my heart, having lived out 30 years of a troubled young adulthood in a nearby suburb (and w/KC as a go-to stress reliever for all of those years), I thought to myself,
it sure would be just heavenly, and nifty, and grand, and boss, radical, cool, da bomb, awesome, real swell, groooovy man, phat, sweet.....
To officially release this with any sort of improvement to the sound.
And do you know what?
To this day, over 20 years later, I STILL continue to think to myself, it sure would be just heavenly, and nifty, and grand......
P. S. Esp. since an improved early-generation copy of the show 100% complete has emerged since then from the deep.
I lost my digital-only copy in what can only be described as a totally self-produced completely destructive tragedy about 7 years ago, and have been hoping since then that DGM might.... just possibly..... Pretty please?
Written by Scott Steele
my second show
This was the second time I saw the Crimsters. The lighting was astonishing at the end of the show (bright white lights strobing during Larks' II). It scared the crap out of me. I attended with a drummer friend who was completely shattered after the show - he was ready to quit!