The second night in San Francisco finds the P2 boys altogether more spacy in mood and feel. As with the previous night, the soundboard mix is overloaded in Trey’s favour which means that Gunn’s solo threatens to overwhelm the others on the otherwise incendiary Escape from Sagitarius. On the other hand, fans of the baritone rumbling at which Gunn excels will find much to whet their appetite on the flowing Live Groove. Though still missing the defining coda and somewhat bleaker in its tone, this version of Thrush nevertheless offers up some sublime moments.
Fripp opens up in the second half finding a jazzy scat reference to Fracture amidst the thrust and thwack of Belew’s V-drum pads and patches of X-Chayn-Jiz, but without doubt the stand-out track here is House I. Over an especially groovesome Belew beat and inquisitive bassline skirmishing from Gunn, Fripp lays down those Starless-like symphonic chords that would eventually find a home on Thrush. It’s a simple but highly effective use of space and timing. Things get even better when Gunn and Fripp begin their entwined lead lines (usually found on Sus-Tayn-Z) at around the 2.50 mark. You want thrills? You got thrills aplenty!
Little wonder that in his reflection on the gig Gunn observes “When we went on for the second half we left "moody" behind. We hit our stride somewhere in the middle of some heavy blowing. When the music seemed pitched as intense as we thought it could get, and were ready to back down, it wouldn't let us down and moved to higher intensity. And then when we though it had finally peaked, it went yet again to another level. Unbelievable!”
Great American Music Hall San Francisco United States
The second night in San Francisco finds the P2 boys altogether more spacy in mood and feel. As with the previous night, the soundboard mix is overloaded in Trey’s favour which means that Gunn’s solo threatens to overwhelm the others on the otherwise incendiary Escape from Sagitarius. On the other hand, fans of the baritone rumbling at which Gunn ex...
I was at this gig. Sat in the balcony, pretty much above Robert. Musically, this release is great. Lots of excitement at GAMH that night due to The Unknown and Intimacy: you could feel it in the room. This was the third gig I think, and I believe that not more than a small handful knew what to expect from this R&D effort. To me, the biggest success of the ProjeKcts was intimacy; small room, vibes feeding back and forth between band and audience. But this release has the character of a s...
I was at this gig. Sat in the balcony, pretty much above Robert. Musically, this release is great. Lots of excitement at GAMH that night due to The Unknown and Intimacy: you could feel it in the room. This was the third gig I think, and I believe that not more than a small handful knew what to expect from this R&D effort. To me, the biggest success of the ProjeKcts was intimacy; small room, vibes feeding back and forth between band and audience. But this release has the character of a studio recording - - the warmth of the room is gone. The charge of excitement from the The Unknown and Intimacy are just not here. The human element adds a lot when you’re dealing with completely electronic blings and slurs and bomps. Anyone in the hall would remember this: after Robert’s announcement and he was settled with guitar back onto his stool, a woman near the front row counted out "one, two, three, four -!" which made the audience laugh (it’s a small room, you couldn’t not hear her) and led Adrian to say "You heard the lady: one, two, three, four -" and then right into the VROOOM opening. It saddens me that the laughter and joy that brought in the moment was not included for posterity. I imagine it takes more work to mix in the audience, but I argue the effort would have been worth the reward.
