FANTASTICO - FRIPP & THE LOCG IN ROME
Posted by Sid Smith on Jun 25, 2006 - This post is archived and may no longer be relevant

Thanks to Baldrick for sending in this account of Robert and the LoCG in Rome on 20th June.

This was an incredible gig which seemed all the better for the fact that I almost didn’t get to it.

I’d arranged to visit Rome for about a week with a friend of mine.  A couple of weeks after  we booked our holiday I discovered that Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists were doing a show at the Parco Della Musica.  I then had two problems - persuading my friend to come to the gig with me and finding the venue.  (My Italian is rather limited so I was a bit apprehensive about my ability to explaining to a Taxi driver or Bus Driver where I wanted to go).

In the end I obviously did get there though my friend, worn out by the Italian heat decided not to go.  (Tragic because I think she would have thoroughly enjoyed the gig but all credit to her for almost pushing me out the door in her efforts to encourage me to go).

The concert itself was fantastic.  It started at about 9.05 pm with about twenty minutes of soundscapes from Robert Fripp.  The League then came on and did a joint soundscape and guitar craft performance with Robert. Robert then departed leaving them to play a number of short acoustic pieces..  They then departed leaving Fripp to play maybe fifteen or so minutes of soundscapes before they joined Robert again when they all played on stage together for the remainder of the gig.

My initial impressions of the concert are that the soundscapes stuff sounded excellent as did the pieces played by the League on their own.  However, some of the earlier joint soundscape and acoustic guitar pieces didn’t sound fully integrated to me.  Whether this was a sound balance issue or the fact that soundscapes with the League is a relatively new departure fro Robert I’m not sure.  The degree of integration between these two elements seemed to get better and better as the concert progressed.

I’m not so familiar with Robert’s soundcapes repertoire or the work of the League that I knew all the pieces by their titles but I did recognise a fair number of things that were played including what for me was the high point of the gig Lark’s Thrak.  Watching 10 guitarists all hammering away at the basic theme to Thrak was incredible and it reached new heights when Fripp started to do some of his trademark lead guitar playing.

The first encore was Vrooom which sounded great played with the League.  After much cheering the League and Fripp came back and played a piece on unamplified guitars to rapturous applause.  All in all a fantastic gig and and unexpected bonus for me since I wasn’t even sure I was going to get to the gig at the start of the day.

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