On the road P2 were busily threading together the compositional strands that had emerged at King Crimson’s ill-fated Nashville Sessions in 1997.[endtease] Whereas that had ended in a creative and personal stalemate, P2 was an altogether more joyful proposition. Had you been lucky enough to see P2 in action, you couldn’t help but notice how happy and excited all three musicians were to be together on stage.
Although Fripp and Gunn continually dazzle with their laser-guided salvos, it’s Belew behind his array of V-drums who often sets the tone for what’s to come, challenging his bandmates. Almost mischievously Belew sets off at a dizzying tempo on Contrary ConstrucKtion. After the main theme, Fripp and Gunn pause, smiling at each other as if to say “what the hell do we do with this?” What they do of course is rip it up and that’s exactly what’s needed.
Not all of it works – how could it?. Fripp and Gunn can be heard grasping for a line now and then – Light ConstruKction plods to no great effect and in the second set, House II proves hard to nail after the oblique and cautious Vector Shift. But hey, this is work in progress. Freed from the restrictions of repertoire they take liberties, kick back and have fun in a way that we hadn’t seen when these players were in the confines of the Double Trio.
Sadly none of Adrian’s solo spot between sets was recorded although his splendid rendition of Dinosaur has been preserved for posterity.
