There’s a Guitar Craft aphorism that goes “Begin with the possible and move gradually towards the impossible.” However, every night of the tour King Crimson disregard this advice and get into the show proper with The Construction of Light. Like a mountain demanding to climbed it looms before everything else on the KC setlist.
The complexities of the piece and the demands it places upon those called to perform it are considerable and on the tour so far it has exerted an exacting price on anyone whose concentration or fingers experience a momentary lapse. On a nightly basis, the band tackle the seemingly impossible and come off slightly worse for wear before going to the possible.
On their first live date in New York for five years Crimson sound like they are getting acclimatised to gigging again. There’s a discernible improved fluency that comes from having sharpened things up since Nashville, Chicago and Philadelphia. Proof of this comes with the incredibly powerful reading of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part II. From the extended screech through to some furious double drumming and superb percussive embellishments from an energised Mastelotto it feels and sounds like King Crimson 2008 starts here. Frame By Frame, Level Five and a stunningly on-point drum duet after Indiscipline marks this concert as a particular highlight.
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