The second night of King Crimson’s first ever visit to Italy turns out to be an astonishingly powerful gig. If you ever doubted how formidable John Wetton was as a bassist you need only listen to this frenetic rendition of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic. After the cross-picking section there comes a storming blowing section in which Wetton holds forth between slashing chords from the guitarist, the pair of them passing the baton between each other as the piece rages toward the violin solo.
It’s Wetton once again who takes the lead in the improv coming out of Easy Money. Although Bruford’s percussive embellishments are somewhat lost to the boomy sonics of the venue Wetton’s string-popping outing is intensely rhythmic providing a focal point for the audience to latch onto. As the funk-flavoured blasts bed down with a Bruford groove, we can hear Fripp introducing the opening section of a motif that would eventually become Fracture. As it curls around the drums and bass like a spider spinning a web it feels like a case of the future reaching back into the present to pull the musicians forward. Fripp brings in another section of Fracture into this superb mix of pure improv and speculative sketches being knitted together in real time.
If that improv isn't enough to keep you on the edge of your seat then the one that comes out of Book Of Saturday features Cross and Wetton in a stately, elegiac mood that brings to mind the opening section of Starless. From there, things rapidly escalate into surging riptide of chordal soloing from Fripp and combative, driving playing from the Crimson Brick Wall aka Bruford and Wetton. Without a doubt, this is one of the best improvs by this quartet on a tour that produce so many breathtaking forays into collective playing.
