Rainbow

King Crimson
London
26 Oct 1973

Although their UK Autumn tour consisted of just six dates King Crimson were on stunning form as this great-sounding audience recording demonstrates.

Alongside the warmly-received Larks’ Tongues In Aspic material, including a truly blistering Part I, this concert also highlights tracks which would ultimately appear on their next release in 1974.

The Nightwatch, Lament, and Fracture, on which you’ll hear Bruford exclaim at almost precisely the same point he would eighteen gigs later at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, had been rolled out in America earlier in the month. It’s interesting to note how well bedded-in the renditions at The Rainbow are, each exuding a devil-may-care insouciance in places.

It’s evident just from Fripp’s two classic announcements during the show just how the band is enjoying themselves as the guitarist drolly lampoons recent live reviews from the press in one, and threatens to demonstrate the band’s new dance move that goes by the name of The Mince in the other. The download is almost worth grabbing just for these alone!

The improvisations tonight variously return to some of the motifs of We’ll Let You Know from Glasgow just three nights previously and there’s a relatively rare outing for Bill Bruford’s drum machine which supplies the groove to a very satisfying quartet rock-out.

Contemporary reaction to the concert suggests that the band were let down by the muddy acoustics of the venue but this particular taper struck lucky, capturing an especially powerful performance by the Crims.


Good sound, good show
Written by Gabriel Colucci
Good sounding show for an audience recording. The band were definitely having fun throughout. Hig...
Written by Gabriel Colucci
Wow! Thank you very much.
Written by Jerry Smith
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I've listened to this show quite a few times since it first went up three or four weeks ago.
Written by Jerry Smith
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"Great Sound" must be taken in context...
Written by William Jenks
This is a very good performance and one definitely worth hearing for fans of this group and those wh...
Written by William Jenks
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