This concert was originally released on CD as KCCC 36 and it’s another high-energy performance by the band. The Great Deceiver is almost brutal as it ploughs open the evening. Wetton’s bass really is more akin to a baritone lead guitar in his hands particularly in the first improv, a prelude to a riotous Dr. Diamond.
The second improv is a superb example of the back-line leading from the front; ever-eager to get off the starting blocks, Bruford kicks off a fusillade of percussive battering with everyone else in caught in the tailwind. Though undermixed here, Cross’s violin is wonderfully effective adding a light and dextrous melodic content to the bluster and braggadocio.
You can hear Wetton’s appreciative groans between the second and third verses of a majestic Starless. When they go into the ominous bass section Bruford similarly enjoys himself, detonating all kinds of rhythmic bombs about the place prior to the jazz-rock work out wherein Cross’s solo whips up a micro-storm all of its own. The third improv is a lovely pastoral interlude with Fripp’s introspective chords and Cross’s elegiac melody. Short but quietly stunning in its own way. Easy Money begins in the usual way but the funk-driven shuffle with Fripp’s chordal picking in the instrumental section is remarkably effective punctuated as it is with Wetton’s jabs and Bruford’s tireless hi-hat. This section alone is worth the price of admission.
