King Crimson’s first night of their first North American tour of 1982 finds the band in very good form in this rather trebly and occasionally brittle-sounding audience recording. In addition to playing all of the Discipline album, though not necessarily in the same running order as it appears on the record, the team run some new numbers past the very appreciative and volubly excited audience.
While Neurotica (or Manhattan as it was then known) and Neal And Jack And Me had been in the setlist during 1981’s tour, Absent Lovers was brand new, and, as Adrian’s announcement makes clear, it received its debut live performance in Ohio. While some renditions can sound a little tentative in places not so here at the Angora. The band pursues it with a fiery vigour and in the fast section an almost punkish fervour, possibly due to first night ‘nerves.’
Although it's difficult to hear clearly, the chordal swells that rise up from under the fast-moving coda section sound like they emanate from Robert’s Roland keyboard. Good to have such an energetic take on a number that ultimately got away from the band by the time it came to lay it down in the studio during the making of Beat later in the year.
