Prior to this concert, it had been seven months since the Double Trio had last assembled before an audience in Argentina. The first gig of any tour is always a slightly fraught affair; anything that can go wrong probably will. Gear will futz, fingers and feet will lie to their owners and the sound could well be unsound as the entire crew get to grips with the task of presenting nearly two hours of challenging music.
Understandably perhaps then, this version of Discipline is not an assertive statement but more a gentle easing in, marking out their territory. A slow burning version of Vrooom sounds more confident, especially on the remorseless spiraling coda, though like Frame By Frame which follows, is not without the occasional wobble.
The band audibly settle into the gig on Dinosaur and you can hear them really enjoying a high-rolling Red, and the mutant-free-form jazz sextet reading of Thrak. People represents something of a “rock out” moment which is no bad thing; Belew’s splendidly squerning solo is especially tasty. Trey Gunn’s spectral notes are a highlight of a driving Talking Drum, and the band really get their collective teeth into LTIA big time.
Overall verdict: a band in the process of arriving but not quite all at the same time.
Prior to this concert, it had been seven months since the Double Trio had last assembled before an audience in Argentina. The first gig of any tour is always a slightly fraught affair; anything that can go wrong probably will. Gear will futz, fingers and feet will lie to their owners and the sound could well be unsound as the entire crew get to gri...
There’s a different set of rewards in listening to a run of shows rather than just one; smaller victories emerge among the larger triumphs, and we come a little closer to hearing the overall presentation more the way the performers do: a conglomerative work-in-progress, a continuing stream from one evening to the next.Since DGM so kindly offered fourteen May 1995 dates for less than the price of five (!), I regard this opening show to be in essence an appetizer which prepares us for the rest. ...
There’s a different set of rewards in listening to a run of shows rather than just one; smaller victories emerge among the larger triumphs, and we come a little closer to hearing the overall presentation more the way the performers do: a conglomerative work-in-progress, a continuing stream from one evening to the next.Since DGM so kindly offered fourteen May 1995 dates for less than the price of five (!), I regard this opening show to be in essence an appetizer which prepares us for the rest. Sound is full & clean, with the audience heard only between numbers; the mix sometimes favors Adrian’s guitar rather more than ideally, and the drums deserve more. Wobbly & even missed moments abound as late as the encore, yet the band has fire -- and the mix reveals textural things not easily noticed elsewhere. Little gems here & there: the end of "Thrak" evokes the later ProjeKcts, Fripp’s solo lights up "Matte Kudasai", the transition from "Prism" to "The Talking Drum", the intro to "Heartbeat" sounding like the intro to "Cirkus" ... If the final denouement of "Indiscipline" can’t peel paint, then I suspect nothing can.Warning: besides the overbearing synth washes in "Sleepless", Fripp could almost always be louder, which I suspect to be a deal-breaker for many. But what do you want for (in essence) free? I very much look forward to the thirteen shows to follow; I can’t imagine my neighbors have heard enough with just this one show :)3.5 stars really, with an extra half star for Adrian’s solo on LTIA2
