A thousand or so Crimheads packed into the Taft not only had to cope not only with the heat of the Double Trio but a temperature up in the 90s in a theatre without any functioning air conditioning. That said, they were treated to a remarkably powerful show with ten of the twenty numbers performed from the recently released THRAK.
In their review of KC’s 11th studio album, the June edition of Rolling Stone noted, “The potential of King Crimson's renewal is most fully realized with the grinding close of "VROOOM VROOOM" and its coda, in which the band twists the themes of the opening piece into so much bent metal. It's the artful abandon of these final moments that bode best for the longevity of this egghead-banging outfit.” The version performed in the sweltering Cincinnati heat may come without the coda but more than compensates with its energy and door-rattling ferocity. Those elements can also be discerned in the drama of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part Two. Though they hail from two different eras in Crim-history there’s a musical continuity that sparks and flows between them. Another moment in the setlist that also connects the present and the past might be the Two Sticks, with Levin and Gunn’s ruminations on their respective instruments functioning as the stepping stone to Elephant Talk.
At the end of a truly blistering Vrooom and Coda, Adrian Belew says, “Well, thank you very much for making this a very special evening in Cincinnati that I shall never forget. As many of you probably know, I consider this my home town. I grew up here and I have a lot of very, very dear friends here. I’d like to say special thanks to them too. Goodnight,” and then the ensemble sign off with a transcendent Walking On Air.
