“Everybody comfortable and ready to go?” asks Adrian after the band delivered a piledriving Thela and Red on their second night in Houston. Vrooom Vrooom is a ravaging beast let off the leash whilst once again Bill and Pat whip up a terrific tornado on B’Boom before we head off into an intriguing Thrak. Here, after long sections where Ade, Trey and Fripp in particular do their best to strip the paint of the walls of the hall, the entire band adopts the now legendary KC “admirable restraint” mode. It’s hard to know if the band is waiting for the leather-lunged punters to adopt similar circumspection or if they were waiting to see who amongst them would blink first, but for the best part of one minute their instruments fall entirely silent. When they do come back in it’s with a pounding brutal force. The band evidently loved it: Fripp can be heard Yo-ing his appreciation whilst Ade off-mic laughs something about incorporating a certain John Cage into the piece. Neurotica has the edge ahead of the previous evening’s version though the wordplay required during SESDD gets the better of Ade in the second verse. All told, this is the sound of King Crimson having fun.
