At the start of the month King Crimson had finished the European leg in London. 23 days later we hear Belew say “Good evening. Welcome to the very first night of our American tour. Thank you for coming out.” Following a raging performance of Red in which Tony Levin explores the bass as a lead instrument, Belew, commenting on the extremely enthusiastic reaction of the good folks of Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Cafe comments, “You guys are a little revved up ain'tcha?” They’ve good reason to be. This show feels like the sextet have missed the cut and thrust of the stage and have hit the ground running.
Bruford in particular seems on playful form throughout the show and particularly during THRAK. Speaking to Modern Drummer in 1996 Bill offered this perspective on the partnership with Pat Mastelotto. “The challenge and the excitement of two drummers is that you can do things that you just couldn't do with one drummer. You can go much further out with the beat, with the grooves. I can do polymetric stuff against Pat, I'm free to explore the uglier side of sonic choice - anything for the extreme. Had I done these types of things on my own in the past, the entire house of cards would have collapsed. So Pat is both a limitation and a liberation, which is really nice.” After a fractious THRAK Belew quips, “Anybody hurt? I hear you guys like this stuff.” Indeed they do.
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