I’m not ashamed to say that when Thrak hit the retailers in 1995 and I purchased my copy I didn’t buy in to what I was hearing. Sometimes what we are seeking internally, perhaps even spiritually is not aligned with what we are hearing... or think we are hearing. At that point I pretty much hopped off the Crimso interstellar bus and, to coin a certain musical fellow’s term, "moved on". I still had tremendous respect for the driver but didn’t want to see the places he was driving through. Fast foward about 16 years - has it really been that long? I saw a copy of The Collectable King Crimson Vol 3 "Live at Shepherd’s Bush" in Fry’s Electronics here in Indianapolis and couldn’t resist having another go. Time does things to people and all I can say is wow. Wow Wow WOW! If I had to describe this in a single sentence I would say it sounds like Steve Reich meets Igor Stravinsky with 10,000 watts behind them - and that comments does this little justice. This show is taken directly from the band’s console and though you can hear the occasional ’moron in the audience’ the sound is wonderful. Without a doubt the most intense live recording I have ever heard. It’s like Zappa on steriods. This music definitely has eyebrows! The rhythms are hypnotic and the playing seems humanly impossible in places. What an amazing band this was. Shepherd’s Bush Empire sounds like Heaven and Hell unleashed. In places the music is incredibly barbaric and then suddenly it is achingly beautiful - but not for long, we are quickly plunged back into the sound of fire and brimstone. Sorry I couldn’t support the KCCC at the time but very pleased I was able to obtain a copy of this CD. Five Stars, absolutely.

Great care has been taken to do the mixing of this download version. Here you don’t get the volume drop you do get on the DVD version after the 2 track TCoL.Perhaps since this gig was originally released as a double-DVD along with the more ’fancy’, multi-angled -footage which also included the then new material from the more successful The Power to Believe- Tokyo 2003 DVD, this 2000 London gig, I think, has always been somewhat underrated. I’ve always preferred the more intimate Shepherds Bush gig, both performance wise and visually - that was indeed great ’Bootleg TV’.Thank you for this downloadAnother very ’intimate’ London performance I’d like to see released would be the 12th September, 1982 at the Hammersmith Palais