San Diego was the last of nine dates Crimso played opening for Tool and it catches them on dazzling form. The gigs were part of a wider KC roadtrip which took in a total of 21 concerts as the band tried and tested material for what would eventually become The Power To Believe.
Transfered directly from the multi-track ADAT tapes, and mixed by Alex “Stormy” Mundy, this truncated set acts as a first class introduction to King Crimson, which of course, for the many fans of Tool who made up the audience, is exactly what it was.
The swiping violence of the chokes on Level Five can make even the most battle-weary KC-vet stand back in wide-eyed admiration and this rendition of Deception of the Thrush captures both sides to Crimson’s musical personality, veering as it does between the terrifying and the transcendent.
The interlocking sections of TCOL are delivered with the kind of full-blooded passion that reminds us how tight a unit the Double Duo could be, whilst a truly knockout LTIA4 has a savage reading of the fast lines from Fripp and a classic squerning wern-fest Belew solo at the end.
A highly-charged gig where the team blow the doors off the venue with a tight uncompromising set in which even the older material sounds fresh out of the writing room. This is also the concert where during the second portion of Red, the team are joined by Tool drummer Danny Carey, who slips behind Pat’s kit to give it some thumping goodness.
One word describes this gig: Essential.
