King Crimson - 1981-10-14 Cologne, DE (2006)

It’s a newly rechristened King Crimson just eight gigs into their European tour and a brand new album under their belt that are ushered onstage to a fanfare of Frippertronics.[endtease] With the album, Discipline, having been released the previous month, this audience recording shows they get a rapturous reception as the boys in the band start joyfully tearing the place apart.

Frame By Frame is especially ferocious, and devotees of The Sheltering Sky will be pleased that not only is Fripp most definitely 'on', he also adds a spooky line or two on the Roland keyboard. Also of interest is an early arrangement of Neil and Jack and Me still in a state of flux and nearly being ahem, fluxed up entirely in places. Having emerged out of the first writing sessions in April that year it still has a way to go before settling down. Briefly unleashed from the structured material, Bruford lets rip on an improvised intro to the encore, Thela. When Fripp joins in, it sounds like a precursor to Requiem – a small but dazzling vignette of astonishing power. Though marred in places by some tuning problems this shows just how formidable KC ‘81 really was.