King Crimson - 1984-06-21 Milwaukee, WI (2-13)

“Hello! How was dinner?” Belew wryly enquires after blowing the doors out of the place with the barrage of Entry Of The Crims and an especially forceful LTIA 3 which has occasionally sounded a little unsteady on this tour. The sound on this audience recording is a little ragged in places but not at all muddy, allowing us to get a sense of what went down in Wisconsin. “We have some more of that weird kind of stuff if you like it” adds Belew at the end of an especially gothic reading of Industry which sounds like a tour through a horror house factory as opposed to a more traditional industrial setting. At the more conventional end of the repertoire Waiting Man possesses the sprightly energy that sounds like it was channeling Talking Heads’ I Zimbra. “We have some other things to play from our very yellow third album” quips Belew before launching into Man With An Open Heart, “we made it folks, three albums. Amazing!” This last comment only hints at the internal politics and personal difficulties which would bring this incarnation of Crimson to a halt after another 14 shows. Nevertheless, there’s a tremendous vigour to this show.