FraKctured - live performances - audient reports

9/11/00 - 9:30 Club, Washington

From Trey Gunn's diary at www.treygunn.com

November 9, 2000 9:30 Club, show #2 / Washington D.C.

Much better show. I would say that we were very good tonight. I had a great feeling about the audience and the performance even before the show. I withheld saying anything to the guys about my feeling. The last time I did that before the show as in Japan, and I was beaten down for trying to jinx the evening. I suppose they were right. One way of killing a potentially good show is to say, right before going on, "I think it's going to be good tonight!"

But, I had a good feeling and I was right. Adrian and I made up the set tonight. I really felt like playing Larks' first, so that was how we started. I knew that if we began with this piece then the intensity inside it would emerge. And it did! Then followed Light and into some of the Thrak material. We had a sprightly improv with Pat and I getting into a very cool groove over his Rhino Blastica drum kit. I have no memory of what we were playing, but it was a new groove and it was rocking.

Thrush was quite intriguing. There was this group of guys right in front of Robert who talked the whole way through the beginning of the piece. Non-stop yammer, yammer, yammering. It's was pretty unbelievable by any standards. But, for a King Crimson show, and the fact that this piece begins so delicately.... well, it was beyond comprehension.

So, right before Robert launched into the middle section of the piece where he takes a solo, we stopped. It was a natural stopping point for Pat and myself. We waited in anticipation for Robert's entrance, whereupon we would bash back in with our usual bravado. But, nothing. Robert didn't enter. It was dead quiet. (At least from the musicians. These guys in front were still talking as if no one was hearing them.) And then suddenly Robert spoke "I feel like we are interrupting your conversation." I wondered if that was going to be the end of the piece. He sat there for a moment or two in silence and then launched into the solo. Ah.... now we are getting into it. Very nice work, my friend. And the talkers had finally come to their senses.