FraKctured - live performances - audient reports
Saturday May 20th, 2000 - Nashville Warm-up Shows (#2 of 4) prior to Euro Tour
Not being totally familiar with FraKctured (TCOL had not been released yet in the States),
I was looking especially forward to this piece as I had really enjoyed Fracture in the
past.
Everything was going great during Crimson's FraKctured, until the piece....well.... it
fraKctured. This happened JUST before Fripp goes into the blazing guitar solo
section. The whole band came to a halt and they were all looking at Fripp.
Fripp announces to us, "Excuse me, while I reboot" Apparently Fripp's gear
locked up and the foot pedal did not switch effects. Well of course this moment of
pause in the performance left the audience open to deliver some good natured heckling as
Fripp rebooted his "space module." I remember someone yelling
"Windows!!" as someone else yelled, "Fripp get a Mac" In which case
everyone had a good laugh. Also an audience member was kind enough to wish Fripp
Happy birthday in which we all clapped (Fripp celebrated a birthday just days ago).
As the band was about to start again, someone yelled, "Start over" and
Fripp stood and said something like, "I challenge that gentleman to get up here and
play." We laughed. Soon after that, Ade counted off and the band took off
from where they left off.
Knew
what to expect from last night, but an impressive train wreck made it a real
memory. Just before the first distortion section, Fripp pressed the wrong button
and went into his soundscapes rack instead of his guitar setup. It soon ended.
Fripp said something about how you can't win them all, and called the piece
off. It was the first time I had ever witnessed, or even heard of, a Crimson
clam.
Cameron
Devlin
From Trey Gunn's Diary
May 20, 2000 -- Nashville, TN / 12th and Porter
A fun night. We had some fantastic clams, and some joyous recoveries. Robert's gear completely broke down during FraKCtured, so we stopped! Hey, why not. He got it all fixed and then we shot into it right from where we left off. It was, actually, quite wonderful.
People seemed to genuinely enjoy the music. What a surprise for a new KC tour! Usually Crimson's music is met with a lot of whining at the beginning of a tour. And there is certainly many points for anyone to whine about should audiences choose to do so: no Bill, no Tony, no acoustic drums, too many instrumentals, not enough instrumentals, too many songs, not enough songs, no Ian, too many solos, not enough solos, electronic drums... crap... and on and on it goes.
However, people really liked us. There were even some folks singing along with the new material. And it hasn't even been released yet! I have to say that I am completely amazed at the attentiveness of these audients. I look out and see people really listening. I mean, after an hour and a half of this band, and THEN we launch into Larks' IV. What an aural challenge.