FraKctured - live performances - audient report

27 & 28/10/00 - Gothic Theater, Englewood, CO

October 28, 29, 2000

On arrival, I began wondering which limb I should be attentive to; GMT right
foot or Mountain Standard right hand? Arrived at DIA and drove directly to
Englewood for the Crimson show. Met Amy & Alexa and friends for yet another
Thai dinner. Dave C rose with a start when he realized that he'd forgotten
his Crimson tickets at home and had to go 1 hour round trip to get them. No
dinner for Dave!

At the show, met EC and Bill J. Had a few pints of Guiness. Great show (read
about it in ET, not here.) From where we sat (balcony, stage left) we were
looking down Robert's guitar neck. It was enlightening to see just how far
(or not so) he comes off the strings and how relaxed his forearm is, even
when burning songs like Frakctured or LTiA4. Also learned a bit about the
right hand. But I didn't spend my night looking solely at Robert's hands. The
whole band was ON and the crowd responded. My friend Josh decided to go to
the show last minute. I slept blissfully on his rollabed after being awake
for over 24 hours.

Woke Saturday at 9AM. Immediate shower, no sitting. Yakked with Josh & family
then off to the GCCO Circle. Triple dry skinny cap on the way (Peaberry! Kill
Starbucks) was heaven!

The circle was very enjoyable with 2 new guitarists; Steve from Boulder,
classically trained, and Ken, from Albuquerque, who attended the L1 in New
Jersey. I was very uncomfortable, as I was the most experienced, but am not
qualified to teach. I found an analogy on a billboard in Denver on the way to
the circle. It was for English as a Second Language classes. I speak English,
but am not qualified to teach it. However, necessity dictated that Steven be
"taught" the 1st & 2nd primaries, as well as right and left hand technique.
Honoring necessity, I said what I must, and only that. After circulation,
primaries, and some work on One of a Thousand Regrets, Ken left and we began
interval work with Steve, which was enlightening and enjoyable all at once. I
think Steve thought so too.

Then off to the 2nd Hand CD stores (bought Liquid Tension Experiment, Young
Lions, The Persuasions' Acapella Tribute to Zappa, LOOP, and A Night at the
Opera (save your comments)). Fine cuisine at Taco Bell to go, then queue for
the show. Met up with Jon & Bonnie and the Krimson News crew and snuck in to
line with them (they were very early!). Mad dash to get seats in Balcony,
stage right to see Fripp head on. EC and the KGNU clan showed up later, as
did Bill Janssen & spouse.

Another fine show, but with some technical bloopers by Adrian. Though I
thought it seemed to affect the show, Pat M told me later that Adrian thought
tonight was better than Friday. It shows how subjective musical performance
is. I recalled that at my L1 in Seattle Tom Redmond taught a class called
Theree Mistake....And how to Find It! where the idea was to catch
yourself at the point where you are making a mistake and to recognize it, but
not let it affect your later playing (shortening your life, as it was
called). Fripp's solo in Frakctured tonight was transcendent.

Spoke with Pat & Trey after the show, sensitive again to just how big a gap
there is between the performer and audience. What do you have in common? A
show years ago? "Great show!"? What's that funky machine you've got that
makes this sound? Vampiric or not, it's not particularly useful for either
side. I asked about the possibility for a Colorado Mastica tour, but it
doesn't look hopeful. At one point, one fan exiting the venue stopped and
mumbled something to Pat. I SWEAR I heard him call Pat "Bill". Yeesh!

From the diaries of Mark J.

 

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

October 27, 2000 -- The Gothic Theater / Denver, CO

on the speakers: "Kid A", Radiohead

on the bookshelf: "The Tale of the Unknown Island" Jose Saramago

Well there is nothing gothic about this place. Take me to Detroit and I'll show you gothic.

This was, in my opinion, the best played show of this band. We began with The ConstruKCtion of Light, followed by Larks', ProzaKc and FraKctured. Wow, what an opening! I could feel that we were very together from the first note. Larks' was a powerhouse.

Things got a little bogged down during the ProjeKct segment, but we did take a new approach tonight. And that was to have no plan at all. We also allowed ourselves to not necessarily hit a 'groove'. Letting things shift and change as they will. And they did. We went through many different segments and colors tonight. I think I preferred it to the improvs where we hit a pocket and then can't really go anywhere from there. Sometimes it works. Like when Robert or Adrian jump in and are on fire with a crazy solo. But, this doesn't happen every night. I think we are moving somewhere new here.

And the audience? They were awesome. Denver has been consistently one of the best places for "KC enthusiasm." On every one of our tours in the US in the 90s, we always played two nights in Denver. The crowd tonight was very much with us. We had the shouters , of course, but they were eventually silenced. Thrush seems to always take care of that. In the beginning of the piece, while it is very quiet (and I mean very, very quiet... Robert's hovering strings are just barely audible,) there are always a lot of shouts. "Play this, play that." "Robert, I love you." "Have you ever heard of John Wetton?" and more. But by minute number three, there is quiet. And by minute number six, there is real stillness. And by minute number nine? Well, sometimes there is the most amazing silence.

Anyway, tonight the audience was great. Good work Denver! Looking forward to tomorrow night.

When we went out to play the last encore (Vrooom and Dinosaur) I looked over in front of Robert, and there was Death standing there. He wasn't grinning, either. He was just standing there looking up at us.

This new Radiohead album has the sweetest mix of sadness and hope. I just can't take it off my speakers.

October 28, 2000 -- The Gothic Theater, show #2 / Denver, CO

Very strong show. A power set starting with Larks'. A true 'no prisoners' set.

Too tired to write anymore.