ONE MORE RED NIGHT: LIVE IN CHICAGO (WITH JOHN WETTON)

DISTRICT 97 is a young American band that has been praised by one or two musicians from the King Crimson camp, or so I've heard. This live album was my first acquaintance with the band. I certainly would have preferred it to be with their own material. The set is completely devoted to the songs of KING CRIMSON (the John Wetton era, plus '21st Century Schizoid Man' originating from the 1969 debut) and the vocals are by Wetton himself, so... For starters, there's no use of searching any notably new point of view to these classic prog songs, even if the band's own female vocalist Leslie Hunt can be heard a little, too. Too little.

The skillful musicians of District 97 do their job extremely well and very faithfully to the originals. Only in 'Starless' I miss the mighty Mellotron sound (there's a little hollow synth backing instead), and that song is somewhat watered down here also due to the abridged song version. Wetton is in good shape though.

I'm satisfied with 'The Night Watch' and 'Book of Saturday', two of my Wetton era Crimso favourites besides 'Starless'. And with 9 songs I suppose the song output of the era is being covered almost completely -- there aren't any instrumentals. But frankly, to me this kind of a CD is hardly nothing else than a curiosity, quite useless in practice. OK, now I know this band is an excellent cover act of King Crimson material. Apparently too blinded by the respect for both Wetton and the music, to bring their own material /personality /individuality as a group to the set. If it was a DVD it would be another case, much more justified as a release.