VROOOM VROOOM

This double live album was recorded in the double trio format in 1995, and focuses on material from their most recent album at the time, Thrak. It also gives a decent overview of the rest of the career, and the material from Thrak is interspersed with songs from other eras, improv, and a Beatles cover. Quite the variety of tunes, delivered with an intensity only a band like King Crimson can deliver live. As much as I love their studio output, this album shows Crimson at their most intense, and the double trio lineup just makes it more powerful. The first disc was recorded in Mexico City, and starts off with several tracks from Thrak. They then play some older material, included the excellent instrumental songs Red and Lark's Tongues in Aspic, Part II, then an improv entitled Biker Babes of the Rio Grande, before launching into the classic 21st Century Schizoid Man, played at a higher speed, the exact opposite of what they did on Earthbound when they played it extremely slowly. The second disc again focuses on Thrak, and the highlight for me is Three of a Perfect Pair, taken from the album of the same name. The rendition here is excellent, as are all the songs. Overall, this is a great Crimson live release, and is of much better sound quality than Earthbound, the only other live one I have heard from them. Recommended if you like the later era of King Crimson, as they tend to focus on that.