VROOOM VROOOM

This is quite a good live, and a powerful one. We find on this album songs coming from each part of king crimson's career. And in very good versions. neurotica, for example, is just... wonderful !! Schizoid man is much better here than in "USA". Elephant talk is great too... so... lots of good surprises, I think.

Of all the King Crimson live albumns, this is probably the best, both techniqually and musically. Theres not a bad song played, as you would expect from a KC albumn, and all the songs are given a new breath of life in their live recordings. The plus points here are probably 'Elephant talk' and 'Neurotica'. Disappointment though, as nothing of 'The ConstruKtion of light' is played, or, for that matter, many of the earlier albumns. I would have liked to have seen 'Epitaph', or 'The night watch' played, but the collection of songs here all make up a great live concert, and i would recomend it to anyone who is a fan of live work.

For a band which released only one studio album (Thrak) , there's an awful lot of material by the double trio available, especially if you count the ProjeKcts. This double set gives a good selection of live versions of 90s material, updated versions of older material, some improv and a cover version thrown in for good measure. King Crimson has always come alive on stage, and these 2 discs show just how powerful they can be when they're firing on all cylinders.

The two discs were recorded during concerts in Mexico City (disc 1) and New York (disc 2). Somewhat confusingly disc 1 was recorded 9 months after disc 2, which means that the band sounds slightly less polished on disc 2 if you listen to them in order. Although they were drawing on the same repertoire for these shows, only one piece (THRAK) crops up twice.

Disc 1 sees the mighty Crim beast launch a non stop, no holds barred assault on their audience, 60 minutes of the kind of high intensity few other bands can deliver. The first five selections come from Thrak, including a storming version of Dinosaur with Belew in fine voice. This is followed by a blast from the past as they give us The Talking Drum and LTIA II, with Bruford and Mastelotto almost matching the Muir/Bruford partnership for manic interplay. Neurotica is another bravura vocal from Belew, a white knuckle ride on a piledriving rhythm that constantly threatens to fall apart but somehow holds together. Two other oldies get the double trio makeover; Red, which sounds a bit messy compared to the version on Absent Lovers, and a nu-metal reworking of 21st Century Schizoid Man which works surprisingly well once you get over the initial shock.

Disc 2 is a slightly looser affair which draws mainly on Thrak and the 80s albums. The 80s material is reworked by the expanded line up to great effect, especially Elephant Talk which gives Gunn and Levin an opportunity to trade licks at lightning speed. Indiscipline shows the bands mastery of wildly fluctuating dynamics and stop/start rhythms, while the gentler songs show that the double trio was also capable of great subtlety and restraint, particularly the the closer, Walking on Air. An unexpected surprise is a cover version of the Beatles Free as a Bird, which was released at the time of these concerts. Belew does a remarkably fine job as a Lennon impersonator, and you can hear the band and audience audibly cracking smiles during this performance.

Vroom Vroom is a great Crimson live album which sits well alongside The Night Watch and Absent Lovers, although of the three it is probably the least essential. It gives a good overview of a remarkable band in full flight.

Considered the infinite quantity of KC live recordings, available in the stores, this album is a great choice, for sure. The double disc- album Vrooom Vrooom let you witness to two excellent KC gigs, the songs are powerful, the perfomances are really impressive; Most of the songs contained in this work is from the 90's period, but also from the first albums from the Belew era. The most impressive thing, as I said before, is the quality of the perfomances, "Dinosaur" , "Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream", "Indiscipline", "Vroom", "Three Of A Perfect Pair" are INCREDIBLE, but that's not all, in fact on the second disc you'll get the best live performance ever of "Elephant Talk". Very nice the "Beatles/Lennon Tribute" in the end of it, when Belew sings "Free As A Bird" in front of a smiling audience, surprised of it. Vrooom Vrooom moreover shows you the incredible harmony among the band members, which reflects in a series of perfectly played songs and instrumental tracks : "THRAK", "21st Century Schizoid Man" and so on... A very good album, one of the finest KC live Releases.

4 stars.

I wish i had attended!

But sadly 11 years ago i did not know what King Crimson was, nor progressive rock, none of my relatives was familiar with that term so the attendance to the KC concert in Mexico City was imopssible for me, i have had the luck of seeing them twice, in 2001 and 2003, both memorable performances but without Levin and Bruford, of course that 1996 lineup featured the double trio, and i really wish i had seen that line up.

I will do a short review, King Crimson is a band that dont need to be introduced, we all know what we are talking about, and listening, this double album called Vroom Vroom features 2CD, the first one taken from the concert here in Mexico City, and the second taken from one in New York City, what you will listen here is mainly a bunch of 90`s songs (THRAK) with the double trio lineup of course, some 80`s moments (Discipline) and actually a few 70`s songs (Red, Talking Drum)

The first album contains 11 songs performed in one exciting hour, i would have loved to be part of that crowd, because the performance is great, very powerful and full of excellen music, the first 5 tracks are from THRAK, something normal since that was the recently released album in that time, 4 out of those 5 tracks are instrumental with some improvs as usual,let me say that these songs are great instrumentals, but returning to the point, only "Dinosaur" contains Belew`s vocals, after that bunch, yes, what the older fans expected, a performance of The Talking Drum and Larks Tongues in Aspic Pt. 2 as well, of course it is not fare to compare the original versions with the original musicians, but believe me that they played it excellent. After that, the album returns to a more "modern" era when they play "Neurotica" and "Prism", if you were tired, these songs probably will make you raise, but wait, the following song is "Red", i am sure that song is one of the favorites of Mexican people, and why not of people around the world, superb performance. To finish this CD1, an improvisation, and then 21st Century Schizoid Man, of course with a new style which has nothing to do with the original version, but its a great interpretation after all, so this album has finished but its not enough, we wan more KC, and we will have it.

So, the second album Live From New York contains 14 songs, the tracklist is not the same but the performance is kind of similar since here they played again some songs from the "THRAK" album, but the difference is that here we can enjoy some 80`s great songs (well at least for me) such as "Frame by Frame", "Indiscipline" and "Three of a Perfect Pair", having as an extra point, the "two stick" solos by Trey Gunn and Tony Levin, (this two sticks can be viewed also in the Deja Vroom DVD which is outstanding) and this leads to "Elephant Talk" great moment! This album does not contain any 70s song and in my opinion this is less enjoyable than the first one, despite it ends with "Walking on Air" which is one of my favorite songs.

This 2-concert album is a worth listening like the majority of Crimson ones, however it is not essential, my final grade is 3.8. stars, so 4.

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.

A two-CD album offering edited highlights of the Double Trio's Mexico City and New York shows in 1996 and 1995 respectively. If you already have the THRAK boxed set this will be a bit redundant, since the New York THRAK and AzteKc THRAK 2CD sets in there provide complete setlists from New York and Mexico City, and if you have the On Broadway 2CD set you already have the New York portion of this, but otherwise it's about as good a live document of the double trio lineup as you are likely to find. Sit back and watch as the 1990s King Crimson revs up and accelerates off into the sunset; after this, you have the mysterious realm of the ProjeKcts before the new ConstruKction of Light lineup coalesced in 2000.