EYES WIDE OPEN

The music may be top-notch, but this concert DVD did little to convince me that I ever need to see Crimson live. Fripp sits like a shy, introspective British house-gnome tucked behind his expansive sound equipment tinkering magnificently but seemingly emotionlessly with his myriad bells and whistles. The others aren't much better! Trey Gunn stands rooted in place robotically while the bearded, un-photogenic Mastelotto slouches horribly as he hammers at the drums angrily. Only Belew shows any charisma... but it's almost embarrassing. He swaggers about in a v-necked undershirt (un-tucked) and canvas Dockers looking like someone's drunk uncle at a holiday party. Save yourself the disappointment and just go buy the band's three excellent studio albums instead (you won't be able to tell the difference between them and this live performance anyway!).