LIVE IN BERKELEY, CA 1982

I make no effort to hide the fact that the eighties lineup of King Crimson has displaced the Boz Burrell/Ian Wallace/Mel Collins lineup as my least favorite of this band. Their material for the most part, although occasionally interesting, usually leaves me flat. The live performances are mostly cookie cutter performances, any one can be interchanged with the others. This recording is an exception. The band appears to be very up for the performance. Even the ususally mechanical Robert Fripp plays above and beyond his normally stoic precision.

The set list is one of the better I've heard from this grouping. The only song on it that I don't care for is Neal And Jack And Me. And even that, with the intensity of the ban, is not bad. Red is particularly good. Fripp and Belew use a different guitar sound on this than normal, giving it a more icy sound. And it works well.

A couple of songs, especially Waiting Man, are drawn out a little too long, but I can deal with that. And this has one of the best versions of Elephant Talk that I've ever heard.

This is one of the few live recordings of this band that I would highly recommend.