Venue: Edinburgh Liquid Rooms          Date: 22nd September, 2002

Set list: Pictures of a City, Cat Food, Let There Be Light, Progress, In The Court of the Crimson King, Formentera Lady, Tomorrow's People, If I Was, Ladies of the Road, I Talk To The Wind, Epitaph. Encore: 21st Century Schizoid Man.

While I think we'd all acknowledge that King Crimson were one of the great pioneers of progressive rock in the early 70s, they're not a band I've particularly warmed to beyond their defining moment with the debut album 'In The Court of the Crimson King', and I've not kept pace with their progress since 1981's 'Discipline' album. But my curiosity was aroused when I heard that the original line-up of the band, minus guitarist Robert Fripp, was getting together to play some live dates.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting this to be much of a gig, given minimal local advertising and the low profile of Crimson in general, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a good turnout on the night and, not for the first time, I was left wishing that more bands would play this town, because there clearly is a local demand for live prog if the reaction of tonight's audience is anything to go by...

The band opened with 'Pictures of a City', and immediately I was struck by the sound of not one, but two saxophone players (makes a change from dual guitars!), as Mel Collins and Ian McDonald let rip on the main melody. While the sound was a bit bass heavy throughout the whole set (this might just have been because we were sitting under a balcony) the saxophones often rang out and dominated most of the songs in the set.

It was quite a varied set, mixing established proggy classics with more relaxed jazz workouts on the likes of 'Progress' and 'Ladies of the Road'; the latter song allowing new boy Jakko Jakszyk to stretch out and demonstrate the guitar skills that originally bagged him a job with Level 42.

Songs like 'Let There Be Light' and 'If I Was' verged on ballad territory, which might have come as a surprise to some of the audience, but fans of Foreigner will have remembered that Ian McDonald was one of the original members after he left Crimson. There was even a light hearted nod to 60's flower power with 'Tomorrow's People', which prompted a plug from drummer Peter Giles for the re-released McDonald, Giles and Giles album - the precursor to Crimson's own debut.

I'd reckoned on 'Epitaph' being the set highlight for me, and indeed it was well played, having lost none of its drama in thirty years, but in fact it was 'Formentera Lady' which caught my attention. I'd never heard this track from the 'Islands' album before, but  was seduced by the beautiful piano and flute interlude which gradually built up to a soaring vocal and sax climax.  A great example of how to control tempo and melody to create atmosphere in a live setting.

With a back catalogue more renowned for its discordancy, there was plenty of rich melody on offer tonight, and the whimsical 'I Talk To The Wind' sounded pleasantly soothing after the jerky time signatures and general rowdiness of 'Ladies of the Road'.

The aforementioned 'Epitaph' closed the main set in style, and Jakko made a pretty good stab at singing it - bearing in mind that Greg Lake's vocals will have been etched on listeners memories for decades.

The encore was, predictably, '21st Century Schizoid Man', a track that I've never really enjoyed listening to on album.  But live, it worked a treat, menacing and overwhelming, no doubt helped by a disorientating strobe light effect.  The audience seemed to love it and gave the band a rousing send off, and it was nice for once to hear a band ask the crowd to hang on afterwards as they would shortly come back out to chat and sign autographs.

I had approached this gig wondering if I was going to enjoy it at all, but in the end I came away feeling I'd had a really good night out, seeing an accomplished group of musicians enjoying playing together again and experiencing the warm response of an appreciative crowd. Well worth a look if they play near you.

John Stout