MIDORI - LIVE IN TOKYO 2015 (FIRST SHOW) (FEAT. DAVID CROSS)

3.5 stars and a step down from their second show that I've already reviewed. I'm a big fan of the sound of this band who can be a muscular KING CRIMSON or they can be that band who does that soundscape thing too. This is a band who has released quite a few more live albums than studio records. I'm such a fan of the debut "Soup" then later in 2016 that "Prog Noir" album just hit the spot for me. And as far as their live albums go, other than that first live record they always have a heavy weight guest helping them out and certainly David Cross has made himself available to this trio on many of these live events. I just got the double live "Roppongi" with Mel Collins helping out in the mail and man am I looking forward to spinning it all next week.

One of my issues with this show is that they focus too much on the soundscape thing. The advantage of it is that the three tracks that have beats and energy standout even more because it is so much about those spacey sounds especially on the two improvs but also on the other four songs in that style. So seeing and hearing this show live would have been pretty cool. There's a few KING CRIMSON covers plus "Shades Of Starless" so you KING CRIMSON fans need to at least check this band out. The two originals with some power that I really like are "Hide The Trees" and "Cusp" but overall I'll stick(haha) with some of their other live records.