EYES WIDE OPEN

This set contains 2 DVDs featuring 2 different shows, one from April 2003 and another from July 2000. With the present line up of Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Trey Gunn, and Pat Mastelotto, King Crimson's music which has evolved in many styles while maintaining the basic ingredients especially with the guitar style of Robert Fripp - the only band member that has never left the band. Some of their musical ventures challenged traditional of prog music. King Crimson has been known as centered around the musical virtuosity of Robert Fripp. Well, many will point to longtime guitarist/vocalist Adrian Belew as one of the pivotal components to what makes King Crimson what they are today. One could say that Adrian is the rock star figure that Fripp initially might not project. With his long tenure in prog arena, even some people say that King Crimson was the founding father of prog music (as we knew it), the band still maintains its existence through offering different styles but maintaining the core music (I guess is the Frippian guitar that has long characterized the band's music).

Disc One contains the concert vintage on the April 16, 2003 show in Tokyo and it has 14 songs, many of which are from this formation of KC. As this tour was to promote the latest album called "The Power to Believe", you can expect the set list. The very popular and decades old "Larks' Tongues in Aspic: Part IV" is played on both discs. The Japan show is a bit loose and played off of each other with Fripp style characterized the atmosphere combined with Belew with in his usual exceptional quality - an attractive guitar play.

Disc Two showcases a show from July 3, 2000 to promote "The ConstrucKction of Light" in London. The audience is larger than the first disc with 15 songs on the second disc. In total, the whole set offers 29 tracks but there are 6 duplications - so actually you will have a selection of 23 songs. Don't worry, the 6 same songs are performed differently - so you won't get bored with the duplication.

The picture quality is not that excellent with this DVD as there are some blurs and fuzziness on Disc Two. Fortunately, sonic quality is excellent With Dolby Stereo or Dolby Surround choices, the audio is crystal clear. With this excellent audio quality it suffices to best enjoy the music of King Crimson. The extras provide improvisational works for fans that enjoy this kind of thing. There are the experimentation of screeching guitars, tribal beats, and rhythmic extensions. Each member of the band jams to their own song while being accompanied by the rest. It takes a die-hard KC fan to enjoy this. Interestingly, this also lends to a feature of the second disc in that normal play 'borrows' from this set of extras and inserts them randomly in any of the songs.

One of my major consideration to any DVD purchase is the booklet in which this live set offers 16 pages with photos, track listing, liner notes, and tour information from whence these song performances originated from. It's a user friendly booklet and it's an excellent one. Well, I have always enjoyed the artwork of most of King Crimson's DVDs like the one titled "Deja Vroom" which I will write a review later.

Overall, it's an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Keep on proggin' ..!

Progressively yours, GW