NEAL AND JACK AND ME

A DVD from the 80's era of King Crimson. Needless to say, if you don't like 80's era (Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair), this one is not for you. Only Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part II hark back to a previous time in KC's history. Despite (for some) this, this is a very very good DVD. All the songs are performed excellently and without missing a beat (no pun intended). Bruford is a machine behind the drums, Fripp is fantastic on guitar (especially with the solo on Lark's Tongue Part III), Levin's stick work is top notch, as is Belew's singing and guitar work.

The first show is taken from the Three Of A Perfect Pair Tour in Japan in 1984. Very good stuff! The songs flow together very well and Belew also segues them well (for the most part). The only downside to this concert is that (for a reason unknown to me) they decided to play with "visuals" for certain parts of certain songs, ie making things in black and white, superimposing images over other ones, playing with the lights so that you can't see everything that is going on, slowing the picture down while leaving the sound the same, etc. That latter is a big problem in Indiscipline, IMO ruining a great drum performance by Bruford. It also occurs in Three Of A Perfect Pair, but its tolerable there. Other than that, this concert is great. Highlights: Waiting Man, Industry (my favorite version of all the ones i've heard), Lark's Tongues Part II, Indiscipline (minus the effects they added), and Fripp's solo in Lark's Tongues Part III.

The second show is The Noise- Live In Frejus. This was taken on their Beat tour, thus no songs from Three of A Perfect Pair make a controbution. This much shorter show has some excellent choices that were left off the first one, most notably is The Sheltering Sky. The video quality is rawer, but this doesn't take anything away from the show (some will even say it adds to it). The only downside i can see is the repeats of some songs from the first show, but i suppose this was unavoidable. Highlights: Waiting Man, The Sheltering Sky, Neal And Jack And Me, and Indiscipline (with great drum solo by Bruford).

All in all a fantastic live DVD to sum up the life of 80's era King Crimson. A must own from crimson fans (especially of the 80's era). A nice addition to any musical DVD library. Recommended!