In preparation for the show, I re-listened to '"Larks' Tongues in Aspic," "Starless and Bible Black," "ConstruKtion of Light," and 'The Power to Believe." Since there were up to 5 tracks from Thrak the previous night, that would have been a good choice, but I don't have it on my Creative Zen currently, and neither the Borders nor FYE in the neighborhood here had that selection (they had various compilations that had many of the tracks, but I wasn't paying that much for it, when I can listen to it back to Chicago). Ridiculously, there was NO place to buy it for download as MP3 files online (at least legally). Amazon just offered it as a CD, DGM had squat...this is just nuts. Maybe there's a legal reason for it, that would be the only excusable reason.
Headed to the show with my misprinted ticket in hand (they printed out the tickets through the PDF download as it being the "Saturday August 3rd" show...I actually called the box office to make sure about this and they knew what I was talking about without having to explain it much...would it have hurt to send out an email if you knew there was a mistake? Just saying).
I arrived at the line about the same time as the previous night, but was about 20 feet or so further back (so, not bad). The previous night, they had ID'd people in line before they got to the door, but didn't this evening. Subjectively, it seemed as if it took a *lot* longer, but by the clock once I got in the door, it was almost exactly the same amount of time.
I didn't speak to anyone in line this time, but listened in per usual. Guys were talking about the first time they'd seen Crimson (earliest was 1974 in Germany). I wondered who, God willing I lived that long, I would be talking about in 10-15 years in a similar fashion (Marillion in 1986?). One funny completely non-related exchange had to do with how hard it was to quit smoking, with one guy remarking "if that wasn't bad enough, my job just switched insurance providers, so now we have random drug testing. Guess that means after 30 years, I have to quit smoking pot. Damn." Funny (there's a few lessons in there for the kids).
One really funny Jeff Foxworthy 'Southern Accent' moment of humor: one guy was talking about the previous night's concert. "Well, it was a good show but there were a couple of train wrecks." What do you mean? "Well, you know, just being off rhythm with each other. Math is hard." It was funny, trust me.
I sat on the right of the place this time, a bit further back than the previous concert. As it turned out, I could see Fripp a little bit better (I could see his left hand playing, but not his right), but as it has been years since I was an active guitarist, I didn't pay a lot of attention to that. Talked to a couple of guys near me, trying to confirm the exact song list from the first show (there was still some disagreement, which is funny if you think about it...we were all there but weren't sure exactly which song was which).
The show itself, at one hour 40 minutes, was 10 minutes shorter than the previous show, but I can't say I felt it was subjectively (was a little surprised leaving the place to be honest). Yet they managed two encores instead of one.
Here's my guess at the song list (Updated, thanks Vargan). They dropped 3 songs for sure while adding another, and mixed up the order quite a bit, but otherwise, it was mostly the same:
1) Drummer duet
2) ConstruKtion of Light, Part 1
3) ConstruKtion of Light, Part 2
4) Frame by Frame
5) Neurotica
6) Three of a Perfect Pair
7) Vroom/Coda: Marine 475
8) Walking on Air
9) B'boom
10) Dinosaur
11) Level Five
12) The Talking Drum
13) Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part 2
Encore 1:
14) Long drum duet
15) Thela Hun Ginjeet
Encore 2:
16) Indiscipline
17) Elephant Talk
During the first encore, (what I assume to be) Belew's wife and kids came down the aisle and sat at the front of the stage. His wife and one kid seemed really into it, the other not so much. Belew and Levin both waved to them at various points.
At the end of the first encore, Levin took off his bass and put on the stick, not noticing the rest of the band coming to the front for a bow. Really funny. At the end of the second encore, he didn't take the stick off, but they brought up the lights.
I don't know if Fripp did this in the first show (really couldn't see him from the left side of the place), but when the rest of the band took their bows, he stood and applauded them from behind his stack enthusiastically.
Again, overall, it was a solid show. Maybe because I was paying more attention, I noticed one or two places where the drummers seemed off beat with each other. Then again, I also noticed randomly that both of them seemed to be really enjoying the hell out of the night.
Not sure how I'll take song lists for the three Park West events next week. Figure I'll wing it same as these.
Good stuff. Peace.