I've spent much of the weekend listening to The Road To Red. The music, as simply as I can say it, has blown me away. I cannot wait to listen to the shows again on Blu-ray (two BR discs feature stereo mixes of the professionally recorded shows, and also a 5.1 mix of the Red album itself) with a proper system. I've never felt as strongly about every aspect of live recordings as I have about these shows. This is as raw and dirty as a progressive band has probably ever sounded, yet it's so appropriate to the material which has not lost it's edge 40 years later. Even the audience reaction, which varies from polite to rabid, has drawn me in. Fripp's playing, even on an off night, will rip your spleen out. John Wetton and Bill Bruford were just a force of sound at their heaviest, but could execute the quieter passages with equal brilliance. David Cross manages to weave his violin, electric piano and mellotron through this storm with equally powerful and sometimes sublime playing. Wetton manages to be engaging in his capacity as vocalist, his thick voice a perfect match for what he and his bandmates were doing every night of that tour.

The thing I have been most amazed with is that I am not tired of hearing these songs over and over again. Their ability to shift and change within the framework of their material was remarkable. Their improv spots are not aimless like so many jam bands now and maybe even then were by comparison. Fripp's disciplined and almost classical approach to playing allowed for zero sloppiness, but he could be equally as adventurous in taking the piece to new heights. It's certainly made me think of re-appraising the Starless And Bible Black album, which never gelled with me as much as the two albums in between have. "Lament", "The Night Watch" and especially "Fracture" have my full attention now.

This experience has made me reconsider KC as a whole, from a band whose music I liked, to an entity I should consider more deeply.