Robert Fripp review

[Tim Wicinski <wicinski@nrl-css.ARPA>]

Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists
George Washington University, Dec. 14, 1985.

in One Word: Awesome

Robert Fripp is one of those people who you see in concert and you walk
away still not sure what you have witnessed.  Last nite was no
exception.  In the room where he played, there was 18 wooden chairs
situated in a semi-circle around the stage.  For the audience there was
no chairs, just one big rug, and pillows for people who could sit on
the rug.  Then the guitarists came out one by one, with Robert being
the last one.  As they stood there, they looked over the audience,
going from their left and working right.  Then with a nod from Fripp,
they say down and proceeded to play 6 pieces, all new.  The music was a
distinct cross between Discotronics and Frippertronics, with a leaning
towards his work on "Let the Power Fall."  After 5 pieces, he stood up
and started to read some of the press releases written in the various
papers.  Each article was seriously flawed in the presentation of
facts.  The article written by JD Considine, his only comment was "Too
flawed to begin to discuss." The other one that he read was from the
City Paper, and contained a quote that he harped on. The quote was
"Mr. Fripp has assembled a group of close friends, studio musicians,
and advanced students."  This was wrong in every way.  These other 17
guitarists were students from his class that have been working with him
for 12 days !!! Last sunday they traveled to Charleston WV, and did a
live broadcast for West Virgina Public Radio.  This performance was
being used to tape an album of this music for EG records, and the
students found out about the show two days before it !!!  Talk about
being hit with something.  To prove his point that these people were
not accomplished guitar players, he did an impromptu class on stage,
making them play a certain note, then play the note of the guitarist
next to them. After listening to them flail for a few minutes, Fripp
then repeated the phrase "Friends, Studio Musicians, and Advanced
Students..." a few times for effect.  They then ended up the show with
an acoustical version of Lark's Tongue in Aspic, Part II.  I didn't
recognize it at first, but after a few minutes it all came clear.

I called the music 'pieces' but now I considered them to be more like
exercises, since it is a class.  Also, Fripp described
the whole art-rock music as "wretched. I was in the middle of the whole
thing and I found it to be the most pompous and wretched thing I've
seen."  I found the performance delightful, even though it's not the
type of music you could listen to for hours, but its very good 
background/ambient music.

Note for the curious: No, I couldn't tape it, but they were (Fripp, et al).
Nor could I talk to them, since the added a second show that nite,
and I couldn't hang around because I would have missed the train. 

tim