I must not have been the only one to feel this way about this show, or else why would a professionally recorded and mixed version of it have shown up on DGMLive? The kicker with the download is that the first track is actually the first track off of the bootleg that I own — 27 minutes of sound check in the same terrible quality that I bought years ago, included as a bonus for the fans because it's just an unusual rarity. When it ends, "Waiting Man" begins as I expect it to, but emerging not out of murky claps, whistles, and talking, but out of silence with Bill Bruford's delicate slit-drum intro — almost perfectly crystal clear, but distinctly live. It's moments like these that make me thrilled to be a fan.

London - July 1, 1996 Another Double-Trio show — I told you I was a sucker for this era, didn't I? What makes this one different from the show I mentioned above, Club 31 from exactly one year before? A completely different set list, including some more unusual material for this band ("Neurotica," "Waiting Man," and the resurrection of "21st Century Schizoid Man,") but also a topsy-turvy approach to the typical concert — the show starts with a barrage of drums in the form of "Conundrum," and is bookended in the encore with another drums-only piece, "Prism," which frames the band in a very different light than previous recordings.

In between, it's another hot show for the group. No two appearances from Crimson are the same as the band has always been known for throwing in new loops to keep things fresh — which is why live material is a must for the fans.

ProjeKct One - Jazz Café, London: December 4, 1997: When King Crimson splintered in the late '90s to experiment with new sounds, it quickly became apparent where the majority of the band was headed: electronic. There was one real holdout to going all-electronic, drummer Bill Bruford, and that's ironic given his stature as one of the leading proponents of electronic drumming in the '80s. But in the '90s, he'd found something calling him back to his first love, jazz, and he wanted to get back to stripped down acoustic jazz drumming — and he just wasn't interested in pulling out the drum pads again, even for King Crimson.

And so ProjeKct One, with Bruford behind his acoustic kit and Fripp, Gunn, and Levin manning their instruments, convened in London for a four-night stay to bash out new material. It's heavy, it's harsh, it's dissonant and it clangs and clashes... it's beautifully noisy. It's also drastically different from the other three ProjeKcts, who found their sounds drifting into gritty electronic noise and wisps of otherwise impossible sound. Here, the sound is derived from the same mostly MIDI-driven guitars of Fripp and Gunn, but the earthy pounding of Bruford's acoustic kit keeps everything grounded — and, I supposed in Fripp's eyes, tied to the past, as one can't but help hearing echoes of the future of the Double Trio that was never to be in this material.