David Cross Band - The Lexington

I first saw the David Cross Band supporting John Wetton at the Astoria in London in 1996, performing material from the album Exiles which I thought was complex and aggressive but very good. Subsequent David Cross album Closer than Skin is similar, but I’d say it has less musical variation and more vocals. Both albums involve King Crimson alumni and I had no hesitation in signing up for the launch gig of Sign of the Crow at The Lexington in London as soon as I saw it announced; I was especially pleased to see that David Jackson, one of Cross’ many collaborators, would be appearing as a guest.
A couple of days before the event an email came through from the ticket agency warning that the doors would open 30 minutes earlier than originally advertised but I’d already made pre-show plans and arrived at the Lexington just as Richard Palmer-James was finishing a solo set. The second part of the show was a duet between Cross and Jackson, a short but challenging set that included a piece from Starless Starlight with Fripp’s original guitar loop where Jackson had been asked to play the Starless riff in reverse but refused to do so, citing the perfection of the original phrase. Another tune borrowed the title of Water on the Flame, a track appearing on the new album Sign of the Crow, as a spoken lyric. The mutual respect between these two fine musicians was quite evident and they really challenged expectations of violin/sax music. I bumped into David Jackson after that set and he suggested that there are studio recordings of the two of them improvising, pushing each other, which sounds like it could be edited into an amazing album.
Though he doesn’t appear on Sign of the Crow, Jackson added sax and keyboard for the David Cross Band, part of a line-up of incredibly gifted musicians: Paul Clark on guitars; Jinian Wilde on vocals; Craig Blundell on drums; Mick Paul on six string bass; and Cross himself. Beginning with a phenomenal drum solo the set featured the new album but also dipped into the past, with Nurse Insane (from The Big Picture), Over Your Shoulder (from Closer than Skin) and Tonk and Exiles (from Exiles). I hadn’t heard the new material at the time but it was powerful, complex, and occasionally verging on prog metal. From where I was standing it was also rather loud but I was still able to discern the sax, the violin and the keyboards. Paul Clark’s rhythm work was at times a heavy chug but his soloing was clear and precise; Mick Paul’s bass work was stunning throughout and Jinian Wilde, an unknown quantity to me, was well suited to the material, old and new, including a stunning rendition of King Crimson’s Starless, and the encore 21st Century Schizoid Man. He also wore a rather good top hat with a jester-like band and dangling bells, supplemented by a pair of goggles. He may have visited the same milliner as the two Davids!
My two favourite new tracks were The Pool and Rain Rain; the former carefully constructed, melodic and anthemic (think next year’s Prog Awards), while Rain Rain is another slow-burner with sudden changes of feeling; it’s these changes that make the music unpredictable, gripping and enjoyable. The band was fantastic and the enthusiastic crowd, assembled in a fairly intimate venue having come from various points around the globe, were treated to a very special performance. A great gig, the best of 2016 so far.