Yes 35th anniversary tour

[progdirjim(Admin)]

Saw them with my brother last night - all in all a great show. It'd been a few tours since I'd seen them, since I'd gotten a little burned out on Yes, particularly some of the more recent stuff. I'm really glad I went last night!

They opened with Stravinsky's Firebird theme, seguing into a rocking "Going For The One". Steve was on for this one, as he was all night. No one in the band is a musical slouch, but Steve was the most impressive for me - some of his solos and licks were spot on from the album, others completley rearranged - and it was the perfect mix of new takes on songs and classic versions.

Next song was "Sweet Dream" - a song I've never seen them play live before - and they had several of those - "Every Little Thing" as an encore, for example. From there they went into Your Move/All Good People, beautifully done. Then, an extended version of Mind Drive, with Turn Of The Century and South Side Of The Sky worked into the middle. One of the highlights of the whole concert was the jam in SSOTS, with Steve and Rick trading licks back and forth - smoking. Steve had that hollow body Gibson (I think it's the ES-175), and Rick had a vintage moog going!

Alan White was a disappointment last night - he played OK, but was kind of boring. He was just missing some sparks that he's capable of. This is kind of a nit, as he wasn't off tempo or anything like that.

Jon Anderson looks pretty good for his age. His voice was just a bit strained for the first 2-3 songs (but right on key), but he warmed up and sounded excellent for the rest of the night. Chris's background vocals suffered once or twice (I saw him reach for his throat at one point after missing a note), but overall sounded good. Chris and Rick were what you'd expect - solid performances, a few highlights, but like I said, Steve really shined. Good thing he can play, because he looked really old.

After an hour set, they took a 15 minute break (for "tea and biscuits"), then came back and started off with some unplugged numbers - the first piece was a short throwaway with Rick on piano and Jon singing - I didn't recognize it. A reworked version of Long Distance Runaround was sweet, Wondrous Stories, and something from Magnification, I forget the title. They did a VERY reworked version of Roundabout as well - I give them credit for reworking it, but it had kind of a boogie-woogie feel that I was less than enthralled with. My brother liked it, so your mileage may vary. This version made me realize how close the chord progression is to "Love Machine" - a little scary.

Back to the full band, with the lowlight of the night - "Rhythm Of Love" puh-leeze. Jon walked off the stage into the audience for this one though, shaking hands and high fiving dozens of audience members - nice touch. And You And I - wonderful. and Keith would have loved the closer - Ritual, very nicely done. Alan finally woke up for this piece and worked out nicely, with Jon on miscellaneous percussion and Chris on tympani.

Encores were "Every Little Thing" and the outro to "Gates Of Delirium" - would have liked all of Gates, but they played for 2.5 hours, so no complaints there.

Non-band highlight of the show was some idiot in the fourth row "dancing" - he must of been on some really good or really bad drugs - his spastic gyrations had absolutely nothing to do with the music being played. Very entertaining to watch.

Sound was excellent - it may have helped that I was close enough to the sound board to read the set list...

See them if you get the chance - they sounded great!