This was my first Yes concert which I attended with my wife. I recall that the local AOR FM station WQDR was running a contest involving a search for the biggest generator in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area (I think this turned out to be a local nuclear plant). I remember walking around the perimeter of the center and observing the stage and light rig to be huge, I believe the largest I had ever seen at that time. The stage was shaped liked a giant potato chip, low in the front with a point center stage and inclining to the rear. A large black backdrop hung at the back of the stage effectively shutting off that portion of the colliseum. The show started late, apparently because the crowd was late arriving. By showtime I would say the Dean Smith Center for the set-up of this event was 3/4 capacity which is big crowd for a 21,600 capacity center. Interestingly, I read in the Charlotte Observer that the crowd was sparce for the Charlotte show a few nights earlier. I remember Jon's eye paint. A concert review in the Raleigh News and Observer the next day (which was not favorable) questioned what was up with Jon's look. I actually don't remember the majority of the songs performed, though do remember Shoot High/Aim Low, Big Generator, Yours Is No Disgrace, Roundabout and a few others. I hate I missed Yes during their earlier visits to NC in the seventies and on the 90125 tour. I've since seen them on the following tours: Union, Talk, and Ladder. I was thrilled to see their resurgence in the 1980's.

For details, see Charlotte, NC 2/11/88. Both were concerts to remember, especially for a late-Trooper era Yeshead still in shock from the abyss of 1984 and 9012$.

This night's BG show was made even better by its setting - the beautiful college town of Chapel Hill and its lush Carolina Piedmont surroundings, which together somehow vibrate with their colonial past. Charlotte is far larger and mainly just a boomtown, as it was then.

Much as I love most things Yes, only in '88 did I actually follow them to another city for a second immersion. Big Generator and its tour had their weaknesses, but they signaled very real and much welcome recovery from Lonely Heart Owner whoredom. A second dose was desperately needed.