I went to this show! I wrote about it on my blog at http://rheayes.blogspot.com/2007/10/yes-in-fairfax-10221997.html

I saw Yes on the OPEN YOUR EYES tour on October 22, 1997 back at the Patriot Center - and there were so many empty seats. What or who is to blame? Yes fans have Steve Howe back and the attendance is poor. I love Steve Howe - this is not to knock him at all - I'm just making a point about who's in Yes and what is the reaction of fans paying to see them. I don't know the number of albums sold with each version of Yes but judging by concert attenadance, this was the least amount of people I have ever seen at a Yes show. The promotion of the OPEN YOUR EYES tour is poor - hardly anyone I told about the Yes concert knew it was even scheduled. In the Washington, DC area - all we heard about all the Summer of '97 was the Rolling Stones playing at Jack Kent Cooke stadium in Maryland. I couldn't wait for them to play so we didn't have to hear all the hype - I've seen the Stones before and thought they were great - but where is the promotion for Yes?

I think Yes should hire a new publicist

The third Yes concert I've ever attended was the best yet. In Fairfax I heard, saw, and felt what could best be described as a moving experience from my favorite band. While I was disturbed by the number of empty seats at the beginning of the show, my dismay soon gave way to happy feelings. Our seats were on the last row of the floor. After buying an armfull of Yes shirts and walking up to the stage to peer at the gear setup, we took our seats. While waiting for the show to begin, Jane Anderson walked right behind us and proceeded to take her seat several rows up in the middle section of the floor seats. After the show began, the group of guys in the row in front of us offered to let us have their seats, since they wanted to stand. This example of friendliness really goes to show how kind and friendly many Yes fans are. If you guys are reading this, thanks again.

The band was impressively tight and very loud. I will reiterate that I was totally blown away by the performance. A buzzing pickup on Steve's acoustic was the only flaw in 'Leaves Of Green.' Khoroshev reminds me of a young Tony Kaye with the chops of Wakeman and Moraz. The star of the show was Chris Squire, who hammed it up throughout the night. His playing was powerful and, smiling through it all, Chris 1997 made me think I was watching Chris 1977. 'And You And I' has never had such an impact on me. Chills were numerous.

The only negative things about this show were (as noted at previous shows of the tour) the presence of several obnoxious fans who made hearing Jon's stories between songs nearly impossible, and the fact that only about 2,500 people (out of 5,000 available seats) were in attendance. I must say, if you are a casual Yes fan or otherwise, please go see Yes on this tour. You may not get another chance. The performances are blistering and it will be well worth your while to support the band by going to see them in such intimate venues. The empty seats were a testament to the fact that many people care more about pop culture events than experinecing truly musical events. The economy's not bad - fork over 40 bucks - go see Yes. You won't regret it if you do, but you probably will if you don't.

For the fifth show of their "Open Your Eyes" tour, Yes played the George Mason University Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA this past Wednesday. This was the first Yes concert I ever attended, having elected to pass up an opportunity to see the Talk tour in 1994, in the hopes that at some point I would have the pleasure of witnessing the "classic" lineup in performance. That hope was realized on Wednesday evening, as Yes presented a wonderful listening experience.

Before I begin a detailed review, let me first qualify my viewpoint. I am a fan of "classic Yes", which I would say includes all of their output until 1980. Being only 21 (and one of the youngest individuals at the concert) I discovered Yes music from their older material; I have little or no use for any 80s output and don't even own those albums.

Before the show, snippets of OYE vocal harmonies were played, interspersed between birds and water sounds. Those snippets were heavily echoed, and Steve Howe was not prominent in the vocal harmonies. I will not speculate any further on whether that's good or bad until I hear the album, though.

As a bell tolled, the audience filed in and the band took to the stage. As usual, Steve Howe to the audience left, Jon center, and Chris right. Igor behind Steve Howe on a raised platform, as was Alan White behind Chris Squire. Steve Howe's rack contained about 10 or so guitars, included the ES175, ES345, Port 12 string, Coral Sitar, Telecaster (WHoo-HOO! :)) several other acoustics as well. Steve was also sporting a new "Doc Brown" haircut.

Ivan's keyboard setup consisted of 5 instruments. 3 88key weighted models; a Yamaha to his left, a Kurzweil center and another one right (couldn't see the label) Stacked atop the center module was another smaller synth, used mostly for the organ bits and atop that a Nord Lead2, on which he handled most of the solos. Though Ivan's playing was top-notch, as most listeners seem to agree, Rick Wakeman's technical expertise in terms of programming modern synths may have been missed by some, as Ivan sometimes relied upon voices which could have been more authentic [this is a very minor quibble for an outstanding keysman!] He's a young guy with blond hair and no accent as far as I could tell. He's a Boston native, according to the Boston Globe.

Squire played 3 different basses, as far as I remember, the Rick (he may have played several different ones) and a 5string and that green 80s thing. Also sporting a new crop-top, he looked strong and sharp.

Jon had his own little percussion setup, a 6string nylon and a black 12 string acoustic. Billy Sherwood played several different electric guitars throughout the evening, at least, he appeared to be playing. He was positioned to the audience far left.

The band, much to the dismay of the audience (at least to me) opened with "Rhythm of Love", a song which I think I had only heard once ever before attending Wednesday's concert. Both Billy and Ivan handled backing vocals in addition to JA and CS, but no Steve Howe vocalising. Ivan, here was undermixed, even though I can't imagine he was doing anything prominent. Steve Howe attempted to spice up the tune with his brittle style, and although harmonically the solo worked, it clashed horribly with the hard rock beat of the tune. A shame too, especially for the opener because Steve was trying to draw the audience in. I could definitely have done without hearing this song, especially in exchange for some new material.

Next the band moved on to Siberian Khatru, and I think SH played the ES345 on this one. Many of his vocals were (sadly) covered by Billy Sherwood, on this song and others throughout the evening. While Billy is a capable singer, his thin, high range voice does not add the warmth and clarity to the harmonies that Steve Howe always had. This element was sorely missed, and detracted from an otherwise great rendition. Jon Anderson nailed every note here

I overheard two employees of the Patriot Center discussing the event, and they were saying that only 1700 tickets were sold. Very low, for a concert that was pulling people from Washington, Baltimore and Richmond. It was an enthusiastic crowd, though, and for the most part a good one, and if the band was disappointed in the size they didn't let it affect their performance.

As I live in Baltimore, I had to choose between Fairfax and Philadelphia. One of the reasons I chose Fairfax was that the sound level and quality was so good there during the UNION tour. This time, though, I was disappointed--it was very, very loud, and while most of the set wasn't at the extreme level that "Rhythm of Love" started out at, you couldn't pick out all the subtleties that you could during the UNION show.

Good show, though. Jon was a little hoarse but as his vocals were processed anyway, most of the time you couldn't tell. Khoroshev played the parts very well, but didn't appear to be enjoying himself at all. Billy Sherwood had about fifteen minutes where you could hear him.

Hello All Yes fans,

I was at the Patriot Center and agree with just about everything else that has been written by our fellow Yes fanatics (that was published prior to my post).

I was not entirely surprised, but was a bit embarrassed for the band, at the measly turnout for the show. This auditorium in Fairfax is often cut in half (maybe two-thirds) for shows, which they did last night, but perhaps half of the remaining seats were also empty. Yes a nice intimate crowd, but I'd rather see them in a small theater that is packed than in a medium-sized auditorium that is half-full. It was hard to guess, and sitting up close you lose some perspective, but there were probably no more than 2,000 or 3,000 people there. I could be wrong. (This same situation has occurred when I recently saw King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.) Is prog dead? No. Does prog still draw big crowds? No. People are too busy having radio schlock shoved down their throats. It's not all schlock but there's an awful lot of homogenous, uncreative rock out there these days. Sorry for the side comments.

The show was great. Hearing 'America,' 'Soon,' and 'Revealing Science of God' live was awesome. I still have some "problems" with Squire's over-indulgent solo section, although it seemed to fit in better this time and was a tad less removed from the overall flow of the song list. 'The Fish' was a pretty good version of the original from the Fragile album. I didn't really need 'Rhythm of Love' nor 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' but I guess they're still a little obligated to do some commercial stuff live for their newer fans.

The only other criticism I have is that they're still doing too much guitar-god jamming at the end of Starship Trooper. (The live version on Keys to Ascension, part I, is fine.) But I guess they're kind of forced to end the night on a big note.

Anderson's voice was great, even though he was noticeably hoarse when speaking by the end of the evening. The show was two-and-a-half hours, which was nice. Even though that's only 30 minutes more than what I saw ELP do, the ELP show seemed like it was over and done just as I was getting into it.

Howe didn't seem exactly thrilled to be there last night, but it was obvious he was having some electrical problems (which I didn't notice transferred into any sound problems). He spoke to his crew off-stage at least half a dozen times. I think Anderson and Squire are still good Yes showmen (even acknowledging and Squire's over-indulgence with single notes during his solos).

Side comments and I'm outa here: all Yes fans need to take up a collection and send White and Howe to the Hair Club for Men. (I'll be tagging along closely behind.) Squire should grow his hair back (it's now shorn to a military cut). Chris, please lose the tight sweatpants!

The light show was nice. Not too much fog (although I've never had a problem with that at Yes shows). No Roger Dean stage artwork, but a nice multipanel, multilevel screen arrangement (kind of like the interior of a segment of a honeycomb, domed building). The images flashed up were pretty ambiguous and graphic arts-like except for some clouds circulating and some stylized sun designs.

See you all in Philly!

Hi all,

Surprisingly, I actually found myself a little depressed at the Patriot Center show. This band and its music brings back a lot of memories for me (even though I've been a fan for "only" 12 years). First time falling in love, first time falling out of love, college days, first "real" job, etc., ad nauseum. I found myself thinking at the show "these guys won't be around much longer." Boy, the day Yes finally does end is gonna be a real sad day for me. I can certainly relate to how some DeadHeads must have felt when Garcia died. It seems like yesterday that I was sitting in Madison Square Garden on the Union tour and there were 20,000 screaming fans there. It didn't seem "right" that there were only a handful of people at the Patriot Center. I don't know what I'm trying to say here other than one day (probably in the not too distant future), these guys are going to call it quits for good, and that will suck.

Concert Review: Yes "Open Your Eyes" tour at Patriot Center, Fairfax, VA (22nd October 1997)

Intro This was my first Yes concert, and it was the first time I have ever seen Yes songs performed live. I am relative newbie to Yes, although I have got to know quite a lot of their music including all the Yes pieces played last night except "Open Your Eyes" and "Children of the Light". It's also my first review, so I'm tyrying not to go overboard with the adjectives, but you can add "Amazing, fantastic, magic, brilliant, wonderful..." to everything. It was an incredible experience which I loved. My memory is, um.. uh.. sorry, I forgot.

Venue The Patriot Center, George Mason University. This sports arena was /Stage divided into two sections with a curtain across the center and the stage in the center. The stage was under a canopy which looked like half of a tent made of white cloth. This was used for coloured light projections during the show. Seating was either on chairs on the floor of stadium in front of the stage, or in the stadium seats.

I sat six rows from the front, a bit to the left on the aisle, except for the fist two songs, when I sat in second row, center. It was thrilling to be this close to such a performance.

Steve was stage left, Billy stage right, with Jon in the center, moving back and front during the show and with Chris to the right, although he moved around a lot during the show. Ivan and Alan were on raised platforms to the left and right respectively.

Performance

The show opened with "Rhythm of Love" with each of the band playing their bit. Like much of the rest of the concert, it was loud and it `rocked'.

Siberian Khatru was played much like it was at SLO (on "Keys to Ascension"). Ivan played brilliantly on this piece, as well as all the others, and although he was in the background most of the time, when he played up front it was with great skill and flair.

After a long introduction by Jon saying what a great songwriter Paul Simon is and joking that he [not Alan? I was interrupted during this and missed a bit] made them play the song, they launched into "America". This was much like the version on "Keys to Ascension" except for a longer funky jam at the end.

Jon introduced "Open Your Eyes" saying it was on the new album which was coming out..., making several guesses. For my first hearing of this song, I found it accessible, while still having good variety and complexity in the Yes style. I hope the rest of the album is this good.

A rambling story from Jon remembering when they wrote the song and how they had been "rolling the... tape" (with illustrative hand motions) before recording it introduced an energetic "And You And I". Jon's voice was perfect and soared.

"Heart of the Sunrise" came next, replacing (as I recall from earlier shows) one of the new songs.

While the rest of the band left the stage, Steve showed us what a master of his instrument he is. Despite some technical problems which seemed to plague him throughout the show and some contributions from the lower end of the Bell curve, he played his two acoustic guitars flawlessly.

"Leaves of Green" was beautiful and led into "Children of the Light" via an amusing mention of the imaginitively titled "Keys to Ascension 2". I found "Children of the Light" to be a wonderful uplifting song. I can't wait to get hold of "Keys to Ascension 2", which jon said would be out in half an hour, or next week, or...

Jon's praising introduction to "Child of Light" Ivan was followed by a very short piece of keyboard wizardry. I'm eagerly anticipating his contributions to "Open Your Eyes". He has a great talent and appeared very relaxed.

An upbeat "Long Distance Runaround" was followed by a mix of solos and meledy from Chris and Alan. As with the rest of the concert, Chris was a real showman, prancing around the stage, gesturing and making his bass sen

Well, I've seen my first show on the tour. Overall, it was outstanding.

The set list:

The same as what's been posted here. HOTS continues to replace the new song which has apparently been dropped. The beginning soundtrack had some really cool overlays of the new CD, which actually sounded quite good.

The Musicians:

Howe: An EXCELLENT performance. Some people have commented that he's playing cleaner than in the past. Not in this show. About half through the distortion was cranked and he was rocking! Of course he made quite a few mistakes, but that's what makes him so cool!

Squire: I've been to every tour since BG, and he sounded by far the best on this show. He was little shaky with his timing in a few spots, but overall he's back!

Anderson: Minor flub in RSoG, but overall great! His voice was crystal clear.

Sherwood: Good vocals, and I enjoyed his guitar work on RoL and ST. On the other tunes he wasn't playing much. I've been playing guitar for about 20 years, and it didn't look to me like he was actually playing on most tunes. I'll watch him more closely in Pitt.

Ivan: To be honest, I was a little disappointed with Ivan. He is an excellent player, but no Wakemn or Moraz. He nailed the parts reasonably well, but something was missing that I can't quite put my finger on. He made a very bad mistake in All Good People, where he hit the wrong chord and actually stopped playing to find his place. Ouch! The psychologist in me is telling me that this guy is very nervous on stage. In all fairness, I'd like to hear his ideas on the new material before reaching any firm conclusions.

The Audience:

What happened here? A major, major disappointment. 15 minutes before the show, the place was about 1/4 full. It filled up a little, but the place holds 5,000 and it was only 1/2 to 3/4 (at best) full. This was like the Talk tour part II . How was the attendance at other shows?

The Volume: This was by far the loudest Yes show I ever attended. My left ear is still ringing the next day.

Steve, to me, sounded shaky all the way up to the final solo of Khatru, at which point I thought he turned in one of the finest solos I've ever (in 20+ years as a fan) heard him play. Once he started doing the chicken dance, I knew we were in for a great night of guitar (seriously - it seems to happen only when he's really going to let loose). What a perfomer.

I enjoy the World Trade material, and I think Billy's voice blends wonderfully with those of the others (replacing some of Chris' high register) but I'm glad he's not the lead guitarist of the band. I've heard all the 80's wheeee-wheeee solos I need to hear forever.

Jon, Alan & Chris all sounded great, and really seemed to be enjoying the show. the keyboardist (Ivan? Igor?) did a fine job - I'd be interested to hear his compositional skill at work, as I've never been very strong on Rick's compositions (as opposed to "adding a keyboard line").

I liked the bare-stage approach, and the projections on the white sheets (but what does Jon hang out in backstage now that they've cut up his tent?).

It is so nice to see Steve and Chris in the same band again. For me, it's just not Yes without both of them. Now if we could just get Steve Hackett and Tony Banks ... oops, wrong newsgroup.

All in all, great performance, okay setlist (would have preferred songs to solo pieces, though Steve's set was very nice), really nice to see the guys playing together. High points were Khatru, America, Soon, HOTS, Leaves of Green, and (of course) RSOG. Low points - OOALH and the drunk guys in the audience. To the guy who yelled "Freebird" during Steve's set - please don't come back, okay?

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. You are so wonderful. Thank you so much. I'm sure we'll see you again very soon. [???] We'll play one more song.

Jon Anderson:
Woo! [???] Paul Simon. Thank you so much. Thank you. You look [???] Just over the last few years we've been working with a guy, who in fact toured with us last time also helping to produce..uh a couple of albums, a new album coming up. Which actually is going to be released around Thanksgiving [???] and..uh the album is called 'Open Your Eyes'. It's a turkey. No, no. Sorry. You'll get a free turkey with the CD. It's a very tiny one. [???] but it's kinda cute. Anyway Billy Sherwood over here to the left has been helping us with the band. Let's hear it for Billy. So here is the song that is the single that played on the radio [???] times called 'Open Your Eyes'.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. They play the record a thousand times a day in LA..so [???] Anyway, many years ago before electricity. We were in the studio putting together a song and of course we still get the tea going. Cup of tea. Ti (laughter). So there we were and we got the tea going and the guy in the, the, the control booth was..uh Eddie Offord and he was..uh, you know, he was rolling..uh the tape, the tape and of course everything was getting ready. We were getting ready to start the actual recorded of the song that we labored over for about ten minutes. Kinda knew it and..uh I started to hear these sorta sounds and I said 'Eddie, turn the tape on'.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. It always gives me great pleasure to leave you in the capable hands and fingers. The musical mind of Mr. Steve Howe.

Steve Howe:
Well thank you very much. To be here and to play for you. Thank you.

Steve Howe:
Thank you very much. Thank you.

Jon Anderson:
On guitar Mr. Steve Howe. Thank you so much. Thank you. All these memories. Here's a song from..uh a new album that's coming out in..uh about a half an hour. It's..uh it's the second part of..uh 'Keys To Ascension' so it's called 'Keys To Ascension 2'. [???] that one. Uh..it comes out next week and here's a song from that album.

Jon Anderson:
It seems during the course of the carnations of the band. We always been lucky enough to find a very, very true talent. Talented musician on keyboards. He is a guy from Moscow, all the way from Moscow. He is a children of light or child of life. Here he is Igor Khoroshev.

Jon Anderson:
The amazing Mr. Chris Squire. King of the bass guitar and on drums Mr. Alan White. Let's hear it for Chris Squire. Mr. Alan White.

Chris Squire:
Mr. Jon Anderson.

Jon Anderson:
Merry Christmas to you. Before we start this next song..

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Many years ago I got together [???] of the band and got together and made some music and started to write these lyrics and at that time, I believed there was the light. Understood there was the light within everyone. Here I am twenty years later. I know there is the light and I know it's in everyone.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. [???]. Sing along please.