Arkansas Democrat-Gazette August 18, 1994
Jack W. Hill

Call it progressive rock or art rock or whatever, Yes, the British group with roots going back to the late 1960s, refused to take the easy way out and perform a hits-laced set Wednesday night at Little Rock's Julius Breckling Riverfront Park. Rather, Yes opted to concentrate on its latest music from its most recent album, 1993's 'Talk.'

'Where Will You Be,' 'Walls,' 'Endless Dreams (sic)' and 'Real Love' from the new album were particularly well-done and appreciated by many in the crowd. 'Endless Dreams,' especially, featured a nice bit of interplay between musicians and light technicians.

No doubt many of the aging baby boomers in the crowd were disappointed at hearing music they had not heard before - indeed, some left, bailing out of an awesome sound and light experience. The group's vaunted quadraphonic sound proved to be worth a listen, as waves of sound frequently washed across the audience, much to the delight of those interested in hearing new music from a group unwilling to become a parody of itself- like the Beach Boys, for instance.

A smattering of audience members sported headphone radios to check out the special stereo broadcast of the show, with some reporting varying sound quality depending on where they walked or stood.

Some allowances were made for classic hits, of course. The group played a magnificent version of 'And You and I,' with the quadraphonic sound adding to the powerful guitar play of Trevor Rabin as elfin lead singer Jon Anderson, dressed totally in white, still managed to hit all the high notes.

'Heart of the Sunrise,' 'Owner of a Lonely Heart,' and especially 'Your Move' were done well and received enthusiastically by Yes fans. 'Roundabout' was added as an encore, as the band completed a nearly 2 1/2 hour show.

Bassist Chris Squire, organist Tony Kaye and special guest multi-instrumentalist Billy Sherwood augmented Rabin's guitar grace and Anderson's vocals.

The group employed a high-tech set, with steel ramps rising on both sides and splitting the middle. Pastel lights of every shade, plus bright whites, deep reds and blues, played over the band in constant changing profusion, making for one of the loveliest shows ever to grace the park.

Something less than a capacity crowd turned out on a perfect weather evening for an August concert outdoors."

-What a great concert! (James here). The sound was fantastic, the weather WAS perfect, and the music itself... WOW. "Endless Dream" (Dreams ;-) must have been 30 minutes long!, but wonderful and not endless ;-) I had the best time, and rank this near the top of my Yes live experiences (3- ABWH opener in Memphis, Union in St. Louis, and now this). Yes is alive and well.

On August 17th, Yes came to Little Rock. It was their first show there since the Tales tour! I have heard vague stories about the Tales show being shut down after only a few minutes because of some dispute with the arena management. Thus the long gap in Little Rock dates. Does anyone know the real story here? The venue this time around was different from the one in '74, by the way.

Anyway the tickets were cheap ($12 a person general admission. With the exception of a very tiny VIP section, Riverfront Amphitheater is entirely lawn seating). The amphitheater is right next to the Arkansas River, and the weather was great, so it was quite a lovely evening. I'd estimate there were 7 or 8 thousand people there, and the arena can hold a maximum of about 10 thousand.

The band played for two and a half hours.

No City Of Love, no Hold On, no Cinema, no intermission. I would have to rate the performance as average to above average (which is still really great as far as Yes concerts go), not quite as good as the KC show. Rabin was a lot flashier than at Kansas City, or at least it seemed that way to me.

Oh yeah...I almost forgot :) I taped the entire show off of the ConcertSonics FM broadcast. I carried in a small tape recorder that looked a lot like a Walkman, and I removed any markings that suggested it could record. One of my friends carried in a regular walkman, and my other friend carried the tapes in by sticking them down into his high-top tennis shoes. All of this careful planning turned out to be complete overkill, as we were hardly given a first glance as we walked in, much less a second. We got our seats pretty far down on the lawn. Patched the walkman into the recorder, made a few test runs to get the record levels set by taping off a regular radio station, found the frequency when the show started, and viola! A b**tleg recording.

The recording sounds far better than I thought it would. The highs and lows are all there. The only problem to be found is occasional static from people walking in front of us, or people standing between songs, or UFOs entering the atmosphere (Jon Anderson explanation). The first three songs have a few small sections with interference, but after that there is between 0-3 half second sections with static per song. The show is mono because the recorder was mono only.

But wait, there's still more. After the show my buddies and I got roped into helping to load the trucks. We were standing by the fence leading to the backstage area, when someone came by and asked us if we wanted to help out. Of course, if we knew it was going to take two hours of back-breaking labor we wouldn't have done it. I saw Alan White and Billy Sherwood standing outside of the buses, but I was too busy manhandling a huge speaker past them and didn't have time to speak to them. We were paid $15 bucks each, and got a neat T-shirt that has the Yes Talk logo and "Talk Tour Local Crew 1994" printed on them. My friends were sort of pissed when it was over, but we've laughed a lot about it since then.

Jon Anderson:
Alright. Thank you so much. Hey it's great to be with you this evening. Hey. This is really a groovy place. You've got the bridge in the background. You look great from here and sound good too. Hey here we are looking and searching and doing that stuff. We're looking for the rhythm. The 'Rhythm Of Love'.

Jon Anderson:
Alright. Alright. Many moons cascade one river. They light from side to side. As we cross in close proximity. Like rivers our hearts entwine. Like rivers our hearts entwine.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. Here's a song which is..uh from the new album 'Talk'. It's a song about the earth music and the music that surrounds us everyday. Whether you want to listen or not it's there. The music of the wind. The music of the sky. This is 'Real Love'. 'Real Love' that surrounds.

Jon Anderson:
Introducing the magical fingers. The magical sounds. On the keyboards, Mr. Tony Kaye. To sing the next song, our master of the lead guitar and our producer Mr. Trevor Rabin.

Trevor Rabin:
Thank you.

Jon Anderson:
Trevor. Trev. Trev. Thank you. Thank you so much. It was only yesterday that we realized that..uh this next song. We wrote this next song about a zillion years ago. Round give or take a few and there we were on the planet Zongo. Because as you all know we are Zongonian and as Zongonials usually do, we used to do watch the sun coming up every morning. Realizing what a beautiful world we had. So beautiful. We have to look after it you know. The sunrise. Anyway. What can I say? What can I say? Featuring, on this next song. Featuring. The remarkable, the one and only, the co-writer of this opus. On bass guitar Mr. Chris Squire. Anytime.

Jon Anderson:
Alright.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Hey guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. This is the time of..uh the evening. It's like if you look around you see moths flying by and you know they say on the wings on moths is the dark gold dust of knowledge. So when you see a moth you know? Very beautiful creatures. Hey. What's going on? Hey. Are you ready? Are you ready?

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Once every ten years. Hey. Alright. Here's a song, it's a new song..uh from the album 'Talk'. Our new. Last year actually..uh we were making this album. David, David, turn me up a little bit please. Please turn me up a bit, Okay? Thank you very much. The last year we were making this album and I got to Trevor's house and..uh you know we write songs and this..uh song actually came. I, I went up to the house and he played me this piece of music. I really enjoyed it so I scribbled down these lyrics and to this day I still can never remember the lyrics so I write them down here. Just for chance. You know? And..uh a couple of months later, I heard the final production. Very, very kinda cool and I started to realize what I was singing about and it seems that I was writing about the idea first, that our souls of eternal and this life is one of the many lives that we live and the idea is we never lose our loved ones. So that's kinda cool really. So this song is called..uh "Where Will you Be?". "Where Will You Be?".

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. You are so wonderful. Woo! Here's a sorta..uh sing along song thing. We're going to do a sing along song thing and..uh at certain times in the evening I can walk around our hotel and I can here this. I think somebody is practicing the maracas. I don't know who. It's kinda on and on. Can you hear the maracas? Can you hear the maracas? That is the most incredible guy in the world. The greatest drummer in the world, Mr. Alan White on the maracas. He's practicing and as we..uh. I'd like to introduce to you to someone of stage. He's a new friend on stage with us. He's playing acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, tap dancing, juggling. You name it this guy can do it. Mr. Billy Sherwood and Mr. Alan White on the maracas. Yeah. This for my love.

Trevor Rabin:
Woo!

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. As you know, we..we enjoy playing our sorta..uh own brand of music. We call it Yes music and that's one of the great thing about being in the group. Is we just play what we feel is the right thing to be playing at the right time. Why not? Why not? And..uh I want to thank you all so much for being here this evening. Very very wonderful feeling. Here's a real true Yes piece of music. From the new album. This is called 'Endless Dream'.