and I forgot...all that passed 8 years, 1 month and 22 days ago.

I took those pictures with my grandmother's camera!, back to those days, we didn't have digicams.....an that camera had a feature that you could double the number of pictures, and I used it all, but only after I realized that the quality of the pictures was cut to the half - of course!!!But seeing it again I still think I took some good damn photographs. Being a complet - let me say again - complete amateur. To this day, rsrs
....and to this day, this was the best show of my life. I will remember it forever.

In a interview to Globo Network (a local television network), Jon said that "Rio is the best place in the world to begin a tour" and promissed: "we will finish the tour in Rio". We all hope!
Everybody already knows that the show in Rio was wonderful and that the audience sang all classic music with Jon. I would just remember the fact that here in Rio we speak portuguese and, in spite of that, everybody sang in English all songs from the begining to the end. That's why Rio is the best place of the world....

I could never imagine that I would see a Yes concert after a little more than a year! Well, I don't know why, but Yes decided to begin the tour in Brazil this time!!! Travelled a bit (about 700 miles) to the first show of the tour, on Rio de Janeiro. Luck of mine that the show was before a holiday (September 7th, our Independence Day)...

Before the soundcheck, we went to a little chat with Billy Sherwood on the bar close to the hotel. Great guy, signed CDs, told us the setlist, talked about The Ladder, about videogames, posed for pictures... Soon, Alan called him and he had to leave. Alan stayed waiting in the door of the hotel while Sherwood took some pictures and signed some CDs!!!

Well, the show was great. I have no words to describe it. It begun with "Young Listeners' Guide To The Orchestra" and Yours Is No Disgrace. For the first time in my life ;-), I saw Steve having fun on the stage. He jumped, danced, smiled... Great!!!! Yespirit is back!!!!!!

New song now: New Language. Wow, this was great. Igor proved that he is a GREAT musician in two outstanding solos. Nine Voices was one of the big moments of the show. Started only with Jon and Steve, but soon Chris and Billy got there to make some vocals (and bass pedals). Chris was with his hands free, so he kept spinning his bass cable in a very funny way. Beatiful song!!!!

Now, old stuff. Perpetual Change was great!!!!!! Alan was a bit confused, but did it very well. Almost everybody sang it. Then came Lightning Strikes, very strong alive. Billy plays eletric guitar and Steve plays acoustic, and they worked very well together!

Homewold is already a classic. Perfect. Jon had some problems with the lyrics (he read them in many songs. I also saw a paper full of chords written in enormous letters!), but it was great. Too bad nobody knew the lyrics yet. Just three or four people sang along with Jon (Me included!) with everybody asking: "How do they know this????"

More new stuff now. It Will Be A Good Day is a simple song, but very beatiful. Owner of A Lonely Heart, obligatory (unfortunately) in the setlist, made everybody dance. Hearts was the weak moment of the show. I didn't like it at all. Almost anybody sang along... Who went there to see 90125 liked only this part of the show, and who went tho see 70's stuff almost slept on that. I would put one in the beginning and the other in the end of the show. Just a note: Howe kept going in and out of the stage during these songs. Billy played REALLY well on both, going to the center of the stage while the rest of the band kept looking at him like: "Great, boy!!!"

If Only You Knew was very nice. Great pop song. Now, the highest point of the show: AWAKEN!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! PERFECT, PERFECT!!!!!! The triple-neck bass of Squire almost threw the ones who were on the first row (me!) away. The middle part was beautiful, with all the band extremely concentrated. Igor was great. No time for us to remember that guy who once played on Yes, I guess was called Rick...

Roundabout was as usual. Nice song, but not necessary on the setlist. To Feel Alive began the encore. This song made something interesting: even who hadn't listened to the song knew the chorus on the second time they listened to it!!!

I've Seen All Good People was very nice. This song can be very strong when played alive, but it wasn't a great surprise. The band said goodbye and left the stage.

The lights were on and the roadies began to unplug the instruments. Everybody started to shout: "Nobody leaves!!!! Nobody leaves!!!" Abracadabra: they returned!!!! Jon began to sing Soon (yes! yes! yes!)! Igor tried a few times to start Long Distance Runaround, but Jon kept singing Soon. Then, Jon stopped and Igor started to play Long Distance alone. Finally, Howe's guitar was turned on again and he started to play, followed by the rest of the band.

This time it really ended... Great beggining of tour

I got to Canecao at 6PM and to my surprise there were already three people in line. Soon we heard the drums inside. It was the sound check! My brother thought he heard Parallels. Excitation!! But I clearly heard Awaken! Then, a new song.... The sound check only ended near 9PM. A guy with a tie on came to tell the line, which had gotten long, that customs had only freed up the instruments at 5PM. If only *I* worked in the airport... For sure this was the fault of the Brasilian producers -- they must have neglected to take care of some official requirement.

Everybody was saying that Canecao didn't have decent publicity. That afternoon, in a great record store, a huge fan found out from me that there was a Yes show that very day. At 7PM there he was at Canecao! Anyway, what a weak venue, this Canecao. That was THE ONLY negative point about the show. Small, with an ugly stage, and bad sound. Bogus. You could barely hear the keys. Like last year, Howe had some problems with his equipment (but only at the beginning of the show). Bottom line: it would have been a perfect show if it had been in the Metropolitan [another venue].

At 9PM, when they opened the doors, I ran in like a little kid and grabbed a spot on the railing right in front of Jon's mike. Igor and Billy were still on the stage and, to my great surprise, I see Jon! He turns around and, the next second, says the most friendly "hello" in the world, and then returns to his instruments....

The opening music was "A Young Person's Guide...." Chris then came on stage in a kind of grunge shirt with his biceps on display. Really nice, he was too "cool." The others looked the same as usual. And they started playing YIND. Total delirium in the audience!!! It's one of YES's best and over the years it was my favorite! It was a dream to hear this music live for the first time. The heaviness of the bass and the light-speed perfection of Steve. He played a green guitar, Les Paul, with an incredible tone, which left no one longing for the 175. And the crowd sang along with Jon, "If the summer change to winter...."

They then played a new one, very lovely. I'll give an impression of the new songs, since I had not heard any of them before and don't know the names of all of them (I don't have a sound card). Howeworld is destined to be a great classic, something like Mind Drive but half as long. A mixture of grace and beauty with strength and "claws." It's Yes with one foot straight into the next millennium! (We can agree that OYE was a nightmare!) It's strange to comment on the new songs, having only heard them once. But Nine Voices is pretty! To Feel Alive is somewhat influenced by reggae, I think. The audience was able to pick up a chorus which they hadn't even heard before. I think they tried to compose something similar (and not recherche like the majority of YESSOUND), popular and simple, but maintaining quality. But I will only have a conclusive answer about the new songs after a number of listens, once the CD is out. In general, my impression of the new songs was very good.

In between almost all the songs, Jon would kind of sing bits of songs without the rest of the band, but with the audience as his chorus. First Survival. I thought they were going to play the whole song, before I picked up that it was just a "snatch" that he was doing as a fill-in. Then, Time and a Word. During the show, he sang bits of Nous Sommes, CTTE, and others, between complete songs with the band. It was PURE EMOTION! Incredible to hear and sing in unison parts of these songs. Jon was emitting angelic energy, magic, and total tranquillity. In the 70s, he was very concentrated, serious, he was determined to be perfect. He produced THE great classics of world music, IMHO. And he said back then: We won't tender our song clearer, till we sail, and I will be there!!! In the 70s, he worked hard, he made a huge effort. They were workaholics. Now, his singing is more laid-back,

Steve left for a while during Hearts, but remained on a side of the stage, balancing his head to the rhythm and following the lyrics with his lips. Then he came in again and made a couple of solos with steel guitar. According to the reports, Billy has a noticeable participation in the new songs. Not just backing. Some of the new songs have arrangements for two guitars and Billy has some solos. Steve takes the lead, and Billy intertwines his solos with Steve's.

Unbelievable as it may seem, this time 'round, Yes actually OPENED their new world tour here in sunny Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Apparently the Chile gig got bumped for some reason, so they started out here, a rare privilege for the 1500+ fans that went to the show this Monday, September 6, at the Canecão.

As with their last appearance here in 1998, when they played at the Metropolitan, the Canecão is a nightclub-like venue, with lots of tables and waitresses attending, not particularly a great place to see Yes, or any other prog act for that fact. But at least there was a lot of stand up room with tickets at reasonable prices (around US$20), so there was at least 1000 people up front near the stage, moving and dancing to Jon & Co., and sending them back great vibes.

As this was the opening gig for the LADDER album, the group really didn't know what to expect from the audience, but were greated with reactions ranging from lukewarm acceptance to real enthusiasm for the 5-6 new songs they played. Since none of us had ever heard these songs before, we couldn't really get into the lyrics or melodies. The band was VERY well rehearsed, though, and played the new songs like clockwork. This time you could really feel Igor and Billy participating actively, and not standing back like wallpaper. Anyway, the new songs are for the most part very powerful, with some nice proggy parts and arrangements, and NOT very OYE-ish at all, which had me worried before when I first heard "Lightning Strikes" on Liquid Audio, so I'll definitely be getting the new CD at the end of the month.

I keep comparing the group's performance now with their show last year, and it seems like a whole new ballgame. Last year they were in the middle of their tour, had already edited out most of the OYE songs that didn't thrill anybody, and were basically getting tired (I think) of playing the same classic live Yessongs. This time around, they had new material to test, and really gave their all out best to make it work. I venture to say they were successful.

Jon also changed his between-song routine. Instead of commenting on something or other, or telling us some stale song-related story, he would recite or sing significant verses from various Yes classics, and the audience would spontaneously sing along, making these really great moments to be remembered. Funny about the verses he recited, especially the quotes from "Close to the Edge" - the WAY he recited them really made them have new meaning, as if revealed for the first time, by his gestures, face and body language. I found these moments especially fresh and inspiring.

Steve was his old self again. At the '98 show in Rio he seemed to be in bad shape, "rusty" was the term that came to mind at the time (read my review of the show somewhere in the NFTE and YESNET archives). This time he was sharp and really expert in his playing, and gave us his own private show for most of the gig. My son and I could tell from his first licks that this was going to be his night! He must have really auctioned off his old favorite guitars, because he had a whole new collection here. His favorite appeared to be a candy red Les Paul, though he did use his hollow body Gibson, and a vintage-looking Telecaster, as well as some futuristic models I'm not acquainted with. Great sounds from all of them.

Chris was incredible as usual, and was using some really powerful sound system with subwoofers or whatever, 'cause the house just kept on vibrating the whole night long to his scales. Billy Sherwood is more active now, with more of a stage presence. He actually came on center stage for his Trevor Rabin "Owner of a Lonely Heart" solo, while Steve strategically walked offstage, for obvious reasons. When he returned though, near the end of the song, the band started jamming (have they ever done this before with this song?), and Steve did a surprisingly fantastic improviso solo, perhaps the best of the who

Howe left the stage on OoaLH and Hearts...

And the people that I talked to, said that Hearts was the weak moment of the show...

No Firebird Suite opening

No solos

Steve looked inspired, concentrated, and the happiest man on earth - even talkative!

In a couple of moments between songs, Jon sang parts of Time and a Word and Soon along with the audience, without the band!

Jon also recited (yes, recited, not sang) for the audience some parts of CTTE.

It seems the second encore was not planned, but as the audience didn't move from the place, the guys came back to play LDR.

I was at the show today and before the start of it, I saw the roadie put the set list on the floor, and I had just one person between me and the stage. I asked the guy to see Squire's list -you have an idea how close I was!!!! - He said to me: " I don't want to know, I prefer the surprise." I realized right there he was was right. The first thing to say about the show is that this band is really a winner team. The Open Your Eyes album was the beginning of it, and now they are the 21stCentury Yes. A band every fan should be really PROUD of. One sugestion to you: Go to the concert.

Nine Voices.......i'm not sure about the name of this song from the new album, but is a short vocal oriented piece where Squire played only his "in the chest" bass pedal. That one he pulls of his lower bass frequencies. In this he is only playing the pedals and singing, with no bass guitar at hands.

I think this is their best world tour since the Union....and what I can say is that they were really very happy to be there playing live again.

Everyone in the band had a smiling face, and that said, the magic is there. Even Steve, who in the last year show in Rio, didn't seemed very happy, was having fun, and was giving us his famous jumps and other strange-but-cool body movements we know.....

The band and the audience really helped each other out today. The band passed their geat performance, then the audience returned with entusiasm and love for the band - as brazilians do, and in response they were getting more and more excited that you could see the joy in everyone's face!

Between the songs Jon sang little parts of songs like Time and a Word, Soon, Hearts and others, and the audience sometimes joined him singing, and I say sometimes, because he sang some of these little parts very diferent than the original.( Close to the edge sounded like a Rap). Very cool. Even a Rap feel - wich I think is poor - gets exciting done by the genius of Jon. But these parts were just little pieces -like 20 or 30 sec.- to Jon interact with the audience. And it seemed to work very well.Kudos to Jon!

Billy really is the surprise. The new songs have him working very well and now he's interplaying with the others and not just a simple base. Actualy, there's a new song were he is does the leadguitar work. Wich again I think will again upset these rebels without a cause fans!

I really liked this part. Very good work, and tasteful, as Yes should be. Can't wait to listen that on the new CD!

I loved Igor in the Awaken slow movement - the part Jon plays the harp - very tasteful sounds and phrases.

Chris was superb. The best in Stage Perfomance. It's incredible to see him singing playing the bass and the pedals all at the same time. His playing is so clever that amazes any musician in the world. Breathtaking stage performance + Genius playing = Chris Squire

Jon particulary shine when he sings the quiet parts, where the volume is low and the sweetness of his voice is increased. Like the voice of an angel.

......and then Alan White. This Guy Rules. He's the king of solid playing. When we talk about solid playing, people associate this with "playing without creative" And that's because Alan is great. He have tons of it. I just ca'n believe the power of the grooves: Awaken is stronger than ever. Lighting Strikes have a very simple patern, almost like a dance, but Alan Make it Rock. All the new songs have all the qualities we could expect from Alan great parts and the greatests fills.

Alan was great. And I would sugest him to play forever on stage with that Slver Tissue Shirt!! What is it made of. I want one for me too!!!!!!

Yes, they didn't do solos. I wanted it? Of Couse. Especially Alan, but it was a blessed night for everybody, and I'll get upset because they did or didn't play this or that? Of course not! I just loved what I saw - and heard !

A little curious thing:
...

This morning (Sunday 5) at 7:00 pm local time (GMT -3), Yes arrived safely to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in a direct flight from Los Angeles. The band is now enjoying Rio, getting ready for the kick off of The Ladder Tour, tomorrow, Monday 6.

Isn't this good news? The band we admire most is on the road again, alive and kicking.