I had the pleasure of seeing Yes for the first time since the 90125 tour on the opening night of the current US tour, this time with my teen-aged daughter. The Dean-designed stage inflatables have to be seen to get the picture so check the yesworld site for the pics. When lighted from within, it was like a flashback to the 70s! The setlist covered important songs from most of my favorite albums. See the posted setlists for details if you wish...

The individual performances were very good with Jon's vocals sounding like he has not aged at all! What a powerful voice! He was on pitch and hit every high note perfectly! Alan's performance was stellar and rock steady. His solo was just remarkable. Chris teamed with Alan to drive the rhythm section and I think he also used bass pedals to really shake the bottom end. His vocals were tight and on key. Great job, Chris. Rick was his amazing self with lightning fast arpeggios and Mini-Moog solos setting our hair on end interspersed with tasteful piano work, as always. What a star. I saved Steve for last. He played so accurately and just melted everbody's face with his solos and tasteful chops. He appeared to be playing a Variax instead of his old Coral Sitar on occasion and it performed well. He rocked out on Mr. Gibson and did some amazing stuff on a Cherry Les Paul and what appeared to be an old Les Paul Junior. Well done guys!

As a group, they were tight and it was evident that they rehearsed more than a little to get the breaks and stops so tight. A highlight for me was the "duel" Steve and Rick staged. Very improvisional and amazing as only those two could deliver it.

The crowd went nuts on "Rhythm of Love" as Jon went out into the crowd. Almost nobody noticed when they went "off into the weeds" a little bit in the middle of the tune! Jon even commented after the song, but it was a really minor thing. You get used to their incredible musicianship and expect perfection, I guess. I'm so glad they're human, but like the troopers they are, they held it together and recovered with grace. It was also nice to see Steve cover Trevor Rabin in such a competent manner.

The acoustic set was well done and well received and other than the soundguy (who I'm sure is kicking himself today) letting some feedback through, the set was killer.

I'd rate the night as a huge hit with my daughter and me as well as the rest of the audience. We drove 4 hours to see this show and did not regret even a moment of it. Thanks for another memorable night with Yes. I'll never forget it!

Buy your tickets now...

Great show!! Over 3 hours of Yes music covering 35 years. My seats were in row 7, but had the good fortune to see a friend that let me sit up in front row for a while. Yes doesn't draw 17,000 folks anymore, but a decent crowd. First live performance of Mind Drive was something special..played in two movements sandwiched around South Side of the sky. Was worth the price to see Ritual performed in all it's glory with Alan's robo-kicks. Definitely a show I'll remember.

Hey all:

I was there. I sat in row 4 seat 20. I was right up front. The show was spectacular. The original members they all are so right on still got it after all these years

Hey Eduardo Paulo,
Now that is FANatical, YES !
Hey I'll see you there.
Wave a Brazilian flag and I'll know it's you.

I'll post a real review after the show.

Hey Folks !!!!

We´re coming all the way from Brazil to behold
the best band of the world !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looking forward to seeing all good people from USA.

All the best,

Eduardo Paulo
Long Life Yes Music.

Jon Anderson:
It's so great to be with you this evening. Thanks for coming out, thank you so much.

Jon Anderson:
Many moons ago, Many moons ago, Many moons ago, Many moons ago, we wrote this piece of music and we've never played it ever! But tonight we're going to play it for you.

Jon Anderson:
So I was talking about something, about this song, Mind Drive and we just rehearsed it this week for the first time in, ahh, many years, you know. And, ahh, there's something about this piece of music, so we're gonna perform the last movement for you, and then, ahh, hang tough! Here we go.

Jon Anderson:
Wooh, thank you so much, thank you. I don't know how, I don't know how long we've been playing for you at the moment, but we're going to do one more song and then have a break for a little tea, afternoon tea, and some biscuits, some chocky biscuits, a cup of tea. We're going to do this song first. It's a song that once, you all know this song, here we go. After the count of four from Alan White, here we go.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Ahh, we spent, ahh, together, we spent about six months, ahh, in Switzerland and I think it was the last week we were there, we started to ski but of course it was April and there was no snow! So, it didn’t get us very far but it took us six months to decide to go skiing, I don’t believe it. All that way, but we did write this song.

Jon Anderson:
Here's a song from, ahh, please, play the chords, yeah. Here's a song from, ahh, an album we did, and, ahh, the song is called Time Is Time, it's Time Is Time.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. That was so, hey, oh that, you can turn that down, right away. Turn that down ' acoustic, acoustic tonight. Play a little bit, play a little bit, Al. There ya go ' I'll have a Tandoori, please, Tandoori chicken. Um, that last song was inspired by The Beatles, it's got a Beatle flavour and it was the last song on Magnification and, ahh, we're actually staying at this hotel and they're celebrating a Beatle event, so, I won't say where it is. Sorry, I shouldn't have started that. Um, there's a, there's a group of people, young kids who sing in a choir in Chicago, and the last time we played in Chicago, just last year, I think it was last year, they wrote a letter saying please, please, please, can we sing with you. So we got 'em on stage at the gig we played at, and they sang this next song, and they just love this next song. It's a song called Nine Voices.

Jon Anderson:
There ya go. When, ahh, when we got together, ahh, to do this, ahh, sort of concert, we did it, ahh, in, ahh, January and we recorded some songs, ahh, it's on an album called The Ultimate Yes, which is that big collection of Yes songs and, ahh, so Chris came to us and said, ahh, why don't we do Roundabout in a different way, and I said no problem, and you want to do it polka' I liked the idea. No that's time (laughs) Ricky! Thick and fast, thick and fast. So we did it this way.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Wooh! Shall we do it again' I don't think so. But we try, we try, that's all that matters, we try. Thank you for dancing with me, over there. Over there, thank you for dancing. Steve Howe on guitar.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. Thank you so much, thank you. Thank you so much, thank you. Many, many years ago, ahh, we went through, ahh, an incredible time together. People that have stayed with us all these years and you know, all that time we had a sort of great belief system in what we were doing. It was cool, it was OK, you know. And, ahh, so here we are, many years later in the twenty-first century, playing this music, and, ahh, without you wonderful people, we wouldn't be able to play this music, so we thank you so much for being here tonight.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you again so much for coming out tonight. We're gonna, we're gonna finish, ahh, with a classic Beatles song we did on our first album. Here we go - a 1-2-3-4.

Jon Anderson:
Alright, thank you so much, thank you. I think we know one more, we know one more.