David B

Thursday, February 21, 2013 11:59 AM

Just a note, Sweet Dreams wasn't played at this show.

fearthesmeenusimmons

This was a festival seating show, I arrived at Memorial Coliseum at around 10am for a show that started at 8pm...I ended up *right* in front of the stage, dead center. I'd seen quite a few concerts by this time, even though I was only 17 y/o, but I'd never seen a stage like what I saw at this show...

The opening act SUCKED, one hit wonders "How Long Has This Been Going On") Ace, they must've felt like *idiots* after Yes got through with 'em...

Yes blew me *completely* away (along with the other 12 thousand or so in attendace at the Coliseum), as I stated earlier I'd seen a lot of concerts in my young life, & I had never seen anything even close to the 1972 appearance of Led Zeppelin at the same venue, but Yes's performance that night just *crushed* the mighty Zep...The lighting was spectacular (that wierd, snakey contraption that you see in the stage shot photos (Just over Alan White's head) had everybody scrathing their heads trying to describe it), somewhere on the stage there was a fog machine that was turned on during the "I Get Up / I Get Down" segment of "Close To The Edge", the fog settled perfectly, covering the stage about shin-deep, then cascading down the front of the stage like a waterfall...*Gorgeous*. The performances were *stellar*, Jon Anderson appeared almost angelic, Steve Howe was riffing like a madman, Patric Moraz looked for all the world like the Mad Wizard at the keys, Squire was just plain amazing...

Although this show was topped twice within a year, once in an *amazing* show by Jethro Tull just a few weeks after this show, then again the next tour by Yes (who had a substantially better opening act the next time) this show was, without exaggeration, a life changing event for me.
(see the Portland, OR entry in the 1976 "Solo Album" tour)
ftss