Chris Wales

The show, for all intensive purposes, was outstanding. The venue was easily 3/4 full which was very encouraging as I was expecting 1/2 or less. Sorry to fans, but I thought Kansas was horrible. The guy playing keyboards is the reason why This Is Spinal Tap is such a great movie. Horrible screeching vocals and when he would leap from his little keyboard stage with the microphone down to the front I couldn't help but laugh. These guys have always reminded me as a poor-man's prog band, or better yet, a bar band with a violinist. sorry, just not impressed.

Yes was brilliant, save the couple of now infamous flubs and flundders. Squire, as mentioned, was seamless. It was also great to hear those bass pedals, accentuated by his trademark point before play gesture. The highlight for me, beyond the obvious Ritual, was actually Starship Trooper. A song I have seen many times, and one that I was not really looking forward to. After going through the motions, flawless as they were, of Close To the Edge, Starship Trooper was definitely their song that they came into on friday night. excellent.

I don't know how these guys are doing this show night after night, as I was thoroughly exhausted by the end of Ritual and actually welcomed ISAGP at that point. But the exhaustion was elated. I am so thankful to have seen these classic epics brought back to life. Looking forward to the cincy show.

on a side note, they were actually giving away lawn tix at the gate.

The merchandise is beautiful, and the tour book is quite the essential for any fan, and nicely priced at 15 bucks (relatively speaking: parking $7, watered down Coors: $7. Water: $3, etc ...)


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James Clay:
First of all, I'd like to say that it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen.

There were two screwups all night, but they were BIG ones:

Jon sang the wrong vocals on Gates, which sent everyone crashing to a halt. Jon stopped the song, then counted out "one, two, three, four", and then (this was hilarious) he sang the wrong verse again(choose and renounce...).Things were disorganized until the part just before "listen...".

The other screwup was in Leaves of Green. Jon forgot the words again and stopped the song. He apologized, then restarted the verse.

Ritual was brilliant. Perfect.

Polaris amphitheater was pretty full. The pavilion was practically sold out, and the lawn was about 2/3 full. I was surprised that both Yes and Kansas were very warmly received. The crowd was very enthusiastic. Only a few people left the concert early.

Amusing stuff: When ISAGP started, some woman tried to get everyone around her to stand up and light their lighters, saying "C'mon get up, here's a song you all know...". Meanwhile the Yes fans behind her told her that we knew all the songs and that she should sit down and shutup. There was an old man (in his late 60's, maybe early 70's) who was there with his daughter (probably), who didn't look too interested at first, but I noticed that, after "Ritual", he was giving a standing ovation. Maybe he was a fan, maybe he was just impressed.

Kansas was very good, also. Steve Walsh's voice is much better than it was when I saw them in 1992. I was amazed that he sounded so good. After their set, Robbie Steinhardt shook hands and gave autographs, and I thought that was pretty nice of him.

I haven't been to many concerts where I absolutely loved every song. Happily, this was one of them.

I couldn't stop smiling. Thanks to Yes and Kansas.

Steven Hunter

My two friends and I arrived at Polaris at approx. 7pm, with the show slated to start at 7:30. Slowly but surely the seats filled up, and KANSAS took the stage. They are a band with serious talent, and know how to rock... but they aren't worth having to put up with their fans! They were loud during all of KANSAS' peformance and much of Yes'. But, I did enjoy them.

Then it was time for YES! They took the stage, and 'Close to the Edge' began playing. It sounded great! Howe was at his best, as was Squire and Koroshev. And, of course, Jon Anderson was spot on. The tempo was slow, but no slower than on 'Keys to Ascension 2'.

Next was 'Starship Trooper'... I had never seen this song performed live. It was beautiful! And The Wurm was pure musical showmanship on all parts!

Then it was time for 'Gates of Delirium', a song that I never thought I would see live! It began beautifully. It sounded wonderful until the section with the lyrics "surely we know. In glory, we rise to offer, create our freedom". At this point in the song, the unbelievable occurred. The song fell so far apart, they actually had to stop it and restart the song!! When Jon began waving his hand to Alan White to stop, Alan kept playing, and Jon kept saying "Its all right, stop, its all right, its ok" I felt horrible for the other members of the band, particularly Howe & Squire. I understand that Alan White has been in Yes ever since 'Tales from Topographic Oceans', but something has happened to his playing. He simply cannot handle the Yes classics!!! It is embarassing for the virtuostic talents, like Howe, Squire, & Koroshev, to have to share a stage with him!

The rest of the show was all right, but I couldn't maintain a good feel about things. I was too nervous that Alan was going to ruin each song. Even though he managed to plow through the rest of the show, it was obvious that he was struggling on seemingly simple parts. I did enjoy the show, because of my deep love and respect for this band! However, I honestly don't know if I would pay $40 to see them again as long as Mr. White is handling the drums.

Daniel Zuber

Just got back from the show at Polaris Amphitheatre. It was the most amazing experience. I have been a Yes fan since around the Union album, but with school and work, I only recently began to see them live. I saw them on the Ladder tour, but this was beyond my expectations of a quality performance.

First, this is a great setlist. ST, Ritual and CTTE are three of my favorite songs. They were all performed well, and Chris Squire was a terror on the bass guitar. I never realized how much he carries the melody in those songs. He was on fire!!!!

The most interesting part of the evening was that they had to stop in Gates. I think that Jon started the wrong verse, and then Chris look back at him as if to say "What part of this song are you singing?". Then Squire did say to the audience, "This is why we only play this song every 25 years." They had to stop and pick up in the middle, and the rest went OK. Then, Jon forgot some lyrics in Leaves of Grass, and had to restart. None of these interruptions hurt the show one bit.

Igor has a sound on his keyboards that is close to a real pipe organ's pedal sounds. This is an amazing vibrating bass sound that was great in CTTE and ST. In ST's wurm section, they started building and building musical layers just like other versions, but then these pulsating bass tones came out of nowhere and I could feel the music. I love that feeling and loved every minute of this concert. I might try to see them again on this tour. It was so cool.

Bob

Kansas: As usual, these guys gave it everything they have. I only wish that this concert could have been a "double bill" with both bands given equal time, as Kansas had to sacrifice some of the older material that's been played recently due to time constraints. "Icarus II" was the highlight of the new stuff, and "Miracles Out of Nowhere" continues to shine after all these years. SPECIAL NOTE: A lucky few of us caught Robby Steinhardt off to the side of the stage in between sets. I asked him if they were serious about what they said last night in Cleveland about "playing more of 'Masque' later on this year". He said we could be looking forward to a lot of older gems,such as "Lamplight Symphony", "Mysteries and Mayhem", and, indeed, "The Pinnacle" from "Masque"!!

Yes: Well, if I hadn't seen the show last night at Blossom on my home turf, I would have been sorta let down. The gentleman who sent in the Blossom review first did a great job in doing so, so I won't comment too much on it.

Let me first say that for as many people who seemed to be very thankful and pumped about what Yes was trying to accomplish, there were as many who were just flat out disappointed, rude, and obnoxious during the set. From what I was able to gather, there were way too many folks sitting in "free" seats. This creates a problem (as Brian pointed out to me) when you have a few hundred people justifying having free tickets by spending the equivalent of that money in beer. I don't notice this problem TOO much in Cleveland for Yes,Moody Blues,Tull,etc..but whenever we venture out to Columbus, Pittsburgh or Cincinnati, the yahoo factor seems to be too much to handle. I heard on more than one occasion tonight people yelling out in a drunken stupor for such masterpieces as "Leave It", "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and "Rhythm of Love". Listen guys, Def Leppard will be at Polaris later on this summer, so you can hold off on the AOR bulls**t until then. By the way, lose the mullets, you freaks.

Everything was coasting along through "CTTE" and "Starship Trooper", but then the show came to a grinding halt midway through "Gates". We're not sure if it was Chris or Alan who got off the beat (right around the "...choose and renounce.." part of the song), but whoever it was they threw the rest of the band completely off. Jon stopped the song, made a funny comment about "..not stopping a song for years.." (sure, buddy :) ), then started and stopped again before finally recovering on the second attempt! Oh well. It happens, you know!

Unfortunately, that last series of events seemed to set the mood for the rest of the show. The boys seemed to be just going through the motions, at least until Chris' solo in "Ritual", when things finally seemed to picking up momentum again. We then left after that (as we did in Cleveland on Thursday night), as after one sees "CTTE", "Gates of Delerium" and "Ritual" all in the same night, do you really NEED to hear "All Good People" and "Roundabout"? (See also: anything played after "Awaken" on The Ladder tour)

Points to ponder:

1) Could Igor be the best Yes keyboardist....EVER?? Think about it. He's the only one to successfully play both Wakeman AND Moraz's parts TO A TEE, and then some. Besides, the dude is a trip and a half to watch!

2) (This one only applies to us youngsters in our 20's, who really only caught on during the Union tour, and have been to more than one Lolapalooza festival) Guys, have you ever seen a pair of extremely good looking girls our age (early to mid-20's), who first off were actually AT a Yes concert sans boyfriends, and also SINGING every word, note for note?? (yeah,even on "Ritual"!)

3) Is Steve EVER happy, except on solo tours??

Well, sorry to be wordy. It's been a magical two nights seeing stuff that I've only heard on old bootlegs and never thought I'd see live...and maybe never again.

For those of you folks yet to see this tour, you w