Helmut

Just got back in time from a trip to Frankfurt for this one and despite the sterile ICC it was an excellent and warm show, humour abundant especially from Jon. The part of the show that stood out for me was Chris Squire's bass solo. You could tell from the massive grin on his face that he was having tremendous fun. As a side note I might mention that the entire band Dream Theater was at the show, they played in Berlin the night before (a show which I had to miss).

Marc S.

Being a huge Yes fan for about five years I had the chance to see them the first time and it was great. The former reviews caused a high expectation but they were right. The concert was great. They started as usual with "Siberian Khatru". I think in the first half Steve had some timing problems but then he closed the song with a remarkable solo with some new variations compared to 1996. "Rhythm of love" was played without the studio-intro. On this like on the other new stuff Billy was more audible. He did his job. "America" is not my favourite one but I think they did it well. It was nice to realize that "Open your eyes" sounded much better than the studio version. This was followed by "And you and I" which for me was one of the higlights. The keyboard sounds were better than 1996 but I still miss the original mellotron-strings (and of course the choir in other songs) of the seventies. The intro was brilliant. Another highlight followed with "Heart of the sunrise". Having a seat in the first row in the middle block Chris played his bass with a (sharp) distance in front of me looking me in the eyes and me looking back him. It was great to see him having that much fun to play even the simple parts with a high engagement and expression. But why does he wear always those ugly clothes??? Streching pants which were too short and white socks. Nevertheless the whole song was fantastic though I think that the keyboard solo was better done by Rick. Now everyone except Steve left the stage. He played "Mood for a day", "Diary of a man who vanished" and "Clap". I looked at his fingers and could not really believe it. Then Jon joined and they did "From the balcony". I think there are some great simple songs in the bands career but this is a crappy one, sorry. After this the whole band played "Wondrous stories" with nice keyboards. Now Igor had his solo part unfortunately only on the piano but he was very virtuoso, fast and loud. He is a perfect musician. His solo ended with the beginning of "Long distance runaround" and the other guys joined. On "The fish" Chris showed us that he is the boss. The guitar pattern during the song was first played by Steve than Billy replaced him and Steve left the stage. Chris played the bass line of "Tempus fugit". Then Chris kneeled down and streched out his arms in front of Alan with his back to the audience. Alan did a great solo (from "Ritual") and Chris continued his solo with excerpts from "Sound chaser" and finally finished. I missed the sung "Shindleria Praematurus"-Theme. The next song was "Owner of a lonely heart" which was very unsuitable on this position. I think they should have play it during the first half on the show or keep it back for the next concerts with Tony Kaye and Trevor Rabin (hopefully never again). Although the new solo at the end by Steve was nice. Now they started "The revealing science of god" which was twenty minutes of pure ecstasy. The keyboards wer again better than in 1996. Before they started I've seen all good people Jon asked everyone to stand up during the second half and everyone did. We celebrated the simple "All good people". This was the final song of the main set. They came back for doing "Roundabout" in a usual form and "Starship Troopers" which was remarkable. Especially "Würm" was astonishing. They got faster and faster and reached the climax when they finished the improvising parts to come to the end. So the concert I have waited for so long ended but I'm glad to see them again next week two times (Hamburg & Hannover)