Eduardo Paulo

-22 o'clock... enter the first movements of Firebird Suite... all the lights off... a moment that 4500 peoples clap their hands and shout... is the begging of the journey into one more Yes show!!! At the first chords of Siberian Khatru... the audience go to delirium... a complete union between Yes and Brazilians audience...

Note that Steve Howe's gear have problems... his feedback is out of work...attempts are done to everything... but with no success... Howe try to play the song and, at the same time, he was worried about his equipment. At the end of Siberian Khatru... Howe, together with his guitar technician, try to solve the problem and Yes start Rhythm of Love... Howe despair, he request a time... Igor stops... Alan stops... but Squire continues... Igor, Alan and Billy follow Squire... and Yes is playing without Howe...in this moment, Howe was too anger!!! Squire and Anderson laughs a lot...As the technicians try to make the Howe's equipment work... Yes continue playing... at the end of the song, Howe appears and play the solo with magnificience... finally the problem is out... Howe get a good hand of all Olympia's audience... they shout their name: Steve Howe... Steve Howe... Steve Howe... After two uninterrupted minutes of applauses... Alan White begin the beats of "Yours Is No Disgrace"... heheheheh... invent a solo... resume AMERICA... Chris Squire and Jon Anderson goes to delirium... enjoy themselves... Alan White can't stop to laugh about his own mistake (Yes rehearse Yours Is No Disgrace before the show)...

The setlist was the same of Thursday, only changing the Steve Howe solo...but was touching to see and to hear 4500 peoples singing together with Jon Anderson in songs like And You And I, Heart of the Sunrise, Roundabout etc... all the heat of the moment could be seen on Jon Anderson's face.

An unforgettable show... for Yes and every Brazilian that was present at!!! Here, a little roll of a magnific moment... after the show... some members of South American Khatru... went to Maksoud Hotel... and Jon Anderson receive us about two hours... playing guitar, singing... and telling us a lot of things about Tales, Relayer, CTTE, etc... a magic moment... unforgettable, when all of us had the great opportunity to be with Jon Anderson, to know better about This wonderful person...Here, the thanks of all SAK to Jon Anderson and Yes, for one more unforgettable night!!!

Emerson Yasunaga

About the band members:

They were using the same clothes than yesterday, and played the same setlist, except the pieces played in Steve solo. No "From The Balcony", and no "Revealing Science" (if they don't play this tomorrow, I'll leap on the stage, take the microphone and sing it). But they all seemed to be in a much better spirit than yesterday. At this 2nd day we had a greater audience at the venue than in the 1st show.

Jon Anderson sang better than yesterday, because he was a little harsh before. He didn't talk much today. He asked the audience how to say "first time" in Portuguese, but nobody near the stage seemed to understand him. Near from me, somebody was shouting "Jon: We say 'primeira vez'", but we were too far, high above (Jon was trying to say they were playing "America" for the first time in South America on this tour). As "first time" was something hard to translate, he asked how to say "breakdown" and nobody answered again ... then he quitted to try contact later. Again, he said the magic word "changes" while introducing Igor, and again the audience shouted "yeah, 'Changes'", and again Jon didn't like that. He must be thinking of cutting this word from his vocabulary while in South America. Sometimes, when he talked to the audience, a child's laugh was played back to give a funny face to his speeches.

Chris Squire today brought his traditional smile since he entered the stage, maybe because he must have noticed it's so good to play in Brazil. I noticed some of his movements are as coreographed as the music, because he repeated precisely the same movements of yesterday playing The Fish. But I think his style makes him a showman at all.

Steve Howe gave another guitar lesson; he showed no only how to get the best sounds of his strings, but also from the wooden body of the acoustic guitar, when he tapped on it as it was a percussion instrument (in The Clap).

I payed special attention to Alan White (Jon calls him "The Action Man" after Whitefish) to be sure I was wrong in what I said yesterday. I was very happy to see that Mr.White is not playing worst than before, he's only been eclipsed by Chris and Steve. He still has a very high speed (in Sound Chaser), his original solo techniques (in Ritual, Tempus Fugit), and I could recognize that classical drummer's timing on And You And I.

About Billy Sherwood, now I think he was designated just to play the role of Trevor Rabin, avoiding professor Howe to do this. Since the only songs of Rabin played are Rhythm of Love and Owner of a Lonely Heart, he doesn't has much more to do, but learn.

Igor Khoroshev is really fantastic, I specially liked his introduction to "Long Distance Runaround" after his piano solo, that was a creative change to a classic song of the group. Some say he'll never be a Rick Wakeman, but I'm sure he's one of the two best keyboard players Yes ever had. Time will say how long he can reach, because we saw he's a very good instrumentist, but we still need to know him as a composer.

About the songs:

Open Your Eyes Ambiance Track - it's the strange soundtrack played at the end of Open Your Eyes CD, after The Solution. It's repeated again, and again. It would be better if they played other songs, left of the setlist.

Firebird Suite - the announcement of their coming causes a great emotion on the audience. It starts to be played with lights on. At the middle of Stravinsky's music, the lights come down. They start to appear, one by one, it's dark but we see their sillouettes. First, Alan White. Then Igor Khoroshev. Billy Sherwood. Steve Howe. Chris Squire. And Jon Anderson. To feel the presence of Jon Anderson for the first time caused a total exaltation on people there, some shouted and some cried. The most unforgettable opening I ever saw in a music show.

Siberian Khatru - very similar to Yessongs version, played 25 years ago. It's really being played by the band we onc