Brad Baker

The version of "Yours Is No Disgrace" sounded very much like the one off of Yessongs. I read an interview with Steve later on and he confirmed my suspicion by stating that they were trying to play it that way! "Close To The Edge" was performed with several miscues. At the end of it Jon said "We know the song, we just need to rehearse it!"
Not one of the most memorable Yes shows I have attended but it was amazing to finally hear "Wonderous Stories" for the first time in concert.
And yeah, Alan Parsons Project was quite enjoyable as well!

Stephen Maltais

Well this was a Steve Howe show from the get go!!

HE SMOKED !!!

Man he was Dancing & jumping going all over the stage posing with one leg up Tai Chi style ala Keith Richards or Steve Kimock of Zero.

The show was 2 hours 5 minutes and the sound was in Surround and crystaline (I am a picky sound head)

Close To the Edge (With even a few improvisations by each guy..if ever so slightly) (Chris Squire was a madman all night such clear distinct notes)

This blew away Howe's performance in Toronto last fall where he looked like he was really sick. Jon's vocals were immaculate and he used those inner ear monitors that alot of musicians now use.

My Yes fanatic friends thought there was some miscues in terms of timing but Howe's energy was so intense and his playing so sharp (hell he even soloed on the Trevor Rabin Material !!!)....

That this show gets my vote as one of the best shows I have ever seen period!

and BLEW AWAY the Union tour!!

Don't miss Yes on this Tour !!

Matthew Putzel

Well, as luck would have it, I happened to be in Toronto for business on June 18th and was able to see the opening night show of the 1998 Surround Sound tour. Any Yes concert is better than most other concerts, but compared to other Yes shows, this one was disappointing. My first major gripe was that the setlist has not changed much since last years tour. I was hoping that things would be changed around a bit more. Not only was "Mind Drive" not played, but they didn't play "New State Of Mind" and "Wonderlove" as previously announced. In fact, Jon even said they were going to play "Wonderlove" Monday at the VH1 taping.

The only differences were that the solos were dropped, and "Close To The Edge" and "Yours Is No Disgrace" were added to replace "The Revealing Science Of God" and "Starship Trooper." The band needs to realize that many of the fans who will see them this tour are the same fans that saw them last tour. They really need to change the set more. They did add "Close To The Edge", one of my all time favorites. Unfortunately this version was embarassing. I can overlook a couple mistakes here or there, but this was one mistake after another. I love the song, and hopefully it will improve as the tour move alongs, but it is obvious that they did not rehearse this one enough.

The highlight of the show, performance wise was "Heart Of The Sunrise." The band, and the audience seemed to be feeding off each others energy (as Jon might describe it) on this one. This was definately a strong rendition.

As for the surround sound, I didn't hear much from my seats. I was sort of in front of the front set of the speakers on the right side of the stage, and only heard the surround sound during the keyboard bit at the start of "HotS" and the guitar bit in the middle of "Yours Is No Disgrace."

Well, even a subpar Yes show is better than no Yes show, and a subar "CttE" is better than no "CttE" at all. I'm looking forward to future shows when they have all the kinks worked out. By the way, Toronto is a great city! Anyone who hasn't visited it should. See you in Holmdel.

Glenn Wallis

This is the seventh time I have seen the band but like the Massy Hall show in November the first time in this venue. This is a relatively new venue for Toronto and although it is the first time I have been there I can honestly say for a large venue with an advertised capacity of 16 thousand the sound was incredible. I prefer the small venues personally but think that as many people as possible should be able to experience the magic of Yes. Often the smaller venues place a higher demand on tickets and tickets were available for this show at the door. That way anyone whom wanted to see the band were able.

As fare as the sound went I have a few comments overall the sound was very good and as I said earlier the best large venue sound, best outdoor venue sound I have experienced. The sound quality was probably better than the November indoor small venue at 2800 persons. Although a little boomy at times the overall mix was good and instrument definition was exceptional. The flanging on Anderson’s voice for the first half of the show was way overdone .I was surprised how long it took for the technicians to sort it out, “union help”. That amount of flange is great for Astral Traveler but unfortunately they weren’t performing that song this evening. The surround sound added something I think that it could be used a lot more than it was and they were occasionally late at queuing it. The steel guitar on You and I gave an extra dose of spine tingle for me with the addition of the rear speaker set.

The set list was a little changed from the initial tour with the substitution of Close to the Edge for the Revealing Science, nothing more needs to be said about Close to the Edge purists know what that means. No solos with the exceptions of the ones preformed in every song, a bit of a change from the band. The Remembering guitar piece that Howe preformed last round was accompanied by Anderson on vocals and this was a nice little addition. They also played Wondrous Stories which was nice to hear. They closed with Yours in No Disgrace rather than Starship Trooper which was a change, although the climax of Trooper is really hard to surpass.

Some of the highlights for me Close to the Edge, America and Steve in General. Everyone played well. I would say that apart from Steve Igor was the most energetic. Can I dare say shades of Wakeman. This guy impressed me very much I hope the band sticks with him, he is a great player indeed. In the smaller venue we had seats basically on top of the band and I could get more of a feel for what was happening on stage than this time . Jon’s voice was on all night despite the sound techs attempt to sabotage it with the flange as I mentioned earlier. Allan steady as usual, Chris not as much stage presence as usual but the strong showman we have come to expect. Billy I don’t even know why he is onstage at all. Steve does not seem to mind playing Rabin’s bits so why is Billy even on stage. I am sorry if I offend some people but I see no use in his presence as a live performer.

Another great performance for probably the greatest instrumental band of all time, an exceptional show over two hours of pure entertainment, regardless if you had seen them the first time around check them out.