Ruud Ermers

In short: Great; NO Gates, YES Magnification.
Less short:

The venue was really nice and we had some nice seats. AS this was the warmup show for us (I'll be seeing them in Amsterdam tonight and tomorrow), we didn't sit frontrow, yet the view was good and the audio as well.

Not having a show before this tour the opening was enormous. Seeing the orchestra, seeing the guys, seeing the keyboardplayer, impressions! And what a way to start the concert. CTTE just was perfect, and the orchestra as well. After that LDR and Don't Go just went by a bit - nice but not too big. In the Presence of was preopened by a 1 minute jam on Dusseldorf. Neat, and it's good to see Jon is really enjoying himself. In The Presence Of itself was GREAT. Not my favorite track, it was played great, as I had assumed before, AYAI reminiscence... Then cam the letdown of the show, NO GATES.... Tjee, I raved on that allready before - skip anything but not gates, but alas.... I needed about 15 minutes to recover from that. Anyway, Steve played Corkscrew perfect and also did "In the course Of the Day" - no violin part though. Than they played Starship Trooper, man, this was great! I don't like the initial part as I have heard it sooo many times but Wurm was IMPRESSIVE. Highlight, unexpected! OK, Magnification was next ! They played it in Hamburg and it was "ok" Jon said. Well in Dusseldorf it was more than ok! Great song to hear live, so that got me going even more. After AYAI (great as usual :}) we came to the second highlight of the show - Ritual. Mjam, mjam, was waiting for this one and they didn't disappoint us. Great rendition, great solo's and ohhh, I love the end (Nous Sommes Du soleil - Steve Guitar)... Another song I could never have dreamed to hear live. Thank you Yes!

After that, we could lean back and think it all over. So No Gates, but Magnification... why why. It has to do with the video being shot in Amsterdam, but will I ever see Gates live... It was never performed overhere, so we must keep our hopes on it, but with Magnification in the setlist chances become slim.. Still, the BEST Yes concert I attended, but my hopes are even higher for tonight. Man, how is it possible you can pull off something like this! Great !!.

Ahh, forgot...they played on, doing the People and Roundabout - wel not to be said much about that I think :} The orchestra was very good and very into it, they waltzed and clapped and moving their horns - very nice to see them into this. The conductor was fun to watch as well, as was Tom Brislin. Man his solo's are PERFECT, the CTTE one being PERFECT PERFECT. Exactly wakeman in the ol' days :} The venue, the public, very very nice... Not sold out I believe, but a very nice crowd. I also got the chance to team up with some German friends Matthas and Jochen, which was goood!

So, final verdict: Amazing !
The recording came out splendid :}

Jochen Heyer

What a concert. The best of the few i have seen yet.Although GoD was dropped (but Magnification instead) the set was very good, especially CttE and Starship trooper (one of my favourits!!!). The band was really in a good humour, especially Jon Anderson (may because Jane was sitting right in front of him). Again he was very talkative, singing a short "Düsseldorf - song" and started a short a-capella-version of "It can happen" (after someone has demanded it). After the show the band did not disappoint those fans who were waiting outside for some autographs (now i have copy of "chord of life" with four autographs!!!! only Rick is missing!!!!!!). One last remark: who told Chris Squire to wear these trousers??? (did Alan?)

lenght: 2h30´