melorocker

my first yes concert experience and thought i knew about their past i can honestly say it was 90125 album that made me buy a ticket for this show. looking back now i would say that i love everything about that show. the stage, the sound, sights, the voice,the playing even buggs. after this i went on to see them five more times with the classic lineup being feature in four of those concerts.

Yesman Lee

Musician
August, 1984 (#70)
YES
The Ghost of Yesses Past

There's a different Yes now, that's for sure. The former art-rock Yes would never have run Bugs Bunny cartoons before a concert (Bugs Bunny cartoons?!), nor used a dance-beat version of their own "Leave It" as an opening fanfare instead of something by Stravinsky. But the ghost of this old band won't die. Their show in New York's Madison Square Garden - the last date of the group's first North American tour in four years - proved that to a sellout crowd.

Not that it wasn't a good show, with lots of energy, high caliber musicianship and tech wizardry. The present golden age of wireless allowed Trevor Rabin, Jon Anderson and Chris Squire to roam playfully around an 80s-deco slanted metal stage.

Unfortunately, the Garden's lousy sound reduced Yes' transparent textures to the quality of roadbed gravel The band's schizophrenia didn't help; they couldn't make the old material toe the new 90125 line. Vast portions of the crowd spontaneously sang ,along with "Hold On" and "Hearts," but the old songs sat there like a lump. Trevor Rabin isn't Steve Howe. Tony Kaye isn't Rick Wakeman or Patrick Moraz. Since the band didn't revamp its "classics," the audience was compelled to reminisce about how Yes was in the good old days.

Why repeat the past - even with new faces - when there's a bright future to explore? Having made a stunning rock comeback, Yes can afford to leave "Starship Troopers" behind on its path toward new music.

-Freff

Dabronks

Completely agree with Relayer 54 on the sound-especially during Whitefish.Was glad that Rabin put the band back on the map so to speak but I'm definetely a Howe man and missed him.Did enjoy seeing Jon back in the fold as well as Kaye.Felt the band was a bit commercial during this time but they reunited during a very bad time in my life,so it picked my spirits up to see them live again,regardless whom was in the band.My future wife became an official Yessie come lately with Owner of a Lonely Heart which was being played in every retro dance club on the east side of NYC.I thought that this current line up could never play the Topograhic tunes that I love so I just dealt with it and enjoyed.Also roared at the Monsters sneakers during the Bugs Bunny cartoon !

Relayer54

At Madison Square Garden in New York we got 2 Bugs Bunny cartoons. The bullfight one and the one with the big monster (Bugs gives him a hair styling). I wonder whose idea that was to have cartoons? BTW that was the LOUDEST Yes concert I've been to. Had 8th row and the sound went right through me.