I was relieved when they rescheduled this show to go on a week later.I got rediculed at the job I had at the time by my anti-yesfan co-workers when they announced that the first date was cancelled.I went with my sister, my cousin and his wife. My cousin scored the tickets for us and we had pretty good seats. The show was Fantastic!I wished they would have done 1 or 2 more songs from the Union CD,but at the time I didn't realize how much the band members disliked the album.JON sounded Great,you couldn't tell he was ill just a few days before.All of the band seemed to be getting along on stage well, although it did look a bit crowded up there.During "HEART OF THE SUNRISE", RICK WAKEMAN made a slight mistake, but being the pro that he is,he recovered quickly. You could see him laughing at himself when that happened. I really enjoyed the "DRUM DUET" with(of course)BILL BRUFORD and ALAN WHITE.CHRIS SQUIRE"S bass solo was great, and I liked how they ended with ANDERSON singing "AMAZING GRACE". One of my favorite highlights was at the climatic end of "AND YOU AND I".SQUIRE'S Earthshaking bass sound was the best I EVER heard on this song. My sister, of course,Loved TREVOR RABIN'S Solo. "AWAKEN" was Stunning, to say the least!I liked the Spacey guitar sound that RABIN added to the last "HIGH VIBRATIONS"part of this Epic song.Yeah it was a shame that they didn't do "STARSHIP TROOPER".Still it was an AMAZING SHOW!!! It's also a shame that YES didn't release a live recording(both audio and video)of this Great tour, but at least we have some decent bootlegs of it out there ( of which I own, thank god).Maybe YES has Something waiting in the Vaults(hint..hint).Time will tell.
Tom O
This show was the rescheduled show that was originally supposed to have been on 4/30. The media reported the afternoon of 4/30 that the show was cancelled due to the illness of Jon Anderson. When they then said that it was resceduled for the following week, which turned out to be 5/6, I felt a lot better! I was afraid that someone in the band might have died when I first heard that the show had been cancelled. Usually that's the way it goes in rock.
I had crappy seats in the upper deck and was overrun with reverb in this basketball arena that wasn't meant for good sound, but the view was awesome. I still wonder to this day what happened to the recordings from this tour. Jon announced during the show that they were recording (I think before they played I've Seen All Good People) and even pointed to equipment in the ceilings of the stadium that was supposed to be doing the recording. There is obviously a lot of live material in the band's possession from this tour (a bootleg I have of this tour also had Jon mentioning that they were recording) and probably some whole concerts judging from the Yesyears video that showed them playing live in the round. I wish they would put it out - it was a very special tour that probably won't happen again. The "In The Round" portion of the tour was much more interesting than the traditional stage setup on the second, summer leg. The Japanese video of the last show of the U.S. summer leg of this tour in California at the Shoreline Amphitheatre doesn't do it justice.
Bob Sanks
The stage was crowded with all the guys. It was sad to see Steve & Rick just sitting under stage while the rest of the band played the 80's Yes tunes.
Mark Miller
Firebird into Yours is No Disgrace, it was the best tune of the night, well maybe Awaken. PA announcer tells crowd the show will be about three hours long. Cool!!
Highlights: Jon's story about the conception of Long Distance Drum duet/ Bill Bruford and Alan White In the round stage and lighting Chris' awesome bass sound/ unbelievable Trevor playing dueling banjos Chris getting a standing "O" for playing one note./ unbelievable Jon's voice
Lows: Rick and Steve looked like they didn't want to be there Trevor playing dueling banjos by himself Stage was too crowded No Starship Trooper/ it was highly anticipated by everyone Chris' solo (fish) was a pretty weak performance
All in all it was a very enjoyable evening. Sound for the Rosemont was good largely because of Chris' unbelievable bass sound. He literally boomed the whole place and when he uses the petals watch out the rains come falling down. Owner was pretty scratchy and distorted and Shock To The System was slow and redundant. Lift Me Up was odd with Rick trying to look like he was into it. Kind of weird putting that group on one stage but it will be remembered thats for sure.
Diane Westerfield
Chicago concert, 5/6 We had seats in the upper tier. The crowd was composed mainly by jean-jacket WASPs getting drunk and being really noisy. Our neighbors moved in and out of the row about eight times. Hence, the environment wasn't all that great.
The band was LOUD. Very loud. So was the audience. The stadium pulsated to "All Good People" and to a lesser extent, "Owner of a Lonely Heart." The Lovecraftian thing hovering over the stage (those are tentacles, not arms) put on a good show for "Awaken," but morons couldn't keep quiet during the mellow parts which kind of ruined it.
There were hisses for Trevor's solo, for Rick's solo, and for "Awaken."
I don't know what else to say, except that Yes was entertaining. We were too far away to see them very well and we had no binoculars. They played well. It was all too brief and distant. They didn't do "Starship Trooper" which was a big disappointment to everyone. The band members seemed friendly to each other, although when the guitarists collected in the center and played at each other, Trevor and Chris had a tendency to get really close and exclude Steve.
Unknown
I saw Yes on the recent Union tour in Chicago at the Rosemont Horizon. Before 'Seen all Good People--Your Move' Jon said that they were going to record and that everyone should join in.