Dieter Hofene

Wow!!! What a marvellous evening at the Europe Hall in Karlsruhe!!!

I had been a little uncertain about this gig before. There had been several songs on the setlist that do not belong to my favourites, and there had also been some negative reviews for the concerts before. But forget all about it! From the numerous Yesshows I've attended during the past 20 years, this Karlsruhe one certainly belongs to the three best ones - unless it was the best one ever. I do not regret one single kilometre of the about 900 kilometres to Karlsruhe and home again.

They guys set off with a fine version of "Going for the one". Astonishing what they managed to get out of such a simple piece of music as "Sweet dreams". Then "South Side of the Sky" - like last year one of the highlights with a tremendous guitar/keyboard-duel between Steve and Rick. The very discovery this evening for me was "Mind drive". As a usual admirer of the seventees Yes records I had only rarely listened to this more current Yes piece - but this time "Mind drive" nearly blew me away. Phantastic!

Then one of the pieces I had been especially looking forward - "Turn of the century". This has been one of my favourite Yes pieces for ages, but I never had the chance to see it played live. And really - an absolute perfect played version nearly brought me to tears. And this was not only for me - many in the audience stood there with a strange glance in their eyes.

The Yes guys, however, could not be stopped this evening. They played with nearly incredible energy. Not even a small technical lapsus (the hall roof was not completely closed when a heavy rain began to fall outside and some of the raindrops invaded the hall) could disturb them seriously. After a short break they continued with "Yours is no disgrace". Steve Howe's pieces - the guitar hero once again made his instrument burning like fire.

A short break of 15 minutes - and then the second part of the spectacle took of. Firstly with an "acoustic part". For about thirty minutes they played some more or less unusual versions of their greatest hits. "Roundabout", "Owner of a lonely heart", "Long distance runaround" and "Wonderous stories" - all played somewhat unplugged.

But this was only the calm before the storm. For the end of the concert the guys had prepared three of their masterpieces. The ever-freshening "And you and I", the gigantic "Ritual" and for the encore the fabulous "Starship Trooper" removed the last doubt. This had been an absolute extraordinary concert event. And obviously not the Yes-Guys - all in their fifties - seemed to be weary, but some of the audience. At least for myself the three hours had been very exhausting - but in a positive way.

The audience had enjoyed this gig very much. As usual there were many listeners of the old Yes-times, but some of them had also brought their children with them. Let's hope that they will be able to see Yes still in the future.