Ruud E

Last Tuesday I went to see Yes for the third time this tour, now Antwerpen, Belgium.

I will spent one more paragraph on Lichtenvoorde and after that I'll shut up:
I think it's a shame I have to go to Belgium to see Yes again. They should have at least
done one show in the beautiful Heineken Hall where they were in 2001, I think they would
have been amazed by the enthousiasm of the real fans in Holland. Instead of that we only got
a jolly feast at Willow's farm at the end of the world.

Anyway, the venue was a very small theater (about 2000 seats) but everything was very much in style.
You can leave it to our lower neighbours to make nice venues like this one.

The show started a bit late so I had a good chance to look around. My seat, first row at Wakeman
didn't seem to be as good as expected, I was sitting a bit aside, more on that later.

The set before the pause had a lot of energy and, again, everyone was enjoying it very much.
That is, the band and the audience. Something really went wrong in the middle of Turn Of The Century,
but you may not believe it, but I loved it very much! They were searching for clues from each other,
everyone tried, there was a fantastic symphonic sound going on, but alas they failed to find each other
before the well known clue. Magical after all, especially when Jon did his part! They DID look pretty embarrased though. No need to !
The first set of this tour (well, after "People") I think is very good, very balanced between rock, ethereal, atmosphere, just plain fantastic.
Wakeman had big trouble at YIND and since I was sitting at two metres I could see he was VERY angry.
(Tried to relax him but he didn't notice me :} )

After the break (I later heard it was 1-0 for the Germans against Holland at the European soccer event)
they did the fantastic acoustic set, which BTW was a copy of Dusseldorfs' (including Wakeman's Tokyo joke :} )
Highlight here was Wonderous Stories, boy these boys can play!

Let's forget Rhythm of Love (quick!), and go the magic of AYAI - great as allways, but this time, there was MORE!
In the second set, Wakeman's Monitor was adjusted and I got to hear all of what he normally hears.
In Dusseldorf we wondered ourselves sometimes what Wakey is doing in Yes, as his tasks are not as great
compared to his solo performances, but boY I now know why. Rick's completely in trance during playing, singing
along, but especially he's doing wonderful things on his keyboards. He, maestro at the mix, maybe you should
consider putting him much louder, the carpets he lays are extremely wonderful. I don't think he plays the same any
night, in fact he's improvising a lot I think.

The highlight on this was Ritual. This was the first time with Wakeman since 74 (I didn't see them then )
and boy, what he's doing on this is just plain great. Loved every note of it. It in fact became a fantastic ritual,
with chants, drums, timpani's. Alan even had 6 bowls around him in which you can cook a meal
or a warrior from another tribe! (:}) Anyway, it was fantastic, especially what Rick adds in this.
And of course Jon. Finishing Ritual together with Steve is such a great piece. I thought by myself "why don't
they do the Ancient next time" and on a.m.y. I saw equal thoughts. I am sure Rick would love to do it, so guys,
maybe the second U.S. leg?

Ok, time to finish off the show with Trooper. Heard it too many times to get thrilled by this until, he wait a
minute, I was sitting fronrow.. and everyone got on his feet, so I stould against the stage and boy, Rick again
was great! Could see his full soloing on the Moog and hear it, including the low notes in my stomach. That's
another cup a tea, I think! not as good as Wembley 78 but close (ok I was biased by the fantastic sound)

After that it was quickly over, the Dutch fortunately scored against Germany, we had a

Johan Jopecone

Together with my JPCN-friend Nymans we enjoyed the Yes-Show in Antwerp. What a great venue to watch these fine musicians, 500 times better suited for this type of concert than Vorst-Nationaal (where I saw them in 2000). I suggest Yes chooses the Elisabethzaal in Antwerp as their one and only concert venue in Belgium, for the concerts to come. Setlist was flawless (although I wasn't too keen on the extensive drum and bass solo's near the end), sound was close to perfection (except for the opening songs), atmosphere was almost magic. Enjoyed Jon's walk-on-by during Rhythm of love! Thx and see you next time!

Jelle Leistra

I went to see Yes in Antwerpen with my borther and a friend last night, and thought I'd post a review. We also went to two concerts of the last tour, but everyone was so enthousiastic about that one already that I didn't think it was nessicary to post a review that time. This tour on the other hand, there are lots of negative reviews, that I had the feeling that I had to respond...

When we came into the hall about ten minutes to eight, we were very surprised with the size. It was not a concert hall, it was a theatre! I mean, we knew it wouldn't be very big, but this was really small! Got our seats 6th row from the front, completely on the left side. Really nice atmosphere from the start on, the theatre was practically sold out, and we couldn't wait to get started! Firebird suite started, curtains dropped, and what a stage! Beautifully done, you'll have to see for yourself how it is...

Okay, now the concert itself. Kicked of with Going For The One, played one note lower as expected, but so rocking!! Howe took his time before starting it, but o boy when it did start... The balance in the first half of the concert wasn't perfect, but nothing of real interest, Squire was bit loud, and Anderson a bit less in the mix, but nothing we couldn't cope with :-)
After that, Sweet Dreams, very nicely done, I didn't know the song that well yet, but very good. Totally Yes!
I've Seen All Good People was as beautiful as ever, people have to understand that this is also a favourite of the band, look at the fun they have playing it! Never heard a happier tune before...
Than, the Mind Drive suite. This was my first highlight of the show, it was so powerfull...
Rolled into South Side Of The Sky very nicely, and a great performance of that song too...
Then Turn Of The Century. This one was played completely one note lower, not as on the Keys To Ascension DvD where they modulate after the first instrumental part... And that's where it went wrong. In the instrumental part, they lost contact with each other, and at the end Squire put his end base note down but nobody was ready yet... Squire was really pissed of :-) As result, the chorus which is normally a climax, was now a bit of a anti-climax...
Foot Prints. Very nice song, beautifully done.
Back to Mind Drive. Perfect, the band has found each other again!! Also the complete end of the song was played, something we didn't expect really... Perfect!
Yours Is No Disgrace. What an absolutely perfect song is that. It went perfect, but in the instrumental part, some of Rick's keyboards broke down! Didn't want to do anything, Rick was furious! Used another keyboard, but that one didn't do very much... Still it ended great, and so the end of the first part.
After the break, the acoustic set started with Rick behind the piano (a REAL one). Absolutely beautiful, The Meeting with later Anderson coming in, very easily starting after the break. Also, all the little balance problems were completely fixed, the most beautiful sound I've ever heard...
Long Distance Runaround, very nice to hear acoustically.
Wonderous Stories... WOWOW... The next highlight. This was done so perfectly.. There is nothing so difficult then to do an acoustic set, because you hear everything, so also the tiniest mistakes... But there weren't any!
Time Is Time. Okay. Don't really like the song, but still okay.
Roundabout. Was introduced with a great joke, Squire told about writing the new version in Tokyo, and Rick immediately jumped in with a Japanese theme :-))))) A beautiful new version, not to hear all the time, but for once, very nice!!
Show Me, with an extended arrangement, very nicely done.
Owner Of A Lonely Heart. Beautiful!! Still totally Yes, very rocking, wouldn't want to miss it for the world...
Solo Steve Howe, Second Initial. Very nice.
Rhythm Of Love. WOW! Next highlight. This was when they got back to electrical, and so powerfull....
And You And I

Peter Kistemaker

It was my stepson's birthday. It was Holland versus Germany in the footbal competition and it was the night of Yes in Antwerp. A man can only be at one place at the time, so I was in the Elisabethzaal in Antwerp.

A beautiful old venue with limitid capacity and no airco. I had the pleasure of sitting at the 5th row in the B-section in front of Mr Wakeman.

At 8.15 the show started with the familiar sound of Stravinskys Firebird. The setlist was the same as in Düsseldorf as far as I could tell and they kicked ass with their sound from the moment they started with GFTO.

The whole set was performed perfect with the exeption of the Korg Keyboard of Rick that didn't function as it should during YIND and made him starkraving mad on the guys behind the black curtains. For a moment we thought he will walk of the stage and goes home. But the profesionel musician in him won from his anger and he performed the song on a different keyboard untill the Korg was fixed. The acoustic set was in one word: Magnificient and just to see that could make your evening.

After the acoustic set they went one and belw our minds with Ritual and ended the show with SST, By then it was already 11.15 Pm and we knew there would be no more.

Tired from the wall of sound, sweating like a dog because of the unreal heat in the venue, but happy to have watched an outstanding concert we went home to the Netherlands.

My greetings goes to the 2 Spanisch fan's that have watched over 200 Yesshows, are members from Yesfocus Holland and took their holiday just to follow Yes through Europe. What a dedication! Wonderful! See you next time guys.