zolias

Sunday, September 22, 2024 2:26 PM

Historic day for YES!

Eduardo Ojeda

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 7:56 PM

This concert and The Meeting..... This song, this particular "unplugged" live version has a very special and a very significant meaning for me. I have a story to tell and share with you. A very good friend of mine, a concert promoter, knowing that I and a lot of friends were Yes fans he thought of bringing Yes to my city. And he did made all the arrangements, negotiations and agreements well in advance. Transportation was an issue so he asked me "Would you like to drive for one or two Yes members, you know, airport to hotel, hotel to night private party, hotel to sound check, and so forth.... " my immediate response was YES (since we were very good friends I requested, if possible, I would like to drive for Jon and Rick) and he said OK. It was 2004, the concert date was 22.SEP.2004. Two days before I was driving airport to hotel with Jon as copilot, Rick was on the third seat of my Suburban and the manager of Yes in the middle seat. Airport to hotel was easily a 25-30 minute drive. Before continuing, I need to say that I drove my kids from home to school every morning, a 25 minute ride, and I used to play my favorite Yes songs and other band's songs. So my 2 daughters and my son became Yes fans before their teens. Back to driving to the hotel I told Jon, "Jon you are going to meet the biggest and youngest Yes fan on the planet...... (he was intrigued) and asked who is she? I told him it is my daughter Paulina....... he asked me how old is she, I told him she is 14 years old and he said well that's great.....then I asked Jon, would it be possible to include a song in the concert that Paulina likes very much? I am talking about THE MEETING..... Jon looks back to Rick and asks hey Rick do you think we could perform The Meeting for Eduardo's daughter and Rick responded, of course, I don't see why not". The Meeting was not part of their program. Paulina and I drove Jon and Rick to the concert, we had backstage IDs so I introduced Paulina to Jon before the show and Jon said "so you are our #1 fan, right?" Paulina said yes, almost crying for the emotion. We took our seats, first row on the right side of the stage, the concert went on, Jon noticed where we were sitting/standing/singing. Suddenly the first chords of The Meeting start playing, Jon looks at Paulina and points to her in a very gently discrete manner. The song goes on and the tears along with a smiling face project the emotions of Paulina...... the song ends and Jon looks back to Paulina and points to her. WOW this was an unbelievable moment where my 14 year old daughter and me were being considered/honored by Jon and Rick. It was fantastic..... something I will never forget, being a Yes fan. I do have a testimony, a video of Rick and me where Rick corroborates what I have shared here. I might edit that portion of the video to post it here in YouTube for you to see and hear from Rick. In the meantime please stay safe and healthy. Cheers.

Augusto

Sunday, September 22, 2019 9:09 AM

Squire, Anderson, Howe, Wakeman and White
together for the last time. The end of an era.

José A Salinas

When it became obvious that Yes would not be making an appearance in Texas this year, I was pretty bummed. Then I saw the fairly late addition of a date in Monterrey -- actually closer to me here in San Antonio than Dallas would have been -- and a plan began to form. After twisting my brother's arm and convincing him to accompany me, we found ourselves aboard a south bound plane. We managed to score tickets for seats that were dead-center, behind the soundboard -- the perfect location for the show. I have to disagree with the 90% full estimate; it seemed more like 50-60% from my perspective. Somewhat disappointing, but Arena Monterrey is a large venue, and it's hard to say how well promoted the show was.

Dream Theater was great. I really am not familiar with their music, and am not a big fan of that vocal style, but the set was largely instrumental. The highlight for me, too, of course, was "Machine Messiah" with Alan White guesting on drums.

Between sets, we could observe the crew moving stuff around, getting things ready, blowing up the inflatables. With no warning, the lights went out and "Firebird Suite" began. Then the magic happened.

The sound was great, the lighting effects spot-on. And the music was perfect. The guys seemed relaxed and really appeared to be having a good time. Considering it was the last show of a fairly long tour (really stretching back to 2002), they didn't seem tired. (One of the road crew might have been a little punchy -- he kept popping up, wearing a big sombrero, once even taking a bow when he brought out Jon's harp.)

The set list was fairly typical for the latter part of this tour. No Close To The Edge, no America, but very high-energy renditions of South Side Of The Sky (with a great Wakeman solo introduction), Yours Is No Disgrace, and the encore, Starship Trooper. The highlight, of course, was Awaken.

I feel truly privileged to have been able to attend this show, the last of the 35th Anniversary tour, and, who knows? Maybe the last for this lineup?

JAS

Arturo Puerta

What a way to end the tour!!

Set List:
Firebird Suite
Going For The One
Sweet Dreams
I've Seen All Good People
South Side Of The Sky
Yours Is No Disgrace
Clap
Long Distance Runaround
Wonderous Stories
Roundabout
Owner Of A Lonely Heart
The Meeting
And You And I
Awaken
Starship Trooper

Epic concert in a 90% full venue. The best of the Dream Theatre set: "Machine Messiah" with Alan White on drums along with Mike Portnoy!!
The best of the Yes set: everysong they played!! They even play "Long Distance" twice, the regular acoustic version and a short reggae version.