Barry GB

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 12:32 AM

I was there .... a nostalgia thing, as I had seen YES open at that very same venue in 1971 for Tull (see about the riot). This recording is very good. Look at how long they played!!!!
37 years later, I looked at the end of the hall where the stage had been in 71, and in my mind, I saw it again.

Barry Rogoff

Paul, you can contact me (b_rogoff) via the members list on the YesSwap Yahoo group. (You have to join the group to see it.) I'll tell you how to get the show.

Paul M.

The Yes 2008 band was better than I thought it would be.Benoit David sounds like Jon 20 years ago,if you were not looking you would say that i'ts Jon,although he looks like Jon also.I have seen Yes 20 times now,my first one was 1978 at the Boston Garden,this show ranks right up there with the other great shows. Unfortunately I got busted with my tape recorder,I saw there is an audience recording of the show,if anyone can tell me how to get this I would highly appreciate it.Thanks for another memorable show Yes forever!

Steve Bucel- from the Shire

Before I am swept back into real life I must plead with all still sitting on the fence to see this show. Being a fan for 30 years, Yes is a special place for my friends & I (alive & moved onward.) On an emotional level the lyrics & music renewed my faith in man & refreshed my balance in life. When I walked up the long wooden stairway to the Ballroom I had a great sense of anticipation. There was an aura here going back to the historical premier of Yes in the 1971 American Tour. Warming for Tull on a hot July night riots ensued, The National Guard was called in to quell the crowd, and Yes had arrived. Benoit singing was an easy fit and he nailed the part in CTTE singing "I get up, I get down" closing my eyes from the intensity of it all,the cresendo built by Oliver sent a rush right up through the hair on my head. It was a spiritual moving sound picture show, the Wizard of Oz of all songs. Cathartic.

Dan Weinreb

I have been a huge Yes fan since about 1973. In recent years I've seen them perform five times, vastly enjoying it every time. Last night's show was lots of fun. Benoit David sounds uncannily like Jon Anderson and got every single note right. He's fun to watch and energetic. As much as I love Jon Anderson, if, God forbid, he should never regain enough health to tour again, I would then be happy to listen to Benoit any time. Oliver Wakeman was somewhat disappointing; he certainly does not play as well as Rick, and during many of the good keyboard parts he seemed to be playing a simplified version that required less virtuosity. But that didn't spoil the concert. Steve Howe is still totally on top of his game, and was particularly energetic last night compared to some previous concerts. I highly recommend this tour for anyone on their future path.

Patrick McCormack

yeah I know, already posted my review but just had to add this part.
There's one in every crowd, right ?
One fan went rogue at Hampton Beach, (to add a Palinism) mid-set, think it was during 'And you and I'. right up front & against the stage, that happy bugger started conducting the band. Doubt he was in any time signature, arms flailing and all, looked like a poor chap in Dante's Inferno tripping on Satan's best acid, a clean burn from his position no doubt, but tough if you were within 100 ft. of him, eventually he was shut down and co-operated without a big fuss.
From up on the stage it must have looked hilarious, unless you were Benoit David, but he did not miss a beat.
I noted that other show reviews in Canada mentioned their seeming lack of togetherness, for me that ruggedness of finding their place while playing added muscle and interest to the show, having seen about 12 shows back to the late seventies, this is a stripped down outfit, no inflated squids looming over their heads, raw music, loud and just kicking their way out of the rusty cages that 4 years without touring places around them......

Paul

Well for my first Yes show ever I could not have been more pleased. The whole band was great tonight, especially Steve, though he seemed to have a few technical difficulties, most notably with Mood for a Day, which he stopped playing, probably because it was hard to hear it. Chris and Alan were both very good as well. Benoit had a great stage present, he certainly seemed to move around more than Jon did (though I had never been to a concert with Jon, just seen videos, etc). Oliver overall did a pretty good job as well. He seemed to have some technically difficulties as well in the first half of the show, but seemed flawless in the second half.

The setlist was great too. I was happy to hear many of the hits from the classic era, as well as the two Drama songs which was awesome. I could have lived without hearing Owner of a Lonely Heart, and was a little disappointed that they dropped South Side of the Sky, but since it was replaced with Starship Trooper it was all good.

I've only been really into all of Yes' music for the past two years or so, but my dad had a copy of the Fragile album that we would listen to often in the past, so I have been familiar with that for a long time, and my anticipation for the CTTEAB tour and then this one was very high. I felt very privileged to be able to see such amazing musicians perform tonight, and hope to do so a few more times before they decide to hang it up.

Patrick McCormack

It was with a small amount of trepidation I went to see Yes play at Hampton Beach, NH just this past night. The tickets had been bought prior to my knowing it was not Jon Anderson singing, but having seen my first show in Munich of the radical 90125 shows who was I to assume all would be amiss, and I can assure you, all was not.

From the opening bars of 'Siberian Khatru' it was plain this is a band on fire, yet again, by the end of 'I've seen all good people' the ever positive Yes fans had wholly embraced both newcomers, Oliver Wakeman and Benoit David.
The stacatto style that Wakeman jnr. brings to his playing does stir memories of the early Tony Kaye sound, his father plays with more fluidity, there's acertain roughness to his son's playing that made me feel as though it was 1970 and not in a bad way, very vintage and warm, well up in the mix too.
'Astral Traveller' appeared to lurch in and out of focus, at times seeming to slow or accelerate, it really felt like it had been cut the day prior and the band was ironing out the kinks, it rocked hard.
Steve Howe's playing was stunning and dare I say it loose, it had a certain bite or agressiveness that I had not noticed from past shows over the years, to my ears he may have been using different amps than typical, I was not close enough to the stage to tell.

Two cuts from DRAMA made the show, 'Tempus Fugit' and 'Machine Messiah', the latter casting a dark and menacing sound over the room, a great song overlooked too much for their past live shows, it makes a strong impact.
If any one song tested the mettle of Benoit David for me, it has to be 'Heart of the sunrise', he nailed it higher and higher each chorus round, never faltering, by then the crowd was in his hands.
White and Squire were tight as ever, like the sun and moon always revolving and anchoring the band's sound.
This incarnation was a machine to behold, tight and loose at different times, a musical beast that takes risks still in their shows, their new parts just adding to the whole, what is left to prove, but they still do, this show needs to be seen and heard by all Yes fans.

Jon Anderson was there in spirit, being chanelled and honored by the show Benoit David gave, without him, there could be no show. My deep love and respect goes to all the band members, past and new, but tonight most especially to Jon Anderson, being asthmatic myself I can only imagine the hardship it must place on a vocalist and I hope he recovers soon and back on the stage, a truly irreplaceable artist.

Relayer

Wow, they opened for Jethro Tull here on July 13, 1971