Simon Barrow

Sunday, October 4, 2015 5:33 PM

This was the one that got away. Literally. Along with Henry Potts, I met up with some new Yes friends in town before the show. We had some food, met up again, and set off together. Unfortunately, what transpired was a minor road accident. No one was seriously hurt. I was shaken but suffered no physical harm. Henry, however, seemed a little concussed and received a blow which ended up causing a nagging, painful arm injury. It was all very unfortunate, though it could have been much worse. We spent the evening at a local hospital rather than the Charlotte gig, which would have been our last concert of four on this tour, before returning to the UK. We were both particularly sorry to miss out on meeting Pete Whipple personally. I know that there’s an audience recording of this concert. I haven’t heard it yet, but I hope to soon, just to complete the (sound) picture.

VLC

To anyone who has a high quality original master audience tape of this concert - it needs to be shared with the world.

It can be done discreetly, ethically, professionally, lovingly and at no charge or profit starting here: reem@mindspring.com

Must be an original master of the highest quality. Please put "Yes Masterworks Charlotte" in the subject line of any replies

Spiritual Q.C.

WOW,

The words "magical" and "energy" have been thrown around a lot about this show, both by Jon Anderson & reviewers.

Let me tell you it is absolutely true. I have never had the kind of experience I had at this concert. Yes, half way through Gates of Deleirum, the entire audience just could not take it any more and simultaneously stood up and gave the band a standing ovation that lasted through "Soon."

For me, I had to sit down at that point. I felt like wave after wave of sonic energy was washing over me, lifting me higher and higher. I sat down and leaned all the way back in my chair, sunk way down in it.

My wife looked at me like I was nuts and asked what I was doing. I told her in a feeble-gibberish attempt at speech: "....too much... energy.... got to sit....."

I really was flabergasted. They played that song so tight, so dead on, it was scary.

Ritual was incredible too. I can not think of a single negative. We actually won tickets from our local Asheville, NC TV News station. I guess tickets did not sell out because they were giving away a lot of them.

We already had tickets for Atlanta, so we made a big trip out of it.

Atlanta was such a disappointment compared to this show

D. A. Payne

A quick addendum to my earlier rant below.

I know I'm not the only one to have noticed it, but for some reason certain of Igor's keyboard sound selections - particularly those picked for Moraz' parts - were downright unpleasant and annoying. His playing and creativity were supurb throughout, but one tone in particular was simply too harsh and shrill. It sounded like a kind of compressed keyboard noise we frequently hear from today's teenage indy bands, which is I suppose appropriate in such contexts but not in Yes. Yes is about refinement and careful crafting of sound as well as composition. Both Moraz and Wakeman favored Moog sounds considered annoying by some, but theirs had an undeniable richness, texture and layering like fine wine. Igor's "Moog" on this tour did not, perhaps because it was a digital sample, and it failed. Other sounds he used were great - particularly the church organ sample. No such problem was evident in OYE tourboots I've heard [all Igor sounds then seemed just right], which deepens the mystery.

Oh well. A relatively minor blemish on an otherwise superior Yesshow.

Pete Whipple

Notes from the Charlotte 07/28 Yes show.

Didn't see Kansas. Planning for the Charlotte trip was chaotic and after many delays we arrived at the Blockbuster parking lot when Kansas was playing "Dust In the Wind" and by the time we got in the gates and sat down, it was only about 5-10 minutes before Yes hit the stage. That's about a close as you can cut it. ;-)

This was the 'how cheap can you go overnight and see Yes because we just bought our first home' trip. :-) Didn't buy tickets from Ticketmaster and opted to wait until the day of the show and get tickets at the box office hoping they'll cost next to nothing or better yet be free for lawn seats. Earlier in the day before we left Kingsport TN, I checked the Pavilion's web site and it didn't indicate they were giving away freebies and lawn tickets were still 2 for 1. In the Blockbuster parking lot a scalper offered 3 lawn tickets for 1 dollar apiece. Since I was afraid to get up there and have to pay full price. (hey, I had to buy a tourbook you know. ;-)) I bought them only to get the tickets and notice that the dollar amount was $0.00. Yikes, they were giving them away after all. Oh well, it was only 3 dollars.

Despite having to resort to giving away tickets for free (meaning low ticket sales), the place was packed and the crowd was *very* enthusiastic. Not much room on the lawn. We found a place dead on straight in line with the stage about 20 feet from the bleachers. I spent 99.9% of the time watching the video monitors.

The sound was about as perfect as I could ask for even though we were in the cheap seats. We definitely were sitting in the 'sweet spot'. All instruments were loud and clear. Only noticeable faults was the start of CTTE, Igor was nowhere to be found. After a couple of minutes, he gets turned up and was nice and loud for the rest of the night. Even more amazing was how crystal clear Jon's voice was during between song babbles.

The people on the lawn were very noisy but it wasn't too hard to focus on the music and tune them out. Also of note, the people who sat around us were very well behaved and quiet (no shouting for his/her fav Yes tune). Even more amazing, we were sitting down when the show started and the group in front of us jumped to their feet totally obscuring our view. After about a minute or two, one of the guys in the group turned around, realized they were blocking our view, apologized! and ordered his group to sit back down. Very nice crowd. ;-)

Extremely long ovations after CTTE and Gates. (this caused some problems at the end). Lot's of energy coming from the crowd and the band seemed to feed off of it.

It's been a long time since I've gotten so entranced at a concert. I would definitely call this show 'magical'. This is the only Masterworks date I will be attending so I can't compare it to other shows but they sounded very "on" that night. Much better than when I saw them in Louisville '97. Hopefully someone booted the show that night so I can listen again to see if this was for real or one of those "had to be there" type situations.

No real flubs all night. Almost all songs note for note perfect with a few exceptions. The one I noticed was during CTTE when Jon sang one note and the rest of the band played another. On the monitors you could see Jon lean back gritting his teeth and kinda glancing at Chris and Steve with a "ooops, I fucked up" look. Nothing that took away from the song but was just amusing to me.

I nearly had a heart attack when during one song (It might have been Gates), Squire waltzed over to Howe acting like he wanted to jam (ala Trevor Rabin) and Steve looked up and *smiled* at him!!!!

The 3 epics of course where the highlights of the show. The sleeper highlight for me was 'Starship Trooper'. That song sounded so fresh and new to me even though I'm as much burned out on that song as ISAGP/Roundabout/HOTS.

Even though I had only the video monitors to rely on, Igor seemed *very* subdued that night. Maybe he finally learned of the news that charges where brought against him in VA? It sure as heck didn't affect his playing as I sat in amazement of him most of the night. CTTE and Gates were his showcases for sure. I was particularly impressed how well he did Gates and the climatic organ solo in CTTE. Much better than Wakeman ever did on the latter song. He seemed to have improved greatly since I last saw them in '97. I walked away from the show thinking Igor was definitely the best keyboardist the band ever had.

Any reports of Alan White's demise has been greatly exaggerated. ;-)

Squire's solo during Ritual seemed to go on *way* longer than it ever did on Yesshows.

The band obviously ran out of time at the end of the show (probably due to the extremely long ovations they were getting). After ISAGP, the band launch almost immediately into Roundabout at break-neck speed, cut the middle section out and BOOM, show's over. No encore that night. They took their bows and the lights came on.

Alan White actually spoke to the crowd during the final bows. I couldn't understand what he said (I though he said "you want more?" but I could be wrong) Jon look astonished and cried out "Alan White SPEAKS!!! I can't believe it!!"

Regrets about the show.
I never got to meet any of the people I had planned to. Due to our late arrival and the fact we never confirmed our hotel room until we had already on the road for Charlotte, we really couldn't get any solid contacts with anybody. So I really hate it that I missed meeting Henry, Sarah, Eddie and a couple of others. Hope you guy and gals enjoyed the show as much as I did.

Dave Payne

After having viewed Forgotten Yesterdays daily and religiously for almost a year the time is finally right for posting. Saw the Charlotte show Friday, and like [apparently] everyone else was mesmerized. My first Yes concert was 1978, and until now I hadn't seen one to compare. Even the ABWH and Union shows didn't quite do what this one and '78 did - intellectually, emotionally or spiritually.

There is very little I can add to the many articulate performance reviews others have posted, except to say everything positive everyone has said about this show and this edition of Yes is true. One of my greatest regrets in life has been never having seen Yes during the Moraz era. Igor - and this year's dusting off of Gates and Ritual - definitely have made up for it. The Ladder shows were enjoyable, but with exceptions like Awaken were to Masterworks as one of those newly discovered planets is to its star [you can only see the star]. To anyone who never saw Yes in the mid to late seventies and wish they had, DO NOT MISS this one. For those who did and thought they'd never see the like again, even after ABWH and Union, DO NOT MISS this one. I find myself wishing I'd had the extra cash to buy tickets for a number of people who've never seen Yes at all and couldn't be persuaded to make the investment themselves.

The virtuosity of all five musicians was on full display, unfettered by simplistic compositions intended for mass radio markets. Their energy and enthusiasm was in every way commensurate with the material performed. In sum, the London Philharmonic and best conductor in history, all on meth, couldn't have delivered Gates as well. It's as though Jon, Steve, Igor, Alan and Chris finally said "this is what and who we are and always were - let's pull out all the stops".

Shortly I will purchase the "House of Yes" DVD, but my primary motive for doing so is now to provide what incentive I can for a complete Masterworks DVD release. I would hope a complete Masterworks concert on CD would also be made available [especially if it's from Charlotte!].

The only negatives were, as some have already said, in the audience. Details would be tiresome [and in one case revolting], but it's a decent bet if Yes stays Yes for future tours most imbeciles that have been polluting their shows in recent years will be smoked out - at least the younger ones.

Thank you, gentlemen, you are the masters!

Matthew

They played a short version of Roundabout because they ran short on time....perhaps due to the length of the ovation following each song in the set. In fact, they did not even have time to go off stage first, and then return for a "true encore". Alan went up to the mic and said "your welcome", and I heard someone say they only had "five minutes"...hence the abridged Roundabout. LOL.

Awesome show...I saw 4 on this tour, and Charlotte was THE BEST of the lot! Oh my god, indeed! :-)

Jorge Murillo

The people stood up all the way to 1/2 gates of delirium, and they basically gave them a standing ovation after every song. The energy was amazing, They played with all their heart and soul. There was just a little mistake during Ritual where Igor sang backing vocals in the wrong place.. they all laughed a little!

Fish

Charlotte was better than Raleigh... Better performance by the band...more energetic crowd...GoD was perfect (my guitar playing friend said he noticed Steve trying to get in sync with Chris at openning...this bass player didn't notice anything wrong.) However, Chris came in a half beat early on HotS, and at the end of the show, Steve's acoustic was not in the mix at all for openning of Roundabout, so he broke into the riff on the Gibson and we got the abbreviated version...the only disappointment of the evening. Still, the better of the two nights was most definitely Charlotte. At end of ISAGP, as the guys were taking their bows, Allen stepped up to mic and said "You want more?" and the crowd went wild...Jon announced "Allen White SPEAKS!! AMAZING!!" and all took their places for Roundabout. No ducking off stage and then returning, a neat moment. The only other problem at all was just moments into CttE, one corner of a white sail popped loose from its mount, left side and back, but still hung on, after a while, you didn't notice. Better reception and more energy to and from Kansas as well. Walsh gave Charlotte two handstands!! Raleigh saw no hand stand. Both bands were better, more excited, more focused, more responsive to a better crowd in Charlotte than Raleigh. Charlotte marked my 8th Yes concert, and may usurp Tormato as 2nd best on my favorites list. I'll let you know, I'm not quick to judge such things. And now, the waiting begins for Masterworks II (?)