Guide Vocal

Although it's a miracle to see my heros (Howe, Squire, White) play the best music ever, these shows are so inferior to what they use to do it's scary. At this stage of the game even with Rick and Jon it would be just a bit better. They both have health issues and it would be a real struggle. This is a SUPERGROUP that is not super anymore. If they put on shows like this, and played like this in the 1970's this web site would not exsist. Too bad they can't give newcomers a glimpse of what use to be. Some 15 year old next to me says to his father, hey dad this guy on guitar is amazing. His father said son, he is nothing now. You should have seen him in 1977. The son says wow I can't even imagine that. You try to get pumped up during Firebird Suite, only to go into a super slow, sloppy Siberian Khatru. Instead of holy cow who are these guys, it's whatever.

steve from the bronx

Great to see Yes on Valentines Day. My 42nd Show. Same setlist from last time except they Dropped Close to the edge and Long distanc and the fish. My highlights were South side of the sky and Steves solo acoustic Masquerade. He truly gets more amazing every time. The only problem was the venue was hot beyond belief. My wife Deb went outside for air at least three times. It was great seeing my friend Bobby jughead at the show. He told me about Yes when we were young. He has not missed a tour since 1972 and myself since 1977. Beniot Souded amazing on Onward. They had a samallm power failure during lonely heart. All in all another cool yes Experience. ME.Deb AP and Lee had a ball. Only regret they should juggle the setlist once in a while. Peace and see you all soooon!!!!

Mike Yesfan

YES Killed....What a GREAT Weekend of Shows! Nothing beats a Live YES Shows and YESFANS partying ;-) ...GREAT Setlist and The Band is in Top Form. They are having fun playing for US and it shows in the shows...It is Great to read all the reviews of people being touched by this YES Music. The Music will live with us Forever. Thanks to Band for bringing us these Live shows! We ALL Miss Jon and Jon will Always be a Big Part of YES but I Love the way the band is playing and it's 2010, so i'm just sitting back and listening.

John C

Standard setlist. The Howe solo pieces were Masquerade and Second Initial.

The non-musical highlight for me was when Chris said "Nothing says 'be my valentine' more than going to a Yes show".

The Khatru solo was really good. I was going to toss this off as an average show but reading Magnus' review, and remembering seeing tears on the face of a woman in front of us while they were playing "And You And I", there really is no such thing as an average Yes show.

She asked me before the show started if Oliver was up to it, and how Benoit was. I said Oliver's got his chops together, and Benoit... I told her that the trick is to get past the fact that its not Jon Anderson. In the middle of Siberian Khatru she turned to me and mouthed "Wow".

I know there's a lot of angst in the reviews about Jon not being in the lineup... I remember being pissed in 2008 the first time I saw Benoit sing "And You And I", thinking "That's Jon's Song!". But I got over it quickly enough. Then again I'm a big Drama fan so I was halfway towards accepting this lineup, and I can't imagine a better stand-in for Jon than Benoit.

Its not like they kicked Jon out (I don't think). He had a really serious medical incident related to his lungs, and in all likelihood can't do long rigorous tours singing the way we'd like to hear. Its sad but I'm glad they found an understudy. I needed my live Yes fix again.

Another think I try to remember is that Yes' lineup is always changing and rarely what we'd like it to be.

Ron

Sundays show was very nice, so many memories. But like you had mentioned a certain concert in 2004, May 13 to be exact, I was there when they performed and you and I .
I was in the 12th row and I brought my wife my son 20 and my daughter 12 who came to tears when And you and I was played and the crowd sent such an overwhelming wave of emotion that they had to stop for a few moments. It had to be the best performance of that I had ever or will ever see again. Glad you got to see it too.
Somebody should put that out there.... (YouTube) or part of a DVD collection, but that particular night....it was magic

Jill

So touched after reading Magnus' review for the 2/14 show. I remember crying during "And You and I" a few years ago when YES played in MSG. The crowd went wild and Jon Anderson had to wait till the endless applause died down before he could finish. That's a concert moment I'll always treasure. While we all miss Jon Anderson, the band still sounded fantastic and reminded me of the YES 8-tracks I used to listen to back in the day! So great to see that the "younger generation" also appreciates the great music and great musicians.

Ted Northridge

I know this forum is for reviews and I read them all, but I just can't help but respond to Magnus' review. His words are the greatest tribute to Yes' music that anyone could write. He's only a senior in HS and feels so emotionally moved by the music that he's brought to tears. That happens to me too, but this music is the backbone of my emotional/musical life.
It brings me joy to hear that the music we love stirs such emotion in a young person's heart, even though the music was created well before their existence.
YES is truly the classical music of our time.

Magnus

im a senior in high school and ive been listening to fragile for four years now. But the past year ive been listening to all of their albums and have all their lps. I was not expecting to see what i saw last night. It truly was an amazing show. Their opening song siberian khatru was totaly ridiculous(in a good way). Steve Howes solo literaly made me start crying. It was flawless. As i got all chocked up, I had to ask myself how something like that could make me start crying. It was the only live show that made me feel like that(and ive been to alot of live performances). I also bawled during steve howes guitar solo in yours is no disgrace and the opening of and you and i. I dont know how i got so emotional because of those songs. I must have heard their entire set a million times through my record player. A must see performance

Erica Klein

This was my 7th Yesshow, and the second with this lineup. The guys sounded incredible last night, better than they did when I saw them at the end of July in Westbury, LI. It seems like this lineup is really starting to gel, and they were just ON last night. Steve was on fire all night, and Oliver actually really impressed me this time around - I think he's starting to find his niche in the band. Chris was fantastic as always, and I don't care what anyone says about Benoit, he's got a great voice and does more than justice to the music, and he's damn fun to watch on stage. Poor Alan seems like he's really winding down though - I noticed Chris repeatedly and visibly helping him keep time, and there was one point in the first half of the show where the entire band was off-kilter for a good 10 seconds or so because he had the wrong tempo.

The sound balance was rather off, I thought - Chris's mic was much louder than Steve's and Benoit's, and often I couldn't hear Benoit at all unless he the instrumentation was rather low. Onward (which was incredible and beautiful and made me cry) was a good example - he shone in the upper registers and the harmonies were perfect. But in something like Astral Traveller where he was singing alone with a lot of background music, he really got drowned out.

That aside, the Town Hall was a great venue, attractive and small so that even in the balcony I felt really close to the band, though the seats were quite cramped. Good, mostly energetic crowd, and kudos to the crazy folks in the corner of the balcony who spent a good portion of the show dancing like no one was watching - stuffed into my tiny seat with a bunch of relatively stoic concert-goers in my immediate vicinity, I would have loved to join you but was too self-conscious :(

Dave MacCormack

I really enjoyed the show, I saw them when David first joined them a while back...wow they have home a long way. Astrial Traveler was perfect. I kind of miss the "old days" of the light show with the music....showing my age.
It was a good show the sound was good.
Like antonio said I saw that nonsense the fellow with the Gray shearling coat what he did, what a wuss picking on a 5 foot tall woman with a full cast on her arm. Guess he had to find someone he thought he could take EPIC FAILURE on his part. LOL didnt notice her husband did ya..
Both shows were great.

Brett Millering

Just got back from the Yes Valentine's day show and I must say I was very surprised. When I saw them in 08 Benoit and Oliver were just getting their feet wet and I thought for all intents and purposes Yes were dead in the water.

That said, they seem to becoming more comfortable over time and Benoit does an admirable jon handling the vocals while Oliver just shines and reminds me a lot of his father! From my 3rd row seat it looked and sounded like the band were in fine form. Steve was just fantastic and he never ceases to amaze on such classics as "Astral Traveller","Yours Is No Disgrace", "And You And I" and the topper was "South Side Of The Sky" in which Oliver was given synth leads at the end much in the same way that Steve and Rick traded off each other back in 04. From the opening notes of "Siberian Khatru" to the encore "Starship Trooper" I was simply spellbound! It was a pleasure to hear "Machine Messiah" this time around also. One of my favorite Yes pieces that I'm glad found its way back into the setlist. I found this and overall extremely pleasant experience and vocally and musically Yes has never sounded better to me albeit with the major changes they've had to endure. I think they've come through triumphantly and I'll be sure to catch them again and again until the day they call it quits!! Great music never gets old and Yes proved that to me tonight!

Antonio

Was a nice show, was good to see them. It was nice to see them having fun . There were a couple of mistakes ie: The beginning of Owner of a Lonely Heart. But that just the way things go. Cant wait to see them again. The only downer was the red headed guy in the orchestra section Row R seat 108 who was obviously high on something, body-checked a woman who had a broken arm. Was really lovely to see her husband elbow him in his face...looked like he started to cry X-D