Matt Putzel

The Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, IN is about 30 or 40 minutes away from downtown Indianapolis. I lucked out big time to be able to attend this show. This was the rescheduled show from a few weeks back and I happened to be in town on business for the make up date. My only regret is some fans that had tickets for the original show were unable to attend to the make up, because they missed a great time.

It’s a shame this is the end of the tour because they are playing tighter than ever. The only miscue I could notice is that Steve forgot to play the middle section of “Starship Trooper” on acoustic and tried to recover mid way through. Other than that, the performance was nearly flawless. It was the best I’ve seen Alan play in years.

The Yes fans in Indiana were a different from what I am accustomed to on the East Coast. There were a number of fans standing the entire time, moving with the music, including one in front of me “raving” to the entire middle section of “Gates” (and blocking my view of Steve I must say). The crowd wasn’t as big as the East Coast crowds tend to be, and I was surprised that a great deal of them left during the show. The ones that stayed were far more into the music than the East Coast fans are though. They were really into it.

A couple of negative things, the acoustics at Deer Creek Music Theater are awful. The echo effect was the worse I heard in recent years, and this was my 18th Yes show since October of ’97. Also, the opening act of Jenny DeVoe was not a good enough act to open for the likes of Yes. It isn’t even the same kind of music. What were they thinking? I realize Kansas couldn’t open because they have their own tour dates, but they should have been able to get someone better.

Greg Meyer

I drove to the show last night from Milwaukee (300 miles) and due to traffic problems in Chicago and getting myself lost trying to find the venue, I missed the entire show with the exception of Roundabout.

I could hear the band finishing up seen all good people as I got out of my car and my heart sank since I thought I was at least early enough to catch Ritual. The lady at the gate was nice enough to let me through just as Roundabout began. As I was leaving I stopped one of the event security guys and explained my dilemma. To my surprise he got me an aftershow pass to meet the band.

This definitely turned around completely what had been an unfortunate evening. I could tell the band was tired but they were still very cordial and signed everyone's memorabilia. I had to pick up an extra Masterworks poster which they all signed and I really appreciate that.

This has been the year of Yes for me since I saw The Ladder tour in Milwaukee and the previous Masterworks shows in Chicago,Nashville, and Atlanta. This show was to be icing on the cake so I had nothing to complain about. Thanks to a few kind hearted people this night turned into something special as well.

Judson Hipps

There is not much to say except, FANTASTIC.

I was 5th row center. Sound was good. Crowd was fine. Yes was awesome. Two absolute highpoints for me were G.O.D. and the drums in Ritual. During the drums in Ritual, Chris smacked his finger on one of the tympani drums and one of his sticks flew, out of control, into the air. Chris, the total pro reached up and snatched it out of mid air and didn't miss a beat!!! It was awesome. Ahh Grasshopper. Once again, regarding GOD, I had always liked the song but I now have to consider it in my top two or three live YES songs of all time. I was blown awayyyyyyyy.........

Thank you guys.

Dave

What can I say but that it was a great show. My favorite Yes tune is "Heart of the Sunrise" but the highlight of the show had to be "Ritual". It was completely awesome!

The crowd was kind of sparse, probably due to the original show on July 13th being cancelled because of Jon's illness and also Kansas not being able to be here. They kicked it from beginning to end. The beginning frenzy of "Close to the Edge" was a little muddled but it cleared up shortly thereafter and the sound was great for the rest of the show. The only other noticeable problems were when Chris seemed to be having a small bit of trouble with something in his rig early in the show and Steve's roadie not getting him his guitar at the correct point in one of the songs (I forget which).

Of course, Chris wore spandex again. The guy's lost a lot of weight, but he's still too large and old to even have the slightest chance of looking good in that outfit. Steve wore the straight-out-of-the-70's green pants again. Well, they all played fantastic, so they could have come out in their underwear and still kicked some backside.

It's amazing how great Jon sounds at 55, perhaps singing better than he ever has. His voice is definitely as good as it was 20 years ago and his intonation and tone are much improved, IMO. Chris was his usual self lumbering all over the stage and easily being the most active of the group while laying down his mean bass lines. Steve, though he's 53, he looks more like 70 but the guy is still an incredible player. Igor was as good as the reviews I've been reading of him. Alan's drumming impressed me more than it did when I saw them in '97. I still much prefer Bruford, but they can't go wrong with White either.

The set list went as follows (I may have a couple songs out of order, so correct me if I'm wrong)

Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
Close to the Edge
Starship Trooper
The Gates of Delirium
"Leaves of Green" Excerpt
Heart of the Sunrise
Ritual - Nous Sommes Du Soleil
I've Seen All Good People
Encore: Roundabout


All in all, the show clocked in at around 2:15 or so and was well worth every penny and minute spent.