david ryan

I was a 14 yr. old yes fanatic at the time and this was my first concert. I remember wishing Jon and Rick were there instead but loving it. I could not afterwards recall and you and I until I heard a live version w/ harmonica and then bits dribbled back into my memory.
I still can't remember Parallels which suprises me because GftO is my favorite yes album and that was the only song that was a suprise, Oh well maybe memory does improve w/ age.

definately a feeling of the 70's being gone, strange that I should feel nostalgia at my ripe age then.....

Y. Latorte

I was terribly excited to be seeing Yes a second time 'in the round' , because this time I had front row seats. Jon and Rick were gone, but the Drama LP was so impressive, so electric that I was having no doubts it was going to be great. I drove to the show with my brother and two friends in what was known in the neighborhood then as the "Yesmobile" - a 1974 AMC Matador -the model that looked like two pie plates on wheels. It was tan with a chocolate vinyl top!

The concert was in the end hit and miss.

Since it was in the round, being down in the front row of that huge bowl that was the Cap Centre, I could look up into the seating all around and see that 40% were empty. The times they were achangin. It left me bummed that these superb musicians could not be properly supported by folks in the Baltimore Washington corridor. The feeling was the wave had passed somehow, the magic 70s were already the stuff of legend. I was glad when the houselights went down so they and we couldn't see how spotty the crowd was.

Trevor sounded supreme on all the Drama material but couldn't hit notes on certain selections from the standard repertoire. I can remember him straining through "And You and I". I thought "why are they making this guy sing that song, its not working". He seemed very uncomfortable.

We were entirely riveted on Steve and Chris who played well that night and were great showmen. The buddy who scored the tickets (an employee who pulled from the box office in advance of any public purchases, a no-no) was a budding concert photographer and took many great close ups of the two of them. Seeing Steve so close, it was apparent that what he was doing most of the time did not require wincing and body contortions. He made everything sound easy, though I won't forget the string bending that substituted for the fast picking in the middle of Heart of The Sunrise, as if he couldn't muster the speed to do it every time that night or was getting tired. Alan was thunderous that night.

The group seemed somewhat dispirited by the empty seats, yet the crowd that was there were very generous. All in all, another working night for them. Local press was favorable, saying Geoff and Trevor gave Yes a needed shot in the arm. One writer quipped that Yes could become the name of a new detergent ("now with added Buggles") har har. I liked Trevor and Geoff, they brought a different, even refreshing perspective to the Yes vibe, more art-school, less cherubim. It was an interesting development to witness in their history. I couldn't help wonder what Jon thought or why he had suddenly opted out.

One thing you could always depend on from Yes was a reliable chance you'd hear some of the classics no matter what tour.