Joe Campbell

Wow! I just got back a few days ago from Kansas where I saw YES play the most amazing and breath-taking show I have ever attended by any group yet! Despite the boring opening band, the show flowed very well. Kansas started and played a whole bunch of high-pitched cheeze-metal. Their original memeber Kerry Livgren came out for the almost un-bearable frat-rock classics: 'Dust in the wind' and 'Carry on my wayward...' and I must say: "what was the reason for this? You couldn't even hear the guys playing!?!?!

So after Kansas had finished and the fans stopped yelling "hee-haw" Yes came on.

At first, everyone was into the opening number: "close to the edge" I was struck with awe. After CTTE they broke into Starship trooper and by the time that song was over, a friend of mine and guitar mate in my group said: "I don't know how to play guitar, I don't know what I am even doing at all, I have no idea." And Yes, Howe was amazing as anyone could have predicted. But the main star of the show is Chrs Squire. He seems to be the most featured artist on this tour. From the couldron-drum playing on 'ritual', to the over-powering Bass sounds in 'Gates ..'and 'Heart of the Sunrise', Chris was going nuts, and finally convinced me to side with those who have preached him as a "god" of bass guitar, and Yes. By the time Ritual was over a small percentage of the crowd had left. And the moron in front of me that wouldn't shut up through the whole show was yelling "no more experiences" and other completely idiotic spurts at Yes for doing something creative and interesting. This fool was constantly ruining my experience and making a complete fool of himself in the process, and by the time the last number: 'Roundabout' started, he looked back at me and tried to give me 5 like I was as excitied for this 'hit song' as he was.

I gave Yes a standing ovation for every song and most of the crowd did too. As far as the songs go, Gates is the best version yet, Ritual cannot be missed. And again, I am almost thinking Yes brought Kansas with them only to show how great they themselves are....I know I wouldn't want to have to try to play with Yes if I was them.

This is as true a YESshow as there ever was, Yes is doing something risky this time out, and if you are a fan, go and see this show, if you are a musician, you will lose BIG-TIME if you miss this show. This is the most incredible display of musicianship possible in the year 2000, and if you miss it, too bad for you, and I mean that I am actually hurting for those who miss it, it ails me to think that one would skip this tour. It was my third show ever and my 2nd tour so, I am speaking from a fresh Yes mind and know that this is the best they can be at this stage!

PS : Kansas was a very boring state, and it wasa sad to find out that the majority of the seats were FREE ticket give-aways to people in town. The WHOLE Bonner Springs city was there, and hardly anyone knew anything but Britney Spears, yet yes!

Mike

What a fantastic show and set. I can't ask for much more from yes '96-2000. They've covered so much ground, it's incredible really. Fantastic. So here's the bad news.

I Set out to record this show as I always try to do. In the parking lot I grabbed my deck, three tapes especially for long songs, and uh, my mic. Where's my mic?! No mic. Obviously being 7:15 pm and 200 miles from home I new I was screwed. Still, my wife still cheered me up and I enjoyed the show tremendously. We even walked up to the front row during the last song, what a treat and my friend found a backstage pass on the ground and gave it to me 'cause he felt bad...

Adam Dean

WOW!!!

This is one of the best shows I've ever seen! Kansas were good, but Yes, oh this is probably one of the best shows they have ever done! The setlist is the same as all the above shows, so I won't post that, but I will describe a few of the songs. If you want to be surprised by what you see, then I suggest you don't read the rest of this review!

Gates Of Delirium-

I'm so glad I got to see this one. They did a wonderful job on this. One of Igor's keyboards however shorted out on this one, and he was really mad at the sound engineer. However, it was fixed in a minute. By the way, these new Yamaha keyboards really get good Mini-Moog sounds! "Soon" was absoulutely beatuiful.

Heart Of The Sunrise-

Chris Squire was the big star here! His bass playing was well mixed and I'm not sure he ever played better! He was on fire that night!! Also Igor stuck to Rick's part note for note and it sounded great! Even Alan played some of Bill's parts more the way that Bill would. It was still radically different (which is not a criticism, I like the way Alan does it), but very interesting. Igor's solo was awesome!

Ritual-

This was great! One interesting thing in the beginning was the keyboard section about a minute in the song. Igor is playing the solo while Jon is playing the melody! I was shocked you could actually hear Jon! Sounded great! Chris's extended bass solo was just amazing. I'm still coming down from that one. He was just awesome. The drum section was great and loud! Igor actually came out and played some timbales, and Alan triggered all that mellotron stuff with his electronics drums! A great performance.

Anyway, I can't really spoil anymore than I already have!

-Jon Anderson

This guy can still sing! It's amazing with how old he is (not a put down!) that he still has a wonderful voice.

-Chris Squire

Like I said, he was just on fire at Sandstone! He sounded great, was really enjoying himself, and was interacting with the people in the front row. He was one of the big highlights for me. Good job Chris!

-Steve Howe

I don't think I've mentioned him so far! He was great! He looked a little tired for some reason, but his playing was still your typical Howe. He sounded great, and I'm really happy he is playing with Yes again.

-Igor Khoroshev

I will always miss Rick, but man, I just love this guy. He can not only play Rick's parts note for note, but he has the spirit of Tony Kaye in him as well. He just simply has everything down, and is very orginal as well. If he's not an official member yet, please make him one!!

-Alan White

Being a drummer myself, it was great seeing Alan. He (as always) was playing really solid that night, and sounded just great on the drum solos in Ritual. He and Chris together are truly one of the best rhythm sections around. Beware when he hits rimshots. They are loud!! Good job Alan!

Great job to the whole band! I hope you guys are recording all the shows, because it would be great to hear a live album of this tour. Just to hear an updated "Ritual" or "Gates" is good enough for me. Anyway, enough rambling. Good job, and good luck on the rest of the tour.