your_host

Sunday, August 9, 2015 6:43 PM

Folks:

If you have general comments to make about this Yes tour, add them to the 'Overview' page for the tour, not on an individual gig page.

to get to the Overview page for the current tour, click here

[Link]

Kurt Schweizer

Saturday, August 8, 2015 8:25 PM

Xavier, There has been some footage from some people on Facebook, mostly in the group called "Yes Fans of All Incarnations". So far, though, there are only excerpts. But, most of the songs from the show are represented.

Rabin105

Saturday, August 8, 2015 10:35 AM

Last night's show was amazing. Billy was great Jon was great Steve was Great Geoff was Great and Alan was phenomenal.

Highlights for me

Don't Kill The Whale
An amazing opener
Time and A Word
A brilliant and surprising track
owner
Always a favorite
Going for the one
billy sounded good on this one

Over all the show was amazing and here is hoping next summer they do Drama and Relayer

Xavier Gonzalez

Saturday, August 8, 2015 9:59 AM

Kurt,

Where is this footage from this show that you mentioned?

Simon Barrow

Saturday, August 8, 2015 9:40 AM

This is a piece of history Yes will not want to have made - the first ever Yesshow without Chris Squire. But kudos to Billy and the band for stepping up to the plate. Thousands of fans across the world will (like me) have been tuning in from afar, as well as those present.

A photo of the opening tribute - a darkened stage with a spotlight on a Rickenbacker bass where Chris would have stood - has rightly gone viral on the 'net. Playing 'Onward' with a backdrop of shots of Chris was a good, emotional touch.

Onstage remark from Jon Davison: “We’re all celebrating the magic of music – but also the remembrance of a great friend. We love you, Chris.”

Later he added about Billy Sherwood: “I think it’s about time we acknowledged this bad-ass cat.”

Steve Howe: “This is a very special night for us, and a very special tour. Thanks for letting us share it with you.”

Steve Smith - Rolling Stone

Friday, September 16, 2022 4:29 PM

Yes Play First Show Since Chris Squire’s Passing

Prog legends soldier on following death of bassist-cofounder in June

BY STEVE SMITH

AUGUST 8, 2015

Weeks in advance, well before the venerable British progressive-rock band Yes took to the stage last night, members of the group had told the media that their show would include a tribute to Chris Squire, the late bassist, singer and songwriter without whom they had never performed since convening in 1968. What shape that salute might take when the lights in the Grand Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, went down on Friday, was a subject for passionate speculation among fans.

For many, the notion of a Yes without Squire must have seemed unthinkable. A towering presence, he was the band’s lodestone in bright days, its anchor in turbulent times. Diagnosed with acute erythroid leukemia earlier this year, Squire directed his bandmates — singer Jon Davison, guitarist Steve Howe, keyboardist Geoff Downes and drummer Alan White — to undertake a planned summer tour alongside Toto with Billy Sherwood, a multi-instrumentalist and former Yes man, in his spot. Prior to his passing in June, Squire urged Yes to carry on without him for the long term.

When the time finally came, you felt as if it could have been no other way. With “Onward,” the sublime ballad that Squire contributed to the band’s 1978 album, Tormato, floating out from the P.A., a single spotlight picked out Squire’s signature white Rickenbacker bass, positioned on a stand in the spot where Squire started countless shows. Photographs of the late bassist through the years appeared on a screen overhead, aswirl in rainbow colors and constellations.

The gesture conveyed the gravity of the situation with dignity. Grown men wept aloud.

From there, though, Yes took to the stage with an almost desperate glee, kicking off the first set of an unanticipated new chapter with “Don’t Kill the Whale” (also from Tormato) and “Tempus Fugit,” from 1980’s Drama — the still-divisive cult favorite that resulted when another founding member, vocalist Jon Anderson, departed for the first time, and when Downes initially came aboard.

For observers who expected Yes to play it safe with a handful of canonical classics certain to go down well with listeners who drifted in from the slot machines, this was a gamble that showed the group isn’t ready to be relegated to the oldies circuit. If what followed was the stuff of countless set lists, including nothing more recent than “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” from 1983’s 90125, the diverse song selection still strayed well beyond the band’s most verdant years.

As has often been the case at Yes shows during the last decade, the band didn’t jell immediately. The gait of “Whale” was more lumber than limber, and “Tempus” was afflicted with timing issues. But on “America,” a durable recasting of the Simon & Garfunkel song, Yes felt dialed in and confident, qualities sustained and reinforced during a rowdy “Going for the One” and an airy, wistful ‘Time and a Word.”