50 years, 9 months and 26 days ago Monday, February 11, 1974 Atlanta, Georgia Georgia Tech Coliseum 7,000 capacity
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Georgia Tech has a June 26, 2004 feature "1974 Alive at Georgia Tech" about that year's campus concerts, including this show. 1974 was not the first year Georgia Tech held concerts on campus, and certainly not the last, but it’s arguably the most historic. A remarkable nine-month stretch 50 years ago included Chicago; the Doobie Brothers; Earth, Wind & Fire; Kool & The Gang; Lynyrd Skynyrd; Traffic; and Yes — and arena rockers KISS were a show-stealing, opening act here. The steel dome, open floor, and 8,600-person capacity made the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (since renovated and renamed the Hank McCamish Pavilion) one of Atlanta’s largest indoor venues before The Omni opened downtown in 1972.
Mike Sunday, November 22, 2020 2:56 PM We drove up from Tifton, Ga. I remember it was general admission and we stormed the floor. John Martyn was amazing. The sound system was set up in Quad. I was 18. Great show as I remember. Timothy Von Schaaf Alexander Memorial Coliseum at Georgia Tech is a small venue. The smallest I had ever seen Yes in. We had great seats. The musicianship was astounding. I was 18. It was the second time I had seen Yes. It was a symphonic rock event that could never be duplicated today. I still have a Yes button I bought at the gig. It is displayed in my living room to this day. I bought a poster too which I gave to my girlfriend at the time who was with me that night. I consider this concert one of the best concerts of my life. Darrell Byne My date threw-up on my souvenir program. Other than that, it was a fantastic show. Mark Brown This was the second concert I ever saw in my life. I was 14 years old, my older brother Jim and I attended. We arrived at the scene about 5:30pm. This was a general admission concert and we wanted to get close. We waited outside the north gate of Alexander memorial coliseum, watching all arrive. There was(still is actually) a huge hill across from the coliseum. People were stumbling down this hill trying to get to the gate. I imagine the wooded area on top of the hill was being used as a pre concert party spot judging by the condition of the folks stumbling. It was a cool, crisp winter afternoon. As soon as they opened the gates and our tickets were taken, we rushed inside, leaped down the aisle stairs and hit the floor. In my opinion we ended up what would be considered 3 rows back, right in front of Steve Howe's setup. A gentleman( I cannot recall his name) opened the show playing an acoustic guitar and singing. He was pretty good. I remember one song being about a river. The guitar was run through an echoplex. Soon the lights went down, and strains of the Firebird suite began. This lasted forever. As the Firebird Suite ended, Yes appeared and the crowd went wild. Steve Howe started "Siberian Khatru" and let me tell you, it was one of the greatest things I ever saw. Steve was tearing it up. The sound was excellent. Next was "And you and I". A great live version. As soon as this ended, Jon kinda welcomed everyone and then the beginning of "Close to the edge" began. "I remember the "I get up, I get down" section. It was fantastic with some really neat visual effects for that time. I also remember a sonic boom courtesy of Rick Wakeman in the section just before "I get up I get down". Jon was not amused. We were very familiar with "Tales" after it's release that fall, and were really impressed at how well it was performed. The musicianship was almost unfathomable to me. I had never witnessed guys who could play this well. After the "Tales" Sections, came the encore of "Roundabout". The place went wild! The last thing I remember about this show was Wakeman shaking hands with the crowd, and this jerk grabs his cape. I thought Wakeman would kill this guy. He ripped his cape! Turns out later that I went to school with the guy that did it. Later in life he died in a motorcycle accident. |