travis

i haven't seen any mention of the fact that "the firebird" stopped playing unexpectedly and you could see jon and the rest of the band looking around with that "what the f" look on their faces. i think that threw them off for a bit because it was not as tight a show as the evening show in philly the previous weekend. the great part was to see tales in its entirety again

oliastales

does anyone know where I can obtain a copy of this show?
Guitarmagik@comcast.net

David

I attended this show, sitting behind the stage. The truth of the matter is, I threw up during John Martyn's (combination of too much drink and the music) set and remember little of the entire evening. My head was spinning out of control and ugh. I took the bad evening out on Yes and stopped listening to them. My bad.

Rich Spike Procassini

This was my first Yes concert, and third overall concert (after Procol Harum and The Dead). The ticket was a 16th birthday gift from my parents (thinking back on it, that is pretty cool). Before this show, I was a pretty committed Dead Head, and the only Yes music that I had heard before was 'Fragile' (on an 8-track no less: Remember those?). I thought that "Heart of the Sunrise" was neat, so my friend said we should go see Yes live at The Garden. I really had no idea what to expect. I was blown away! Suddenly, the Dead were a great band, but Yes was phenomenal. I had never really experienced long, composed (not just jammed) pieces of music with those qualities of texture and beauty. After the show, my friend told me that the eight songs play were from only three albums, and I was stunned. The simple beauty of playing 'CttE' and 'TfTO' in their entirety, with the omnipresent "Roundabout" for an encore was a stunning sonic statement. Within three songs, I was in awe of Steve Howe. I had never heard or seen such diversity and range on the guitar, sitar and steel guitar. Chris Squire's bass was much better live than on disc, Jon Anderson's voice was simply ethereal in its tone, and Rick Wakeman showed unbelievable versatility on at least six keyboards. The music was great, but the spectacle was even better. The translucent stage props developed by Roger Dean, with internal lighting: glowing rocks, moving crustaceans, etc was the ultimate visual statement as well. The one image that is still searing through my mind is of Steve playing acoustic guitar during his "solo" just before "The Leaves of Green" in "The Ancients", bathed in a yellow spotlight, and everyone in The Garden quietly listening to every note. 'TfTO' live in its entirety is just one of those truly special moments in music (Boring?? Are you kidding me?). Within two days, I had purchased 'Yessongs' as a birthday gift to myself. I also remember that I snuck in a mono cassette machine and mic to record the show, but unfortunately the tape was digested by the same machine about two months later :^(. Overall, you could not have asked for a better show to start your musical journey with Yes.

JT

I was in college at the time and went with my roommate to the first show which was on a Monday night. We did some sort of heavy drug and couldn't get Close out of my head and felt compelled to return, like I was meant to be there! and I returned alone to the 2nd show which was on Weds. (I don't think they played on Tues.. the 19th) determined to get in-I was going to scalp a get in outside-in those days you could always find something on the street for around $20, BUT, I lucked out by doing the old go to the box office an hour before and they had that a single floor seat that was the orchestra stub I sent you-for some reason the first two sections on the floor are R and S! That seat was 4 in from the center aisle (even side)in the 14th row directly in front of Howe!!! The crowd stood almost the entire show. The crowd was really into it both nights, like the pandemonium that I've only seen at Dead or Springsteen shows! They played Tales all the way through. There was a huge ovation at the end so I have to say everybody loved the new stuff-it all had the "Yes sound" . During the break, a huge mirror balllike wheel spun slowly behind the stage and the sounds of the wind and bird chirping from the beginning of Close played and built all through the break until the lights dimmed and they broke into Close. I don't remember Starship Trooper , but they did end with Disgrace followed by Roundabout. I actually remember being disappointed that they didn't play more of the earlier material like Sunrise or more from Yes Album, but I was young and dumb! The stage was done in huge chunks of floating "earth" (paper machae~?) like the album cover art. Wakeman was inside a huge dinosaur skeleton rib cage that glowed orange! White (it was White?) was on a rotating drum platform that spun around during his solo! Squire and Howe used the rotating guitar stands to play many instruments each and Anderson played some acoustic from time to time. It was the first time I ever saw an electric 5-string bass which is so common today!

Steven Sullivan

The first NYC Tales show to go on sale was the Feb 20th show, which went on sale a bit after the middle of January. It sold out in a few days *without any advertisement* -- fans saw that it was for sale at ticket outlets, and word of mouth did the rest. An ad in the Jan 27th NY Times -- bannered 'Melody Maker, Howard Stein, and Brian Lane present YES' -- mentioned that the 2/20 show had sold out before an ad could be placed, and announced another show on Feb 18th. On the week of the two shows, the Times listed them both in the 'happning this week' column, without any additional shows or matinees.