22 years, 4 months and 16 days ago Monday, July 22, 2002 Denver, Colorado City Lights Pavillion 5,000 capacity
|
Paul G. Opening from Benjamin Britten Set I Siberian Khatru America In The Presence Of Southside Of The Sky The Revealing Science Of God Howe Solo > Ancient > ? Set II Anderson Solo > Show Me (Wakeman Joins) Wakeman > ? > Turn of the Century > Wondorous Stories Jon & Rick > And You & I Heart of the Sunrise Magnification > Dont Kill The Whale Chris & Alan > The Fish > Tempus Fugit > On The Silent Wings Of Freedom > Sound Chaser > The Fish Awaken e: Yours Is No Disgrace > Roundabout The band is COMPLETE once again. It has always been my contention that w/o Rick they are a very good band and the various keyboardist who sat in over the years have really just been filler with nothing genuinely unique to add to the music. With Rick, Yes is a great band. Together they are the quintessant maestros. They hit just about everything to perfection. As soon as they opened with SK you could already feel the intensity cooking. Steve was at his absolute best. He actually was doing some jumping & hopping during the opener so we knew it was going to be a special nite. The Denver Pavillion holds only 4k and the sound was terrific. We were fortunate to be in the 12th row center stage. America cooked and again, Steve was magnificent. Jon's voice was as always incredible and even more impressive given the altitude here. They did a beautiful In The Presence Of and Rick gave it much more life than did the symphony of last year. Now SSOTS. What can one say but WOW! Super WOW! They performed it magnificently and jammed it out to perfection. First time ever in its entirety and definitely worth the wait (26 years for me). TRSOG was done beautifully although I was hoping to here The Remembering as they performed TRSOG during the OYE tour, but nonetheless, a magnificent performance! I was all smiles hearing Steve & Rick trade off once again the entire evening! Just beautiful... Steve sat for his solo and I was as usual completely blown away. All of these maestros are like fine wine; they only get better with age. All the solos were great and hearing Ricks soft touch on Turn Of the Century & the Wondorous Stories melodies was a treat. The crowd definitely let Rick know we were all glad he was back. Everything was played so well I won't go on with a song by song but I must say that the Squire-White solo was sick hot! Hearing OTSWOF was amazing and Chris played it so well. We didn't want them to stop and I was hoping the rest of the band would walk out to join them... It was an incredible treat to hear Dont Kill the Whale and the fact they didn't take the customary pause after Magnification was also a first... As a long time Dead head, I so enjoy the continuos jamming and seguing... Oh, and we haven't seen the triple bass since 77 and that was a sight once again! I hope they continue to tour and continue to play some of the classics. Thank you YES for a wonderful, glorious evening which took me back to the magic that only the five of you can give. Thanks for listening to the fans and continuing to perform the classics. We Have Heaven. Jim Rollner The City Lights Pavillion is a very pretty, very nicely built structure, but, it sits in the parking lot of the much bigger Pepsi Center, and is almost totally flat - I can't imagine sitting toward the back in this venue. The sound was also very hit or miss - I was sitting tenth row center, but, I couldn't hear Rick at all at some points, and yet, my buddy three seats over claimed to hear him perfectly the whole night! Jon seemed to strain a bit at points - his face was bright red at the climax of "Awaken" - but, with a day's rest, I figured we'd get "Yours is No Disgrace" in the encore, and we did. The performance as a whole was great - there were plenty of minor flubs, though nothing too bad, that were more than made up by the energy coming from the guys on the stage. It seemed pretty clear to this attendee that Yes were glad to be back, glad to be back together and glad to be back together, playing the songs that made them legends. "South Side of the Sky" has never been one of my faves, but, it was great to finally hear it live - same with "Don't Kill The Whale." As others have mentioned, I, too, can live without the solos - would much rather hear "Close To The Edge" with this lineup - though Squire's practically-the-whole-thing bit of "Silent Wings of Freedom" was pretty cool. Jim Excellent show...lots of energy, Rick definetely adds to the production and quality. Jon's voice was strong...Chris's bass playing was excellent Steve was right on. About 2 hours 40 minutes of music. About 4/5's full crowd wise in a so-so setting. The pavillions is on a parking lot. Loved Chris and Alans duet/bass solo with tempus fugit and silent wings extended out a bit. YIND was a nice surprise for an encore. Southside worked very well live. Don't Kill the Whale though was the biggest surprise, when they started playing it, I thought, "that's a drag, won't be hearing any more rare gems now." And the song took me away, it was dynamic, tight, strong, no flaws. Overall they played very well no mistakes I could hear from them, couple of production errors like Steve coming in too loud couple of times. |