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Sunday, August 22, 2004 Hartford, Connecticut ctnow Music Theatre 30,000 capacity 18 years, 5 months and 12 days ago
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CT Craiger This was my second stop on the 15th Yes tour (I saw the show in Mohegan Sun). This time I brought my 11 year old son. He is familiar with Yes if not the die-hard I am. Good show but not great. The mix seemed to be off at the start. CTTE took time to get settled in but it still amazed me, even after all these years. I thought the sound was too loud to appreciate the nuances of Steve and Rick but it eventually took off. I liked the setlist despite the fact that I've seen it all before. The intimate setting for hte accoustical set was wonderful. My boy rocked along with me. I just wish that YES had the night to themselves-they don't need an opening act. Dream Theater-with appologies to the loyal fans who seemed quite moved by the performance-doesn't do much for me. They sound like a cross between EL&P and Kansas but without the artistry YES has always promoted. The crowd didn't have any energy this night either and they didn't excite the band like so many times in the past. The Mohegan Sun crowd last spring really pumped up the band. Although professional to the end, YES didn't seem overly inspired. All in all, I'm glad to have been there. I hope they play forever!!! Matt Putzel What can I say, another Yes concert. Luckily, the weather was nice, so the lovely Meadows Music Theatre wasn't subjected to odors from the nearby landfill. The crowd was sparse. There is not much reason to come to Hartford on a Sunday afternoon. Everything downtown shuts down, and the only things around the Meadows are fast food joints and porn shops. Oh, and don't cross to the other side of the train tracks behind the theatre if you value your possessions. This show would have been fantastic if it were at the Oakdale. Okay, enough about my personal rant about how much I dislike the Meadows. This was actually the best I've ever heard this venue sound, so hats off to both sound men for a fine job. It may not sound like it, but I had a good time at the show, and it was great to see the band play live again. They played well, with lots of energy and put on a good show. Highlights for me were "Mind Drive" and "South Side Of The Sky" and the small Dream Theatre cover of "Machine Messiah". I was disappointed with the set, which in the spring contained a whole bunch of rarely played gems, but now includes just "Mind Drive" and more of the same stuff that the band has been playing year after year. I actually sold off my Jones Beach ticket, as its not worth the 3 hour drive in Long Island traffic to see this set. However, for those who don't go to as many shows as I do, you'll probably love the set, and love the show, and I don't blame you. Yes is a great band and lets face it, the members aren't getting any younger, so who knows how many opportunities we have left to see them. This wasn't the best Yes show I've been to, but it was still an entertaining evening and about the best thing anyone can hope to do in Hartford on a Sunday Night! Paul Lewis Here is the difference: YES are artists, and created fine art which they still play at a decent level of perfection, althought the once high level of musicianship is slipping for one or two members. Dream Theater are musicians. Very talented, with very high technical ability...but they do not create nor play art. Silence in music is at least as important as cramming all those notes in. dtfanatic Great show by BOTH bands. These are my two favorite bands. It's a shame I have to read such crap as below about DT. 80's wankmeisters? Get real. Considering their first album came out in 1989 this just shows some of the ignorant comments that people make. For a prog fan to be so close-minded is beyond belief. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinion and not liking a band is one thing, but to make blanket statements like this is inexcusable. And no mention of their great version of Machine Messiah which YES will never do because of band politics. In fact the dwindling selection from YES's catalogue is starting to annoy even me who is their biggest supporter. At least the songs they do do are still done phenomenally well. Jo Porterhouse Great show by Yes at the cold and impersonal concrete monolith that is the Meadows in Hartford.80's wankmeisters Dream Theater were completly skilled musically-but no soul exists in their digital crap keyboard sound and pompous lead singer.That aside,the mix for Yes was very loud and satisfying,especially for the teeth rattling And You and I...it was stunning,just like last May at the casino.America was nearly a complete trainwreck,but the lads persevered and came through with flying colors.South Side was a highlight,and Wonderous Stories was just that-wonderous!Alan White played very loose and tight and the band were clearly enjoying themselves.Can't wait for the next one.I HOPE THEY NEVER STOP!!!!!!
before 'America' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming out tonight. We appreciate it so much, thank you. Good to be with you. A song from years ago, all those years, about the truth, the truth, what we need is peace, more than anything in the world. That’s for sure. Here’s a Paul Simon song. Here we go, one, two three, four. before 'Mind Drive' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. We’re going to do some music we ahh, recorded this in the mid-nineties and ahh, we just started doing it on stage this, this time round. So ahh, sit back and enjoy this piece of music. And it’s about the idea, we control everything in our mind, we create our world every day. Every second of every day, we create everything, in the ‘Mind Drive’. before 'I've Seen All Good People' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. That’s a song from an album we did called ‘Keys To Ascension’ [??]. Here we go. A song for sing along time. Here we go. before 'Clap' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. I think I better go and lie down now. I’m going to leave you in the capable hands, guitar, a wonderful guitar player, Mr. Steve Howe! after 'Clap' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Steve Howe:Thank you so much. before 'Wonderous Stories' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:Thank you. This is all very well rehearsed. I rehearsed that this afternoon, and ahh, I hope you enjoyed that. There’s no business like show business. [??]. We were in Switzerland once and that was it. We were there for one day and we wrote this song. And it’s all about waking up in the morning and realizing how beautiful the world is. And also wondering if we’re going to start the song, in the key of, this key coming up here. before 'Roundabout' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:We have to ahh, it’s Sunday night, so we have to pay homage, homage, homage, homage to ahh, Alan White’s kilt. Alan White on the kilt. Without his sporran tonight, his wee sporran. He sleeps in his sporran. You know what a sporran is, don’t you? Okay, cool. It’s somewhere to keep, as Alan says, your nuts and bolts. If you could hear up here and around here. Rick, tell a joke. He doesn’t know any today. He’s ahh, it’s a rare moment in our life. I’m going to hand you over to Chris, whose going to mention one or two things that happened on his ahh, trip to Japan. Here we go, Chris. Chris Squire. Chris Squire: You know what, as it’s a Sunday night in Hartford, there won’t be any profanity in this little announcement tonight. It’s a little story about when Alan and I were in Tokyo and ahh, and, the record company asked us if we’d kindly enough, kindly enough do some acoustic versions of some, some of our better known tunes. Can anyone get Rick a burger, or something? He might be a little bit bored. Anyway, when we were going to do the ahh, acoustic ahh, songs for the ahh, ‘Utimate’ the collection of Yes, ahh, that hopefully some of you bought. If you did, that’s good to know. We didn’t get the same reaction in Germany. Anyway, ahh, we decided ahh, you know to do a shuffle version of ‘Roundabout’. And Alan said “let’s do a shuffle”, and I said “yeah, that sounds like a good idea”. But we weren’t sure if that would work very well, so we got to the studio in L.A. and I said to Rick “Can you give us a real good American blues shuffle on the old Joanna?”. And I said that, I said “that’s fucking brilliant! Let’s do it like that.” before 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:Thank you. In a sort of workshop mode, Alan’s going to show you what a paradiddle is. Actually, it’s something you do [??]. Paradiddle with the drums, by Alan White. He learnt that, in his youth. You all know the story, so I won’t tell you it. You want to know why he learnt that, in his youth? We’ll need you to sing this chorus, that we’re going to sing for you now. Please sing along. Here we go. before 'And You And I' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:Thank you so much. Hope you had a great time tonight [??] on in a minute. [??] It’s been a lovely night in the bay side. [??] and as we say goodnight to you, we wish you all the luck in the world. “Hold That Tiger”, [??],“Hold That Tiger”. Mr. Rick Wakeman on keyboards! Woohooh! Yes, it’s a bunch of guys, struggling with a drum kit. There it is now. It’s lovely. A sight to behold. It’s great to be together this evening, if only for this next song. So, let’s just sort of ahh, whenever we do this song, I go into a sort of a dream space, so ahh, life is a dream. so they say. Isn’t that true? It’s all a dream? It’s all an illusion, so enjoy yourself, enjoy every minute of every day. It is an illusion, nothing is real. The only real thing is love. More and more love. before 'Awaken' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:Wooh! Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, yes, yeah, yes, yeah, yes. Wooh! Thank you so much. Thank you. Crazy. I’ve just got to hear what we’re doing up here. About the time that we wrote this ahh, piece of music, and we’d never, never ever believed that we’d still be making music in the year 2004, but here we are. We were, we were trying to get out of the seventies, trying to get out of the seventies with a clear mind and ahh, there’s still apartheid and there’s still [??], and there still is. But times are getting better, very slowly but surely, as we wake up, we wake up to our collective power, and it’s got nothing to do with politics, as we all know. It’s all to do with the divine, which is higher than politics. The divine is more powerful than anything you can ever imagine. And ahh, the main thing about that is love, because love is like ahh, everything. I walked around with my wife, Jane today. We walked around town, and we’re looking for squirrels and trees and the energy that surrounds us. We have a great time. I’m so blessed to have somebody in my life, and I wish that upon everybody, to have someone they love and enjoy life with. But the most important person to do that with is yourself and I didn’t say, well I didn’t write that, well I just think about, I just know that. Thank you very much. before 'Yours Is No Disgrace' transcribed by: Geoff Dunn Jon Anderson:Again, thank you so much for coming out tonight. We appreciate seeing you again. Real amazing to be together one more time. Here’s a song really about all those, those actually wonderful, crazy, wonderful guys out there in no man’s land, fighting against, fighting against, fighting against, what? For? Fighting against what? But theirs is no disgrace. [??]. |