Jean-Jacques Massé

Monday, December 16, 2019 5:18 AM

My second Yes gig

Ah, expectations again, Yes is bad, ABWH must be good, Howe claiming they were a jazz band, back to Dean, long prog tracks… Prog, well, not quite, as this gig shows. An arena with a bad sound, OK. New tracks, half convincing, long for sure, but where is the complex structure ? Long it is indeed. The voices are great, the overall sound is aggressive, metallic, most prominently Bruford’s electric kit, hammering beat after shot after roll into our ears. H & W do their job, the session men too. Of course Levin is outstanding on bass (sometimes with bamboo sticks) keys & bass pedals, at times he even sings on top of it. Masterful. Half ABWH tracks, half best of including CTTE. Not bad, not so good…