Hed Gilboa

Wednesday, March 8, 2017 11:31 AM

A truly magical evening! Trevor Rabin's guitar was a little low in the mix to start with (luckily, since he played a lot of bum notes during the first half of the show!), but overall the sound was very impressive. Perpetual change was beautifully played, and really got the audience in the mood. Hold On was a little messy around the edges, with a slightly overlong solo section towards the end, but very powerful all the same. All Good People really had the crowd going, which visibly energized the group. Louis Molino gave a short and powerful solo as an introduction to Lift Me Up (and I have to say - he did a phenomenal job all evening, combining bits and pieces of both Bruford and White's interpetations of the songs, while injecting his own, fresh approach). The inclusion of Lift Me Up surprised me (given Wakeman's loudly-voiced distaste with the entire Union album) and, despite it's being one of the few good tracks on it, I would have prefered to see them perform another song from Big Generator, or even something from Talk. Jon Anderson forgot the lyrics to most of And You & I, ad-libbing wildly while a bemused Rick Wakeman grinned at him! It still managed to earn them the first standing ovation of the evening. Rhythm of Love was tight and concise - just the way it should be! An astounding performance of Heart of the Sunrise got the second standing ovation, with Anderson in particularly fine form. Rabin treated the Israeli audience to a Hendrix-style rendition of the Israeli national anthem, seguing into a beautifully performed Changes. Long Distance Runaround was dedicated to the late Chris Squire, and segued into a rousing rendition of The Fish, with Lee Pomeroy stepping up to stage-front and incorporating the riffs from Silent Wings of Freedom, Revealing Science of God and the Yessongs version of the Fish into his solo.
I have no recollection of The Meeting being played.
Awaken was too amazing to describe (even with Anderson's improvised lyrics... time to start using a prompter!) - just check out the youtube clips that have been uploaded.
Owner was played with the Make it Easy intro, and was extended for Wakeman and Rabin's walk into the audience (a little overlong for my taste, but still fun).
Roundabout had the crowd dancing and clapping and singing and forgetting that they live in the Middle East!!!
Thank you ARW!!!