36 years, 9 months and 16 days ago Friday, February 19, 1988 Houston, Texas Houston Summit 15,242 capacity
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RockinHouston.com has memorabilia form YES performances in Houston, Texas throughout the years.
david c. michael One of my favorite concerts of all time.Forgoten they had cancelled the show in Octobor, left my review on wrong date,but right tour. david c. michael One of my favorite shows of all time.Went with two friends who had never seen Yes play before,and to this day still tell me thank you for taking them to the concert.The band was as good as I ever seen them.The crowd was really in to the show.Jon Anderson was at his best.We also liked the different songs that the band would play with Rabin in the band.Thanks Yes for coming to play in Houston.We love you guys in Texas! Richard Chickowski This show was one I remember clearly. It was at least four years since they played anywhere. The house was buzzing and they were walking through the crowds interviewing people about their return. The stage looked like a spaceship landing area made of metal and it was very open. When Anderson came out he was dressed in all white and moved very slow and deliberately. The music had a strong presence and the sound was excellent.BIG Generator was done to perfection and Anderson, Squire and Rabin were at their best. They really were back and with a new future. You could tell that bigger and better things were to come. The release of 90210 proves that. Unknown I had front row tix to the Jacksonville FL show but Trevor Rabin collapsed on stage in Miami or Tampa from an illness and so they cancelled. I was sorry at the time, then I saw ABWH and wasn't sorry, and now I'm sorry again, a little bit. The new songs they play are all done well; as on the 9012live concert video, I'd rather see them do new songs well than screw up the old ones. Whatever they did with the opening to Rhythm of Love is anyone's guess; alot of keyboard stuff which made me forget I was at a Yes show (though I had heard a guitar chord in there which helped to locate me). Anyway, it shapes up and they do good renditions of Big Gen/90125 stuff. The question mark is the classic stuff: Heart of the Sunrise, Roundabout, And You and I, Disgrace, and Your Move. The last of these is kind of dead, no big deal. Heart of the Sunrise was a nice surprise for this tour, and it's done well technically. Roundabout is an absolute nightmare; this is a shameful and dead version of it (for those who have heard or seen it in 88, they skip the middle section). And You and I really misses the slide guitar; Rabin does his best on those sections and I can't fault him too badly. The second half of this song has a faster tempo, more rock ... can't say it does much for me, but OK. Disgrace is actually a relief; Rabin doesn't go off like a maniac on the guitar. He seems to have himself under control as he did at the 91 show. So these songs are done fairly well, but there's something gravely wrong...it's not Jon's vocals (great) or Chris (he's doing the job). Folks, it's Tony Kaye. This man is a terrible keyboardist. He gives up on whole sections of Wakeman's parts. He was originally an organ-type keyboardist, and it really shows. On Disgrace he just runs his hands down the keys and then holds a note, then does it again. He provides an imperfect backing for the band and should be hurled quickly from the stage. Anyone could do better and try to be truer to Yes sound. Rabin has his influence on the new stuff which I can't agree with, but at least he tries to play the old stuff right, and his technical expertise brings him up to a level that I can respect. Moraz also had his own impact (more positive in my opinion) on the album he participated in, but he played everything else right. Kaye literally leaves things out of the classic songs; if his style on 90125/Big Gen is more minimal than Rick's, then fine. Those songs sound good. His jazzy little intro to Changes on the Union tour was fine; it didn't do much for me, but it's his thing and that's cool, especially in the context of a song which he had an influence upon. But on Starship Trooper (and this is the guy who did the original version) he did the same shit as in 88's Disgrace: running up the keyboard then holding a note, repeat as is unnecessary. He didn't exactly ruin the song, but there was a nasty hum behind the whole Wurm section (otherwise quite good) and its name was Tony Kaye. He also was freaking out the whole time as if he were making great music. My friend and I laughed at him the whole time; he looked like Einstein with his wild shock of white hair. Anyway, no use putting down the way he looks. Even in the Yes Album era, he was the least creative member of the band, and he still is, no question in my mind about it. This was a big revelation for me, and the reason I go on about it is that if you don't like the 90125/Big Gen albums and shows, don't blame Trevor Rabin exclusively, blame Kaye, who gets alot of undeserved credibility from his status as Yes's original keyboardist. After hearing his "performance" on the live cuts at the end of Yesyears Disc 4, I completely withdraw any positive thing I might have said about him. Tony Kaye is not only dead weight, he's heavy dead weight. His keyboard solo at the beginning of "And You And I" was simply inexcusable. And the fact that Trevor was playing the fast keyboard parts in "Heart of the Sunrise" was not, I suspect, for added instrumental diversity -- it was most likely due the fact that Tony Kaye cannot cut his parts. A Lerxst in Wonderland The one song I think Trevor has done justice to is the live version of And You and I from the boxset. The intro isn't anything like how Howe would play it, but it still works with the song. I really like Tony Kaye's accordian playing in that version, also. |