Yes (April 2004)


Date of Performance: April 18, 2004
Venue: Cox Arena, SDSU Campus, San Diego, CA, US

Yes In The Rough

Yes played tonight. No wait, let me check the clock ... no, last night. The Thirty Fifth Anniversary tour just left town, and the review is mixed.

First, about the much anticipated Roger Dean Stage set. It looks a lot like a couple of misshapen inflatable beer cans you'd see at a car show or something. No big deal here. They are left mostly white in order to reflect the stage lights, and seen as nothing more than that, they do a darn fine job of it.

Next, the band is performing a fair amount of material that has not been played before, or in many cases, not for thirty years or more. The San Diego show was the third in this year's US tour, and the group has yet to take hold of some of the new material. There were still some quite noticeable gaffes and a few moments that just don't work yet. There are also a couple of song arrangements that simply are not up to the band's own standards, in my opinion.

The band did display that aspect of Yes tour life we all find so commendable, that being punctuality. The tickets stated the show would begin at seven pm, and darn if it didn't start at seven pm on the dot. The arena was probably no more than sixty, seventy percent full when the lights went down and the strains of Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" filled the air. Yes took the stage to overwhelming applause and the first of many standing ovations. This year's opening number is "Going For The One" and it was odd not hearing "Siberian Khatru." Some people probably think that "SK" is the final section of the "Firebird Suite." I can hardly conceive of the two being separated. The sound took quite some time to catch up to the bands performance, and "Going For The One" suffered from a bevy of sound troubles. Steve Howe's pedal steel and Chris Squire's bass lacked sufficient volume in the PA and all the vocals, and Anderson's in particular, were flat and compressed sounding.

The set's second tune, "Sweet Dreams," was a welcome addition to the tour's set list and the band showed some enthusiasm with this blast from the past, but the arrangement was unexciting, didn't recapture the feel of the original cut, and just didn't rise to the spectacular shine one expects from a Yes performance. This was followed by the perpetual "Your Move/All Good People." This has been played into the ground, and I would have hoped the band would have made better use of the time taken by this ubiquitous tune. In addition to a rather cold reading of this standby, Rick Wakeman's keyboards failed during the "All Good People" section, leaving the sound noticeably empty.

The set moved on with this year's debut of "Mind Drive" from the Keys To Ascension II release. This is the 1996 epic that many had been hoping to hear on the concert stage, and its inclusion in this year's set list is a bold idea. While most people would be happy to hear "Close To The Edge," "The Revealing Science Of God" and "Awaken" year after year, and I guess that I could count myself among them, lack of new material has always haunted Yes in recent years. The arrangement of "Mind Drive" is whittled down, and interrupted with a score of songs before the nearly twenty minute of its bulk is completed.

The lengthy acoustic guitar and keyboard intro is ditched and the band goes straight on from the pounding bass and drums intro to the song proper. Unfortunately, by sound error, or perhaps by design, this powerful section's kick, and the volume and intensity needed to bring it off properly, was missing. And, as in almost all of the pre-intermission set's numbers, there were a number of strained glances between the members as they did half count adjustments here and there. I realize that most of the songs from the list in this first set are not regular parts of the group's repertoire, but there is no excuse for their not being able to play some of their own material to the standards that are expected of a band such as Yes. A bit more than halfway through "Mind Drive" the band threw in a bridge to link it to "South Side Of The Sky." This favorite from Fragile was played on the 2002/03 "Full Circle Tour" and has proved to be an audience favorite. By the piano interlude in the center section of this gem, the great majority of the sound problems had been worked out, and finally, we got to hear a balanced and rich sound system. "South Side" now ends in a long jam with Howe and Wakeman trading licks. Wakeman maxed out his Mini-Moog with his fiery lines, and Howe twisted out some biting riffs as well. The howls of approval from the enthusiastic crowd leave no doubt that "South Side" will be a live appearance staple from now on.

The next song was the beautiful "Turn Of The Century." Despite one muffed guitar passage and some mumbling by Anderson on the second verse, this gamble paid off well, and some in the audience were seen with Kleenex in hand for this tearjerker. The instrumental section two thirds of the way through is particularly difficult, and the furtive onstage looks of the earlier moments were replaced with silent confidence and the number came off wonderfully.

This new confidence showed through for the rest of the first set. "TOTC" was followed by another number from Keys To Ascension II, "Foot Prints." This was another odd, poor, use your own appellation, choice for the Thirty Fifth Anniversary tour. Of the new material from Keys To Ascension I & II, only "Mind Drive" comes anywhere close to being a standard, and the inclusion of "Foot Prints" over, say something else from Fragile or Magnification is somewhat baffling. At any rate, after a pedestrian version of "Foot Prints," the band segued back into the finale of "Mind Drive" and with a section full of blazing Mini-Moog and distorted guitar solos, they hammered it home, and for the most part, set all previous sins right.

The first set ended with the always powerful version of "Yours Is No Disgrace." When Howe stabs out those first few chords of "YIND," it sends shivers down your spine every time. The number was tight and the main sound level was getting a bit louder as Howe began his trademark guitar solo from the instrumental bridge. Howe is always on dangerous ground when he attacks this spot, and many well documented stumbles have occurred at just this moment, but not last night. I have never heard this solo played twice the same way, and last night he created another brilliant song within a song during his guitar solo, and breezed through it with the flair of a youngster.

This might seem an inopportune moment to end the set, but that's what happened, just when some blood had begun to flow and the band was firing well on all cylinders. A fifteen minute break ensued, and the crew set the front of the stage for an acoustic set. The smallest baby grand piano I have ever seen was carried out, without furniture dollies, by four crew members and that was followed by a similarly tiny trap kit for White. The second set began and for many, this will be the highpoint of this year's tour. The acoustic set is a charming addition to the tour, and it gives Anderson and the boys a chance to get up close and personal, and it was obvious that the fans were eating this up. It was also nice to see that by the start of the second set, the crowd had filled up most of the arena. Eventually the place appeared to be about 85 percent full, this probably being due, at least in part, to the fact that the band has appeared in Southern California at least five times in the last two years, by my memory.

The unplugged set was a huge success, beginning with Anderson accompanied by Wakeman for "The Meeting" from the Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman And Howe release, and was followed by a great rendition of "Long Distance Runaround," a somewhat shaky version of "Wonderous Stories," Magnification's "Time Is Time," the crowd favorite "Roundabout" and Anderson's lovely "Show Me." As the crew scurried on again to remove the piano and drum kit, Howe played them out with another new(?) acoustic solo piece, in the style of Chet Atkins, which must go un-named by this reviewer.

After a record setting stage clearing, Yes began the third set of the evening with the Rabin-era classic "Rhythm Of Love." Howe's guitar was a bit thick and clumsy for this cut, but the experience was livened up by Anderson's foray into the audience to sing to the fans. He paused constantly, shaking hands, and danced for a moment with a striking young blonde woman near the front of stage left. Again, the audience loved every second of this, and the band could do no wrong in the eyes of most of those in attendance.

The familiar twelve string guitar strum that introduces "And You And I" brought the crowd to hushed silence, and the band produced a spot on, perfect version of the thirty year old favorite.

Tympani was rolled onstage, the clue that "Ritual" was about to begin. This show closer was everything I had hoped for, and the elements had all come to fruition for this epic of epics. Squire's bass playing had the fire the earlier part of the evening had missed and White's drumming shook the rafters of the arena. The one truly interesting part of Roger Dean's stage dressing was the incorporation of two banks of electronically triggered bass drums housed in bubble shaped pods on either side of the drum riser. They were fired off as part of the drum cascade and they produced an astonishing effect. They combined with White's punchy and precise solo and Squire's kodo drummer-like performance on the tuned tympani proved to be the highlight of the concert. "Ritual" is simply mind expanding and brain numbing at the same time, and when delivered with the ferocity of a live performance, it is a devastating experience. I have never seen or heard a bad performance of the piece, and last night was no exception.

After another of that evening's many standing ovations, the band left the stage, and returned for their encore. The first number was another of the relics from the bands past, the Beatles cover "Every Little Thing." This was undoubtedly an eagerly anticipated moment for many. I know that I was looking forward to hearing this raging, out of control, Beatles blitzkrieg, but what they have done with this number is less than satisfying in my opinion. All the careening, off kilter work that made this cover so endearing has been stripped away, and the result is, unfortunately, a mild mannered and very typical rock cover. There is nothing of any value gained in trotting out this old gem and basically eviscerating it. All the glitches and minor errors of the earlier sets aside, this was the only real disappointment of the evening. This was followed by the beautiful but totally out of place "Soon." While this is a lovely song, and I myself said not too long ago that it would make a good addition to this year's set list, it is almost unfathomable to me that it would be used as an encore. I suppose that I have some quaint ideas about timing and the proper flow and sequence of songs at a rock concert, but please, don't end a show with a sleeper!

Kudos must be given to the band for the courage they display by doing more than fifty percent new and rarely played songs. This bold attitude is welcome, and the bumps and groans of trying to bring these nuggets to life is just part of the process. I won't harp on the fact that the band is clearly under-rehearsed, and that even the fans at the first ten shows pay the same price as those who see the later shows and they look forward to the event just as much as anyone else, but I will mention it just this once.

Over all, I consider this an important tour, and a great event. "South Side" is being institutionalized; "Sweet Dreams" has great promise and could be a keeper. "Mind Drive" is the best choice for inclusion in later tours and it will surely sound much, much better in another week or two. The unplugged set is great fun and any real fan of Yes will be delighted with this sections congeniality and the warm, informal manner the band members display towards the audience, and vice versa.

The last couple of tours were pretty skimpy on lighting and this year's bigger lighting rig was a nice addition. The prevailing mood was violets and rich blue hues, reflected off Roger Dean's creations, with frequent use of glittering spots and strobes. I guess I'm an old timer, but I'm still hoping for dry ice to make a comeback.

A couple of weeks will cure all the ills I note, and this is a show to see. Wakeman has now been back with the band for about as long this time as when he was originally with Yes. Hopefully, after this year's tour, the long awaited and often hinted at new studio album from the band will actually be recorded. Let's hope that many more years and many more tours will await. But, for now, I think that you have to see Yes as the living, breathing, incarnation of progressive rock music in our time. I will see Yes any day instead of anyone else, and that's the way you need to look at Yes. Even with some rough spots, Yes is still the best band in town, whenever and wherever that may be.


Added: May 2nd 2004
Reviewer: Tom Karr

Artist website: yesworld.com
Hits: 1866
Language: english
  

[ Back to Live Reviews Index | Post Comment ]