Yes

My first Yes concert experience was on 25 Sept. 1977 at the San Diego Sports Arena. The stage was designed by Roger Dean and had beautiful orange fabrics draped all around. This time out Yes consisted of Chris Squire on bass (the only member to be in every Yes role-call), Steve Howe on guitar, Alan White on drums, Jon Anderson on vocals, and Rick Wakeman returning on keyboards.

The opening act for this show was Donovan and I believe it was his first performance in San Diego. While the house lights were still up Firebird Suite began to play and the lights began to slowly fade. What a great memory being greeted by the majestic organ introduction to Parallels, a a marvelous start to the evening as well. The material from the recent Going For The One album was equally as strong as their older material and has since survived the test of time compared to some of their other works.

This particular evening had a brilliant mix of old and new. The songs continued with I've Seen All Good People, and Close To The Edge. Wonderous Stories and Turn Of The Century both feature Jon Anderson's angelic alto voice. Jons' microphone gear that night looked like a space helmet collar and had 2 mics for stereo tracking that sounded amazing.

After Going For The One and Awaken the band left the stage. They returned for an encore and played Starship Trooper and Roundabout. What an evening. Rick Wakeman looked like a gladiator in an arena of keyboards and Steve Howe had several guitars to choose from. The quality musicianship of these players has awed me for over 40 years now.

In 1984 Yes toured the 90125 album with Chris Squire on bass, Jon Anderson on vocals, Tony Kaye returning on keyboards, Alan White on drums and Trevor Rabin on guitar. The stage was round and had slanted grating that made it difficult for Echo and the Bunnymen so set up their equipment so the opening act was replaced by 2 Bugs Bunny cartoons. The show started with a new instrumental named Cinema from the 90125 album. Leave It had Alan White playing a small electric drum set for the first half of the song, when the lights dimmed and he reappeared behind the full acoustic drumkit in a blast of light for the end of the song the whole Forum was floored.

This show found Yes playing mainly the newer material. We were treated to a few of the classics: I've Seen All Good People, And You and I, and Long Distance Runaround were mixed in to the main set and once again the encore was Starship Trooper and Roundabout.

In 1991 Yes had a Reunion tour. To some it may have felt the band was larger than the audience. Guitars: Steve Howe and Trevor Rabin. Drums: Alan White and Bill Bruford. Keyboards: Tony Kaye and Rick Wakeman. Bass: Chris Squire. Vocals: Jon Anderson. I was able to see both legs of this tour. The first leg was indoor arenas and the stage was round and rotated clockwise for the first half of the show and counterclockwise for the second half.

The second leg of the tour was in outdoor amphitheaters. In addition to the classics we were treated to a drum duet, two guitar solos, and two keyboard solos. The main sets were only about 20 songs and the encore was Roundabout, but when you consider that some of the songs are 30 minutes long or so it made for quite a full evening of some of the best musical talent you will ever see in one place.

Yes were on their usual nervy, edgy form - they're an unusual band because although everything has complex arrangements, they are still winging it for most of the gig.

Set One - Don't Kill The Whale, Drama album, Siberian Khatru, Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Time And A Word

Steve Howe played pretty erratically - as he always risks with his love of staccato, spur of the moment embellishments - for most of the first half, but oddly enough nailed Owner Of A Lonely Heart, a record he wasn't on, and from that point cleaned up his act and started to hit the beat. Jon Davison and Alan White were impeccable as they fought to keep the beat on track, while Geoff Downes seemed to be in a hurry to get to the end of some of the songs - especially Siberian Khatru, which was quite a mess between the rushed keyboards and the stuttering guitar. However, it was a pleasure to hear the Drama album finally sung by a great singer rather than the rather demo-quality performance on the original album, and the rhythms were so much more powerful live.

Set Two - Fragile album, Starship Trooper

The second half cleared up all doubts with a fiery, muscular performance of Fragile, an album the band have been playing regularly for a couple of years. The combination of nostalgia, power and a wealth of melodies was breathtaking and moving. Geoff Downes was so strong that he completely eclipsed the more hesitant performance shown on the Like It Is DVD.

Billy Sherwood, bless him, won the crowd's love with his devotion to channelling his mighty mentor, the late Chris Squire, whose memory is still being celebrated with a slideshow and playback of "Onward" before the band came on. Yes have now wisely added a slide in tribute to their other unmanifest member, Peter Banks, after performing one of the original band's early songs, Time And A Word, which was recorded by five entirely different people from the current line-up.

This completely replaced and refreshed Yes look set to reach the band's 50th anniversary, and Steve Howe is wearing the leader's hat lightly and happily after waiting so long to inherit it.

The Yes concert was excellent. They played two albums in their entirety, Close to the Edge (in reverse order) & Roundabout. Two songs from the new album and then two encores, "All Good People" and (somewhat of a surprise) "Owner of a Lonely Heart". Amazing that guys their age can play very difficult music for almost 3 hours and not miss a note. I guess that is what 40 years of practice will do for you. This may not have been the 'classic' line up that so many fans wanted to see, but I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. Geoff is not the keyboard wizard that Rick is (who is?), but he was very sharp and did a masterful job. Steve is still Steve, I'm sure he will be playing those licks when he is in his 90's. I hope he gets paid by the note, he will make a fortune. Chris too was in great form and you could tell he was enjoying playing this material to a very appreciative crowd. Jon Davison handles the vocals very well. He isn't trying to imitate Jon Anderson, but stays true to the original spirit of the lyrics. His voice did justice to the music and he is great in his role as the new lead singer for this band. Alan is still (IMHO) one of the best rock drummers around, not flashy, but gets the job done. Some of the songs have never been preformed live until this tour, so it was pretty neat to experience some things that have never been heard outside of a recording studio before. Who knows, maybe down the road there will be another Union tour. If there is, count me in!

First: RIP Mike Porcaro and Chris Squire. Second: Rose Music Center is a great venue. Everything about the place is wonderful. I can't wait to go to more concerts there. Third: Toto stole the night. I had truly wished by some miracle that Simon Phillips would have been on this tour, but so be it. Lukather crushed it. Vocals were out of this world too. I also wanted more of their hits, but it was good to see Steve and Luke jam out Hydra live. Also, Phillips would have KILLED that set... Shannon Forrest... he's OK. Just OK. Sorry, you had big shoes to fill. Last: This was my third Yes concert in my life. Sadly, it's time for the boys to hang it up. Steve Howe unfortunately just didn't seem to be with it. Alan was taking it easy, but hey, I get it, these guys have been doing this for decades. Yet, they butchered some of their best tunes AND at slow tempos to boot. I'm sure diehard fans won't agree. That's fine. I didn't even finish the set this time. I just had to go. It was painful to watch. I won't be seeing them anymore. Last point: Jon Davison is a decent emulator, but it was just too much. Billy Sherwood is a great bassist by the way. Kudos. Venue review: the sound mix was awesome for both bands. Sorry Yes... I'll always love the recordings. I wish you well in retirement.

The entire concert last night was incredible. Toto put on a great show by playing a number of their old songs and also by playing a couple of songs from their new album. One of the new songs they basically dedicated it to Mike Porcaro and Chris Squire since both bands lost their bass players this year.

Yes started their part of the concert with a tribute to Chris Squire and having his infamous Rickenbacker bass on stage while showing pictures of Chris through his time with Yes. The band then came out and opened up with Don't Kill the Whale. They played songs from throughout the years, including Going for the One, Time and a Word, and Owner of a Lonely Heart. They ended their set with Roundabout and played Starship Trooper for their encore. The entire night was just beyond belief with these two bands rocking the stage.

The concert was awesome and it brought back lots of old memories! They had a new lead singer who is just as good if not better than the original! Definitely a concert worth seeing. They played the Close To The Edge album and then the entire Fragile album along with a few new songs from a new album that's going to be released that sounded really good!!

The concert was excellent. The band line-up performed excellently, with Geoff stepping in brilliantly for Chris Squire, and Jon Davison has an excellent voice as well, keeps up the quality of Yes' amazing music.

I wish I could go back and time and re-live the concert!! This is a definite must-see!! I can't wait till next time!!

Great band with great songs and a great history - it was great to see them purely for that reason. However, when I saw them at Oxford this year they seemed really under-rehearsed. I don't know if they had sound issues on stage but the drummer was in his own tempo for a lot of it. Even my Dad noticed and he's not musical!

They're getting old... but they weren't bad at all. I just hope this is their last tour. Starship Trooper was a good way to go out, and tbh Anderson Rabin and Wakeman is more yes than they are at this point member-wise... anyway, good concert, and I'd catch them if I were you just cuz I think this is it for them.

Great show, worthy tribute to Chris Squire. Billy Sherwood ably filled the bass and vocal duties, at the express wish of Chris himself before he passed. Nice mix of tunes, featuring some fairly deep cuts to include "Don't Kill the Whale" which I hadn't heard them play live before.