On Friday, August 31, YES fans gathered and packed into Phoenix’s Celebrity Theatre the well-known local “In The Round” venue that was built in 1963 only a few years before YES came into being in ‘68. They were here for YES: Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman, three instrumental members of the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career out on a tour while another YES featuring Steve Howe, Alan White and Geoff Downes recently just finished a U.S. tour.
The first thing any YES fans noticed was the stage was stationary for this evening’s performance and set up in a 2/3 configuration, creating a more intimate atmosphere. The second thing fans noticed was the much more, sparse setup. For a band that has a long history of supplementing their stage show with a whole host of different lighting and visual themes, THIS tour seems to want to draw attention solely to the music. So, with not even a backing screen to project the long familiar Yesscapes, the band took the stage and launched into the very familiar “Cinema”, from 1983’s 90125 album, an instrumental that actually won YES their only ever Grammy (Best Rock Instrumental Performance, 1985). What followed was about one hour and 45 minutes of music that flowed back and forth between the 80s’ “Rabin Era” and the 70s “Classic Yes” eras.
This is the third tour of the United States that this version of YES has ventured out on, supplemented by Louis Molino III (drums), a longtime Rabin Collaborator and Lee Pomeroy (bass), more recently from Jeff Lynne’s ELO. Having seen the first U.S tour dates in 2016, expectation levels for something new were very high. Having heard rumors of new music being recorded as well as a few possible setlist changes from prior outings, made for what would be a very entertaining evening.
Entertaining it was, new, it wasn’t. In fact, the setlist variations from the first tour to this tour have been so minimal, one couldn’t really tell which tour they witnessed. Also, there seemed to be something amiss with the rhythm section this evening. The drums seemed to lag slightly and were stiff and choppy. One can chalk this up to early tour rustiness, but Molino and Pomeroy really seemed to struggle early on. While Rabin fell flat on a few of the solos, again probably due to this being one of the first shows of the tour, he stepped things up by the time “Rhythm of Love” kicked in.
Despite a few timing issues and odd sounding patches, Wakeman was, well Wakeman. If it isn’t broke don’t fix it, Rick. With everything being said about rustiness and lack of cohesion, one must not forget about the fact that fans are being treated to a show featuring one of the most distinctive voices in the history of Rock – Jon Anderson. He can really make or break a performance, and on this night, he was for the most part sublime in his delivery. It took a few songs to really get that “feeling” but by the time the opening notes of “And You and I” kicked in, you knew you were in for a treat. This feeling carried over to the rest of the show, with “I Am Waiting and “Heart of the Sunrise”, the former being a lesser-known track from the Talk album and the latter being one of their most recognized tunes from Fragile.
Set closer, “Owner of a Lonely Heart” included a few of the most memorable moments of the night, including a dueling solo between Wakeman and Rabin, with the former playing a Keytar. They wandered around the circumference of the venue like traveling minstrels, even stopping to jam for a bit at the private booth of well-known concert promoter, Danny Zelisko, who has brought all incarnations of YES to Phoenix for many years. “Owner” segued into a rousing cover of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.”
This leg of the Quintessential Yes 50th Anniversary tour is only nine dates, covering mostly the west coast, but they have another twenty plus dates planned for the rest of America for next year. There are very few bands from the golden age of 70’s Prog that are still able to tour and continue to make live music like the original – enjoy them while you still can.
