------------------------------------ APRIL 11, 1998 ------------------------------------ Source: Dutch Progressive Rock Concert Reviews http://www.dprp.vuurwerk.nl/concrev/yes3.htm Yes - April 11th, 1998 - MC Frits Philips, Eindhoven, The Netherlands By Ed Sander The place was packed. People were even sitting on the stairs. Looking around on the balconies, I was feeling extremely young. I know, when most of tonight's material was written, I was still learning the alphabet. However, the largest part of the Frits Philips Hall seemed to be filled with slightly balding heads (no insult intended). I also noticed that a lot of women were present, considering this was a prog rock concert. Most of them came with a balding head and seemed to be middle class spouses, which wasn't strange, looking at the extortionate high price printed on my ticket. These people probably were the longhaired hippies that listened to Yes back in the seventies. They would have the time of their lifes tonight. At 20.15 hours the Firebird Suite was played and the band came on stage. During Siberian Khatru I experienced the loud volume of the music. Later during the show, they either turned it down or I was deafened enought to notice anymore. Someone told me that the volume had been even higher in Utrecht. The first of two songs from the eighties followed, a nice version of Rhythm of Love with various solo's added at the end. Jon Anderson, who was talking gibberish again and was waving to the audience more than the pope does in a whole year, announced the next song as a Paul Simon composition; America. Nice song, but it dragged a bit as a live performance. The only nineties composition, Open our Eyes, was next. If I was to tell you that I consider Open Your Eyes the worst Yes album ever, you can probably guess how 'enthustiatic' I was hearing this song. Fortunately, it was followed by a 'Golden Oldie', as Anderson announced it; And You and I. The rendition of this one was better than the version on Keys to Ascension. Next up was one of the highlights of the evening; Heart of the Sunrise. It was played extremely powerful and featured some marvellous bass by Chris Squite. I love this bass player ! The light show was simple but effective with various coloured lights shining down on the band and shapes being projected on a backdrop. During Heart of the Sunrise a large sun was being projected. Then the band left the stage for Steve Howe to do his solo piece. He played four acoustical tracks, among which Mood for a Day and The Clap. Then the band came back to do Wonderous Stories, which didn't work very well live as far as I'm concerned. After a good solo by keyboard player Igor, who can certainly live up to Wakeman's playing, the band went into a great version of Long Distance Runaround. As was to be expected, this merged into the Chris Squire solo The Fish. I think I could have listened to Chris playing for an hour without getting bored. After a short bit of Tempus Fugit (why not more Drama?), Alan White played the drum solo of Rituals. The intro of Sound Chaser closed this Squire-White intermezzo. During the second eighties track, an extended version of Owner of a Lonely Heart, Billy 'Coffee Shop' Sherwood got his only noticeable contribution for the evening; he screwed up the guitar solo. I had expected the next song, The Revealing Science of God, to be a complete bore, but as a matter of fact it was very impressive (although maybe just a bit too long). The set was closed by I've Seen All Good People and as John had requested, all people got up during the second part, though there was hardly any real dancing going on. The band played two encores; good versions of Roundabout and Starship Trooper. Although the audience kept applauding the band would not come back for an extra encore. Except for the order of the songs, the setlist was exactly the same as during the rest of the tour. I've got some mixed feelings about this Yes tour. I really can't understand why a band with 30 years of material would still focus on the first half of the seventies. True, some of the band's best material was written during that period, but some nice stuff was released in the eighties and nineties as well. This concert was basically 'Let's go out and play the live songs on Keys to Ascension again!' Although I consider myself lucky that they only played one song from Open Your Eyes, I really can't see why a band releases and album, goes on tour and does not promote their latest release. Does this mean that the band doesn't like the material either? On the other hand, no 'new' tracks from the Keys to Ascension album were played either. Even though everybody is raving about tracks like Minddrive. And I wouldn't have minded some more stuff from the 'Trevor Rabin Yes'. Concluding, it was a very nice concert and I was happy to finally be able to see Yes live (this was my first Yes concert). The musicians played very well. But would I go again if they would play the same stuff all over? I think not, I might as well put Yessongs or Keys to Ascension on at home. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com