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MARCH 29, 1998
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Source: Publiczny Dostep do Internetu
http://www.pdi.net/~eristic/yes/review_3_poznan.html
Yes in Poland: Poznan Concert Review: 29 March 1998
By Christopher Currie
The last Yesshow in Poland was one of surprises, not all of them fortunate.
It had all the makings of a wonderful night. The venue was just right
(about three thousand people) and full, the sound was much better than in
Katowice, and it had been a brilliant spring day all around, with lots of
sun, clear sky and the temperature about 17 degrees Centigrade.
The "Arena" hall is a perfectly round building situated right in the middle
of a large park. My train arrived early in the morning and I had over eight
hours to while away in the city before the show. Since all shops were
closed for Sunday, I had little else to do but walk around the park, take
peeks inside the tour buses, eavesdrop on the Yes truckers' conversation
and maybe hope to see the band entering or leaving the building. People
were walking their dogs, families strolling, kids on bikes and
rollerskates, very few of them aware that Something Big was just about to
happen. The tech guys were busy wheeling equipment in and for a while I got
to eavesdrop on the conversation inside the building through a half-open
ground-floor window: I hoped it was the band inside, but the band came
later in their limousines; what I heard was the chatting and the laughter
of the crew members and they were listening to Zappa's Apostrophe, which
was rather cool, I thought. A green delivery van brought a supply of
mineral water and Polish beer, and as the evening approached the somber
crowd of Polish security thugs was getting thicker and busier.
About 100 minutes before the show the limousines arrived, but it was hardly
possible to even see the band members inside the circles of their tight
escort, let alone approach them and ask for an autograph... alas. And the
first unsettling surprise that day was that the show began ten minutes
early. I had barely taken my seat about 15 minutes before the scheduled
time when Firebird was heard from the speakers and the light went down.
Understandably, this caused some panic among the audience, many of whom had
not yet entered the hall. When Siberian Khatru started, only about half of
the people were in their seats, and the rest were trying to find their way
in the dark. Many gave up, and chose to stand just wherever, but throughout
Khatru there was a lot of shuffling and it was well-nigh impossible to
actually concentrate on what was going on on the stage. Now, trains never
leave ahead of schedule, movies do not start early - these things just
cannot work that way. It is one thing to just call this unprofessional, but
I find it impossible to imagine that the band were not aware of the fact
they were beginning too early: in Katowice, when the ambient track was
played to the end but not all the audience had already entered the hall,
they actually restarted the track and began the show two or three minutes
late. I'd rather not speculate on what the cause of this premature
beginning might have been, but I do not think it was accidental: not at
this level of tight organization that the Yes shows have.
I had a third-row seat, precisely center-stage. The sound was just right,
clear without being deafening, and after the initial turmoil I could
finally just sit and enjoy the show. The band seemed to be in perfect form.
Anderson's voice in America was steadier and stronger than I'd ever heard
before, and the rendition of And You And I must have been the best I know,
in terms of performance perfection and of the focused emotional energy the
song projected. After I'd spent the first two shows watching the band more
than listening to the music, I was finally captured. The spell was on, and
continued through Heart of the Sunrise and all the solo pieces. Alan
White's Ritual solo sounded best of the three and actually won him a
deserved standing ovation (the only solo bit to be rewarded thus in any of
the three shows I saw).
(Trivia point: there was a professional beta-system camera recording the
show. I don't suppose it was TV, since TV people would have brought several
of those; probably the recording was being made for the band. Half-way
through the show I noticed the camera was gone.)
Then there was Owner and I couldn't help thinking that this song is
definitely not a fortunate one to immediately precede The Revealing: what
is needed is a song that will gently wind the energy down without
dispelling the concentration; To Be Over would fill the spot just
perfectly. So then there was Owner...
...and then Jon said that, for the next song, he wanted us to get up and
sing and dance, and he told the security guys it was okay if we did. I knew
that this introduced I've Seen All Good People and was puzzled, to say the
least. While almost everyone was dancing, and some were singing, through
AGP, I could not help wondering what exactly was going on. My hopeful guess
was maybe they were going to play Awaken after all, as promised - maybe
that was what prompted the change in set order? But after All Good People
the band just left the stage. I couldn't believe it. I still thought, maybe
they were going to surprise us by coming back and doing Awaken. What
happened was that they did come back for the usual encore, Roundabout and
Starship Trooper and then, without another word from Jon, left the stage
for the crew to dismantle the equipment.
How can I say it? I was stunned. Judging from what I could hear of the
conversations around me, as we were leaving the hall, very few people
realized that The Revealing Science of God had been dropped and that the
show was cut short by over twenty minutes. Naturally I missed my last
chance to hear the song live (and to me, together with And You And I, this
was the most important part of the show) but I had seen The Revealing
performed twice before, so that wasn't what worried me most. The sheer fact
was. I don't suppose the band is under any contractual obligation to play
The Revealing, but one can expect that there is a requirement for the
duration of the show. They could not have just forgotten to play it. Just
like with starting the show ten minutes too early, a decision must have
been made not to perform The Revealing. Again, it can't have been
accidental. I expect that the reasons will forever remain a mystery, but
the two unusual surprises the show brought invite all sorts of speculation.
After all, dropping The Revealing is not like dropping, say, Wonderous
Stories. Yes, I did feel short-changed, and in fact angry, also for the
three thousand people in the audience who had not seen the shows in Warsaw
and Katowice.
After the show some fifty fans gathered around the back entrance in hopes
of seeing the band leave the building. I joined, but I knew that, given a
chance, instead of "Thank you" I would have to say "What happened to The
Revealing, guys?" I wasn't given the chance. Alan White came out first,
after maybe half an hour, came up to the security barrier, waved his hand,
then got into the car and was driven away. Jon left next, didn't even stop
for a second before disappearing inside the limousine, didn't even look at
the fans cheering and clapping their hands and yelling "Thanks, Jon, we
love you". Somebody asked "When are you coming back?" and Jon answered
"Next time" without stopping or turning his head. Steve followed and I
hardly even saw him, surrounded as he was by the security escort. He did
wave his hand from inside the car, though... Chris Squire was greeted with
the most excited applause, and he did stop and did sign several CDs and
tourbooks (I didn't manage to get near enough, with my Fish Out of Water
booklet in hand) and muttered (not: said; muttered) "Thanks for coming" a
few times in the general direction of no-one in particular. I didn't wait
for Billy and Igor...
Something didn't feel quite right. I know the band try to evade the
crowding fans more often than entertain us, and I certainly don't hold it
against them. We just didn't get lucky that time. But with the unusually
early start of the show and with The Revealing missing from the set list,
it wasn't a happy evening.
I want to end this review on a lighter note, though. It was in Poznan,
before the show, that I overheard the unquestioned quote of the tour. Two
ladies strolling the park lanes, both looking over 50 years of age,
certainly not rock-fan types - and visibly interested in the goings-on
around the Arena hall, the British trucks, the busy road crew, the swarming
security people. I was walking a few feet behind them, and here's what I
heard one of them say: "Oh, it's that show tonight, this band, they played
Warsaw the other day, what's-their-name, YES, that's it, Yes. It's some old
band, but they used to be really big, sort of like the Beatles."
Made my day, this last part. This lady obviously had next to no clue about
the show, and it's a safe bet she'd never heard any Yes music and was aware
of it, and yet she knew... "sort of like the Beatles." I felt... vindicated.
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