----------------------------------------------------- AUGUST 9, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: South Jersey Courier-Post Concert review: Yes mostly impressive in Tweeter Center visit By Chuck Darrow The British progressive-rock band Yes, a Delaware Valley favorite for some 30 years, returned to the area Thursday night for a performance at the Tweeter Center. The concert was a slightly uneven, but mostly impressive, session featuring sparkling instrumental and vocal execution, with occasional forays into the abyss of pompous, long-winded bombast. Mostly, the quintet -- charter members Jon Anderson (vocals) and Chris Squire (bass), keyboardist Rick Wakeman (back in the band after an eight-year absence), guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Alan White -- was typically on-target as it churned out nearly three hours of complex music and often-stunning harmonies. Despite being considered a "dinosaur" by so many tastemakers, Yes at its best is still an aural marvel. Thursday night they scaled the peaks on a numerous occasions, most emphatically on such numbers as: -- Their traditional concert opener, "Siberian Khatru," which, as always, was propelled by Squire's promenading, treble-edged lines played on his trademark Rickenbacker 4001 bass; -- A full-bodied "South Side Of the Sky," which followed some remarkable vocals by Anderson and Squire on the brief, but memorable, "We Have Heaven;" -- An impossibly precise "Heart Of the Sunrise." On these works, and others, the band members maintained sky-high levels of individual and ensemble playing as they deftly negotiated a sonic obstacle course filled with tricky twists and turns and daunting detours. All five Yes men had plenty of chances to show off, and they didn't disappoint. Of particular note were Howe's solo turn, which he used to offer up some pretty sharp classical-flavored acoustic guitar work, and Squire, who somehow managed to always anchor the sound, despite his penchant for complicated counter melodies and rhythms. And what can be said of Anderson's continued ability to sing in registers much higher than anyone his age (he'll be 58 in October) should be expected to reach? Suffice it to say his choral-like voice spits in the eye of any number of laws of physiology. On "Magnification," the title track of Yes' brand new CD, he actually came uncomfortably close to tones usually identified with Alvin the Chipmunk. Of course, no Yes program would be complete without sojourns into prog-rock overload. Thursday, those moments came on the closing songs of both sets. The first act finale, "The Revealing Science of God" (a.k.a. the second side of the two-recordTales From Topographic Oceans) was little more than a restatement of the preceding five songs. The last piece of the second set, "Awaken," was an exercise in icky New Age "soundscaping" (Squire gave it a Spinal Tap-ish touch by wielding a triple-necked bass). Both were marked (or is that marred?) by Anderson's yearning, ridiculously oblique lyrics about the search for higher consciousness, higher truths and spiritual fulfillment. But to the faithful who (at best) half-filled the T-Center, these pieces, like the rest of the repertoire, were nothing less than sonic manna. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com