YEStival (Yes/Rundgren/Palmer) Dates

[rushfan]

Seeing the first show of the tour on Friday. Hopefully the one track per album concept makes for a good setlist.

[Dan Roth]

A short video from Downes, showing their rehearsal space and, for the first time, the drums/keys/drums setup:

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1DXxyOzraWRGM

[bRETT]

Seeing the first show of the tour on Friday. Hopefully the one track per album concept makes for a good setlist.

Wondering if those single tracks include Roundabout and ISAGP, or if they'll be encores and so don't count.

[Paulrus]

A short video from Downes, showing their rehearsal space and, for the first time, the drums/keys/drums setup:

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1DXxyOzraWRGM

How cool that Dylan is using the original band logo on his bass drum head. His kit also looks somewhat retro in scope. I really wonder if he's going to be channeling Bill (consciously or not).

[the winter tree]

Would love to hear them perform:

Looking Around or Beyond and Before

Astral Traveler or The Prophet

Perpetual Change

Heart of the Sunrise

Close To the Edge

Tales side 2

To Be Over

Awaken

Silent Wings of Freedom

Machine Messiah

[Dan Roth]

New Steve Howe interview in Billboard where he talks ARW, Dylan Howe, new album and more:

On the Yestival set list: "I can't give it away yet, but obviously how many songs from the first album have been played? Uh...none. So we're stopping on the first album, but also we're doing two songs from one of the albums, and one of them's going to be a surprise sort of acoustic song that just Jon and I will perform. We're bringing the focus to the songs rather than the albums, and I think we've got a good balance here with things that we're bringing forth that have never been played."

Full article: http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...r-touring-band

[Gizmotron]

Thank you Dan Roth!

And rushfan, please do post a review here after your show!

[Paulrus]

Billy has been posting some videos to FB. They're trying to keep the setlist a secret, but he toured Steve's rig and during the video they sort of gave away some of the songs that will be included.

SPOILER:
I'll list my current guess setlist and the songs I'm 99% confident based on the video.

Yes: Every Little Thing?
Time And A Word: Time And A Word?
The Yes Album: I've Seen All Good People
Fragile: Mood For A Day
Close To The Edge: And You And I
Tales From Topographic Oceans: Leaves of Green
Relayer: Soon?
Going For The One: Wondrous Stories?
Tormato: Don't Kill the Whale?

Encore: Roundabout?

I acknowledge this is a cynical view of the band taking the lazy way out, playing stuff they've done in the past rather than trying to learn something more esoteric like "Looking Around" or "On the Silent Wings of Freedom", but considering past history and that it's a summer festival type tour that's what I'm guessing they'll deliver. By my tally that's about 1.25 hours of music so probably too short, but considering again the setting that might be about right.

[Obscured]

My picks:

Yes - Survival
Time And A Word - Astral Traveller
Fragile - South Side Of The Sky
Close To The Edge - Close To The Edge
Tales - Ritual
Relayer - To Be Over
G4T1 - Wonderous Stories
Tormato - Don't Kill The Whale
Drama - Tempus Fugit

[JJ88]

'Beyond And Before' would be great. I love the track and it's got to be going on fifty years since they played anything of that song (whereas 'Every Little Thing' was played on the 35th tour and they nodded to 'Survival' in that 'Big Medley' in the late 70s). It was the first song on their first album...natural place to start!

I think Dylan Howe could be a welcome shot in the arm for this Yes. I'd still have my doubts about Downes on it...but they might even be able to attempt 'Sound Chaser' now.

[Rajaz]

Billy has been posting some videos to FB. They're trying to keep the setlist a secret, but he toured Steve's rig and during the video they sort of gave away some of the songs that will be included.

SPOILER:
I'll list my current guess setlist and the songs I'm 99% confident based on the video.

Yes: Every Little Thing?
Time And A Word: Time And A Word?
The Yes Album: I've Seen All Good People
Fragile: Mood For A Day
Close To The Edge: And You And I
Tales From Topographic Oceans: Leaves of Green
Relayer: Soon?
Going For The One: Wondrous Stories?
Tormato: Don't Kill the Whale?

Encore: Roundabout?

I acknowledge this is a cynical view of the band taking the lazy way out.

That looks like Steve Howe is going to get his fair share of the limelight for a good while ( 2 acoustic tunes: Mood and Leaves ). Might as well call it Steve Howe and his Band. Why not play "The Clap" instead of All Good People?

[tozo]

That looks like Steve Howe is going to get his fair share of the limelight for a good while ( 2 acoustic tunes: Mood and Leaves ). Might as well call it Steve Howe and his Band. Why not play "The Clap" instead of All Good People?

I tried to make the set list out as well, didn’t have much luck! If this set is what it is, the show will have 5 slower songs in a row, all of which are pretty easy to play..my dreams of hearing To Be Over again live (75) seem to be disappearing.

[jrw]

I actually think the Fragile selection is "South Side of the Sky," based on what I see. I could be wrong, though

[Paulrus]

I actually think the Fragile selection is "South Side of the Sky," based on what I see. I could be wrong, though

As could I. They did say 2 songs from one of the albums would be performed. I couldn't imagine them closing with something off Tormato which to me says they'll likely encore with someone off of either Fragile or The Yes Album (maybe both as alternates, who knows.)

Despite my cynical prediction of an underwhelming setlist I'm thinking of going mainly to see the two openers, and to see how well Dylan acquits himself.

[bondegezou]

In the interview linked to above, Howe promises songs "that have never been played." (By this line-up? Recently? Ever?)

Henry

[gojikranz]

I presume the acoustic with jon song is leaves of green? makes sense given the time limitations but does seem kind of cheating to not do a full song from each album.

[Paulrus]

In the interview linked to above, Howe promises songs "that have never been played." (By this line-up? Recently? Ever?)

OK, they've never done album tours of Yes, TAAW or Tormato, and we know all of Tales and Relayer have been played before. And hasn't everything off of Tormato also been played live by now?

So what does that leave us? "Yesterday And Today"? "Clear Days"?

Paging Steven Sullivan!

[arturs]

A month or two ago I posted a joke setlist that would make the show as short as possible. What you guys are predicting isn't too far from that!

I'm ok with Leaves of Green being the TFTO pick, but if they do Soon to represent Relayer and Wondrous Stories for GFTO, I'm not going. So there.

[Scott Bails]

Can't imagine that they won't do "To Be Over"

[rushfan]

I only hope that none of the songs in the setlist are snippets (Leaves of Green, Soon, etc.). I call that lazy if limited to one song per album.

[the winter tree]

I think the YES guys often have grand visions, but when it actually comes time for tour rehearsals they find they don't have enough time to properly work new stuff out so they rely on the old chestnuts. Like when AWR told about new arrangements of YES songs but ended up playing the old arrangements for the most part. The band seemed totally under rehearsed for the infamous 2011 tour with Styx.

[dmarkfie]

OK, they've never done album tours of Yes, TAAW or Tormato, and we know all of Tales and Relayer have been played before. And hasn't everything off of Tormato also been played live by now?

So what does that leave us? "Yesterday And Today"? "Clear Days"?

Paging Steven Sullivan!

Personally I'd love for them to pull something totally out of left field and represent Yesterday's and do Dear Father.

[Paulrus]

Personally I'd love for them to pull something totally out of left field and represent Yesterday's and do Dear Father.

Ah, but even that's been played live before (at least for the BBC)!

But yeah... my dream song would be "Something's Coming".

[bondegezou]

I think the YES guys often have grand visions, but when it actually comes time for tour rehearsals they find they don't have enough time to properly work new stuff out so they rely on the old chestnuts.

Looks like 6 days of group rehearsals for this tour, which is more than recently, but less than ARW began with, but then ARW had to start from scratch (and still felt less rehearsed at the beginning of their tour).

What Yes have done in recent years is evolve set lists: add interesting new things mixed with retaining material they've been playing recently. That makes sense: it's difficult to develop a whole new set from scratch, but you want each new set to offer something new and attract attention. Given they've played all of The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Going for the One and Drama in recent years, everything from those albums is in their repertoire. So that's a good chunk of this summer's set down. Nothing from any of those albums is going to be too surprising (I guess "A Venture"/"5% for Nothing"/"Parallels" would still be unexpected), but these are all great songs and they deliver the hits that a segment of the audience want. It's a big venue summer tour: there's going to be a good number of the classics. You can see something like "Tempus Fugit" being a good set closer before the encore. The questions here are whether they go for longer pieces ("Close to the Edge", "Awaken") from these albums, or shorter pieces that would allow more time to be spent on the less played albums. Play "And You and I" and "Wonderous Stories" instead of "CttE" and "Awaken" and it's a difference of 20 minutes.

They've just been playing two and a bit sides of Tales, either of the two or the bit are plausible. They have previously expressed interest in playing more from Tales, so it's not out of the question that they might do "The Ancient" or "The Remembering". Howe's reference to an acoustic song by him and Davison could well mean "Leaves of Green" though.

The less played material comes in the other albums: Yes, Time and a Word, Relayer and Tormato. The only thing Yes have played from Yes this millennium is, I think, "Every Little Thing" in 2004. "Time and a Word" would be the boring choice from Time and a Word: they've been playing it recently. They were doing "Astral Traveller" seven years ago, but three members of the band have changed since then. Nothing else has been touched in a decade ("Sweet Dreams" in 2004 is the next most recent, IIRC).

Relayer is the biggie. They've said they want to do all of it next year, so they might as well make a start now! But "Soon" would be the easy cop out. I'll be brave and predict "To be Over" will get played. All of Tormato has been played live at some point, but most of it not for a long time. They were doing "Onward" last in 2010 and "Don't Kill the Whale" last year. I can't see anyone pushing for "Madrigal" or "Circus of Heaven". I'd guess "Don't Kill the Whale", "Onward" or "On the Silent Wings of Freedom".

The band's video tour diary has hinted at "I've Seen All Good People" and "And You and I" so far.

Henry

[the winter tree]

Boring(for the long time fans) and predictable set list:

Every Little Thing
Time and a Word
Seen All Good People
Anything from Fragile
And You and I
Leaves of Green
Soon
Wondrous Stories
Don't Kill the Whale
Tempus Fugit

Roundabout
StarshipTrouper

;-)