The Rundgren set makes Yes' look very, very conservative IMHO. I agree that 'Soon' and 'Leaves Of Green' is cheating really.
Oh well, am pleased to see they did 'Survival'. I like those early Yes songs a lot.
Todd is Todd, always good in my opinion. I even liked the speech he did at Berkley for graduation. Yes, even though i lived and died for them from the very beginning, just doesn't do it for me without Jon A. I have nothing against Jon D., he seems like a great guy, but it's just different for me now. Watching older clips of the band really hits home with me with how much I miss Chris. It's all good I suppose, but as they say, you just can't ever go home again.
FYI, Madrigal was played tonight, to start the encore, followed by Roundabout and Starship Trooper. Geoff does not play on Madrigal at all, it's just Steve and Jon both on acoustic guitars, with a bit of harmony vocals from Billy, if I remember correctly.
Went to both NC shows, enjoyed tonight more than last night, partly because we were able to stand right up front. Setlists were the same except the expanded encore tonight.
^^^^^
Berklee, no?
I have to say, the Todd show the last two nights was interesting, but also a bit embarrassing. The "put your hands in the air" song made me think we were watching Britney Spears' creepy grand-uncle or something. He only played one song I knew, Hello It's Me, and that sounded phoned in, as if he was contractually obligated to play a hit.
I came close to going to the Greensboro show but my son has been having snare drum issues and I had a chance to solve that issue so I decided to make him happy and take care of the snare drum instead of driving over to Greensboro. Maybe next time. No one has really discussed what Dylan and White are doing and how they are handling the drum duties. Are they both playing the whole show?
Bill
She'll be standing on the bar soon
With a fish head and a harpoon
and a fake beard plastered on her brow.
They play some songs together, with Dylan focusing mainly on percussion (cowbell, etc.), some songs with just Allan, and several songs with just Dylan. I can't remember the details, but it varies by song. I think Dylan was alone during Yours is No Disgrace, South Side of the Sky and And You and I, but I may be wrong.
Last edited by JJ88; 08-06-2017 at 05:12 AM.
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I saw last night's show.
I went in spoiler-free, and here's a rough account of my reactions to the set list as the night went on:
First up, "Survival". "Beyond and Before" would've been my top choice, but just about anything from the debut would've been cool to hear, so I was pleased. And then they followed it up with "Time and a Word", which was pretty much a yawn, not only because it was the most cliched choice, but because it's kind of in the same vein as "Survival", so it was a weird choice to follow it up. Anyway, I was completely expecting "All Good People" next, so "Yours is No Disgrace" came as a bit of a nice surprise, and it was a pretty energetic performance, in part because Dylan was the sole drummer on it. I was a little annoyed that Steve announced it by saying they were going to playing songs from the "first 9 albums", because that left out Drama and I was definitely looking forward to seeing one of my absolute favorite Yessongs, "Tempus Fugit", at the end of the night. I mean, that's certainly the song from Drama they would choose, right?
Next up was "South Side of the Sky", which is probably the best choice they could've picked from Fragile, imo. I know they've actually done it a fair amount in recent years, but it always still feels like a "deep cut" to me. Then "And You and I", which I really never get bored hearing, though, honestly, any choice from CttE would've been about equal for me. Then the rest of the band leaves the stage while Steve launches into "Leaves of Green", with Jon (and briefly Billy) joining for the vocals. Really, I think this was probably the best choice for TfTO, as either Side 1 or Side 4 would've felt like they were stretching on too long, and both are kind of bloated pieces anyway, imo. Plus, if they were doing an excerpt for Tales, they couldn't possibly be doing it for Relayer as well, and we'd definitely be getting "To Be Over" next, right? Unfortunately we did in fact get "Soon", which was another *yawn*.
So, then they launch into "Going for the One", which was a better choice than "Wondrous Stories" would've been, but that's about the best I can say for it. Not my favorite selection of the night. Then I'm pretty certain "Don't Kill the Whale" was the song from Tormato that I *least* wanted to hear (seriously, "Circus of Heaven" would've been more exciting!). Plus I was still annoyed because I was worried about the whole "nine albums" things and afraid that they would close with this crap and I wouldn't get to hear "Tempus Fugit"! But then the band stayed on stage afterward, so I was pretty happy, but then they played "Machine Messiah" instead! Oh well, it was still a pretty good closer, and sounded really heavy.
At this point I was getting pretty tired, and I'm figuring, "All right, let's hear Roundabout and maybe Starship Trooper and then get out of here". But Steve and Jon walk on stage with guitars and play "Madrigal" of all things, which seems weird because it's such and Anderson/Wakeman song. Oh well, I would just have soon heard that in the place of "Don't Kill the Whale" to begin with. Then we get "Roundabout" and "Starship Trooper", and by that time I was pretty exhausted, even though I was trying to stand and clap and dance for both of them.
This is definitely Steve Howe's band at the moment, and he really did feel like the dominant presence in the group. Jon Davison actually sounds a lot better live than he does on record to my ears. Less thin and shrill. Sherwood sounded pretty solid in his role, though he nearly missed a few vocal cues by having to rush back to the mike. He also seemed a little bit at a loss at points when White wasn't on stage, as he wanted to turn and jam with the drummer, but Dylan was way on the other side off the stage. Overall, though, both his bass playing and vocal sounded on point to me, and the vocal harmonies overall were solid as far as I could tell. Downes actually seemed like a bit of a weak link. Not that he did anything wrong, though a few sound choices were a bit weird, but he just didn't really stand out at all. As far as the drums go, both Dylan and White played the first two numbers, then White left, returning part of the way through "And You and I". Then I believe he did "Soon" and "Going for the One" by himself, and both played "Don't Kill the Whale" and the rest of the set. Honestly, White was okay, but seemed to be struggling a bit. The band was probably at its strongest when Dylan was playing solo on YiND and "SSotS", imo.
All in all, it was a solid night, though it did feel really long with the two openers (over four hours from the time Carl Palmer hit the stage to the end of Yes's set). And while I love the "one song per album" set list, it's kind of a shame that it basically means they're doing a 70s-only set. One song each from the *next* ten albums would've been a really interesting show!
Last edited by dpt3; 08-06-2017 at 11:06 AM.
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I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
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The Ikon? Wow!!! Todd did tip his hat to the progginess of the event. Nice!
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