YES Summer Tour 2019- w/Asia, Carl Palmer & John Lodge

[abhorsen]

Thank you for the extensive write up Thomas! I really enjoyed reading your recap.

[Top Cat]

My initial introduction to Jon D was boots from the first tour he did with Yes filling in for Benoit.. I was not impressed.. When I saw him on one of the 3 albums tour.. I had the same reaction you are describing.. trying to "sound" like Jon A. Last summer he was better but to my ears there is a noticeable difference on this tour.. I finally warmed up to him.. and thought he nailed it this go round.. There was a warmth to his voice I hadn't heard before.. Even listening to H&E he doesn't have the warmth that he has now.. and that was singing "new" material.. One of the things I enjoyed the most about FFH was Benoit was finally singing with his voice vs. trying to sound like Jon A on the old Yes material.. If Yes is going to make a move with recording new material I say do it now while the burner is hot.. they are a tight band right now.. With that said if Steve chooses not to record any more new material and continue on as a touring unit playing old Yes songs.. I think it would be a missed opportunity.. which wouldn't be a first in the bands history..

You pretty much sum up my experience with Jon D and Yes, in fact I wasn't much of a fan of his while he was in Glass Hammer.
I have both Live DVD's Jon Davison did while Chris was alive, and his vocal performances were ok, but I felt at times as a frontman he was a bit over his head.
I was to the point of swearing off any new Yes purchases, but after listening to Topographic Drama I noticed a change in the vocals and began warming up to him and felt at that point he had finally embraced his role as "the singer" for Yes.
I think he has even more potential and will love to hear what the future holds for him when he can finally sing as Jon D and not a singer of Yes songs.

I agree, this is the time to record a new album, Jon is ready, the band is ready and we really don't know how long they can keep going on at this level.

As a Benoit David fan, I also agree with your comments about him and FFH.
Given time I think he could've been a really good fit for Yes, but in the video Yes included in one of their cds, his stage presence wasn't very good to me.

[Steve983]

I agree, this is the time to record a new album, Jon is ready, the band is ready and we really don't know how long they can keep going on at this level.

As a Benoit David fan, I also agree with your comments about him and FFH.
Given time I think he could've been a really good fit for Yes, but in the video Yes included in one of their cds, his stage presence wasn't very good to me.

I agree, I am hopeful of another album from Yes, although I can understand a lack of motivation from Howe. Why does he want to spend another few months away from his family at his age for an album that won't make him any money? His only motivation can be an artistic one to have one more go at making a good Yes album. Heaven & Earth would have been better if there was more Prog in the music. Most of the songs were very good but lacked the fire that only maybe appeared at the end of Subway Walls.

I've always really liked Jon D but Benoit was great too especially when I saw him in late 2011 on the FFH tour just before his troubles began, he had great stage presence and they were really performing well. Its very sad how it turned out for him but he still did a great job with Yes when it couldn't have existed without him.

[Paulrus]

Singers can sound like Jon but still not sound like Jon Anderson.

I'd put it more as, singers can sing in Jon Anderson's range, but still not sound like Jon Anderson. That to me is what Jon D does. I think he does a good job trying to capture some of the vocal quirks and idiosyncrasies in the songs without necessarily aping JA. But at the end of the day they're different singers. Sometimes I wish JD gave his delivery a bit more of JA's rasp and huskiness, but it would probably harm his vocal cords.

[Top Cat]

I'd put it more as, singers can sing in Jon Anderson's range, but still not sound like Jon Anderson. That to me is what Jon D does. I think he does a good job trying to capture some of the vocal quirks and idiosyncrasies in the songs without necessarily aping JA. But at the end of the day they're different singers. Sometimes I wish JD gave his delivery a bit more of JA's rasp and huskiness, but it would probably harm his vocal cords.

I don't think it's quite a matter of range or not, and I would probably personally think of sounding similar in tone, although not being critical to Jon D, I just think his voice is missing the body and weight Jon's vocals have.
We had the pleasure of seeing Jon Anderson in Clearwater for the Hands tour and that reinforced my opinion of their differences even more.(As commented earlier we had seen Yes last tour).
And this weekend we watched ARW Live at the Apollo and his voice just has it's own sound to it and it reminded me of how Jon D and Jon A sound a bit different.
And YES I really do like that concert and I don't even notice the faux crowd noise.

[SteveSly]

As a Benoit David fan, I also agree with your comments about him and FFH.
Given time I think he could've been a really good fit for Yes, but in the video Yes included in one of their cds, his stage presence wasn't very good to me.

I saw Yes with David twice. The first time I was rather underwhelmed. The second time he (and the whole band) was much better. I have seen Davison 3 times now and each tour has gotten better too IMO.

[happytheman]

I saw Yes with David twice. The first time I was rather underwhelmed. The second time he (and the whole band) was much better. I have seen Davison 3 times now and each tour has gotten better too IMO.

Likewise.. first tour they did "featuring.. etc", then the second time with Asia the following summer as I recall.. Two different singers.. first show he had his moments particularly during Onward.. but the summer tour I thought he nailed every song.. very impressed with him..

[gearHed289]

I'd put it more as, singers can sing in Jon Anderson's range, but still not sound like Jon Anderson. That to me is what Jon D does. I think he does a good job trying to capture some of the vocal quirks and idiosyncrasies in the songs without necessarily aping JA. But at the end of the day they're different singers. Sometimes I wish JD gave his delivery a bit more of JA's rasp and huskiness, but it would probably harm his vocal cords.

Gotta agree with this. I saw Jon D once in 2014 and was impressed with his ability to sing the Yes stuff. But he still didn't really SOUND like Jon A. That point was really driven home when I saw ARW a couple of years later.