[atlantaprog] What did you think of Yes at Philips??

Just curious how those of you that went liked it.

I posted a review over at
http://www.progressiveears.com and have included it
here as well.  



<<This was a cool evening and a diverse set that went
for some deep cuts that haven't been done live in
ages. It was a real good show and from the looks of
the reviews for the other shows on the tour up to this
point, this might be the first night when they nailed
most everything, with not much in the way of sound
problems. The mix started out a little uneven, but was
balanced pretty quick after the third song or so. The
dynamic of this setlist, and the whole evening, was
sort of different from recent Yes shows. Usually Chris
and Rick are the ones that seem to be the most showy,
with the most over the top playing, at least recently.


This tour though seems to be Steve Howe's resurgence.
He was more animated than he has been since returning
to the group, imo. I don't know why this tour in
particular brought that out of him, but it seems to
have. Everyone played great, and Jon sang as well as I
have heard him, perfect pitch and totally clear. There
were no solo sets this time, that was nice for a
change, the emphasis was on the music alone tonight,
as a group. 

Ritual was a highlight and some of the deep cuts like
Turn of The Century, Sweet Dreams, Going For The One
and Every Little Thing made this a great setlist for
diehard fans that have seen every tour in the past 5
to 10 years or longer. A Yes newbie would probably
feel this setlist is a little lean on classics and
must hears, but heck, it had to happen sometime and I
am glad they took some chances with it. The acoustic
set added a change of pace and included a nice version
of Wondrous Stories among other things. 

Steve replaced his Coral electric sitar this year with
a new fangled guitar with today's technology, the new
Line 6 Variax guitar. It emulates the sound of many
different types of guitars via modeling. He used it
for a lot of acoustic parts here and there (not all
though, he still used some of his Martins too like the
12 string for AYAI). Then changed the setting, and
played the sitar parts on it (during Ritual), then
used it during And You and I for all the electric bits
(sounded like humbucker setting), and it sounded like
all of these things. It actually came through clearer
in the mix than the old Coral sitar did.
http://www.line6.com/variax/US/overview.asp
http://www.line6.com/variax/US/ 

The much talked about inflatable stage set wasn't as
cheesy as some reviews made it sound. I think it added
to the overall vibe of the set, and with the right
lights on it, looked pretty cool. It isn't as cool as
the Relayer stage setup, but it is an improvement over
having nothing but a blank stage. Cool show, up there
close to the top of my list of Yesshows. It seemed a
tad subdued though, good as it was, so can't say it
was the best one I ever saw, that would be the tour
when Rick returned and they did side one of Tales and
Awaken. This was a special kind of show and set
though, more unique than most and that made it real
enjoyable. >>

Looking forward to you thoughts about the show! 


-Sean T
NoiseDotCom


        
                
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