Yes took the stage as instrumentation from their new album filled the arena. They started with "Tempus Fugit" which flowed along through funky progressions with Steve lavish on his guitar leads "Yours Is No Disgrace" worked well. Benoit started off beautifully in the soaring "Heart Of The Sunrise" but lost some notes and from that point forward struggled vocally throughout the set. Having seen David before we know he is capable of the catalogue but was having some difficulties on this summer eve.

There were other issues that the closing act Yes faced including spotty transitions and tempos. The music of Yes is complex and chemistry is key in making all the connections. The fact that keyboardist Geoff Downes is relatively new to the live lineup could have accounted for some of the problems.

Yes are seasoned professionals and they have been known to get off to rocky starts on recent past outings only to tighten up as their tours progress. However, fans are tuned in and following along like never before on various Internet websites and message boards. Original reports panned the opening night debut in Camden and the PNC show received similar criticism.

The shaky start wasn't lost on the band as Squire announced from the Holmdel stage that this was only their second night out and "hopefully we'll be good on night three."

However, based upon a ton of reviews I've read, this band did NOT rehearse adequately!   I've read about how they rehearsed CTTE and TFTO to near exhaustion before hitting the road with those tours, and this sounds like a slap-dash affair.  

Not impressed.....I've trod the rock & roll stage and know that the people come to see you play your very best, not to watch you practice & make up lost prep time.  Yes owes fans an apology, and yet, they attack them in Yes blogs??  

 

Well if he did say that I for one would have been beyond pissed!!! I think I am glad I did not get tickets for the show here in Washington.....although I am still pondering it........its at the end of this month.

 

Just don't watch any Youtube posted....but if u have, I'm sorry

I've been watching a few this evening from the latest tour, although I've given up on that and am now watching them live in 1979

Anyway, the videos I have watched, CTTE, AYAI, Heart of the Sunrise, and Starship Trooper have been uniformly awful, even allowing for crap sound on videos.

By far the best track I saw live was the title track of the new album, which was genuinely very good. On the "classics", David is way out of his depth and range, whilst the rest seem to be merely going through the motions, and Downes barely heard (which is a good thing, because when he is it ain't very pretty).

Having seen a number of reviews and seen quite a few videos now, i am convinced that they would have been better off doing lots more from the new album, Drama, and Rabin vocal tracks from that era. I know this is only a pipedream, and they would get slated for not offering the classic tracks, but, by God, it surely would have made for better value than hearing David and Downes, especially, struggling so much.

 

Maybe they should have just come on stage, talked a bit, signed some stuff, taken pictures and then left... played a video of their '79 tour.....of course updated to HD and 5.1 surround to make it worth the ticket price.

 

But I don't think Lark/Starless would like that......Laz we better shut up

Oh yes, it would be really really bad if they still haven't got it right after nearly a year 

 

While I am a bigger Yes fan than Styx fan by several notches (although I do love Styx from the first album through Pieces of Eight....and scattered stuff thereafter) - there is no doubt whatsoever that Styx completely blew Yes off the stage - and it wasn't even close.

 

I completely understand with these co-headlining summer shed tours that bands play it safe with the set and keep to the classic rock radio mainstays....so I'm not going to be too critical about set selection.....but maybe just a little.

 

Styx being a more singles-oriented band (especially after Shaw joined) makes them a bit more predictable potentially being that there are at least 6-7 songs which you know they "have" to play....but it was good hearing "Lorelei" (a single when it came out...but not a song you hear on the radio) and "Man in the Wilderness" (album cut from Grand Illusion).

 

Styx brought the goods.....they were in music-shape and physical-shape and from a distance you wouldn't know that these guys were any older than 40.  They played great, sounded great, sang great.....and of course even if he is (probably) saying the same things night-after-night.....Shaw brings a certain charisma that does connect with the crowd in the between-song banter.

 

Yes on the other hand - and I hate saying this.....were borderline horrible.

 

I realize there's not much time to work with.....but they played the most predictable Yes set you could ever imagine (barring the opening song from Drama which you could anticipate they would play given Downes' presence...and a new song - which was also anticipated).

 

Benoit David - who I thought sounded great two years ago when I saw them at Westbury Music Fair with Asia - seemed to be a mortal among legends - and he was definitely struggling with a lot of the material (the end of Heart of the Sunrise was borderline embarassing).....but he was hardly my problem....he's playing a role and barring the return of the original - probably playing it better than most could.

 

Steve Howe - he may look like he's 173 years old - but I felt like he was the only one that really came to play.  Howe is still a spectacular guitar player....no complaints there.

 

Geoff Downes.....no real opinion.  I see he's getting critiqued on this tour - but I had no problem with his playing one way or the other.

 

Alan White.....my primary target.  Now - I love and respect Alan White to the end of the earth....his drumming has been absolutely inspirational.....but he is so far past his prime that he needs to retire.  It seems to me he plays with absolutely no energy and hits the drums like he's playing soft jazz rather than prog-rock.  The heavy parts need to be heavy to have the proper effect.....Yours Is No Disgrace and Heart of the Sunrise in their heavy moments NEED TO BE PLAYED HEAVY!.....and his drumming ruined the songs.  Just very weak.

 

Chris Squire....my secondary target because, to me, this is HIS band....and for them to have gone on stage so seemingly unprepared and with what seemed like slowed-down/less heavy - almost "jammy" (and poor jams at that....what the heck WAS that during Starship Trooper anyway?....blech...) - arrangements of their songs....not to mention picking the absolute most predictable set-list imaginable....really tarnishes the name of one of the greatest bands in history.

 

If you can't bring it anymore....pack it in.

 

Yes may alienate some fans for good, similar to what happened to Coca-Cola when they changed their formula & came out with "New Coke."  Of course, that went into the crapper & they went back to the "classic Coke."   

Will Squire admit he was wrong and bring Anderson back in?  I doubt it, this is a good read about the situation, including discussion of upcoming Wakeman/Anderson/Rabin project (which I'm looking forward to!)

http://www.billboard.com/news/jon-anderson-on-being-booted-from-yes-anger-1005270372.story#/news/jon-anderson-on-being-booted-from-yes-anger-1005270372.story" rel="nofollow - http://www.billboard.com/news/jon-anderson-on-being-booted-from-yes-anger-1005270372.story#/news/jon-anderson-on-being-booted-from-yes-anger-1005270372.story

I have to agree with Captain2man on this one, mostly.

No complaints from me for Steve Howe. He is amazing and I've never seen him preform anything bad.

Mr.Downes, well I got an opinion, GREAT. I loved his tenacity on stage and the keytar solo was downes right cool.Sound could've been better but cool nonetheless.

Benoit David, did his best not to screw up too bad. His talking to the crowd/ intros to songs were laughable.... seriously people were laughing. To introduce And You And I i believe he said something like "This song is dedicated to our loved ones, whoever they are and where ever they may be." Pfffft alight, so its dedicated to anybody anywhere, cool.

Mr.White pah-lease, I love your studio playing but for gosh sake, if you aint gonna play the right material then you best let someone else do it right. Starship Trooper in particular had non of the drums fills from the album, rather he just filled it will cymbal noise. I didnt find his playing to soft though, just dummied down so the ol stoner can keep up :)

And for Squire, he had an alright performance but some bad sounds coming from his bass in a couple of songs was just nasty. Mediocre at best.

The setlist, well they knew if they didn't want to get blasted reviews they would have to play the classics.So they did, but that seemed to only exacerbate things among fans...

And as for Styx, yeah they brought the f*****g house down! 

 

Coming out unprepared is unforgivable for professional musicians charging those prices.

 

Took my daughter to Journey instead. Pure crowd-pleasing entertainment...sound like Styx delivered in the same way.

I just hope Anderson comes back. He sounds better than ever and it would probbaly cancel out the sub-par performances of Alan White and Squire.

Just watch Howe!  Sounds like that is worth much of the price of admission. 

Based on what I've read from Anderson's interviews, he's truly pissed that he was treated in this manner.  He MAY show up for a Yes introduction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but I wouldn't count on any reunion with Squire, ever.  

Squire also was quoted as saying that the band will tour for the next few years in support of FFH.  Huh??  Who's going to buy the tickets??  

I'm looking forward to Jon Anderson's "The Voice of Yes" acoustic show in a few weeks and perhaps the eventual release of material from Anderson, Wakeman, Trevor Rabin and whomever else they want to invite.  Should be damn interesting!  

Pretty sad when Styx beats up Yes onstage!! 

And i didn't feel like paying 70 dollars just for lawn seets. I paid less to see, in my opinion, a better band, for closer seats than that.

It sounds like Anderson would have done way better than BD.

And I'm sorry to hear White didn't do that good since he's from around where I live.

 

I passed on the tour, my original post was a cut & paste from someone else!  However, I've passed on the Benoit David version of Yes several times, mostly because I didn't like what I saw on Youtube clips. 

Go see Jon Anderson's "Voice of Yes" show, or Anderson & Wakeman if you have a chance.  I saw Anderson's solo show, it was outstanding!   A solo version of "The Revealing Science of God".....doesn't get much better!