Live Performance Reviews - Yes in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

The set consisted of complete play-throughs of three classic Yes albums - 1972's Close to the Edge, 1977's Going For The One, and 1971's The Yes Album, in that (rather odd) order. A little disappointingly, the encore was just one song, Roundabout. With the show coming just two days after announcing that they had finished recording Heaven And Earth, I was rather hoping for some small preview of the new material in addition to this solid if predictable choice.

There wasn't much else to complain about, though.

Playing the albums in the above order means opening with all 19 minutes of the title track from Close to the Edge, which is a pretty ballsy way to start a show; a bad or even only-okay performance of this piece would trash the credibility of any band claiming to be Yes. Happily, what we got was a solid, engaging performance that went ever-so-slightly beyond the album version. I think it might have been a little strange for the uninitiated, with its fusion-y opening and constantly shifting tempos - one girl sitting near me, who was obviously there with her much more Yes-acquainted boyfriend, looked kind of confused throughout - but the rest of us pretty much rose to our feet as one as the piece reached its triumphant conclusion.

As for the remaining two songs from Close to the Edge, of *course* And You And I was a highlight, but what pleasantly surprised me was Siberian Khatru, Frankly, I've never been that big a fan of this track in its studio incarnation - a straightforward rocker, by Yes standards - but its relative simplicity and energetic pace turned out to be just what the show needed after two long, somewhat mellow pieces. I think I left with something of a new appreciation for this song, or at least for its useful role in a concert setlist.

Going for the One was a bit more of a mixed bag (which I'll be discussing out of order by the way). The title track is decent but nothing special, and while I know Wondrous Stories has its fans, I've never been that impressed with it. Granted, it's kind of neat to see Steve on lute and Jon on guitar for the latter. Parallels, on the other hand, is a great little showpiece, for similar reasons to Siberian Khatru; actually, this would have made a pretty awesome opener if the band had been willing to juggle the running orders a little. It may be worth noting that the girl I mentioned earlier was clearly into the show by this point, smiling and head-bopping throughout.

Turn of the Century might be my favourite song of all time. The rendition here was nothing short of heart-rending, easily the most emotionally engaging song Yes ever recorded in my book, with Steve Howe's understated classical guitar perhaps exceeding the magic it works on the studio version. I think Awaken might actually have been a bit shorter than the original, with the slow instrumental section in the middle compressed a bit (a mercy, as that might be the most boring four or five minutes Yes ever recorded). Awaken is another long, complex piece with lots of good bits, most of which were very well translated here, but unfortunately in this case the finale failed to match the epic power of the recorded version, on which Steve Howe channels David Gilmour while Wakeman conjures up choirs of angels on a century-old pipe organ.

After an intermission, the set resumed with The Yes Album. While there's not a single song on either of the other albums played here that would be surprising to see in a normal Yes concert setlist (the Keys to Ascension set list, for example, contained all of Close to the Edge and most of Going For The One), it's very nice to see A Venture get a bit of a day in the sun; this little gem was another highlight, with Downes getting a nice extended piano solo at the end. Still, this was the album where I most wished the band had been willing to shuffle the order a bit. Even "flipping the record" to do the original side 2 first would let the second set open with I've Seen All Good People (a stronger start than Yours Is No Disgrace) and close with Starship Trooper and more specifically its epic final movement Wurm, rather than the plodding Perpetual Change (of all the eight-minute-plus songs in this setlist, the only one I'd actually describe as over-long).

Still, The Yes Album has its share of highlights no matter what order you play it in, even if I view it as the least interesting of the three albums played on this tour. The crowd went especially crazy for Howe's ragtime-ish solo piece Clap (hilariously mislabelled "The Clap" on the original album, a mistake recent pressings have finally got around to fixing), and of course Wurm was a highlight, even if I wished for Wakeman to be there trading solos with Howe as he does on the Keys to Ascension version.

I'm giving five stars although if fractional ratings were allowed, it would be four and a half - there were enough minor flaws and missed opportunities that I can't pretend the show was perfect. But its best moments were nothing short of magical, and even its worst, like the not entirely successful battle to make a big end-of-set showpiece out of Perpetual Change, still came out pretty decent. It would be even better if Steve Howe would crack a smile once in a while, but you can't have everything!