YES FT. ARW: LIVE AT THE APOLLO

I was literally thrilled by the fact I'll be seeing Yes with Jon Anderson once again on a glorious blu ray format, even though there are, sadly, two Yeses at the moment; Chris was gone and Steve Howe is playing with a guy who, to be honest, is a good singer, but totally desecrates the spirit of Yes music when involve himself in singing things like "Close to the Edge" or "And You and I". But after watching the concert for about half an hour my only impression was disappointment and sadness. First of all, in my opinion, the production is terrible, you may hardly hear the sound of drums, especially the soft tones, there is too much noise in the whole event and the guitar help this version of Yes look like an average melodic rock band. Trevor Rabin is simply not a proper replace for Steve Howe. On "And You and I" there is no acoustic guitar, not to mention the slide guitar and the sensitive way of playing which makes Steve Howe's contribution so unique and exciting. Jon Anderson, as usual, is excellent, the rest of the band was simply doing its job. The repertoire is generally acceptable and expected, even though I don't like the 90125 stuff. This was, I would suppose, an event for a live experience, not for a home watching. My hard recommendation is Live at Montreux 2003. Live at the Apollo - definitely not my cup of tea.