Anderson-Ponty Band, 3 November, 2015

Good to hear.  I will be attending the show on Friday. 

Some fan videos are starting to be posted on YouTube and Facebook.  This is one of my favorite songs of the evening!

What is wrong with me? I simply can't relate to the wow factor others are feeling relating to this? :( I don't think it's very good, to be honest.

Never saw Yes....I came of age when Yes were already in decline.  I've had plenty of chances from the 9012Live gigs right up to the current tour, but I never felt the need.  However, I've seen the Steve Howe trio (with his son on drums); I've seen Jon on his solo Yes orchestral tour about five years back; and now I've seen the Jon-Jean show and was not disappointed at all.  In fact, the show blew me away - I wasn't expecting such chemistry, nor was I expecting Jon's voice to be so good. 

cstack3 wrote: Some fan videos are starting to be posted on YouTube and Facebook.  This is one of my favorite songs of the evening!

Cstack3, thank you for the performance review, as it proved to be a motivating factor in my recently attending a Anderson-Ponty Band concert.

I was expecting the music to be slightly more jazz fusion-oriented and was a bit surprised at the reggae influence on many songs throughout the concert, particularly on the new APB songs (one of song even quoted Bob Marley's One Love), though I quickly got used to it. At one point, there was a bluegrass instrumental, as well.

I was really impressed with Anderson's strong voice and energy. In addition to singing, he also played a pair of unusually narrow-body acoustic guitars (see pictures) and a bit of percussion. Ponty, for his part, still proved to be a masterful violinist and integrated his instrument very well in Anderson's material. I really liked the excerpt from his 1977 solo album Enigmatic Ocean and plan on purchasing it on the strength of the performance alone. The entire band seemed to gel really well together and all the musicians got solo spots, a gesture I always appreciate.

Here is a list of the performed Yes songs, in rough order: Owner of a Lonely Heart, Long Distance Runaround, Wondrous Stories, And You and I, Roundabout, and for the encore, Yours is No Disgrace and The Gates of Delirium's final section Soon. They also played the Jon & Vangelis song State of Independence. Interestingly, at one point Anderson also recited the spoken-word introduction to The Revealing Science of God unaccompanied (at least that's what I think it was). The songs were reworked to suit the band's style, which I appreciated because I like it when a band puts its own spin on a cover rather than imitate the original. A few of songs started with new lengthy instrumental passages before I recognized the lyrics.

I sat in the second row and had a great view of the entire stage. The hall was filled nearly to capacity, the audience was very enthusiastic and there were multiple standing ovations. The atmosphere was very welcoming and I appreciated the fact that the music was not inordinately amplified so as to cause my ears to ache. The entire set lasted almost three hours, including the twenty-minute intermission.

A minor nitpick is the fact that the projected animation seemed to consist only of cloned Windows Media Player visualization effects superimposed at oblique angles. I also found a lengthy, unaccompanied, jazzy bass solo right after the beautiful Chris Squire-dedicated And You and I as out of place, although it was probably intended as a tribute Squire.

I was particularly impressed with And You and I and with encore Soon, with Ponty substituting a heavenly violin for Howe's pedal steel guitar.

Here are a few pictures taken with my cellphone (sorry for the grainy quality).

Would love to see them! What a pity they only tour in USA and Canada, it seems...