Jon Davison & Yes in New Zealand & Australia

Went along to the Yes concert in Melbourne last night. Just to bring up a few points that people have made here before I get into the actual concert:

Chris Squire (Yes) is only touring because of the money? About one third of the concert is devoted to material off their new album, “Fly From Here”. Since the intellectual property of the band lies in the songs they record in the studio, I would applaud the band for going out on the road to promote and sell the new material (I would think that Trevor Horn has a vested interest in the band going out on the road as well)? You could make a stronger case for Jon Davison going out on the road for the money.

Yes are too old to tour? Tony Bennet is still going strong at 85. Anton Rubenstein wasn’t a bad classical pianist into his eighties. Chris Squire is a baby in those terms at about 65. I was just glad that Squire made the decision to tour which gave me an opportunity to get to hear him perform in Australia.

Yes have slowed down over the years? No evidence of that from last night. This is not the same band of Tales or Relayer or even Magnification. Wakeman and Moraz add a completely different dynamic to the band. A closer approximation would be to the band that recorded the Drama album in 1980 and I can’t tell any slowing down of the tempo between the recording of the Drama album and the band I listened to last night. The core nucleus of the band since 1972 has been Alan White and Chris Squire and if anything, Alan White plays at a tempo I find too fast.

Chris Squire can’t sing any more? From where I was sitting I thought he was in fine voice. Maybe when others heard him perform he had a chest infection or was suffering from jet lag.

Yes isn’t Yes without Jon Anderson?  I thought Jon Davison did a fine job of covering for Benoit David. Davison doesn’t posses the high notes of Jon Anderson but even Anderson has trouble these days reaching those notes and Davison seems to know his limitations and stays within those. For a guy performing in his fourth or fifth Yes concert I thought he meshed really well with the other band members without imposing his personality into the music. If I was to assess his performance I would have to say he neither adds nor subtracts from the quality of the whole should Jon Anderson resume his spot in the band.

Having got that out the way I thought it was a really good concert last night. Steve Howe was absolutely on top of his game and he and Geoff Downes seem to fit each other’s style on the stage together. My main quibble is that I couldn’t pick up a lot of Squire’s bass work. I was seated right of stage near the front of the stage and close to the right hand speakers and directly in front of Squire and behind him elevated was White’s drum kit. I was getting a lot of the bass drum in my ears and not much bass guitar. Funnily enough, when Squire moved to the centre of the stage and did the intro to “heart of the sunrise” in the second half of the concert the bass work was a lot clearer. As for the new work, the “fly from here” suite may not reach the same heights as some of the classic longer works such as “close to the edge” or “awaken”, but it certainly sounds a lot better performed live in concert than the studio recorded version. For some reason the drums are turned down in the studio version making it somewhat lifeless and almost semi-acoustic in feel. Performed in concert this work is a lot more rockier with Alan White’s drums coming on much more fuller.

Overall, I really had a good time at the Yes concert, which took me back almost 40 years when I first heard the band perform. It wasn’t a perfect concert. I went primarily to watch the new material performed live on stage and was pleasantly surprised that it surpassed my expectations. The older material while well performed I enjoyed a little less. It would have been nice to have heard “And you and I” performed with Rick Wakeman playing the keyboard part, but Geoff Downes is a more natural fit for Steve Howe’s playing style in my opinion.   

According to celebritynetworth.com the original members of Yes, Squire, Anderson, Howe, White and Wakeman are worth 45 million each. They've sold over 50 million albums, plus all the residuals they receive from classic rock stations through out the world. Squire is very frugal with his money. I think they tour because they like to be on the road to perform. They are performers and love what they do. But then again you never know. A fool and their money are soon to part ways. I have been a Yes fan for over 40 years. My first successull business I made millions blow it and went broke. I got another shot at it five years later and have been retired since age 36 that was 18 years ago. Most people never get a second chance. It's not how much you make it's how much you get to keep!