2014 sees Yes tour, performing 3 full albums, “The Yes Album”, “Going For The One”, and career-benchmark “Close To The Edge”; a prospect that should have prog-fans making that sound Homer Simpson made when he spots that rare gummy Venus de Milo stuck to the posterior of….well, never mind; except, wait, there’s no Jon Anderson. That’s okay, you could argue; they’ve overcome that obstacle before, drafting in Trevor Horn of all people, but that, of course, resulted in a strong new album,”Drama”, and didn’t involve a tour performing three classic albums in full featuring another singer. Prog is a funny business, and often the vocalist is less a focal point than in other bands. There’s a strong history of prog bands successfully transitioning through singers; Genesis, Pink Floyd, erm…Marillion, for starters, but this is a late career change and sustaining credibility is going to be a challenge, although commercial success is probably not high on their agenda right now.
American Jon Davison stepped up to the plate as vocalist in 2012, after Anderson’s previous replacement Benoit David left the band due to illness. To be fair, he’s pretty impressive, and sounds remarkably like Jon Anderson in fact. It’s hard to imagine anyone else doing a better job of recreating the vocal parts. What muddies the waters somewhat is the fact that they’ve recorded a new album with Davison, “Heaven and Earth”. Choosing a singer that sounds like your old singer in order to perform old material is one thing, but surely making a new album with him is a strange proposition. Can they really strive for anything individual or fresh?
That’s a debate for another time anyway, and for tonight he does a perfectly able job, if you can ignore your inner voice that’s shouting, “But it’s not Anderson”.
Steve Howe is fascinating to watch. He’s like a mad professor, with his long grey hair and receding hairline. You have to laugh at some of his exaggerated moves and gestures. His guitar sounds a little too clean in places, and there’s a nagging feeling that he’s only just managing to fit all the notes in sometimes. Rather than sporting a double-necked guitar he seems to favour a second guitar on a stand, which he can play while still wearing another guitar. His solo “Clap” is obviously a little highlight of the evening too.
Chris Squire, who has the distinction of being the only member of the band to survive their ever-changing line ups, and appears on every Yes release, is on fine form throughout. It wouldn’t be Yes without him. He’s looking bloomin’ old now; his long white hair being gently blown, evidently by an electric fan, which I find inexplicably hilarious. In an ultimate display of prog-ishness, he plays a TRIPLE-necked guitar at one point, which is worth the admission price alone. Fun fact; his wife’s name is Scotland.
Geoff Downs was handling Rick Wakeman’s parts, who’s busy trudging his Journey To The Centre Of The Earth folly around the country at the moment. He’s obviously a prog stalwart, and has been a member of Yes in the past, but he feels like an 80’s throwback, with his banks of synths and terminally un-cool look. This is the guy, after all, who once entered the Guiness Book of Records for performing with the most keyboards on stage for a performance (28, if you’re interested). He does little to impress; you miss Wakeman.
Quite often, the problem with bands as they get older is that they slow down, tempo-wise. They might see this a virtue; that tearing through songs too fast is a result of inexperience and the folly of youth, but it means the sense of urgency and intensity is missing. There’s no edge tonight. They were playing some of the greatest prog music ever made, but I felt strangely unmoved by it.
The problem was partly me (although Jon Davison playing electric bongos didn’t help). I realised my benchmark for live Yes is the live album “Yessongs” recorded in 1972. Although 3 of the 5 members that performed the bulk of that album are still sharing the stage on this tour, it’s 42 years later. Is it reasonable to expect the same energy, the same spark of a band in their prime years? Probably not. That said, plenty of veteran artists are pulling out thrilling and compelling live shows late into their careers (although probably not with a new front-man). Drummer Alan White has nowhere near the energy and power he used to have. Maybe he was never the same after breaking his foot in a, and I am not making this up, roller-skating accident in 1979.
Still, I’ll take what I can get. They were literally playing down my road. I sat feet away from Steve Howe, saw 3 amazing albums performed live, with an encore of Roundabout thrown in. Sometimes you can over-think these things.
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