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Band(s): Yes & Asia Date: 2009-08-02 Venue: Riverplace City, State: Bethlehem, PA Reviewer: Nick
This show came after back to back Progressive Nation shows in the Baltimore and Philadelphia areas, and although the closeness of the show was a welcomed reprieve, Dream Theater two nights in a row is a hard act to follow.
Asia’s set was pretty much what you’d expect, the four most popular songs off of the debut album, a few classic covers from the respective members past, the two ballads from the band’s second album, and only one song from the new album, Phoenix. I find it quite sad that the phoenix is a mystical creature, known for rising from the ashes and pushing forward anew, while the reformed Asia seems to be a commercial whore playing the same exact songs since they’ve reformed and playing things as safe as possible. Even though I would have liked to hear more from the new album the set the guys did play was very entertaining. My personal favorite “Only Time Will Tell” was played as expected, and it’s always nice to hear songs like “Fanfare for the Common Man” and “In the Court of the Crimson King”. On the other hand Carl Palmer’s performance on the night seemed off a bit, and his small drum solo was considerably worse than when I saw the band headline awhile back. It also doesn’t help that the band started while it was still light out, and I had lawn tickets, so with no video screens to aide me the visual aspect of the show practically was not there.
However, darkness eventually crept in and the main event of the evening was ready to begin. Having never seen Yes before I was really quite excited, but at the same time was not sure what to expect since Oliver Wakeman had taken over on keys and Jon Anderson was not with the band. The band was only a few minutes through the opening number, “Siberian Khatru” when I was able to drop any worries about that night’s performance. The new vocalist, Benoit David sounds so much like Jon Anderson it’s actually quite scary, and Oliver Wakeman would certainly have made his father proud by the end of the night. With so many classic songs Yes really could not have gone wrong with their song selection, but they really exceeded my expectations by visiting the Drama album twice, playing “Tempus Fugit” and “Machine Messiah”, certainly a major positive result of Jon Anderson not being present. Steve Howe, who was pulling double duty this tour, managed to play all of his complex and interesting parts quite flawlessly, and one of the highlights of the entire Yes set was his simple yet classic “Intersection Blues”. Chris Squire… what can be said about the leader of Yes, the man was a beast on stage. The presence the very tall man has on the stage can only be topped by the magnitude of his bass playing. Yes certainly was one of the top two or three bands I’ve ever seen as far as bass in the mix is concerned, it was really a treat to see a band where the bass was used so effectively to move songs. And of course Alan White managed pieces he had originally played on, or had not, with equal effectiveness.
It really was a wonderful experience to see so many 10+ minute masterworks come to life in their full brilliance. Favorites of mine such as “Roundabout”, “And You and I”, “Heart of the Sunrise”, and “Starship Trooper” were all performed. In fact the only real disappointment with the set list was the lack of “Close to the Edge”, and the exclusion of anything from Magnification, which I consider to be a marvelous return to form for the band. With video screens working I could actually see the headliners, unlike with Asia, and the sound from the far away land of the lawn, which at this venue is even further back than usual, was surprisingly good. The next time Yes tours, hopefully with this lineup, I suggest you go check it out! |
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