organistmike
08-02-2009, 02:41 PM
I wish you could have come down to Richmond for the Wednesday night show which was excellent.
Asia was in top form and in the 2-1/2 years since I last saw them (Red Bank NJ 2006) John Wetton apparently has lost some weight and his voice has picked up in
quality. I do wish they would stop doing that Buggles song though. Carl Palmer's drum solo was very entertaining if predictable, and he clearly still loves being
onstage. Geoff Downes is such a ham! He plays well though and his work on Only Time Will Tell was superb.
Yes, with le petit Benoit up front, was very good too even though the sound mix was awful and one of Oliver Wakeman's synths was out of tune. But he knows the
parts of Wakeman Sr. in and out and played them flawlessly and with finesse. Chris Squire was the focal point of the show in my opinion as he played and sang
excellently, and mc'd a few funny bits. And nobody but nobody plays the bass like that man. Alan White's drumming was powerful when you could hear it! Steve Howe was just absolutely great with both bands and I only wish the sound man knew their music better so the instrument levels (relative to each other) would've been correct.
I realize there's a lot of negativity about what this band is doing touring without Jon and Rick and how it's 3/5 of Yes or Squire is too old and fat or Howe is too tired or whatever. The music still remains. I want to tell you Yes is going to exist with five different guys when the founders are all dead and gone because the music is timeless and people will want to hear it like they want to hear Beethoven 250 years after.
I hadn't seen the band since 1991's ABWH tour and it was nice to see the crowd equally composed of younger and older faces all loving what they saw and heard. There were a couple of kids right behind me saying "we were born at the wrong time" so I asked them what they meant and they both said the heyday of prog must have been the best time to be young. It was also nice to be recognized by people from NoVA who came down and remembered Old Mikey from the Kinetic Element shows we have done up there so I got to briefly renew a few musical acquaintances! The weather was perfect in Richmond, very comfortable and dry.
Mike V.
Kinetic Element
Asia was in top form and in the 2-1/2 years since I last saw them (Red Bank NJ 2006) John Wetton apparently has lost some weight and his voice has picked up in
quality. I do wish they would stop doing that Buggles song though. Carl Palmer's drum solo was very entertaining if predictable, and he clearly still loves being
onstage. Geoff Downes is such a ham! He plays well though and his work on Only Time Will Tell was superb.
Yes, with le petit Benoit up front, was very good too even though the sound mix was awful and one of Oliver Wakeman's synths was out of tune. But he knows the
parts of Wakeman Sr. in and out and played them flawlessly and with finesse. Chris Squire was the focal point of the show in my opinion as he played and sang
excellently, and mc'd a few funny bits. And nobody but nobody plays the bass like that man. Alan White's drumming was powerful when you could hear it! Steve Howe was just absolutely great with both bands and I only wish the sound man knew their music better so the instrument levels (relative to each other) would've been correct.
I realize there's a lot of negativity about what this band is doing touring without Jon and Rick and how it's 3/5 of Yes or Squire is too old and fat or Howe is too tired or whatever. The music still remains. I want to tell you Yes is going to exist with five different guys when the founders are all dead and gone because the music is timeless and people will want to hear it like they want to hear Beethoven 250 years after.
I hadn't seen the band since 1991's ABWH tour and it was nice to see the crowd equally composed of younger and older faces all loving what they saw and heard. There were a couple of kids right behind me saying "we were born at the wrong time" so I asked them what they meant and they both said the heyday of prog must have been the best time to be young. It was also nice to be recognized by people from NoVA who came down and remembered Old Mikey from the Kinetic Element shows we have done up there so I got to briefly renew a few musical acquaintances! The weather was perfect in Richmond, very comfortable and dry.
Mike V.
Kinetic Element