JV and I went to the Psudo Yes show on Friday night. Our seats were OK.. about 35 feet from the stage.
It was nice to hear a lot of the old songs; especially the ones that JA doesn't like to sing (
Drama... ((the album, not the 'not wanting to sing')) )
See the set list below.
But first a couple comments about this version of the band.
Steve was great... mostly. On the electric he was HOT! Just tearing up the songs. On Acoustic... not so much. Mood for a day... he was so disgusted with the way he was playing it... he just stopped, said " well, enough of that" and switched guitars to play "Clap" (which was excellent)
Alan was the usual AW. Solid playing, big sound. Nice solo, not too long but interesting. An occasional flub, but hey who doesn't?
Chris Was big! As well as the sound, he is just BIG!
Have another donut, buddy!
Also, for a guy your age and size... it is time to retire the form-fitting stretch pants... Zoinks!... it was like seeing Granpa Munster coming out of the shower.
Chris' sound was big, as usual and his playing was spot-on. The Fish solo spot was good, tasteful but hot over-long.
(Just Fish... no silent wings excerpt, no Amazing Bass, no tempus fugit (cause the played it). He was Loud... Billy Sherwood has learned well from the master... The bass seemed too loud on many of the songs and the level of the "backup vocals" were sometimes louder that the lead.
Oliver Wakeman played well. He will benefit from playing more shows to get tighter with the band. It is not as much as he was off as, it seems, that he had that "i guess i'm supposed to play this thing here and that thing there". He doesn't have the subtle touches down.
I think that when Rick plays the stuff that he wrote, it is just more fluid. Ollie knows that he has big shoes to fill, and he did it admirably... On the songs where there is a keyboard lead, some space to improvise and cut loose, he did a fabulous job.
Benoit David sang.
As a kid, did you ever buy something from an advertisement in the back of a Comic Book.. and when you finally receive it.. you think... "Oh, I paid how-much for this?"
Benot tried sooo hard to
be Jon. He just wasn't/isn't..
If he would just sing the songs, to the best of his ability, and fit into the band as the "i know i'm the fill in guy, i hope you like the show" guy and not the "wanna be, mimic" i think I would have liked/accepted him more.
His arm floating/sailing around the stage... looked SO practiced. ...and the tambourine act was getting old.
Just disappointed. At least with Trevor Horn, he was like "Hi, I'm Trevor and I'm singing this tour... hope you have fun"
Could be better Benoit.
I made and wore a "got Jon" shirt.
I got a few comments. In line (to the mens room) there were a couple high fives and a fist bump. Mostly it seemed that there were
"shook my head and smiled a whisper, knowing all about the place" smiles of agreement. Back at the seat one dude wanted to know where I got it and asked to take a picture.
Had fun seeing the band... didn't want to ruin my streak (since 1976)
Setlist
Siberian Khatru
All good people
Heart of the Sunrise
Tempus Fugit
Onward
Astrial Traveler
Close to the Edge
Parallels
And you and I
Mood for a ... Not in the mood to play
Clap
Long Distance Runaround
The Fish
Aliens are Only Us from the Future <--- WTF a new song. Obviously penned by Donut-boy
Machine Messiah
Soon...
Starship Trooper
Owner of a Lonely Heart
Roundabout
Crappy picture link --
http://web.me.com/gawlocp/Peters_Place/Yes-11_7_08.html