Dalibor Lanik Home Page - Concerts: Yes

Info on Yes concert in Prague...

Ok, Now I can say: "I've heard the best rock band that ever existed!". Yes, that's it. Yes! They're f*cking fantastic!!! They played on the 28th of March at "Vystaviste" (Prague Fair), at the "Small Hall". I don't know how many people can the "Small Hall" house, but it was full! I guess somewhere around 5-6000 people. The concert was sheduled for 20:00 hrs. and I came to the place of concert precisely at 8PM, knowing that concerts always start later than scheduled, and that some young czech band is going to play before "the masters". At 8:05, I was entering the hall. Hmm, someone already playing? And the lights are out? Probably the warm-up band... Hmmm, this sounds like YES style?!?? It's THEM!!! They started exactly at 20:00, no one played before 'em!?!!! Now, I must tell You that I have never, ever heard a band sound that good in concert as YES did! I mean, I've heard "Deep Purple", "Black Sabbath", "Page and Plant", "Supertramp" -- and they all are great. But YES!!!!! I wasn't surprised that they play so good, a lot of bands do - but voice of Jon Anderson is simply unbeliveable!!!
He's got such a voice! It's not like when You listen to most of the other 70's bands, and You can feel that the singer's not up to it, that he's not in his first youth and his voice is not as it used to be (i.e. Plant or Gillan). Jon Anderson sings as if he's twenty! The vocals are simply unbelievable - You have to hear him to believe. Mr. Khorishev (then new keyboardist) is great, he got the "Yes style" completely. Mr. Howe is one of the best guitarists around, I mean he's realy got it. He even had a solo performance - a bit too long, if You ask me, but it was O.K. (He played 3 solo songs, 2 of which totaly out of Yes style). Jon and Steve even played a "duet" song (only guitar and vocals). Alan White (drummer) had a solo performance as well, and only at that moment I realized how good a drummer he is. Boy. He sounded like thunder at the moments. The biggest showman of all was ofcourse Mr. Squire - he got the audience up on their feet. He's one of the few bass players that really can use bass as a solo instrument!

YES MEMBERS

Yes: Billy Sherwood, Steve Howe, Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Alan White, Igor Khoroshev
Billy Shrwood was O.K., but he didn't stand out much. I guess he's a good musician, otherwise he wouldn't play in YES (he, he). As I said earlier, Jon is absolutely unbelievable -- as far as vocal side is concerned. But as a showman he's a bit too shy. To me, he didn't look as someone who's singing 20+ years because he was a bit non-mobile (well, not that I expect a show from YES -- their music is just enough). His favorite during the concert is to clap his hands lightly (not the "come on everybody" style, but a light rythmic hand-clapping) and waving at audience. The weirdest thing was that by the end of the concert evrybody in the hall was waving their hands in "Jon-style" as well... OK, as for the songs they played - or didn't play; After all, one can't expect a band that's been around for 25 or more years to play all their hits - but let's say I was a bit (but only a bit) dissapointed because they didn't play "Shoot high, aim low" and "Big generator", which are my favorite songs. On the other hand, they played "Rhythm of love" and "Owner of the lonely heart" (being their most "commercial" song). They played a lot older "classic Yes" songs, and a version of Simon/Garfunkel's "Look for America" (if that's what it'c called). Any way, I enjoyed the concert tremendously (Hey, I didn't even light a cigarette for the whole length of concert!), and they played for two hours fory-five minutes. Maybee on next tour I will bring a transparent saying "Shoot high, aim low" so that they don;t miss that song by any chance!
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