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Yes & Dream Theater
Blossom Music Centre
08-24-04
Reviewed by Taliesin
Govannon
I went to this show the
night after the Nightwish concert, and I could tell right off that this was
going to be a different scene. The fact that I'm 33 and I was one of the
youngest people there was the first clue. Of course, considering that this
is Yes' 35th anniversary tour one would expect plenty of grey hair. It's
just going from being a metal elder to a whippersnapper took some getting
used to.
I've been listening to
Dream Theater for twelve years now, but this was the first time I had seen
them live. In a word, their performance was: flawless. John Petrucci and
crew play some insanely technical music, but they make it look so easy!
Bassist John Myung's fingers seemed to dance across the fretboard with ease,
and drummer Mike Portnoy seemed to have a hard time staying on his drum
stool. Actually, he seemed to interact with the crowd more than singer
James LaBrie did, but that's because he was on stage WAY more. Dream
Theater has never shied away from extended instrumental passages, and I
would estimate that James was on stage for only about 1/4 of the show.
No one seemed to mind,
however, as the band's performance was superb. I'm familiar with about half
of the band's catalogue, and they drew the majority of their material
from...the other half. Oh well. I didn't mind one bit, because this band
could play Barry Manilow songs all night and make it sound great. Their
status as the premiere progressive rock band of the age meant that they got
to play way longer than a normal "special guest" would have, and yet
everyone wanted more. The lack of an encore was a big disappointment, even
though they played more than an hour. This show makes me want to be sure to
catch them the next time they headline.
The Yes website makes a
big deal about this tour's "new set design by Roger Dean", but it looked
pretty goofy to me. The stage was dominated by large abstract inflatable
thingys, and the main one looked like a giant mutant albino crab hovering
over the band members. I was waiting for someone to roll out the giant
inflatable nut cracker and the giant inflatable dish of melted butter the
whole time.
Really, the band doesn't
need Dean's mescaline-inspired pool toys to put on a good show. the current
line up (Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, and Rick
Wakeman) has been playing together for decades, and it shows. Taking the
stage with the "Firebird Suite", Yes' set was relaxed and professional. A
special moment of tingly-ness came when they played the *entire* "Close To
The Edge" piece. Wow.
Let me digress, however,
to bitch about the sound. You'd think that a band of Yes' stature would be
able to hire a sound crew who had a clue. And yet it took the first quarter
of the set to make things sound decent. It started out muddy as hell, and I
could hardly hear Steve Howe's guitar. Also, the whole set could have stood
to be LOUDER. Jon Anderson has never had what one would call a "power"
voice, but I could hardly hear a thing he said all night. When people a
couple of rows back talking normally (talk normally at a rock concert???)
can drown out the lead singer, you something's wrong. And don't write it
off to not wanting to annoy an older crowd, either. Yes, we're getting
older, but that means we need to have it turned UP, because all of those
concerts in our youth have left our ears a bit deader than when we were
born.
Sound aside, the show was
great. I especially liked to acoustic set they played during the latter
half of the night. Starting out with Steve Howe's classic "The Clap", the
band played re-worked versions of "Long Distance Runaround", "Roundabout",
and "Owner of A Lonely Heart". That they took their most over-played songs
(and yet ones that MUST be included on a 35th anniversary tour) and gave
them a fresh sound was the highlight of the evening for me.
Basically, if you like
Yes, then this show was great. If you don't (like my wife, who went just
for Dream Theater), then it was probably torture. If you're like me and
don't mind some pretense in your prog, then it was heaven. The Heathen
Hippy gives it five inflatable crab legs.
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