ARW officially turns into YES feat Anderson Rabin Wakeman

I'd prefer to see them release it a track or two at a time. There's only space for a little new music in their set, and it would allow them to feature each bit of music as they came along. Then compile them into an album near the end of the cycle (and add a live show to give it some value).

 

not sure if it was posted elsewhere but I went to their first show in Stockton a week ago and found the band in similar form to when I last saw them.

spoiler alert

I was happy to see I am waiting added to the setlist so talk is finally represented. they also added southside of the sky and dropped seen all good people, long distance/fish changes.

dropping changes bugged me as it is kind of a key rabin track. I feel the band really shines on the rabin stuff because it seems to be rabins forte I don't care for his interpretations of howe material so my main issue is still that they focus to much on material that they simply do not play as well as the howe led band does.

 

I'm seeing them tonight in Kansas City. I saw them last year in Chicago, so I'm happy to see they've made some changes to the setlist. I'm expecting another fun show!

 

They should have kept Changes in the set. It Can Happen would be nice to hear but that can be tricky with all the vocal harmonies. I do like Rabin but totally agree that he is just not the kind of guitar player that Steve Howe is so the Howe stuff doesn't sound that great. Still I would rather see them since Anderson is in the band.

 

Have the filmed a show and spoken about this at all?

 

I would much rather see Anderson Rabin Wakeman than a Yes cover band featuring Steve Howe, which is exactly what I'm going to do.

Steve Howe is going to lose a lot of money for not hiring Anderson and Wakeman back into Yes

 

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We had a great night At the Ed Kenley amphitheater In Layton UT, I had the pleasure to talk to Jon the day before in the Lounge I work at, he surprised me he was the first one in the bar I asked him if he was Jon Anderson he said yes, we talked for about an hour he told me stories of his band members, his Vangelis years and some of his new music he is writing, It was such a joy to meet him and talk to him, It was inspiring, needless to say he gave me tickets to concert and back stage passes

 

I met him a few times but the really special one was in 1982 on his Animation tour. We hung out for over an hour and he was so nice and very funny as well. He's really a very warm person and still sounds great. Glad you were able to meet him and get tickets and backstage passes.

 

I saw the concert in Milwaukee last night and was blown away. Stellar performances. Jon Anderson was amazing. All I kept thinking was, How could Yes/Steve Howe ever have parted ways with him? Rick Wakeman was especially jovial. Trevor Rabin loves playing with this band. All three were visibly supportive of each other's performances. Just an amazing night.

 

YES/ARW will be one of the two headliners at the Stone Free Festival in London in June 2018.

This will be there only UK show next year, apparently (or, at least, "a UK live exclusive performance for 2018" which I presume is the same thing?!)

http://stonefreefestival.com/

 

Changes showed up September 12th in Ohio and and hung in there for the rest of the US tour. You are right that this is a key track in their set-I'd be mad if I didn't see it in Boston. Not sure about the 'do not play as well as the howe led band" though. Downes hasn't ever been able to reproduce Wakeman's stuff accurately, and the tempos in the Howe led version are getting annoyingly slow. After seeing each version of Yes a few times in the past couple of years, ARW version smoked Howe's Yes by a mile. Billy Sherwood has difficulty keeping up with Lee Pomeroy, never mind Squire.

 

Well, if Yes has taught us anything in the last 50 years, it's "never say never"!

 

Do remember everything one could say about "no way it could ever happen" about Union II could have been and was said prior to Union I.

 

I guess you haven't heard the new live album "Topographic Drama" yet.

 

exactly I am only comparing the tours in the same year so while some of the earlier tours weren't great I think they really pulled it together for the topographic drama shows and the recent one from every album show was very solid as well.

part of this is probably alan white being replaced/assisted. Love Alan but hard to deny he has lost some of his luster the past few years.

one thing this whole situation has shown me though is how much preconceived feelings play into a perception of a show. if you go to a show wanting to love it youll probably enjoy it if you go wanting to see a fake yes who can't play the songs you will find it.

while I tried to go into both shows open minded I may have a bit of a bias towards the howe led yes because I have appreciated all they have done the past few years to keep yes alive and I don't really care for ARWs over hyped marketing pitch. that said I have always loved those three musicians so I definitely wish for them to have success and w

 

I might catch some fire for this, but here goes... IMHO, the ARW lineup is the best dose of Yes we could ask for right now. I Saw them in Toronto,
and soon after, in Albany. As mentioned here earlier, they are having fun, playing well, and really in to it. Jon is singing unbelievably well.
Just a great experience. Awesome, really!

 

Certainly won’t catch any fire from me - glad you enjoyed it. I must admit, though, that I was disappointed by ARW live in London. I thought they sounded great on the Rabin material, but the 70s stuff fell rather flat for me (I guess the combined absence of Howe and Squire). I have heard Topographic Drama and must admit I enjoyed it more than I expected to - especially the Drama stuff where Downes was the original keyboardist.

 

"Topographic Drama" is great. I HOPE ARW will release a live album of comparable quality.

I hope even more that they will release a studio album but I won't hold my breath.

 

Billy had been complaining to Chris for years that Yes were playing the songs too slow. That has been rectified now, thankfully...

 

YES FEATURING ANDERSON, RABIN, WAKEMAN ANNOUNCE “QUINTESSENTIAL YES: THE 50th ANNIVERSARY TOUR - Yes featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman

 

This is getting awkward. So both bands will be touring the US in the summer celebrating their 50th anniversary?

 

I'm happy to see that the Manchester concert is still on the cards.

btw, this is how you announce a 50th anniversary I think.
Steve Howe and Co. didn't make too much fuss about it

 

I'm very excited about the DVD release of the March 2017 show, I saw them in Utrecht that same month and loved it. If they can come up with a different setlist I wouldn't mind seeing them live again either.

 

I would actually go see
YES featuring
Benoit David
Patrick Moraz
Bill Bruford
(accompanied by Tony Levin and fill-in-guitarist)