Current YES tour (Steve Howe & Company)

Yes he injected new life in the band with bringing a whole albums worth of material that was current (as prog was dead in the early 80's). He also had all the parts written out as well. Funny as 'Owner' is my least favorite song from 90125 but between his songwriting at the time and Trevor Horns amazing production YES took on a whole new life. I do think he saved from the just becoming an oldies act. I still like 90125 a lot but the classic YES is what I like most. I'm grateful to Trevor because I don't think YES would have been able to sell out places like Madison Square Garden in the early 2000's without that second life that Owner and 90125 gave them. The classic lineup to me was both the CTTE lineup and the GFTO lineup (My 2 favorite YES albums).

Like I posted earlier I know many teens back in 83 that loved 90125 and did dig back into the YES catalog which is a good thing.

 

Ah...yes..."It Can Happen". I forgot that one, I like it a lot too.

 

You don't think the man who has written or co-written "Yours Is No Disgrace", the "Würm" part of "Starship Troopers", Roundabout", "Long Distance Runaround", "Heart Of The Sunrise", "Close To The Edge", "And You And I", "Sinberian Khatru", all 4 songs on "Tales From Topographic Oceans", "Sound Chaser", "To Be Over", "Turn Of THe Century" and "Awaken" is a better songwriter than TREVOR RABIN???
Well, what can I say....that's certainly an opinion not too many people will share. But to each his own.

I concede that Howe needs a strong co-writer and lyricist but man...this guy has written some of the most beautiful music of the 20th century.

 

I personally would say Howe was a greater prog/rock songwriter and Rabin is a greater pop/rock songwriter.

 

I don't consider Howe a pop writer at all so it's easy to be better than him in that regard

 

Yes it's a great song. The vocals are great on that one. Trevor Horn really helped to create a masterpiece with that album. Sure I prefer Fragile, CTTE, GFTO etc but for a pop with some slight prog 90125 is great. One thing about that album is the vocals are amazing. I don't think many other YES albums have such great vocal harmonies. Horn really was responsible for that. Leave It is also a masterpiece. Have you heard the acapella version of Leave It?

 

Yes I agree. Rabin did write some great songs but they were really pop songs for the most part and by Talk his writing started to get worse. Howe and Anderson were a great writing team.

 

Oh Yes !

 

Well, he did cowrite more than half of Asia's debut, plus the GTR album.

 

I don't consider any of the songs he wrote "pop" but his occassional stabs at writing AOR had middling results ("When The Heart Rules The Mind"). OTOH I do like the quirkyness and the progressive touch that he brought to some of his Asia tunes.
Wetton and Downes were Asia's hit factory but Howe co-wrote great songs like "Without You" and "Cutting It Fine".

 

Doesn't matter-- neither relevant on the international stage for many decades now.

The issue relates to the current touring entities referring to themselves as "yes". Also inconsequential. The *real* Yes died in the early 2000's.

Enjoy whichever happens to roll into your town. I can say that based on recent experience, the Steve Howe Yes is not worth the price of admission.

 

Also, Lying to Yourself (Alpha b-side).

7 more gems from the reunion era....

Alibas
Wish I'd Known All Along
Over and Over
Light the Way
Through My Veins
Judas
No Religion

 

How long is the show altogether (all 3 bands)?

 

Just under four hours if you get all three bands (some cities don't).

 

Thanks!

 

I saw the tour last night in Detroit and enjoyed all three acts. Carl came on at 7pm and Yes
finished at 10:50pm. This current Yes doesn't have that 'punch' without Chris but Billy
Sherwood sure does resemble Squire. Physically he looks a lot like him! Say what you want
about the `new Jon' but he sure can sing. Alan White sat out much of the set but he was
there for the beginning and the end. They sounded great. I've seen Yes many times since
1975 and this was as enjoyable a set as any. The vocals were terrific.
Btw, Todd Rundgren was incredible. The tour comes here in mid-September, sans Palmer.

 

Saw Yestival last night in Sugarland TX (essentially southwest Houston).

1. Carl Palmer is fantastic. The whole set is worth getting there in time for. His bass player was one of the best musicians on the stage in all 3 bands, playing bass and also what looked like a Chapman stick, although it could have been a different but similar instrument (we were in the upper balcony so I couldn't really see).

2. Todd Rundgren...not so much. I don't know if he was having an off night, or the sound was bad or what but Mrs Pete and I decided about halfway through that it would be a good time to go out to the concourse to grab a drink and wait for Yes. His set was overly loud and very trebly. And dude could stand to spend some time in the gym or maybe just leave his jacket on . His guitarist though is like Randy Rhoads, a really fantastic player.

3. Yes were fantastic. It was joyous (and even I think that's a weird word to use). Howe seemed to be out of sorts for the first two songs, but once Yours Is No Disgrace got going he caught up and played really great. He spent a lot of time playing the pedal steel and was great.

4. If Jon Davison, Dylan Howe and Billy Sherwood are going to keep the legacy of Yes going, then the legacy is in great hands. Davison sings the songs very well--he sounds enough like Anderson to pull the songs off, but doesn't sound like an imitator or parody. He does a great job, and can hold his own accompanying himself on the acoustic as well. Sherwood is a bass beast. We weren't close enough to see what basses he was playing (no Ricks), but he sounded like Squire all night, and played extremely well, he was almost the highlight of the night for me. Dylan held down the fort on the drums in a solid way. Alan White played on maybe 3 or 4 songs.

All in all, if you like Yes, see this show.

 

If they keep this thing going I'd like to see a 2nd guitar player brought in (assuming that doesn't mean reunion with ARW, which would be so incredible at this last stage). Someone who can really pay homage to the music while Steve steps back more into a pedal steel / rhythm player. I think this would be accepted by fans.

But that said, I'd like to see them mix it up more. I know Howe is a stickler for staying as close to the original music as possible, and I respect that, but some medleys and mashups would be a lot of fun. And maybe some new material tossed in. At any rate a new spin on the possibilities, which appear to be wearing thin.

 

Seen them both. IMO the Howe version is plodding and a bit sad, while ARW is the best Yes I've seen for 20 years.

 

I've no strong inclination to see either version of the band at this point but Yes without Anderson is not Yes to my mind. Howe, Wakeman, Bruford and Anderson all need to be there for me or I'll just save my dough.

 

I completely understand your point of view, but Bruford left Yes 45 years ago and Wakeman has left Yes several times since then.

Neither of them played on Relayer, but for me its still about as "Yessy" as Yes ever got.

 

I really can't bear this song: it's like Andrew Lloyd Webber does Yes.

 

Some people really get carried away with their praise for ARW.
I enjoyed their show but they were not in the same league as the classic Yes lineup of the early 2000s when both Steve Howe and Chris Squire were still in the band, when Alan was still a great drummer and Jon Anderson still had his full voice. The setlists also were much better.
The symphonic tour with the great Tom Brislin on keyboards and the Masterworks tour, both with fantastic setlists, were also MUCH better.
As I have said many times before: I'm glad that ARW and official Yes are still touring.
But don't start saying they are as good or better than the real deal. Then it's beginning to sound ridiculous.

 

I think by the early 2000s they were hit and miss. Some tours were epic, some less so. For me they hit their peak on the 1978 tour (check out the Wembley bootleg) and haven't hit those heights since. If a reference is required of the band's greatness, you have to go back that far. My first Yes concert was in 1972, so I have a few in my memory bank to compare. I think that ARW is up there and probably better than with anything they have done this century. Lee Pomeroy is one of the three best players I have ever seen, coming a close third behind John Entwistle and Chris Squire.

 

I agree with you that the 78 tour was fantastic but not on the rest.
Pomeroy is a good bass player but with ARW I found him unremarkable. His solo was plodding.
And if I don't ever have to hear "Awaken" again sung in a lower key and butchered by Rabin's hair metal guitar I won't feel sorry.