skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Shaw/Blades
Bottleneck Blues Bar
Ameristar Casino
St. Charles (St. Louis), MO
Thursday, November 15, 2007
General Admission
$45
This was a very pleasant concert and I am so glad we were able to attend. This group is made up of Tommy Shaw from Styx and Jack Blades from Night Ranger. They previously played together in a band called Damn Yankees. Roy and I saw them on VH1 earlier this year, promoting an album called Influence - acoustic covers of some of their favorite songs with lots of emphasis on vocal harmonies. The reason we paid attention was their cover of Yes' Your Move. I didn't buy the album, but I thought they would be nice to see live.
I checked the tour dates, and they were not coming to St. Louis. Months later, they scheduled a date here. Unfortunately, I put off buying tickets and it sold out. I never let that happen! Fortunately, Roy was persistent and called the casino the day of the show - a handful of extra tickets had been made available and he was able to buy two.
The show could not have come at a better day. I had an awful meeting at work. My boss' boss dumped a bunch of extra work on a project with no relief on the due date. He actually made jokes about it, all the overtime I'd have to do and hoping I wasn't traveling for Thanksgiving so I could work over the holiday. This was a virtual meeting and I was talking to everyone over the phone - they couldn't see how red I was getting. My own boss had left the meeting halfway through and I felt like I didn't have any support. I needed a release that night!
Roy picked me up at work, and we drove over to the Ameristar casino. It's not too far from work, and I had been there for a work lunch once before. The venue was really nice, much better than the similar Voodoo Lounge at Harrah's nearby. Once inside the bar, it was non-smoking, non-eating. The bar was in back, which kept the noise away from the front of the stage. Comfortable seats, nicely decorated. There was a second raised section in back and on the sides, with slightly cheaper ticket prices, but we were up front. Roy brought a Yes t-shirt for me to change into. The line grew much longer while we ate dinner, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to see behind the rows of taller people. But Roy noticed some shorter women sitting in the second row, so we sat behind them. I could see fine.
We bumped into a friend of Roy's, whom he had not seen in years. David is another Yes fan, and told us Shaw/Blades were not doing Your Move every night. That song is really what got me interested in this duo in the first place, and it seemed to be their lead song from the VH1 special. I hoped they did it.
A local DJ introduced the band. It was Tommy Shaw, Jack Blades, and a third musician all on acoustic guitars and vocals. They opened with Summer Breeze from Seals and Crofts. Shaw played the lead guitar line. The second song was from a previous album they did together. During these songs, they made comments and jokes between the vocal lines. I'm glad it didn't continue for the whole show, because it would have gotten old.
They gave a long introduction to the third song. Blades heard the song on the car radio and called Shaw immediately to suggest playing it. Shaw wasn't sure, but quickly worked up a guitar intro for it. It was Yes' Your Move. Jon Anderson has such a unique voice and range, it's hard for other men to sing Yes songs. Tommy Shaw did a good job with the lead vocals. The harmonies were really nice, and they included the "Give peace a chance" refrain during the diddit diddit diddit diddit diddit diddit diddit didda part. In fact, there was a dramatic pause after the final "Give peace a chance" and I thought it was the end of the song. I stood up and applauded for a moment before they continued. Embarrassing! But it was a new arrangement, and I was so enthusiastic and happy to hear it.
When the song was over for real, Roy and I both gave standing ovations. I remember the crowd giving it a lot of applause, but they gave a lot of songs a lot of applause as the night went on. Tommy saw us and said thanks directly to Roy and me. Roy swears he noticed my Yes t-shirt. Tommy pointed to us and made another comment (about us?) but I couldn't make out what he said.
Later on, they played I Am a Rock from Simon and Garfunkel. The guys joked about the songwriters and original performers of the songs potentially getting angry over the covers, so they only covered songs from artists physically smaller then they are, like Paul Simon and Jon Anderson. I'm just glad to hear Jon's name as if he's a household name that we should all be familiar with. It's like that in my world.
I don't remember the song order, but the following songs were played: Styx's Too Much Time on My Hands, Foolin' Yourself and Blue Collar Man, Night Ranger's Sister Christian and a song I didn't recognize, Don't Tell Me You Love Me, the Damn Yankees songs High Enough and Coming of Age. I thought some of the heavier songs didn't come off as well; they took the focus away from the pretty harmonies.
The cover songs were the real treat. In addition to Yes and Simon and Garfunkel, they played:
California Dreamin' - The Mamas and the Papas
Dirty Work - Steely Dan
Time of the Season - The Zombies (my second favorite of the night)
For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield segueing into
Stop in the Name of Love - Supremes (done as a joke)
Carry On - CSNY (a portion of the song)
Love the One You're With - Stephen Stills
and some others
The whole show had such a laid back, personal feel. I think the atmosphere was partly because we were sitting so close, because the two lead performers were obviously friends and bantered back and forth a bit, but also because they were performing so many covers. It put the emphasis on the songs we all love, rather than their own material. The stripped down arrangements made it feel like these were some guys playing in my living room. They both came across as very down-to-earth, likable guys, especially when joking about Ted Nugent or how they looked and dressed as "rock stars". The venue not being a dirty rock club helped too. It was a good fit of performance type and performance space.
Both Shaw and Blades had a strip of guitar picks taped onto their mic stands and would throw picks out to the audience occasionally. Towards the end of High Enough, I saw one coming towards me. I saw him throw it, but didn't realize it would reach me until I thought I saw it in my hair. I felt around and couldn't find it there or near my seat. Roy hadn't noticed yet. No one else sitting near us was going for it, so it didn't fall behind me. Roy told me to look under my chair. The guy next to him told me to use my cell phone for some light. I did, and I found the broken pick under my chair. This was turning into some night!
Shaw brought out an electric guitar for the final song of the main set. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it...until the vocals started. It was Lucky Man from Emerson Lake & Palmer! This is a song by a keyboard-dominated band with a big keyboard solo at the end. It was being played by three guitars. At the end of the song, Shaw played a guitar part mimicing the familiar Emerson solo into part of his own solo. It worked out well, even with the juxtaposition of timbres.
The show started on time at 7:30pm and they played for about an hour and a half. This was one of the earliest ending shows I've ever been to, but that's good on a work night! We wondered if the band would come out to sign autographs. There were only 300 people here and it had been such an intimate low-key show, it almost felt like we were all friends already. The merchandise guy told Roy they don't come out, so we headed home. I didn't have anything to get signed anyway. I was in a much better mood than when I left work that day.
Yes
The Beacon Theater
New York City, NY
Friday, October 31, 1997
Section Orchestra Left Center, Row Y, Seat 9
$50
The concert trail is like being on your favorite amusement park ride. It has to end at some point, even if it is continuing on for other people. I could have hung on, and seen more Yes shows in more cities. But the shows I went to made sense for me - three were local and most of the others involved staying with friends and cheap or free transportation. I could have gone to the next show in Pittsburgh, and I was tempted to during my last few shows. Zoey could drive me there and part of the way back. But I would have to deal with getting tickets at the last minute and other travel details. I had to get back to face the real world. So this was it.
When the tour dates were originally announced, like in Philly, there were only two shows listed for New York. The third show went on sale at a later time, and I grabbed two tickets over the phone. Like in Philly, Zoey bought my other seat from me. I actually had planned to attend another concert on this date - Fiona Apple was playing the Electric Factory. I couldn't turn down another Yes show though.
Since this show was on Halloween, I had to dress up. I took inspiration from the opening lyric of Close to the Edge: "A seasoned witch could call you from the depths of your disgrace." Before the tour started, I was so sure that Yes was going to play this song. I had owned a long black dressy dress since back in high school. I bought a witch's hat, and Zoey helped me rubber cement some dried herbs on the rim for my "seasonings".
I have a preferred way to celebrate concerts and my favorite rock stars being in town - I like to get to the venue early and see them walk in for the soundcheck, listen to the soundcheck bleeding through the concert venue walls, go inside as soon as the doors open, stand up and dance for the whole show, and then hang out afterwards to meet the band and maybe get autographs on their way out. It was my last show, and I wanted it to be just like this. No compromises. No one else wanted to head down that early, so I went by myself. I took the subway in New York alone for the first time that day. I brought my camera along to get some pictures of the band with me in my costume.
Steve Howe usually travels apart from the band. Back then, he had a station wagon that he kept in the US, and he used that in place of airplanes and tour buses. Steve's car arrived first and he had given Igor a lift to the show. I was the only person standing by the stage door. I got this picture with Steve on his way in. He is the only member of Yes who acknowledged the Yes reference when I told him I was a seasoned witch - he recited the first line of the song.
I bumped into Brian later on that afternoon, and then Jerry found us. There was now a crowd by the stage door, but Jon and Billy greeted me on their way in. Billy told me my costume looked great! Jerry and I grabbed a quick dinner together before the doors opened. My seats weren't all that great, 3 or 4 rows from the back of the venue. But... if we traded seats with people in the very last row, we could stand up and dance without blocking anyone's view! And I could keep my witch's hat on! Zoey was with me on this, and a couple in the last row agreed to switch seats. We were right in front of the soundboard. Zoey was dressed as a fairy for Halloween.
The band celebrated Halloween as well. There was a DJ on stage introducing the show, and then Jon came out and sprayed some silly string into the audience. I can't believe I didn't see this myself, but Alan wore a 3 Stooges mask for the first song. He had a mask that had a head on either side of his and his in the middle. People were talking about it afterwards, but I wasn't looking at Alan at the right time.
This was really the first show on the whole tour where I could get up and dance for the whole performance. It was so much fun! Billy could see us all the way from the stage. The audience was really loud again this night. During Steve's solo set, I guess too many people made too much noise. He said "It would really help me if you would all Shut Up." Too many people just wanted to party.
I misjudged the stage rush that night. You never want to be the first person walking up to the stage, or you'll be turned back. But once there's a group of people moving up, they'll usually let everyone remain. I started walking down during All Good People, the last song of the set. I saw Brian in the 5th row, with an empty seat by him. I was too early, the guard told me to go back to my seat. I grabbed the seat by Brian instead. (Yes, I took off the tall pointed hat to do this.) Billy noticed me there and looked surprised, like he really knew it was me in the back row and wasn't expecting to see me up front.
After the show, Brian and I went back to our little waiting spot behind the theater. Alan came out and knew tonight had been my last show. I don't even remember telling him! Maybe it was in Hershey or one of the other NYC nights. They meet so many fans, it must be hard to keep everyone and their stories straight. I'm constantly amazed when a favorite musician recognizes me and remembers something about me. Alan is always really sweet with us fans, and I got this picture with him that didn't turn out too well.
I was beginning to get sad about the end of my part of the tour. I mentioned it to Igor, and he said something that really cheered me up. It sounds funny, but it was encouraging. "What, are you going to die tomorrow? You'll see more shows" He was right. I haven't seen so many shows in such a short time again, but that was my 22nd Yes show and I've been to 37 more since then.
And then there was Jon. He walked through the crowd and was about to get into the waiting car, but he stopped to talk to me. I shook his hand again and rambled a bit. I thanked him for being so nice to me and how wonderful the tour had been and that this was my last show... He listened and gave me a nice sendoff.
After all that, I felt closure. Every one of my idols was just so nice and looked happy to see me. Brian and I said our goodbyes and I walked around to the front of the theater.
No matter how friendly fans get with each other, an ugly competitiveness can be there as well. Some fans got to know the band better, got backstage passes, got to know where the band was going to hang out. And there's a real dilemma; you can't tell everyone this information and some people are going to pretend to be your friend to get close to the band. Some people in the inner-circle of fans handle this gracefully. Others lord it over the rest of us. A group of my friends were gathered in front of the theater and a scene like this was taking place. We'd love to be in their position and some inner-circle people view that as a threat. Normally, I would stay with them and see where the evening led. But I had just had such a nice goodbye from them, especially Jon, that I didn't want to add anything more to the evening. Nothing could come close to welcome I got from them just being a fan by the stage door. MaryAnn and I took the train back to her home in Long Island.
On a funny end note, this might have been the end of the tour for me, but not for my autograph pen. I have a Sharpie permanent marker that I carried with me for all my autographs. So many rock stars have touched it! I lent it to someone that night, and they handed it back to Brian. I realized it was missing soon afterwards. Brian flew home to Scotland with it unknowingly. (My pen has traveled farther than I have!) He found it and knew it was mine. Brian did go to San Francisco, and he brought the pen with him to give to Roy. (My pen has been to Yes concerts without me!) I got to see Roy again in December. Roy didn't think I'd even realize the pen was gone, but he wrapped it up and gave it to me as a joke Chanukah present that year. I can't use it anymore, but the pen still has a place of honor in my Yes collection. The pen cap is visible in the bag right in the middle of this picture.
Yes
The Beacon Theater
New York City, New York
Thursday, October 30, 1997
Section Orchestra Left Center, Row Q, Seat 21
$50
Happy Birthday Roy!!!!
Zoey and I had a good day. The weather was beautiful. We traveled down to Manhattan and hung out with some new acquaintances. We walked around Greenwich Village and found Yes bootlegs and funky clothing shops. I would have preferred to go to the venue earlier, but we had a small group dinner before the show and took the subway to the Beacon.
I had slightly worse seats this night, about 17 rows back. Another guy from the ticket line was sitting next to me, much nicer and mellower than the previous night's. The crowd was awful though. I compared and contrasted with the relatively tame Philly crowd the week before. The next time I went to the Tower Theater, I realized it: the Tower did not have a liquor license back then. It made such a difference.
I moved up front in time for the stage rush. Mare made some room for me up by the stage and we were right in front of Jon for the encores. I noticed that Starship Trooper really went on too long. Everyone took a solo, and it seemed to lose the song in all the jamming. I didn't want the concert to be over, but it was kind of nice when the melody came back near the end of the song (and show).
In addition to the Yes Art exhibit, Yes was selling a new poster. It had a large Yes logo and words talking about the 25th anniversary of Close to the Edge (and the Yes logo). It came with the logo in blue or orange. Dian bought the blue one. Had I known the cover of Open Your Eyes album would be just that orange logo, I would have bought the blue one as well. It was an expensive poster, something like $25 and Mare teased me about spending the money on it. But just as I bought it, I saw Roger Dean standing by himself in the lobby. I walked over to him, and he remembered me from the night before. We walked over to an unused counter, where he opened the poster up and signed it for me. "For Rhea, Best wishes, Roger Dean".
I met up with my new friend Brian from Scotland again. We were standing outside and talking after the show. I think it was this night, we saw John Amick again. He had gotten an aftershow pass and had just left the backstage area. He pulled his access sticker off and handed it to me. The "backstage meet and greet" part of the evening was over, but I ran in and saw the band as they were leaving. Billy said hi to me.
For all the years he had been a Yes fan, Brian had never met them. But we knew where their exit was, so we walked in back of the theater again. Brian was so excited. He told Alan how he had come to New York from Scotland to see them. Alan seemed touched by this. He told Brian Yes was planning to play there in the next year. Watching Brian get excited by meeting these guys was just as special as getting to talk to them myself.
Jon was very nice to me again. He signed my new poster with a big signature. Chris signed it with, well, the sloppiest signature I've ever seen of his. Even though Alan did not play on Close to the Edge, he's been in the band since its release, and I asked him to sign it too. (On purpose, I did not ask Billy to sign it. He hadn't been in the band long enough to sign a 25th anniversary Yes logo poster.)
Brian now had a dilemma. He had planned to go to San Francisco as well at the end of the US tour. But those plans were made before he knew he'd get to see them in Europe. What should he do? I told him his "Brian's US Yes Tour T-shirt" which lists all the US shows he was planning to attend listed San Francisco, so that meant he had to go. Brian printed up a "Rhea's US Yes tour" shirt for me with my ten shows listed. I still have it. Ironically, Roy was going to be in San Francisco, so Brian would see him there, and that was possibly before I'd get to see Roy next. That day was Roy's birthday, and I missed him, but it felt nice being with a friend who knew Roy too.
Nine down, one to go. The same town and one more show!
Yes
The Beacon Theater
New York City, NY
Wednesday, October 29, 1997
Section Orchestra Left Center, Row J, Seat 21
$50
The thing that's so frustrating about being a Yes fan is seeing all the great ideas that get bandied about and don't come to fruition. This time around, it was a Yes art display. Yes was going to display some album cover artwork in the theater lobbies. Roger Dean was going to be there. The band would come out to meet with fans. It would all culminate in an art gallery exhibition in San Francisco at the end of the tour. As far as I know, this never took place as discussed. But the artwork and Roger Dean were there in two cities that I know of - New York and San Francisco.
The world tour of ticket sales took place before the actual tour; I even traveled up to New York to wait in line for tickets at the box office. I stayed with MaryAnn over night and then took the Long Island Rail Road into Manhattan to buy tickets. She stayed at home and got them over the phone and laughed at me. I think I did this partly to get away from home for a few days. I was restless living back with my parents. I met some nice people in line there. We decided to circumvent the slow ticket ordering process by grouping our sales together. The first guy in line was buying two tickets, so he bought an extra pair for the second guy in line, who bought individual tickets for me and the next guy. Some ticket sale places are smart and do this for us - take all our orders and print them out ASAP to get us the best seats. We took care of it ourselves. The ticket sale was announced so quickly, I didn't have time to coordinate with anyone. I just bought single tickets for myself.
Zoey and I spent most of the day of the show driving up from Hershey. We went to Mare's in Long Island and then turned around to take the train to Manhattan. Just a year ago that day, we were in Manhattan for the release of Keys to Ascension. Yes appeared on the Fox After Breakfast program and did a record signing. So much had changed in that year.
My seat was in the 10th row, third seat in from the left center aisle. I was chatting with the guy sitting behind me when all of a sudden... Roger Dean walked down the aisle. I pointed him out to the guy behind me. To my amazement, Roger and his friend turned into my row and took the seats next to me. Roger Dean wasn't strictly sitting next to me, his friend was, but still, he was right there! I resolved to behave myself. I might have gone out of my way to walk past him smiling or turned so he could see my Yes jacket, but I tried not to disturb him.
Big Yes fans come in a number of varieties. Some are normal people who happen to love Yes. Some are socially awkward geeks in different degrees who can never figure out small talk (I'm in this category) or overcompensate by being the loudest and most enthusiastic. My least favorite category is the partyers - they're there for the drinking and drugs and it doesn't even matter if it's Yes or a football game as long as they can be loud and have a good time. They've burnt out some brain cells along the way. I don't smoke (anything) or drink, so I can come across as uptight to them.
Anyway, a burnt out party guy whom I met waiting in line walked across our row. He didn't recognize Roger Dean, but thought he was sitting in his seat. He started arguing with Roger to move until the group of us convinced him that that was not his seat. He sat down on my other side. Roger Dean, if you are ever reading this, let me apologize now. I told the burnt out party guy who you were. Back to the story, BOPG got up and walked back to Roger. "Roger?" he asked. Roger Dean confirmed who he was. Without apologizing or looking the least bit embarrassed, BOPG did his fanboy thing. He must have asked 10 minutes of rapid fire questions, including mistakenly thinking Roger did some ELP album covers as well. Roger was a lot more polite than I would have been. Finally, BOPG's wife/girlfriend/significant other pulled him away. She looked sufficiently embarrassed for both of them.
I'd never seen a theater show with Standing Room Only seating. But there were a row of people just standing along the far aisle. I would honestly prefer to stand there and have space to dance instead of sitting constricted in my row of seats. I thought about offering one of those people my seat and standing in their place. But Roger Dean was right there. I couldn't leave from my brush with greatness.
BOPG continued to annoy me. He started talking to me during the songs. And then, in a non-smoking venue, lit a joint. Come to think of it, he had offered one to Roger, who turned him down. He was not smoking discretely either. It was blowing in my face. I told him to stop or I would tell a security guard. He cursed me out. Finally, my bad vibes were ruining the show for him, so he switched seats with his SO.
These shows are beginning to run together. I remember Jon announced that Paul Simon was in the audience before playing the cover of Simon and Garfunkel's America. But he said this on more than one show, so I don't believe him. He also announced that Roger Dean was in the audience. Everyone applauded that, but Roger did not stand up. I looked over at him and smiled and directed my applause right to the man.
Yeah, okay, I spent a lot of this concert looking over to see how Roger Dean was enjoying the show. Towards the end of the set, everyone stood up for All Good People. Everyone but Roger and his friend. I wonder why. Anyway, I looked over and said "Stand up!" and gestured for them to stand. They did! He sang along to this one, and looked like he was enjoying it. Some fans did the stage rush thing, where everyone runs to the front row and crowds together for the encore. I would have, but again, I was standing by Roger Dean and did not want to leave.
After the show, a few people asked him for autographs. He signed my ticket stub for me. I asked him if he was doing the artwork for the upcoming Yes albums. He did new artwork for Keys to Ascension II, but Open Your Eyes was just going to have the Yes logo on it, he told me.
I guess I had to meet up with Zoey and Mare afterwards to travel back up to Lindenhurst, but first I had to wait until the band left. There was a door on the side of the theater with a lot of people waiting. My friend John Amick, who is now the webmaster for Jon Anderson, got me and told me the band was leaving from behind the theater. We went back there and there were only a few fans waiting for an audience with the band.
Yes
Hersheypark Arena
Hershey, PA
Tuesday, October 28, 1997
Section B1, Row B, Seat 2
$35.75
Hershey was sweet.
Tickets for Hershey went on sale a week after Philly's did. This was the local show for Dawn, Zoey, and Jerry, my Yestogether friends from central Pennsylvania. Yestogethers were monthly gatherings that Dawn started, usually held on the first Saturday of the month. We were the four core members, and we told anecdotes about the band, listened to music, watched videos, ate, but more importantly, laughed and kept each other sane. We met monthly like this for four years, until Jerry and I each moved out of state. We also looked out for each other and attended events together. The Hershey ticket sale date was actually the date of the next planned Yestogether - the concert and ticket sale information came together so quickly for this tour that we didn't know about it the previous month.
Of all the times I camped outside overnight for concert tickets, this was my favorite. I took a Greyhound out to Harrisburg and Zoey picked me up. We grabbed dinner at a fast food place, and then drove to the Hershey Arena. We were first. Dawn met us there. Another woman showed up in line afterwards. These were very different demographics than usual - I was usually the lone female, and there were usually a lot of drinking and partying going on. We were quiet. The arena security guard must have noticed this when he left for the night. He actually left the doors unlocked for us, to use the facilities, vending machines, or just to keep warm. Let me repeat: HE LEFT THE ARENA OPEN FOR US. Maybe people are more trusting in small towns, because I could never see this happening in a city theater. He did it as a courtesy.
Across the parking lot was the Hershey Stadium, with some high school football game going on. We were able to buy soft pretzels and hot chocolate while we were waiting. I slept in Dawn's car and walked inside the arena for a bit. We even had access to the seated area. Dawn's husband Terry brought breakfast to us in the morning.
Buying the tickets was a little frustrating. There were multiple sales windows. They lined us up in groups of 4 or 5, where Dawn and Zoey were behind me, and people who came later than us were first in line in the next window. I hate that! The other window got service first. The first person got front row, and the next person in line was already getting all the way back in the second row! I bought a single ticket and was also able to get into the second row. Dawn and Zoey got seats next to mine. Jerry had not wanted to wait in line for tickets. He tried the YesWorld seats, and ended up 10 rows or so back from us.
I took a long nap when we got back to Dawn's, and then we had our monthly Yestogether. The start of the tour was less than two weeks away. By the next month's Yestogether, my portion of the tour would all be over.
The day of the Hershey concert arrived. I was well-rested after my awful time two days earlier at the last Philly show. This was almost a repeat of the ticket-sale day. I Greyhounded out to Harrisburg. Zoey picked me up there and drove me to Hershey. We met up with Wendy Vig and her friend Rick at their hotel. Wendy had done something amazing - she was a Yes fan from a long time back and she had sent Jon Anderson some poetry she had written. Jon thought she should publish it and he offered to illustrate it. Jon is involved in so many projects, and they don't always come to fruition. But this one did. The book was released shortly before this tour started, and it is called Fountains of Gold. I met Wendy a year earlier in San Luis Obispo. She and Rick were going to a bunch of shows together on this tour.
The four of us took a tour of Hershey Park's factory. We got free samples of Hershey's miniatures and kisses and joked about throwing some on stage during the "You've got a sweet imagination" line of Open Your Eyes.
Our seats were great. I was second row, dead center. We had better seats than Jon's wife Jane, who was a row behind us. I laughed at Jerry, who was sitting so much further back than us. This venue has a reputation for bad sound and boominess. I didn't hear it, but we were probably close enough to get most of the sound from the stage monitors. Jon's microphone didn't work for the beginning of Rhythm of Love, but that was soon fixed. We had the usual problem with people behind us who absolutely wanted to see what was going on stage, so we couldn't dance or move around too much, but they didn't see an issue with talking over the songs. We used Owner of a Lonely Heart as an excuse for us all to get up and dance. Even Jane joined with us.
I saw some friends I wasn't expecting. Central Pennsylvania is not too far away from Baltimore, and my friend Scott drove up with his son Ian. Ian was 6, and I think this was his first concert. I didn't get to see Yes until I was 15, also with my dad. My friend Mark from Philly decided at the last minute to come out for some more shows. He managed to get a front row ticket, albeit all the way on the side.
Some of the on-stage banter differed for this show. Jon had been announcing that the Open Your Eyes CD would be released on Thanksgiving and that the album was a turkey! (Pretty accurate assessment!) Then, we'll get a free turkey with the album. Steve joined into the silliness and said it would be a vegetarian turkey. Jon also changed the And You And I introduction that they were rolling... a tape and flat out said they were rolling joints. Much cheering and applauding for that.
Towards the end of the show, Steve came over to Jon and started whispering furiously. Yes had some crew members early on who revolutionized concert sound and lighting - Roy Clair on sound and Michael Tait on lights. While they were both based in London at the right time for Yes, their respective companies, Clair Brothers Sound and Tait Towers, were now in Lititz, PA. Yes used to famously rehearse in Lititz and let some fans in to hear them. Steve kept a car in the Clair Brothers' parking lot year-round that he used while on tour. Steve's whisperings were to remind Jon that this was the "local" show for Lititz. Were these guys in the audience? I'd love to hear some stories from them! Jon then announced this and had everyone cheer for their former crew members.
The real fun began after the show. Zoey was a huge Chris Squire fan. She played bass and owned a Chris Squire signature Rickenbacker bass. She brought it to the show that night, hoping to get Chris to autograph it for her. She even wrote a note to Chris about it and passed it on to a roadie, hoping they would decide to bring her backstage for the autograph. Nothing had come from that, but we were determined. Jerry had gone to the concert with another friend, and they left afterwards.
Dawn, Zoey, and I wanted to find the band. Their tour buses were in back on the arena. In most places on this tour, the buses were on streets or alleys, so we could just walk up to them and wait. But when we tried to do that in Hershey, a teenaged security guard stopped us. We weren't allowed to walk in back. We explained about Zoey's Rickenbacker and the note. Finally, we asked if we could check with someone else - it shouldn't be that big a deal to walk to a public spot. The security teen was the only guy there. It actually worked out that Zoey was allowed to run back and ask if it was okay. She came back and said that it was.
After we walked down some steps and around the arena, I realized what we had done. We weren't just standing by the buses, the backstage was right there with no other barrier. We just talked ourselves backstage! It was that easy!
I immediately looked for Jon. I'm always most excited to talk to him and I needed him to sign Wendy's book. He wasn't there. We had a lot of access to the rest of the band. Zoey got her moment with Chris Squire. The roadie had passed Zoey's note to him. Chris asked Zoey if she was a good bass player. Zoey told me later she thought Chris had only asked if she was a bass player, and she enthusiastically responded "Yes I am!" She got her signature.
I talked to Steve Howe for a bit. He always seems happy to sign autographs, but less likely to hang out and chat. I must have had the right accessory. I brought along my copy of Homebrew, his collection of demos. Steve is an amateur photographer and used a lot of his photos in the liner notes. He looked really happy to see Homebrew and asked if he could show it to someone. I got to stand there with him while he paged through the booklet and pointed out some of the pictures. He thanked me and signed it for me. I got to talk to Billy and Alan a bit more too.
Looking at these pictures, I can see myself wearing some interesting things. Some of the Yesfans on AOL had a crazy idea for a Yes tribute band - Siberian Kazoo, a takeoff of the song Siberian Khatru. I have actually seen a group of Yes fans playing kazoos to Yes music. Jerry created some tshirts with a logo. I was wearing mine that night. It was also much colder - I had on my Yes jacket, sweatshirt, and winter coat. Check out the pink pin on my coat - it says "Just say YES. You're Extra Special". It's a promo pin from the Taj Mahal Atlantic City Union shows. My friend Mark gave it to me.
On our way out, I picked up some paper souvenirs. Fliers for the soon-to-be-released Open Your Eyes album were on the chairs at the concert. I tried to pick one of every color. Backstage, I got Igor's autograph on the pink one. I can't find it right now and that's the only signature I have of his! Roy and I recently combined a lot of our mementos - it made sense it do so, but it's harder to find "my" stuff. I also pulled some of these papers off the walls and doors. They would only be thrown out anyway.
I slept over at Zoey's parents' house, in their spare bedroom. The next day, we drove up to Long Island to stay at our friend MaryAnn's for the three New York Beacon Theater shows.
I found it! Here's my Igor autograph.
Yes
Tower Theatre
Upper Darby (Philadelphia), PA
Sunday, October 26, 1997
Section Right Center Orchestra, Row OO, Seat 125
$50
The previous two days brought a lot of excitement and adrenaline highs. That feeling could not be maintained. After two of the best Yes days ever, my energy level crashed. October 26, 1997 remains my least favorite Yes concert. Nothing to do with the band; I just wasn't there mentally enough to appreciate it.
Roy's best friend and cousin (and future best man) Roger was celebrating his 20th anniversary that night. Roy didn't want to miss the party, so he flew home that morning, missing the last of the three Philly shows. Even though we stayed up late the night before, we woke up early Sunday morning. I went with him to the airport. This was the first time in our four month long distance relationship when I did not know when I'd see him next. I cried when we said our goodbyes.
I had been juggling an out-of-town boyfriend, living with my parents, following a band around... I was tired and the boyfriend had left. The smart thing to do would have been to go back home and get some rest before that evening's show. But no, I also had a lot of friends in town for the Yes shows, and Zoey, Jerry, and their friend Ben were staying at The Courtyard by Marriott by the airport. I took a shuttle to their hotel. It was raining and just a dreary day.(The funny thing is, I rarely pay attention to sports. But that day, The Eagles were playing some big football game, and the visiting team was staying at one of the other Marriotts by the airport. People on the shuttle were talking about it and pointing one of them out.)
There are a million things to do in Philly. I lived there and knew all the touristy places, all the record stores, but none of us wanted to do anything. We got lunch and then drove out to Jersey to Yes' hotel. I thought I had this great secret by knowing where they were staying, but Zoey already knew. I felt kind of pathetic and stalkerish there - it didn't have the same vibe as getting a drink after a show or seeing the band by the venue. We saw Igor smoking in the lobby and I got this picture with Chris.
All this time, Ben and Zoey were driving together, and Jerry and I were in his car. This was real awkward for me. Jerry and I went on a date the year before and we were still working on just being friends again. I've never told anyone about this besides Roy, but I'm sure my other Yestogether friends knew anyway. I was upset about being apart from Roy, and this was not a good way to deal with it. Ironically, now that Roy and I weren't holed up in a hotel room, Jerry was going to come home with me that night and sleep on the couch in my parent's family room. I could deal with my parents knowing my friends, but I didn't want all the privacy intrusions into my love life. On the plus side, we heard Open Your Eyes on the radio twice while driving around.
We then drove back to Philly and ate at a place on West Chester Pike near the Tower Theater. In a few months, I'd get my first real full-time job, in Havertown, and I'd go here for lunch sometimes. Lunch had been just a few hours earlier, so I wasn't ready to eat. I ordered overpriced mozzarella sticks and then complained when half of them ended up being hollow.
Afterwards, we drove to the Tower and hung out in Ben's van, just talking for a while. I was surprised there was no one else I knew coming to the concert this early to hang out. I bought two tickets for this concert without really knowing who would use the other seat. Dawn and Zoey had been concert buddies for the other shows, but Dawn wasn't at this one. Zoey took my other seat. It was one of those where we got two seats one row apart rather than next to each other. Mine was the same seat as the Friday show, but 14 rows further back.
Most of the talk in the audience was about the Eagles' win. When the concert started, even Jon Anderson was talking about the game. He said he was a 49ers fan, which earned him boos, probably a first for him in Philadelphia! He quickly added that when he's in Philly, he's an Eagles fan. I can't say anything else about the concert. I just wanted it to be over, so I could get some sleep. I was fighting to stay awake. I normally love to stand up and dance during concerts, and when everyone stood during the encore, I was too tired. I stayed seated. I was actually getting the chance to see my favorite band and I couldn't enjoy it. It was so sad.
Still, Jerry and I stayed afterwards to see the band leave. Chris walked out to a group of people hanging out. His driver/bodyguard? asked Chris if he should keep us out of the way. Chris walked right into the crowd and said he didn't mind signing autographs as long as there weren't too many people. I tried telling Chris that I'd love to hear Tempus Fugit in the set sometime, but he never responded. I don't know if he heard me or not.
Chris was going to WMMR's studio in Bala Cynwyd for a radio interview. Earlier in the day, I wanted to go there to see Chris on his way in and out. But now, I wanted sleep. We drove to my parents' place in other opposite end of the city. I finally got the sleep I should have gotten earlier in the day.
Yes didn't get as much press as I thought they should have. Selling out three nights is a big deal, even if it's a 3000-seater like the Tower. The Million Woman March the same weekend overshadowed it. All I saw about it was that strange review of Saturday's show. Yes is a men's movement?
Yes
Tower Theater
Upper Darby (Philadelphia), PA
Saturday, October 25, 1997
Section Orchestra Right Center, Row AA, Seat 101
$50.00
Happy Birthday Jon!!
Not only is this the tenth anniversary of seeing Yes on Jon Anderson's birthday, it is also the twentieth anniversary of my first ever concert. I wrote about the Heart concert here, one of my first blog entries.
This day was one of my least favorite activities - the Big Group Dinner. It always takes too long to get seated and order and get on with it with so many people. And I always seem to be the one half listening in to the conversations around me, without being able to take part. I strain to hear what people are saying, and I wanted more alone time with my boyfriend! I feel like all I get to do is smalltalk and some concert anecdotes rather than really getting to know anyone better. I was anxious to get to the show on time, and the preliminary plan scared me. We were to meet at the Philly Rock on Delaware Avenue only two hours before the show was supposed to start. I raised the point that there would be a Million Women Marching between the restaurant and the Tower Theater. The organizers changed the restaurant to one on City Line Avenue. Especially after barely making it on time the night before, I was relieved.
Dian picked us up, and I met Dave and Pat from Texas for the first time. Outside at the Tower, someone had an oversized birthday card for Jon and was asking everyone to sign it. It must have been someone I knew, because he just gave me the card to hand to Jon when I told him I was sitting front row center.
Before the show started, WMMR DJ and long-time Yes supporter Ed Sciaky came out on stage. He told us it was Jon Anderson's birthday, as if anyone didn't know. He wanted us to all sing Happy Birthday to Jon after Soon. Igor was in on the surprise and would start playing it along with us. It was a nice moment, moment, moment.
My seats really were incredible and worth camping out for. Sure, we weren't in the real front row. But there was a big aisle right in front of us, giving us a lot of space after the cramped orchestra pit seats. We were close enough to get a lot of eye contact with the band, but far enough back to really get the effect of the lights and stage show. And nobody's head was in my way. Jon kept making eye contact and gestures with both of us for the whole show. It made me feel special. The highlights of this show were visual more than musical. It's like we were in the perfect seats to enjoy the lighting effects during Heart of the Sunrise and Revealing Science of God.
This was the first show where I got to stage rush - when the fans move up and congregate around the stage for the encore. I was already in the front row of the orchestra section, on the center aisle, but I had the giant birthday card. I walked forward into the pit. There was a security guy sitting in the front center facing the audience. I walked right up to him and stood there to hand the card to Jon. Jon took it from me. Everyone was standing and dancing at this point. The guard didn't say anything, so I just stayed there for the two songs of the encore. It was wonderful!
This is an odd review from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Afterwards, the whole big group went out for a midnight snack. Roy was leaving the next morning; he had a family event he didn't want to miss that night. We sat at a table by ourselves, so we had some private time. But we had gotten a ride from someone and were stuck there until we got a ride home. It's nice to be around other fans, and I've made some really good friends that way, but I didn't want it to interfere with my time with Roy.
Yes
Tower Theater
Upper Darby (Philadelphia), PA
Friday, Saturday, October 24, 1997
Section Orchestra Right Center, Row AA, Seat 125
$50.00
Yes was playing three nights in a row in my hometown. I was sitting in the front row of the orchestra section for two of those nights. Jon Anderson was coming to the radio station where I worked and I was going to get to talk to him. My new boyfriend Roy was flying in from St. Louis. Could this weekend be any better?
I had been temping at a stock broker's office when we started learning about the Fall Theater Tour. They were bringing in a permanent person from the main office, and my temp position was, well, temporary. I meant to be responsible and work as much as I could, but I ended up having no full-time work between the time tickets went on sale until the end of my part of the tour. My part-time jobs, working as a production assistant at WXPN and math tutoring, were very, very flexible. My last day at the stock broker's was the day before tickets went on sale for the first two Philly dates. I arranged to leave at noon that day, and went straight to the Tower Theater box office to camp out for tickets.
In the old days, buying tickets right from the venue box office was the best bet. Some places actually pulled tickets in advance - the first couple rows of seats were already printed and distributed to the people waiting in line - or went on sale early. The Tower said they didn't do this, but I had gotten really good seats before this way. It was also cheaper, with no service charges. It's less likely that the ticket sales person will come in late and make you miss out on good seats. Plus, more people are there, so it's a party.
My new friend Rob joined me in line for tickets. He brought lawn chairs and his great big dog Xenon. (Rob is a chemistry professor.) Rob later went on to organize the NEARFest progressive rock festival, but back then he was just another fan. We met on-line when I bought some used albums from him and then met in person at ProgDay earlier that month. Jerry was also there. Jerry was part of the monthly fan gatherings we had called Yestogethers. Our whole group bonded and became close friends.
We heard differing bits of information about the ticket sales. At first, I learned each person in line could buy 8 tickets per show. We got busy with ticket-buying arrangements. I didn't have the cash to front the tickets. My Yestogether friend Dawn drove all the way from Harrisburg to my tutoring office to give me money for her and Zoey and then turned around and drove home. Roy arranged for me to buy tickets for Dave from Texas. I had never met him, but he mailed me a check. While in line, we learned that the limit was four tickets total over the two shows. Suddenly, I was just buying tickets for Roy and me. These were the days before cell phones were common, so I used the pay phone to call Roy. He contacted Dave and the other Yestogether people. Jerry was only buying single tickets, so he was able to buy some extras. Soon, we had reorganized and notified everyone.
We got slap happy waiting in line. There had been a concert that night, and the trash was piled in the alley where we were waiting. It stunk and we had to take turns going out to the main street to get away from it. Liquid from the piles of trash inspired this piece of silliness:
"Puddles come out of the trash and meander!" Sing that to the tune of "Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there" from Roundabout.
The usual ticket lady was there on Saturday morning. She confirmed that they would not be pulling tickets in advance, but she was good with using the system quickly. For the Friday night show, I got one ticket in the front row of the orchestra section, on the center-right aisle and a seat right behind it in the second row. For Saturday night, it was two seats in the front row, right on the center aisle. Unfortunately, these weren't true front row - there was a small orchestra pit section with five rows in it. But I'll bet I got the best tickets that anyone did from Ticketmaster that morning.
Rob drove me home and I went to sleep. While I recovered from camping out, a third show in Philly was announced and tickets went on sale. No one called me to let me know. I knew it was a possibility, so I called Ticketmaster to check and ordered two tickets over the phone. I really should have waited at the Tower for a couple more hours just in case.
I had my tickets. One day at work, my show's producer Robert talked to me about the upcoming Jon Anderson visit. It would be on the World Cafe program, hosted by David Dye. David was not a big Yes fan, and Robert wanted me to write out a list of questions that would make him sound knowledgeable. I had questions about bootlegs, the fanbase on the Internet, some other stuff, and a question about the song That That Is. That That Is was a song on the previous year's Keys to Ascension album that was a return to form for them. Lyrically, it was quite different than most Yes songs. The words told a story in real life and made sense. The tone was much darker than Yes' image of positive vibes. This question was about the inspiration of the song. I wish I kept a copy of this list of questions; I don't even know if David requested some help or if this was Robert's initiative.
The plan for the day was: I would take the El to work, go to the airport to meet up with Roy, check in at the bed and breakfast, dinner, and go to the show.
Jon was running late. At the time, WXPN was housed in an old house on the University of Pennsylvania campus. I had gone to undergrad and grad school there and worked at the children's program Kid's Corner the whole time. Our office was on the first floor, and I rarely went up to the studios on the third floor. But I was up there and pacing, anxious for Jon to arrive. I didn't know David Dye all that well, but he peppered me with Yes questions while we waited. Which Yes is this - progressive or commercial? Who's in the band these days? What's this tour like? I hope he normally does more preparation than this for interviews! I found some more information - Jon asked to be on the show, not the other way around. We at WXPN were so cool!
We heard from the receptionist that Jon arrived and was making his way up to the third floor studios. He saw me in the hallway and said "Nice to see you again." Jon recognized me! I was wearing my Yes jacket, and the promoter there with Jon pointed it out to him. Jon had seen it before and knew all about it. The promoter asked if this was my first show on the tour, I said I had already seen three. Which ones was I going to? I got to recite my "Hartford, Boston, Fairfax, Philly, Philly, Philly, Hershey, New York, New York, New York" list of shows to Jon. I also told him that this night and the next, I'd be in the front row. I think he was honestly happy to see someone so enthusiastic at a radio station. He might have thought I was a cool radio station person when all I did was office work.
Jon signed a couple autographs and posed for some pictures. I brought two LPs for Jon to sign - the first two Yes albums with the original British album covers. (The US releases had different covers.) David Dye actually took these and they turned out pretty good. One of the other DJs Marilyn Russell, who I didn't know too well, also turned up to meet Jon.
Marilyn Russell and promoter extraordinaire Biff Kennedy along with Jon and me.
Marilyn is now a DJ on YRock online.
The interview went well. I was allowed to sit in the engineer's room, which had a glass partition to the World Cafe interview studio. David asked my question about That That Is. This is a great, but obscure song, and Jon seemed happy to get a question about it. He talked about how lyrically, it reminded him of his song Gates of Delirium, which tells a story about a war and battles with the hope of peace at the end. Then David said "and now we'll listen to That That Is." My hand-scribbled question was going to get a twenty minute long Yes track played in 100 different radio stations across the country. I doubt David knew how long it was. Unfortunately, this part of the interview was not aired. I thought they cut it when they found out how long the song was. I found out the truth later on. It turned out WXPN did not have a copy of Keys to Ascension and could not play the track. I would have given them mine to play!!! One of the World Cafe engineers gave me a copy of the broadcast on cassette; I wish I had an unedited copy.
I got to talk to Jon again as he went downstairs. He liked that the radio station was in a house. I told him it was part of the campus of where I went to college. Jon was standing outside on Spruce Street on his cell phone for a while. I actually wanted to go down the street to get some pizza for lunch, but I felt weird walking by him again. So I stood at the door watching him and waited for him to leave.
Jon's limo in front of WXPN. Jon is on the far right of the picture.
I actually did some work that day too. By the way, Jon asked the receptionist for the phone number for his hotel. Yes usually stay in fancy downtown hotels, but this was the weekend of the Million Woman March, and most hotels were sold out. That's why we stayed in a B&B. My receptionist duly noted to me what hotel Yes was staying at - the Cherry Hill Marriott.
I ran to the campus library to write some e-mails. Then I went to the airport to meet Roy. His flight was very delayed, it hadn't even left St. Louis yet. I think he got in near 7, and the show started at 8. We both had our luggage with us. We weren't staying at a hotel with a 24 hour front desk, but a bed & breakfast, so we got a cab to take us there first. We quickly dropped off our bags and got a key. The cabbie waited and then took us to the Tower. It was a $50 cab ride. We got to the Tower with 10 minutes to spare.
I was upset my seats weren't better. People were in front of me in the orchestra pit who hadn't waited in line overnight. Some had taken advantage of the YesWorld seat arrangements. I don't know how the rest of them got seats like that.
These first two nights in Philly were my favorites of the tour. I really think Jon was looking for me in the audience. He kept making eye contact with me. For the whole rest of the tour, if there was a crowd of fans, he'd come up to me first to say hi and shake my hand. I was never part of the inner-inner circle of fans who get backstage passes and really spend time with the band, but I felt like I was getting there. At least I was now part of the inner circle, where the band knew who I was.
I was really struck by a couple parts of the concert. During my favorite song, Revealing Science of God, during the climax, Jon turned around and started conducting the band. During Chris' solo in The Fish, he played a medley of Yes songs on the bass. Jon came out to sing the "Yes Yes" chorus of Tempus Fugit, even though he didn't sing on that track originally. Chris turned around and kneeled before Alan during the drum solo.
After the show, Dian dropped us off at the bed & breakfast. It was in Society Hill, so we walked down to the South Street Diner for a late night dinner.
My picture with Jon was published in WXPN's Xpress newsletter in January/February 1998. Years later, I showed Jon a copy of the newsletter and he said he remembered it. I know I'll never forget.
Yes
Patriot Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA
Wednesday, October 22, 1997
Section Floor-3, Row H, Seat 11
$36.50
Eighth row on the floor. These were my first truly great seats. My friend Scott got them for me.
I flew home from Boston on Monday, did my laundry, went to work, and took the Greyhound to Baltimore on Tuesday. I still had my part-time job at my old college radio station WXPN. The hours were flexible and my bosses were really cool about me taking off to see Yes all these times. My friends Scott and Thea lived in Baltimore and were going to take me to the Fairfax show. I didn't have a driver's license yet, so all of my out-of-town shows had to be arranged like this.
I met Scott and Thea at a concert a few years prior. We exchanged addresses and promised to keep in touch. We did! Before we were on-line, I told them about shows taking place in Philly. They invited me down to their home for the weekend visits. They had a great kid named Ian who was six years old at the time of the Fall Theater Tour. We used to watch Star Trek episodes together and then play the episodes with his action figures. They wanted me to come down a day early so they could pick me up from the bus terminal after work. I provided free babysitting when Ian got home from school the next day. When I told Ian I was seeing ten Yes concerts on this tour, he told me I was spoiled.
My friends recently got their first computer. I was able to check my e-mail there. I got an e-mail from my boss with a huge surprise. I was not allowed to tell anyone in advance. Jon Anderson, my favorite rock star, my idol, was coming to WXPN on Friday for an interview at the radio station. He was going to be on the World Cafe, our nationally syndicated show. And I was going to be allowed to sit in and watch the interview!
I'm wondering about the time-line actually. Did I already know Jon was coming and this was just confirmation? I definitely remember getting an e-mail from Kathy while I was at Scott's. And I also remember talking to my show's producer about it, but that might have been before this trip to Scott's. I wish I had this e-mail as part of my mementos. Sadly, this e-mail was on my old college server. I used elm for e-mail access and had no computer to download it to. This account was left open after I left school, so I still used it. But I lost access to it and lost all of my e-mail archive prior to 1999, except for some e-mails I had downloaded to my work computer and exported. At least Roy has the e-mail correspondence from early on in our relationship archived.
Fairfax is about an hour's drive from Baltimore, but this involved DC rush hour traffic. I would have preferred to drive down earlier in the day, but we had to wait until everyone got home from work. We left around 5. I was nervous, but we made it in time. Scott got tickets for the three of us and my friend Dawn from central Pennsylvania.
Patriot Center was one of the small arenas Yes played this tour. It wasn't even half full. Now, it's much bigger than theaters like the Orpheum or Tower, so it probably held as many people. But it seemed so sad to be booked in a place with so many empty seats.
I remember this show being really good. Yes did two shows in between Boston and Fairfax, so this was already the 5th show of the tour. A little bit of humor - when Jon talked about the Open Your Eyes CD release date, he said it was near Thanksgiving. That led into calling the album a turkey! Jon tends to repeat the same announcement at each show - another one I first heard here was the introduction to And You And I. The band's producer was rolling his ... tapes and Jon urged him to start recording Steve's guitar harmonics which became the start of the song.
The setlist was the same as Boston's, but Scott, Thea, and Dawn had not seen the tour yet. Scott in particular did not want to know the setlist in advance. It was great knowing what was coming next and watching his reaction. There was some opening percussion to Revealing Science of God, and he tried to guess the song. He didn't get it until Jon started chanting. He was about to cry, he was so happy. I loved watching the show through his eyes.
Yes music makes me want to dance. I'll dance in my seat, but it makes me feel confined. However, I hate the tension caused by my standing and blocking other people. I try to get seats on the aisle or some out of the way place where I can dance and not bother anyone - I call these dancing seats. We were in the middle of the row, and I kept moving over to the far aisle to dance. Dawn joined me for a song. But then, I'd miss seeing Scott's reaction, so I'd move back to my seat.
We drove back to Baltimore. I stayed there overnight again, and then boarded a Greyhound to Philly. I don't remember if I made it to work on Thursday, but I was definitely there on Friday.
Yes
Orpheum Theatre
Boston, MA
Saturday, October 18, 1997
Section Orchestra, Row H, Seat 109
$38.50
I remember it was already getting dark when we got to Boston. We got to the theater and met up with some other friends. There was no real plan. We ate at a nice restaurant down the street. I would rather have eaten at a quicker place - it turned out that show was starting earlier than we thought and we had to rush through eating.
The Orpheum is one of those grand old theaters in need of renovation. It offers good sightlines and good sound, but it's really looking run down. We had odd seats - Kevin, Roy, and I got tickets together, but they were all behind one another, like the same seat, but different rows. I got seats like this three times during this tour, but never before or after. The entrance from the lobby took you through an enclosed area and actually placed you in the middle of the orchestra section, rather than the back. We were a few rows back from this entrance in a raised area. Directly to our right was the outside of the lobby-tunnel.
Brian had much better luck with seats. Yes' management really came through for the fans on this tour. They had recently launched the YesWorld website and arranged to get amazing seats for each concert set aside for fans. Literally things like front-row center for face value. Tickets were put aside on a first-come, first-served basis. Fans would pick up the tickets and pay at the box office. Unfortunately, I was not able to take advantage of this. I didn't own a computer and, since I was out of school, only had access on days when I was on campus for my part-time job. It never lined up with the ticket reservation times. Also, this is Yes. They didn't get this organized and announced until tickets had already gone on sale for the shows I was going to. Sadly, this ticket system only lasted for this one tour; it was hard to manage and some fans would reserve tickets for shows they didn't attend. Brian sat in the front row, which is so fitting for someone who traveled so far.
This show's setlist is pretty similar to the previous night's in Hartford. They dropped No Way We Can Lose for Heart of the Sunrise. The setlist order is relevant to this story, so I will list it here:
Open Your Eyes Ambiance Track
Rhythm Of Love
Siberian Khatru
America
Open Your Eyes
And You And I
Heart Of The Sunrise
Masquerade/Clap
Leaves Of Green
Khoroshev Solo
Children Of Light
Long Distance Runaround/Whitefish/Alan White Solo/Ritual
Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Soon
The Revealing Science Of God
I've Seen All Good People
Roundabout
Starship Trooper
Chris Squire was a hero that night. During And You And I, I noticed security taking away a big burly guy. They exited through the "lobby-tunnel" near my seat. The song Heart of the Sunrise started. Heart of the Sunrise begins with a several minute long instrumental section, with the melody on bass guitar. It's fast, heavy, and precise. This is a big spotlight section for Chris, and he and Alan were the only people on stage for this part of the song.
Heart of the Sunrise is one of my favorite songs. It shows off Yes' absolute mastery of dynamics. There are heavy fast parts, slower calmer parts, but they all interweave to build tension. I've heard too many newer prog bands do the heavy and lighter mix, but just for its own sake. It's like rambling or reading a book with no plot. Even though I might get tired of hearing it live sometimes, Heart of the Sunrise has just a perfect arrangement.
At this point, I was dancing in my seat, getting into the song. The burly guy broke away from security and ran back into the theater. He ran on stage! and sat down by Alan's drum platform! He knocked over Jon's lyric stand, and Jon's lyric cheat sheets went flying. I didn't know what would happen, this guy was big and unruly. The security guards were just standing by the edge of the stage. Chris was still playing. Chris turned around and saw the guy. Chris Squire always has control of the situation. He walked over to the guy and shook his hand. It instantly diffused the tension - either the guy was happy to get attention or knew that that was it, but he let security lead him off stage and away this time. The amazing thing was, Chris never stopped playing the song and never missed a note, even while stopping to deal with the crazy guy who jumped on stage.
All of this took place in about five minutes. The rest of the band came on stage tentatively. What were they getting themselves into? The whole audience was engrossed by the drama on stage. The tension and release of the song was multiplied by the tension and release we had just witnessed. The music was so powerful! Chris got a big applause after this one!
The audience was in the palms of their hands for the rest of the show. Jon has a penchant for forgetting or messing up lyrics. It's part of his charm. I'll joke that it's his fault, for coming up with such strange lyrics in the first place. I love to sing along with the words, but I have no idea what they mean:
Past present movers moments we'll process the future
But only through him we know
Send flowered rainbows
A piece apart chased flowers of the dark and lights of songs
To follow and show all we feel for and know of
Cast round
You seekers of the truth accepting that
Reason will relive and breathe and hope and chase and love
For you and you and you.
Jon got through the whole thing without his lyric sheet, only to sing the wrong number of "and you"s at the end of the song.
This was our goodbye to Brian and Jean. They got a hotel in the city and they were going to sleep. This was the same weekend as the Boston Regatta, so they were lucky to get a room there. The only hotel we could find was 20 miles north of the city.
I dubbed this tour the Fall Theater Tour, but only some of the shows were in true city theaters. These are my favorite venues. Hartford was an amphitheater, and Hershey and Fairfax was both small stadiums. The true beauty of the urban theater was apparent when we went outside. There was no private parking place for the tour bus, so it was sitting outside on the street. The whole band would have to walk outside and past me to get on the bus. I've never had this kind of access to the band. All we had to do was wait.
I was wearing my denim Yes jacket. My friend Bill airbrushed it for me when I was still in high school. Within a month of getting it, I went to a promo appearance by Roger Dean, and he offered to autograph it for me. I've since tracked almost all of the other Yes members and had them sign it too. About a year after this tour, I got worried about it getting too worn or rained on, and I decided to retire it. I haven't looked at it much in the last few years, but I just took it out to photograph it. The airbrushing and some of the signatures look great, but the denim is getting miscolored in places and some of the autographs are fading.
I was only missing Trevor Horn. But Yes had a new member in 1997, and I had to get Billy Sherwood to sign it. Billy had played with Yes as an extra musician on the previous tour, but this time he was a full-fledged member. Even though I went to six shows on that tour and met all the other guys, this was my first time meeting Billy. Billy struck me more as a fan who got to play with the group than someone worthy to be a member of Yes. Like Trevor Rabin, he was a controversial member of the band - he brought his own sound to the band and we fans wanted our Yes to sound like Yes. Super nice guy, he was always enthusiastic to talk to fans.
He was the first member to come out. We were the only ones waiting outside. I asked Billy if he would sign something for me, and he said he wanted to drop some things off in the bus and then he'd come back out.
He came back out. It wasn't rushed at all. I had time to explain my jacket, show it to him, show him some of the autographs, and then ask him to sign it. I think he really got a kick out of it. He remembered me and said hi every time he saw me.
Here are some pictures of my jacket and signatures.
Roger Dean was the first person to sign my jacket. It was his idea.
Billy's signature is the biggest. Took up most of the upper arm.
Chris also came out. There were a few other people around, so I didn't get to talk to him much. I told him how well I thought he handled the stage-jumper incident. Everyone was tired, so we left then.
We drove up to the hotel north of Boston. The next day, we did the tourist thing in the city, going to Boston Common and the bar that was the exterior for Cheers. We stayed that extra day in New England because we were hoping Yes would add an extra night in Boston. I think it was on their original itinerary as a possibility. It didn't happen. Kevin was a big Primus fan, and Primus were playing in Providence that Sunday night. That's why we were heading back to Providence for that last night. He played a tape for us in the car. I hated it and decided I'd rather stay alone in the hotel room than go to that show. Roy decided he'd spend more time with me. By the time we got to Providence, Kevin was tired and didn't want to go to the show either.
This was the Motel 6 leg of the tour. We stayed in Motel 6 on Thursday and Friday, and we were now checking back into the same Motel 6 that we stayed in on our first night. I looked through the phone book, and we found a restaurant in Warwick that looked interesting. It was a seafood place right on the docks. We all headed out for dinner together.
Back at the hotel, something really weird happened. It was Sunday night and I turned on X-Files. I didn't watch the show all the time, but we were too tired to go out and do anything. It was the episode where Mulder wakes up in a Motel 6 in Providence and doesn't know how he got there. We were watching this in a Motel 6 in Providence! It wasn't filmed on site, but when we told the staff about it the next morning, they said it was a rerun and they knew about it.
Kevin, Roy, and I left for the airport. It was hard being in a long distance relationship, but not this week. I was saying goodbye to Roy on Monday, October 20th, and I'd see him next on Friday, October 24th for the Philly shows.
Yes
Meadows Music Theatre
Hartford, CT
Friday, October 17, 1997
Section 600, Row NN, Seat 601
$28
The day was finally here! We were going to see Yes. We were also going to see some friends. We drove back to Boston Logan airport to pick up everyone. Kevin from Milwaukee was flying in today for opening night.
So were Brian and Jean from Scotland. Yep, Scotland. We didn't even know them. Roy and I were both active on some on-line Yes forums, and Brian posted on the old Southside list. Roy heard that Brian was flying in for the Boston show, thought he sounded like a nice guy from his posts, and offered to drive them to Hartford with us. Complete strangers. And they accepted. It was a good move - Roy has traveled to Scotland to visit with them and their whole family came over for our wedding.
You can read all about Brian's tales of this tour at his Diary of a YES-Mad Scotsman. The previous Yes tour, for the Talk album, did not come to Europe and Brian missed it. He was not going to miss another tour. He made himself a t-shirt of "Brian's US Yes tour" with all the dates he was going to see - Hartford, Boston, New York City two weeks later, and San Francisco towards the end of the tour. His account was written during the tour, so the details are a lot fresher. I remember reading a paper copy of Part 1 when I was him in New York.
We arrived in Hartford and found the venue. It's an amphitheater that can be closed off and made into an indoor venue during the colder months. There wasn't much around. We could hear Yes soundchecking from outside, but decided to get dinner. There wasn't much around the venue. I remember we met up with some other people and got dinner at a nearby hotel.
All the while I was making plans for this tour and getting excited, I still had no idea what Yes I was going to get. The last few lineups had flip-flopped between classic-era progressive rock and more top 40 sounding material. This tour was in support of Open Your Eyes, which had not been released yet, but there were actually two CDs of new music coming out soon. Open Your Eyes would be more pop-rock and Keys to Ascension 2 was supposed to be more proggy. (Two different record labels were releasing these albums, and Yes couldn't control the sale dates. A third album of vintage BBC sessions was also released around the same time.) But what would the tour be like? The Talk tour only featured five songs from the 70s. The setlist for the reunion concerts in San Luis Obispo was all 70s material. This wasn't just the first concert of a new tour, it was the first of a new lineup. Rick Wakeman had left and Billy Sherwood joined as an official member. Igor Khoroshev was the new keyboard player. I was so excited about the concept of Yes, but I still wasn't sure they'd do a proper follow-up to the SLO concerts.
Brian had spoilers. One of the guys from the official Yes website gave him a probable setlist. Even though I was going to see them that night, I needed to know in advance. I'd even get more excited, or I'd get over my disappointment by the time of the show. He let me peek at it, and I saw three songs that made my day - my all-time favorite song Revealing Science of God, America, and their 1970s standard concert opener Siberian Khatru.
We got to the concert and milled around. I saw some people I knew and we found out some all important information - what hotel Yes was staying at that night. I bought two tshirts and we got to our seats.
Roy had gotten the seats. They were in the center, but in the back section and pretty far from the stage. The people around us were friendly, but not as big fans as we were. I was so excited!
The concert started with some piped in music. It had nature sounds and occassional harmonized vocals. When Open Your Eyes was finally released, this music was included as a bonus track. Yes was about to come on stage. They opened with... Rhythm of Love?! This was their last charting single from 1988. I knew this song from MTV before I even got into Yes and I didn't like it then. Why do they keep pulling it out to play live? The opening song is a portent of things to come in the concert - did they really want to sound like a hard rock MTV band?
The second song was Siberian Khatru. To me, it sounded like the band was putting a joke on us. *This* was the real show opener. That other song was just played first to get it out of the way or something. America, a cover of the Simon and Garfunkel song, followed. I remember the new keyboardist Igor coming in a half-second late for a keyboard bit in this song, maybe a bit tentative, but otherwise I didn't notice any mistakes from him. Good first show.
Visually, the band surprised me. I had heard that Chris Squire cut his hair, but the whole front line of the band seemed to have short hair this time around. Chris's was quite short, Jon's was all pulled back in a ponytail and Steve Howe, who had always worn long hair, had a pageboy cut. Chris' outfit was easy to make fun of - black pants, shirt, and shoes, with white socks. Steve was more animated than I've ever seen him - lots of jumping and moving around.
I thought the setlist was really brave. So many people just know Yes from the top 40 hits or the songs that still get played on classic rock radio. But Yes was an underground FM album rock band, and they actually played the 20 minute long Revealing Science of God from the Tales from Topographic Oceans album. I knew they played it for the hard core fans at SLO, but they were actually touring with it. Other small portions of Topographic Oceans got played during the show. Steve Howe's solo set included the Leaves of Green section and Jon joined in on the vocals. Beautiful. Alan White played a drum solo that was actually part of the percussion section of Ritual. America was also an obscure track, but their arrangement is so upbeat, it works great live and goes over well. Those two full tracks account for a half hour of unfamiliar music for most people.
Even I didn't know all the music Yes played that night. The new single Open Your Eyes had gotten some radio airplay, but they played two other songs from the yet-to-be released CDs. I knew Children of Light - Jon had played it in concert and at a radio station performance before and there were bootlegs for it. The other song, I had no idea about. I can't tell you how excited I was to be hearing a new Yes song.
And how disappointed I was in actually hearing it. The song was called "No Way We Could Lose". It was a simple, dull, slow, little song with a singalong vocal and practically no arrangement to it. It killed the momentum of the show. All the people around me were asking me what I thought - it was obvious by my applauding before I even heard the song that I was excited. Bad song, bad Yes. I named this "the worst live Yes moment," and that title stood until Jon tried singing Owner of a Lonely Heart karaoke style at a solo concert in 2004. We dubbed the song "The Way We Lost". It's not that horrible a song. But it is a complete throw-away and the meeting of high expectations and low delivery in concert sealed its fate.
Even Yes realized the song was a dud. According to Forgotten Yesterdays after the song Jon said:
"Okay, it’s the beginning of the tour. We’re trying…we’re trying to get it together here. But it shall come around as they say. It shall work, it shall come around." Sounds like an admission to me.
The show ended with three standards, I've Seen All Good People ending the main set, and Roundabout and Starship Trooper as encores. I was happy I was going to nine more shows!
We went back to the hotel. I wanted to see if the Yes hotel info was true, but Brian and Jean were tired from their long trip and ready to rest. Kevin, Roy, and I got directions to hotel and drove there. This was it! Jon was walking through the lobby and we got pictures with him. I saw Igor walking around and told him I thought he did a great job that night. Then, we headed into the hotel bar.
Jon's wife Jane, Jon Anderson, and me at the hotel lobby in Hartford
Kevin, Dian, Jon Anderson, and Roy
I had forgotten we saw Dian there too!
I was surprised to see Steve Howe sitting with a bunch of fans. Steve is always willing to sign an autograph, but I got the feeling he usually kept to himself on tour. I joined them. While we were sitting there, Igor came up and confirmed with Steve that they were going to drop No Way We Can Lose and replace it with Heart of the Sunrise. One of my favorite songs! Tomorrow's show was going to be even better! Steve obviously didn't know the etiquette of hanging out with fans at the bar; when he was ready to leave, he actually pulled out his wallet. As if we were going to let him pay. He looked like he was enjoying himself.
We stopped at an all night restaurant to get something to eat and went back to the hotel. Brian had been a Yes fan for years and never got to meet the band. He couldn't believe we were so lucky.
