Jon, Part III

Part III: Jon Under the Sun
The Paul Green School of Rock All-Stars
with Jon Anderson of Yes
Starland Ballroom
Sayreville, NJ
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
$48 + $8.55 convenience charge
Table 2

The first show scheduled with the School of Rock in February was canceled because of the bad weather. There were rumors that it would be rescheduled, and maybe even more shows!

I checked Ticketmaster, Pollstar, and Jon's website religiously. My friend Scott told me the Falls Church, VA show was rescheduled to April 24th, a Tuesday. And Ticketmaster listed a show in Collingswood, NJ. It was also on a weekday, but a almost whole week earlier. Who knows how many shows would be added? Finally, the other dates were announced. Saturday night in northern New Jersey and Sunday in Manhattan.

I had such a dilemma. I switched to a new department at my company last September, and this one involves working with people all over the country, not just focused on St. Louis. While I love and sometimes hate traveling for concerts, I hate/hate business travel. And I was going to be on the west coast all week for a conference during the week the tour started. We had just booked the travel too, I was flying home the day of the Sayreville, NJ show. Why couldn't this conference had been on the east coast? I was upset about not getting to see Jon again and so soon. Could I do anything about it?

The next day, I talked to my boss. I need to be in NYC that weekend. Work travel already booked my flight, but they were able to cancel it, and fly me into Newark, and then fly me home on Monday. All I had to pay was the difference in airfare. After a couple days, (I tried not to nag too much) Roy decided to join me.

We bought our tickets for both shows. I picked up my ticket for the Starland Ballroom before Roy decided to go. We paid extra for quasi-"reserved" seats, assigned to tables, but not individual seats. The other tickets were standing, general admission, and further back. Roy was at Tina's table, next to mine.

The thought of these shows is what got me through that awful conference. I used some frequent flier miles to upgrade to first class for the long, transcontinental flight - that was quite an experience! My flight didn't get into Newark until 4:40pm. Roy arrived earlier and met me at the gate. It was sooo good to see him again. This is the longest we've been apart since we've been married. We were able to rent the car, and join Linda for dinner by 6:00pm. She decided not to go to the show, but drove up to Sayreville for dinner with a friend. I was grateful for the reserved seats; otherwise I would have wanted to get in line earlier. The tickets said the show was starting at 7:30. Since there was an opening act, we had a little buffer time. Dinner wasn't too rushed.

The situation we were expecting at Starland was very different than what we saw. Doors were opening at 7:30, with the show not starting for another hour. Plus, they did away with the assigned tables concept. The people with the more expensive tickets got to sit at the tables, but were seated first come, first serve. In a weird way, it was better that I didn't know in advance. I would have come straight here instead of our nice dinner, and the seats we ended up with were not bad at all. And if I had known about the start time being later, I would have stayed longer at dinner and also missed out on these seats.

The usher took us to a table in the back of the seated area. It was right by the soundboard, and the last seats were dancing seats - back of the seated area and not blocking the standing section. Roy grabbed these while I looked for closer candidates. Tina was sitting closer, half way up, but way on the side by the bar. Could get noisy there. Why not go for good sound sitting by the soundboard?

Gene Ween from the band Ween was the opening act. This was a rare solo performance, so there might have even been some Ween fans here, just to see him. I remembered liking one of the songs about a party, the rest were okay. More to my taste than some metal or prog-metal band.

There were a different set of musicians than last time - this was the New York school instead of the Philly based kids. I recognized some of the musicians from the Belew show last year, especially the little boy who played saxophone on Glad. This time, Jon sang on all the Yes songs, but the SOR did some non-Yes songs as well.

Jon and the School of Rock came on and opened with Perpetual Change. It took until the instrumental section in the middle and a great keyboard solo for me to really feel it. The highlights for me were Survival - a very faithful performance, down to the different instruments playing the main theme at the song's end - and Close to the Edge. Damn, these kids played it with more power than Yes has in recent years. I think Yes has gotten too awed by what a great piece of music it is, and give it lots of grandeur and breathing room. These kids played it fast and heavier, like Yes used to. I like it! I stood up and danced for the whole show, and it was exhilarating! What a release!

The rest of the songs were: And You And I, All Good People, Long Distance Runaround, The Fish, Roundabout, Starship Trooper, Owner, Give Love Each Day. The non-Yes songs were Mustang Sally, Got to Get You into My Life, You Never Give Me Your Money, My Old School, and a Joni Mitchell cover. Jon stayed on stage for The Fish, even doing the Schinderlia Praemataurus chorus, and he often played percussion during the cover songs. There was also a shred portion - playing as fast as possible with no emotion - what is the point?

I was amazed at all the songs I've seen so many times in the past - sometimes I might be "sick" of them in concert, but it's been so long since Yes has toured, I could really appreciate them again. I'm thinking particularly of And You And I. There was a girl doing the backing vocals, but she was just repeating Jon's lyrics, didn't do the Turn Round Tailor, Float Your Climb harmony part that Chris sings. And there's nothing better than singing along to "twenty-four before my love, you'll see I'll be there with you", knowing you'll be doing the exact same thing in another 24 hours.

After the show, people were mingling a bit. We saw Tina again. I noticed Paul Green, the founder of the School of Rock. I pulled out my boarding pass to show him I flew in from LA to make this show. He remembered us from some of the previous shows. It's always good to be known to people. We waited outside to talk to Jon, but he must have snuck out another exit.

We saw a couple other acquaintances, and then left for Linda's near Trenton. She was putting us up for the night. She gave us very good directions from the turnpike, but we still managed to get lost finding the road to take us to the turnpike. Don't all roads lead there in New Jersey?