Festival des Musiques Progressives de Montreal - Pre-Show Gesù – Centre de Créativité Montreal, Quebec, Canada Friday, September 11, 2009 Section Centre, Row L, Seat 16 $55.87 CAN
It's taken me so long to publish this entry. A month after the festival, the organizers at FMPM announced that the festival would not be continuing. I'm kind of amazed that I made it to fully half of their festivals, as Montreal is far away and expensive to fly into. I loved visiting Montreal and I loved going to a prog festival in an urban center like this, with the hotel, venue, tons of restaurants, and touristy things all within walking distance. I'll want to go back to Montreal some other time, if only to have another duck breast crepe at Jardin Nelson!
I enjoyed the FMPM festival in Montreal when Roy and I went in 2007. I wasn't expecting to go again this year, but we kept tabs on the bands that would be performing. Roy noticed that Saga was headlining the preshow, and he hadn't seen that band in a long time. I was curious about Mystery, whose singer, Benoit David, sang on Yes' In the Present tour. But we didn't seriously consider going this year.
Then something incredible happened. Some minor band canceled, and the replacement was a huge deal. Three members of Gentle Giant had reunited, calling themselves Three Friends. At the time, it was their only scheduled North American show. Roy and I decided to go the day we found out. We got our tickets before the performance sold out. We were doing it. By the time of the festival, it was announced that they'd be playing Nearfest next year. And since then, one of the Gentle Giant members dropped out of the project. Nearfest will only be getting two friends.
This led to a crazy couple of weeks. We were going to ProgDay over Labor Day weekend. This was the very next weekend. Roy decided to take off the days in between the two trips. Roy is a big tennis fan, so he spent those days off at the US Open. After ProgDay, I flew home, went to work for a few days, and then flew up to Montreal. Roy flew to New York and saw some tennis. Our friend Linda was also coming to FMPM; Roy met up with her and they drove to Montreal together.
I kept seeing all these people going to the festival. Waiting for my flight to Montreal, in a layover in Chicago, I met a couple who were obviously going there. In line at customs, I saw people I knew from the prog world, as the line snaked around, Buster in front of me, Jason behind. One of the FMPM organizers, Robert Dansereau, was outside security waiting to meet some other attendees. Jason and I shared a cab to the hotel. I didn't know when Roy would arrive; he hoped to be there in time for the night's concert. I left him a note and went off to explore the city.
I got lunch, walked up to the venue, scoped out the area, tried to get my bearings in the city. I found the street where we stayed last time. I went back to the hotel before the concert to freshen up. Roy was there, half-asleep. I hadn't seen him since Monday. He hadn't gotten any sleep the night before, had to stay up late for tennis and wake up early to meet up with Linda, so he slept on the drive up to Canada. He needed to sleep some more, and then he'd come to the show. I left him my directions to the Gesu and headed off to the show.
The doors were supposed to open at 6pm, and the concert was starting at 7pm. I got there a little before 6. There wasn't a grand opening of the doors or anything at 6, but I went into the lobby then anyway. The venue wasn't ready for people yet. The bar wasn't open and the vendors weren't set up. I didn't see anyone I knew, but I had a really good time.
I saw someone whose face I recognized from pictures on the Yesfans site. Daniel posts more than I do on Yesfans, and it was clear he didn't recognize my name. But he was an amazing host. He bought me a drink, introduced me to some other people from Yesfans, introduced me to Michel St-Pere, the guitarist from Mystery, and Richard Lanthier, the bass player from the Close to the Edge Yes-tribute band. Daniel and I realized that his seat was directly in front of mine, and he even offered to switch seats with me if I had trouble seeing.
Roy hadn't arrived by the time Mystery started. They were scheduled for an hour-long set. There would be a break at 8pm, and Saga was to start at 9. Through the early part of Mystery's set, I was worried about Roy. He planned to wake up after 6, and I expected him to be there by this point. He really wanted to see Saga. Should I run back to the hotel and get him during the break?
It kept me distracted from the show, but I enjoyed it regardless. When we realized we were going to FMPM this year, Roy and I bought the latest Mystery album, Beneath the Veil of Winter's Face. I recognized about half the songs they played. They did a couple older ones and one newer song that has not been released yet. Benoit alternated his stage announcements, sometimes doing them in French, sometimes in English.
I was wondering if Mystery would do a cover song. I had seen Benoit five times over the last year singing with Yes, and a Yes song would go over well with the crowd. He announced that they would be doing a cover song from a legendary progressive rock band. I wildly applauded and half-expected them to go into Tempus Fugit. It surprised me when they started playing Rush' Tom Sawyer. I love this song too. I was bopping around in my seat, singing along.
Then, things got spectacularly bad.
Oh, nothing the band did. I saw Roy arrive partway through Tom Sawyer. Our seats were on the aisle near the back. The venue was a nice little amphitheater, with tiered seating, and small steps separating each row. I got up to let Roy in, moved to the aisle and tried to go down a step to clear the way for him. I either tripped or lost my balance, and fell over. Roy tried to catch me, couldn't brace himself, and fell over as well. People were looking and the usher came over to make sure we were okay. Neither of us were hurt, but I was kind of shocked. It took me a little while to be able to concentrate on the music again. I was very careful all the other times I had to enter or exit my seat all weekend.
If I had one complaint about Mystery, it was one I noticed in a number of bands this weekend. There was too little variation in the band's sound in each song. One of the last songs they did, Travel to the Night, finally had some lead keyboard lines, some dynamics, build up of the music. It went over really well and got a standing ovation from some of the crowd. I thought Mystery put on a good set. I like their music, Benoit obviously has a lot of experience on stage now, but the rest of the band put on a good show as well. I heard from Daniel that they would be playing RosFest next year, and that was confirmed the next day. I'm glad more people will get a chance to see them.
After the show, my goal was to meet Benoit. The bands usually come out to sign autographs, sometimes organized at a table, sometimes milling around. I introduced Roy to my acquaintances from Yesfans. The lobby was really crowded, too small for the number of people here. Roy and I stood by the wall, keep an eye on the Mystery vending table. Some of the band members were there. Daniel came to the rescue again, coming over to tell us Benoit had come out to the lobby and show us where he was.
Benoit was chatting with a couple people. He looked happy to see us, giving me a hug and kiss on the cheek and giving Roy a handshake. He asked us if we liked the show and if we were going to see Saga. It was nice, but kinda quick. He went back to chatting with someone in French. I was going to wait to talk to him some more. But the lights flickered to signal that Saga would be starting soon. The lobby cleared out, and more signals came. I couldn't even eavesdrop on the conversation, because it was in French. I didn't want Roy to miss Saga, so I figured we'd catch up with Benoit another time, and we went into the auditorium. It figures, that was the only time I saw Benoit all weekend and the show still didn't start for another ten minutes. I could have waited longer. I'm kicking myself over that.
I wonder what will happen to Benoit in the future, if Yes will continue like they've been or if Jon will rejoin. I'm happy with Benoit in his understudy position, singing on tour while Jon can't handle it, but I'm not ready for him to be lead-singer-of-my-favorite-band. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and he has provided a way for Yes to continue.
The next band Saga had a lot of experience. They got started in the 1970s, had songs and albums that charted, got videos played on MTV, and have a song that even still gets played on the radio in St. Louis. They don't tour often in North America now, and Roy hadn't seen them since two times in the 1980s. They have a new singer, but I wouldn't have realized it. I thought he sang the songs as if they were his own and put on a great show.
I liked the band's music, but didn't love it. But I very much enjoyed their live performance. I would group their sound along with AOR (prog-influenced) bands more than progressive rock itself, with only their strong keyboard sound pushing them into prog. Whatever the sound, their songs are good, and the band had a level of excitement and polish that would have filled an arena. It went over very well. They held my attention the whole time, even though I only knew one song, the encore of On the Loose. They played a lot of newer songs, and Roy bought their new album after the show. They met his high expectations.
After the show, we said goodbye to Daniel. He only had a ticket for the preshow, so he wouldn't be back the rest of the weekend. Roy and I walked down to Rue St. Denis and got dessert at the same little creperie we stopped at last time we were in Montreal. It was good to see him again.
ProgDay Day 2 Storybook Farm Chatham County (Chapel Hill), NC Sunday, September 6, 2009 General Admission
There were some stand-out performances on the second day of ProgDay. Roy and I started the day as we traditionally do, going out to breakfast at Foster's Market. We missed the start of the first band, Deluge Grander. Maybe I wasn't fully awake yet, but I wasn't ready to focus on the music. I wandered over to the food tent to get out of the performance space.
I was in the perfect position for the next band. The Japanese band Qui played their set on Saturday, but they brought their instruments back again. They set up by the picnic benches did some songs in between bands on the main stage. I was already sitting over there, so I grabbed a spot right in front. It was charming, and I enjoyed it even more than their real set on Saturday. They played several times throughout the day, with other bands and even audience members joining in. I'm sure this happens more often at jam-band type festivals, but it fit right in at ProgDay.
Guitarist Jimmy Robinson was another highlight. We saw him play at ProgDay a few years ago with his band Woodenhead. The set consisted of a half-hour of solo guitar, really good playing. The highlights for me were at the end, two cover songs, Eight Miles High from the Byrds and Led Zeppelin's Kashmir.
My favorite band of the festival turned out to be the headliner Ozric Tentacles. They are a band I've liked since college, but never saw live. Roy had seen them before, and he described it as crowded with everyone dancing together. With the light show, he was almost in a trance. From his memories and my mental picture of a crowded smoky club, I didn't think I'd enjoy their typical show. Never had the opportunity to go anyway. They played Nearfest a few years ago, and seeing their dancy space-rock music seated in a theater seemed wrong too.
So I was happy when they were announced for ProgDay. I still wasn't sure what to expect. I had their CD Arborescence. Most of the lineup had changed, and I'd heard they were more electronica sounding. I wondered how much of their set would be live versus synthesizer noises. I had nothing to worry about. They sounded wonderful and were so suited to the vibe at Storybook Farm. The line-up consisted of the lead guy Ed Wynne playing keyboards and guitar, along with a bass player, drummer, and another keyboardist.
It was danceable happy instrumental music. The band mentioned several times that they usually play with an elaborate light show and how nice it was to be able to see the audience and see what they are doing. A group of kids got together and danced along to the crazy music. My friend Chris danced to most of the set. I thought about it, but mostly bopped along in my seat. When the time was running out and they said they'd be doing their last song, I got up and danced too. There were a whole group of us on the side of the field. It was a blast!
Roy and I went out to dinner by ourselves that night, and then we stopped by the pool to chat for a bit. We had quite a week planned. The next day, I'd drive Roy to the airport. He was going to New York to see some matches at the US Open tennis tournament. My flight wasn't until the afternoon, so I drove to A Southern Season and browsed for a while. We'd meet up four days later in another town for our next prog festival. Next time would be FMPM in Montreal.
ProgDay Day 1 Storybook Farm Chatham County (Chapel Hill), NC Saturday, September 5, 2009 General Admission Patron Pass: $140
I've been having trouble getting started writing about ProgDay this year. It's always been my favorite of the progressive rock festivals. This year, it was surrounded by more high profile shows. The festival itself seemed to go by so quickly. I enjoyed it, but it didn't have as much impact.
ProgDay weekend was the beginning of a wild trip for Roy. After the festival, I'd be going back home, but Roy would fly to New York to see some days of the US Open tennis tournament. A week after the start of this trip, we'd rendezvous in Montreal for the FMPM festival.
This is my 13th year in a row coming to ProgDay. A few years ago, I wrote my general thoughts about the festival here. The outdoor location makes it feel like a big family picnic, and Roy and I always enjoy visiting the Chapel Hill area. Being outdoors in the South in the summer can be uncomfortable. This was the best weather sustained throughout the whole weekend the festival has ever had.
Roy and I arrived on Friday morning. This is the last time we'll be flying non-stop to the Raleigh Durham airport - American Airlines is going to drop this route and there will be no more direct flights. There was a pre-show concert with some bands playing on Friday, but we usually skip that. It goes on late and we'd rather be refreshed for the actual event. We did go to another local event on Friday evening, the Paperhand Puppet Intervention performance of "The Living Sea of Memory". It was geared towards families and ended before the preshow even began.
My big reaction to ProgDay this year was, wow that went by quick. I think it might be a function of two variables. The way we perceive time is relative. It was so pleasant outside, in the 80s with low humidity, that it never dragged. I wonder if sitting out there in the heat in previous years made it feel longer than it would otherwise. The other possibility is that we didn't do as much socializing. Roy and I have a group of friends who we used to hang out with at every festival. Everyone's cut back a bit, and the last time we were all together was at our wedding. This time, none of our group from out of the area came, and even Gerhard who lives nearby wasn't there. Roy and I went out to dinner by ourselves each night. Our friend Chris from Ohio didn't tell us he was coming and surprised us in the hotel lobby.
I enjoyed the opening band Brave. Along with the two headliners, they were my favorites of the festival. Brave was described to me as a prog-metal band, but with flutes and a woman singer with a great voice, they had a lot more to their sound than a typical metal band. Good songs too. Roy bought one of their CDs after their performance.
I'm going to skip over some of the other bands to talk about the Saturday headliner La Maschera di Cera. My favorite all-time performance at a prog festival was Finisterre's in 1997. It's not just that the music was awesome and the presentation was so enthusiastic, so perfect. It was the response they got from the audience. I remember people not just standing up to applaud, but grabbing their lawn chairs and holding them up as a way to show our appreciation. Roy remembers people just hugging afterward, that we witnessed something so special. We saw Finisterre again at Baja Prog in 2001, but it was missing that spark. Maybe it was the surprise of how good they were, how young they were, or maybe it was the atmosphere. I know a number of people who, like me, first came to ProgDay in 1997 and keep coming back every year. This performance is a big reason why.
Finisterre broke up, but bassist Fabio Zuffanti is still active in progressive rock. He plays bass in La Maschera. This would be his return to Storybook Farm. we saw this band at Nearfest a few years ago, and it was solid, but nothing spectacular. Roy and I visited La Maschera's table and bought a few CDs. One was a Finisterre CD from 2004 that we never knew about. I was surprised at how much older Fabio looked. His mustache and goatee were grey. We guessed he was about 40 now. The band seemed so young, close to my age, back in 1997. You wonder if the Finisterre show was as special to the band as it was to the audience. They did release it as a live album.
There's something about ProgDay and this venue that makes bands sound better. I've seen a number of bands here that I've also seen at other prog festivals, and I almost always enjoy it more here. The mix is always clear, it's a relaxed atmosphere, we're all spread out in our tents and lawn chairs. It's possible to sit right by the stage for bands you want to see up close. I liked La Maschera better this time around.
Fabio was one of the frontmen in Finisterre, but in La Maschera, he just plays bass and sings backing vocals. But he took the microphone during the set. He wanted to commemorate the last time he was here at ProgDay, playing that legendary show with Finisterre. La Maschera plays original music, but for this one performance, they were going to play a Finisterre song. The singer joked that they were going to become a Finisterre cover band. Ironically, they played a song off the 2004 Finisterre album that Roy and I weren't familiar with, and not a song that was actually performed in 1997. But it was nice to see that recognition, to see that it was still special to the musicians after all these years.
Coldplay Opening Acts: Kitty Daisy & Lewis and Amadou & Mariam Riverport Amphitheater (this year, known as Verizon Wireless Amphitheater) Maryland Heights (St. Louis), MO Friday, July 24th, 2009 Section Upper Right, Row FF, Seat 58 $97.50
This show reminded me of shows I went to as a kid. We were seeing a hugely popular band in the prime of their career. I told Roy I think twenty years from now we'll be telling people we saw Coldplay on the Viva la Vida tour. I think the album will be considered a classic and they'll have that kind of staying power.
This would be a different type of show than usual for me. Most of the shows I go to these days are for bands whose songs I've known for fifteen years or for newer lesser known bands where it seems like the whole audience is there to check them out. This time, a good chunk of the audience would be big fans. My music listening habits have changed over the years, and I haven't gotten to really know the songs. Roy and I have all their albums, but I can't sing the full lyrics to any single one of their songs or know the names of all the songs. I didn't want to miss the chance to see them. This too reminds me of my early concert-going days. I'd often go see bands before I was familiar with their back catalog.
I wasn't just checking out Coldplay. I was checking out the venue too. This year's Farm Aid is going to take place here, and I wanted to be a part of it. Could I deal with this place for a full day festival? I had a miserable time at Riverport at a Rush show in 2002. It was so hot, no breeze, everyone was standing and I couldn't see the stage or the screens, the people in front of us were yelling back and forth to each other, so I couldn't focus on the music, and they were smoking so much in a non-smoking venue. I was just standing there, surrounded by people and noise and I couldn't breathe. I started crying and we left the show early. I won't see Rush there again - nothing against the band, just the crowd they attract.
I remember going to a lot of shows at the amphitheater in Philly, the Mann Music Center, and always enjoying it. Maybe the seats at Riverport aren't inclined enough as you go further back? Maybe the heat didn't bother me as much when I was younger? Maybe we weren't so packed in? Aside from the times we saw Yes at Riverport and had really good seats, I've always had an issue with seeing the band at this venue. The Rush show fundamentally changed my comfort level at concerts. I start getting nervous at a show unless I'm in stadium seating, aisle seats, or in the front row of a section. The last time I went there, for CSNY in 2006, I only decided to go because I got a seat in the front row of the upper circle section.
The Coldplay show would be my third time back there since the disastrous Rush show. Roy and I both wanted to see Coldplay. Tickets went on sale when we were on vacation, but we were lucky enough to be on a layover when the presale took place. We found a computer, and got upper circle, Row FF. I hoped it would be okay.
Roy was less interested in Farm Aid than I was. I thought about the Crossroads Guitar Festival we went to a couple years ago. It made for a fun day, even though I didn't like all of the bands. This would be similar. Roy said part of what made Crossroads so comfortable was that we had so much room to ourselves. We were in the assigned seats, but it was a stadium with stadium seating and enough legroom. He didn't want to be in an enclosed area for a full day festival any more than I did. We got to Riverport. One trip to the disgusting bathrooms made me realize that I didn't want to spend more time there either.
We walked around for a bit before the show. I bought a program, and then went back to buy a tote bag to hold said program. It really was convenient to carry the program in a bag over my shoulder for the whole show. I should bring it to other shows. Our seats were in the "upper right" section, about a 45 degree angle veering off from the far end of the stage. The show started at 7, but a little bit before that, the opening band Kitty Daisy & Lewis took the stage. The auditorium was mostly empty, no one was sitting in the five rows in front of me in my section. The band played all sorts of styles of "old-timey" music, rockabilly, blues, country. Roy liked them better than I did.
The next band was Amadou and Mariam. I think I liked them even better than Coldplay. Very upbeat with great percussion. Trying to describe them sounds like a bunch of buzzwords: world music, fusion, Afropop. Let me say that they kept my attention, both aurally and visually, for their entire set, despite the fact I was hearing their music for the first time. I'd go see them in concert again happily the next time they're in town.
The reserved seating area filled up during this last break. The lawn in back was packed with people. To my amazement, I could still see the stage. The rows of seats were staggered - the people sitting two rows and four rows in front of me could potentially block my view, but not the people right in front of me. And the person two rows in front was a little kid. This might be alright. And then Coldplay came on stage and everyone stood up. And the little girl stood on her chair. Other people in front were tall. If I contorted myself, I could look up and see one of the screens at an angle, but that was it. If the stage was up from my seat, I probably could have seen it, but I somehow had to look down at the stage and above people's heads. How do other short people handle this?
I listened to two songs like this, wondering if people would sit down. I wasn't going to enjoy the concert this way, so I started to look for another spot from which to watch the concert.
I found my spot. We were in the upper right section of the amphitheater, but there was another section to my right. It was just 5 seats across, but what really made it stand out was that it was so sparsely populated. I thought the reserved seats were all sold out, but this section looked to be maybe one-third full. I walked over to an open aisle seat in my row, and I got my unencumbered view of the stage. The concert became alive to me at this point. There was only one other person in my new row.
Someone actually claimed this seat three-fourths of the way into the Coldplay's set. I just moved to another empty aisle seat two rows in front. I actually found a spot that I liked at Riverport! It was a severe angle to the stage, but it had a lot of space. And a breeze, since it was the very end of the seated area. This was the right-right section. Of course, it doesn't even exist on Riverport's seating chart. Even in my weird far-side-of-the-amphitheater seats, the sound was really good. The band was performing live and they had a lot of energy. The highlights though, were the visuals, rather than the songs themselves. For the song Yellow, I could see the crew with all these yellow beach balls bouncing them into the crowd. The audience kept them up in the air, giving the show a sense of whimsy. It reminded me of when Roy and I saw the movie Up. All the kids got free balloons and played with them before the movie started. We're all kids again when we get toys to play with, aren't we?
I noticed the security getting tighter a little while into the show. The usher who saw me walk into another section and grab a free seat was now keeping everyone out of the aisles. It became clear when the band nonchalantly walked off stage, up the aisle, just a few rows in front of me, and took a secondary small stage near my original section. They did two songs as the whole band there, including Talk, the first song I knew from them. Then, Chris Martin played a song solo on piano. At my angle, I could watch his fingers hit the keys.
I had heard of Coldplay since they released their first album, but the first time I heard their music was watching their performance on the Live Eight concert a few years ago. Soon after that, I visited my hometown and heard Talk on my old radio station WXPN. I liked the piano-based rock sound and hearing them on XPN was like a seal of approval. That's what led me to buy their then-current album X&Y. It was good to hear Talk that night. And seeing Chris playing piano reminded me of that original perception of the band. I quite like his voice too, one of the few male high-pitch voices in rock that doesn't sound like he's trying to copy Jon Anderson.
The band started playing Viva la Vida as Chris Martin ran back to the stage. The band made another trip into the audience, this time to the lawn on the other side of the amphitheater. They did a couple of songs acoustically, including a reworked Billie Jean. Later on, thousands of paper butterflies were released to the audience. They weren't coming anywhere near by section, but I could watch the effect as an outsider. I was able to pick one up off the ground on my way out of the venue.
It was a well-paced concert. Roy was wondering beforehand if it would start sounding samey or if he would get bored. We realized Coldplay's music is more dynamic than we give them credit for. The visuals helped make the show exciting, but really, the band gave us some energetic performances that would have carried the concert on their own. The band seems very earnest about their music, but also earnest about connecting with their audience. Chris Martin in particular came across as a great frontman, not for posturing, but for talking to the crowd. He apologized for the Viva tour to take so long to get to St. Louis and suggested we look at it as the band having 142 rehearsals for this show. Later on, he thanked the audience for spending the money to come to this show and told us we'd all be getting free copies of their new live EP Left Right Left Right Left as a thank you from the band. They even did a little tour song like Yes used to do in the 70's, a song mentioning St. Louis as the Gateway to the West. They're not afraid to look a little goofy to be entertaining, but it never got in the way of the music.
They encored with The Scientist and Death and All His Friends. I think my favorite overall songs to hear were Fix You, Talk, Viva la Vida, and the song Chris Martin did on piano. I met up with Roy after the show, and we talked about our experiences. It was soooo good for me to switch seats.
It took us forever to get home. Over an hour to get out of the parking lot. When I go to shows at the Pageant or Blueberry Hill, I can walk home by the time I walk to the car here. I decided that if I could get these exact seats for Farm Aid, in the right-right section on the aisle, any row, I'd do it (or left-left). Tickets went on sale the next morning. There was an option to choose what price level of tickets I wanted, but not to choose a specific section. I tried pulling tickets for a couple hours, but I never saw anything in this section. A week later, tickets can now be found through a interactive seating map, where you can choose the exact seats you want. My seats are gone by now. Guess I'm not going to Farm Aid after all. It would be the only way I'd want to spend all day at Riverport.
Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame presents Yes with special guest Asia Muskogee Civic Center Muskogee, OK Thursday, July 16th, 2009 Section 101, Row A, Seat 5 $55
There's something about Yes music that makes me want to dance to it. I need to feel every note and sing every word. Usually at a Yes concert, I make do with bopping around in my seat. But I love those shows when I can get up and dance. Oh, I won't do it if the rest of the audience is sitting and I'm blocking someone's view. My seat needs to be on the far aisle or back row. Front row is tricky, I'm right there with the band and we're all feeling the adrenaline rush together, but I don't want to create a bad atmosphere with the people behind me, standing when they want me to be sitting. I've tried to analyze why I like dancing at shows so much - part of it is that the music is moving me physically and I'm just following along. The other part is that standing up gets me away from the rest of the audience. I have a clear view of the stage with no one's head in the way. And talking, conversations, bad behavior seem so far away. It's just me and the music. And the band. I got to dance in Muskogee.
I had to wonder why Yes was playing in Muskogee. It's a small town an hour away from Tulsa. They were booked to play a small arena. I knew it wouldn't sell well. I was telling one of my coworkers about it, and he wanted to know why I was so sure. I said, because I saw them in Bloomington, Illinois last year and the same thing happened. Yes were booked in too big of a venue with an area with low population density. I hoped the show wouldn't be canceled because of the poor turnout. I was right. The venue held 3,300 people, and I guess it was a quarter full. There were people filling up the floor up to the 20th row and a few rows of people in the tiered seating. I later learned that this show was a benefit for the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. A benefactor paid for the bands, with all of the profit going to the Hall.
The location made it easy to get good tickets. The Muskogee Civic Center did not use Ticketmaster and did not hold any tickets back for VIP packages. I got front row, audience right for Roy and me. Our new friend Greg got front row, center.
The drive down from Kansas City was easy. We got to the hotel, rested up, and then drove to the venue. It was still early. We wanted to park at the Civic Center, scope out the venue, and walk around town. It was a weekday, around five in the afternoon, and the downtown was dead. We found one home accessories store that was open, so we looked around there. Muskogee had a public art program, with eight foot tall ceramic guitars painted by local artists. We saw about four of those before dinner.
I'd never been to Oklahoma before, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Roy picked up their alternative paper, with articles about concerts. The article about the Yes and Asia show was positive, but it had a whole lot of mistakes. This was the ad we found. I haven't seen one like this before - liquor and Yes. And it lists the wrong date!
None of our usual Yesfriends went to either the Kansas City or Muskogee shows, so we had dinner with some people from the Yesfans site. Everyone was so friendly, like we had known each other a long time. This was the hottest day of our trip, upper nineties, so someone gave us a ride back to the venue.
We found the probable stage door; we saw the tour manager Paul pull up in a dark-colored van and walk in a door near the front entrance. Roy and I went in and found our seats. Front row, in a group of seats tightly pushed together. The seats were connected, so I unhooked my chair and shoved some of the seats down a bit to give me some extra room. There was a huge amount of space between our row and the stage and a huge amount of room in the aisles. I got ready for the show, and I was pleasantly surprised that the bottled water was only $1.50 for a 20 ounce bottle. I'm used to being gouged for these things. Roy and I talked to another guy from dinner, originally from England but now living in Oklahoma, named Paul. He had the seat directly behind me.
The show started. When I saw Asia at the Keswick Theater in 2007, they had a screen above the stage showing their videos and closeups of the band. They didn't use it in Kansas City, but it was in use this night. This time, the screens were hanging over the audience, over the fourth row. I could turn around and see the mirror-image display on the back of the screen. I wonder if it was distracting for the band to be able to look up and see themselves. I noticed John Wetton looking at it a couple times. I don't think this was as good a performance. Wetton looked bored during most of the show. Someone described it as looking like he was mentally writing a grocery list while playing. Roy pointed out that he was very expressive during their new song An Extraordinary Life.
I was keeping an eye on the audience during Asia's set. Would people be allowed to stand up by the stage away from our seats? The front row was a good distance from the stage, and I could stand up there to dance without blocking anyone's view. I noticed people were walking to the open area to take pictures. One woman got up a few times to dance by the stage. Security seemed pretty easy-going.
There were some cool moments during the Asia set. We had an excellent angle to actually watch Geoff Downes play the keyboards, actually seeing his fingers hitting the keys. And I think John Wetton saw me bopping around to Video Killed the Radio Star when I did one of the handclaps. The sound was much better than the previous show in Kansas City. I could tell this time that Wetton sounded wonderful, especially in the "You are the radio star" lines. Carl Palmer added a gong to his drumset since the Kansas City show. I didn't like his solo in Fanfare as much this time. I'm usually not a fan of drum solos, so liking it the other night was more of a surprise than not caring now.
The really exciting part for me was towards the end of the set. My friend Greg came over and asked if either Roy or I would like to take his seat for a song, in the front row center section. I ran over there and enjoyed Sole Survivor. He didn't come back to reclaim his seat. I looked towards my real seat, and he gestured for me to stay there. The next song was the last song of Asia's set Heat of the Moment. People in the center section started getting up and moving towards the stage. I did too, and it was a lot of fun! I thanked Greg a whole lot afterwards.
The Yes show started and I was going to dance. I moved up to a spot near the stage and stayed there for Siberian Khatru. I was right by the speakers, and I had earplugs in, but the sound was really good. I said before that dancing gets me away from distractions, but I was very aware of security and other people moving up near the stage. Security at first was letting people come up to take pictures. Then, as people were walking up from their seats and taking too much time up front, security was telling them to go back to their seats.
The new singer Benoit David saw me over there. I was standing at the far end of the stage, in front of my real seat. He came over and sang part of Tempus Fugit to me. Greg captured it in this photo. I'm so glad I have this moment preserved.
I think if everyone in the audience had been cool, security would have been cool too. Someone stood up by Steve Howe for too long. I was at the opposite end of the arena, and I don't know if they were using flash on their camera or just taking too many pictures. But Steve gestured for them to move away. Security picked up after that, asking everyone to clear the area. Everyone except me. I wasn't taking pictures or in the way, so I guess I was okay. The security guy even said "excuse me" to me as he walked past to tell other people to sit down. I felt relieved to be in my happy place and have everyone be cool with it. I heard there was another problem, where some people walked up to the stage and rested their beer bottles on stage. Steve wasn't happy about that either.
I was able to dance for Siberian Khatru, I've Seen All Good People, Tempus Fugit, and the first part of Astral Traveler. I sat down during the drum solo, but part of me knew that sitting down would mean I wouldn't be able to move back to my space afterwards. It was true. I wanted to dance to the next song, And You And I. I got back up, but the security people had switched around, and a new person walked up to me and told me I couldn't stay there. I went back to my seat. I noticed that all the people in the second row behind me were already standing up. So I stood and danced at my seat, careful not to get into anyone's personal space. I guess I was distracted, because I missed my favorite part of the song - singing along to Chris' backing vocals up from Turn Round Tailor to Float Your Climb while the lead vocals are doing Coins and Crosses. Our seats were such an angle to the stage that my standing up there actually blocked Roy's view. He wanted me to enjoy the song, so he didn't tell me til after the song was over.
Chris Squire addressed the crowd a couple times, first before Tempus Fugit, where he greeted the town as Muskeegee, like a cross between Muskogee and Tuskegee. Later on, he introduced Steve Howe's guitar solo by saying, "You might think Steve deserves a break now, but we're not going to give him one. Now that James Brown is no longer with us, Steve is the hardest working man in show business." Steve played Intersection Blues and a Chet Atkins song for his solo break.
The rest of the show passed quickly. I watched Benoit the most. He was using the larger stage this night to move all around it. He looked like he was having fun. Chris seemed less ebullient than usual. He normally has a lot of stage presence, but he'd been sick earlier this year and done a lot of traveling in the last couple days for this tour. Yes played much longer on their tour last fall, when they were playing by themselves, but this didn't feel too short. It was still a full night of music.
I stood up for Roundabout. The people behind me were still standing. I was able to push my chair back a ways, so I was standing in the space where I had been sitting. Roy could see, so I was happy. I was jumping around towards the end, and amazed how my shoes were holding up. I had sandles on, but I seemed to land exactly right in them; they never went flying off or hitting my foot in a bad place. The guy to my left continued standing for the instrumental first half of Heart of the Sunrise, so I did too.
Yes came back out for their encore. People started to stage rush - gather in that area up by the stage. The security guard was still there and I was being good. I hadn't moved from my seat, but I wasn't going to let other people stand in front of me. I walked slowly towards the stage and glanced towards him. He told me it was okay now because it was the last song. I waved Roy over to join me.
I was so surprised when Yes came out and tore into ... just the final part of Starship Trooper, the instrumental Wurm, but not the whole song. We've been talking about this on the Yesfans site. I'm not sure whether this was due to the time, Steve being upset with the crowd, the band being tired, or what. I loved the adrenaline rush of being able to dance and the very good sound, but I think Kansas City was a better performance from both bands.
Roy and I met up with our dinner companions, hung out to talk for a while, and then made our way to the stage door to wait for the band. We saw Steve Howe come out of one exit, and walk around outside to enter the venue through the stage door. Later on, he was the first to leave. He didn't acknowledge us while walking to his car, but then he rolled down his window and waved to us.
The rest of the band came a little later. They started walking towards us, rather than their van. Chris and Alan both looked exhausted. I shook hands with both of them, but didn't say much. Benoit greeted me with, "Hi Dancer!" Charming! I specifically wanted to tell him something, and I got the chance. Roy and I are going to the FMPM prog festival in Montreal in September, and Benoit's other band Mystery will be playing there. He seemed excited and asked what I thought of the Mystery CD. I was put on the spot, I had to honestly say that we only just bought it at Kansas City and hadn't listened to it yet. I didn't get a chance to talk to Oliver this time.
After the show, Roy and I met up with Greg at the IHOP near our hotel. We had some after dinner munchies and hung out talking for a while. We didn't get back to our room until after two in the morning! We slept in the next morning and took our time driving home the next day. It was a good trip.
Yes Special Guest Asia Uptown Theater Kansas City, MO Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Section Center Orchestra, Row AAA, Seat 9 $155
I like to go to as many Yes concerts as I can on each tour. For past tours, I've tried to maximize the number of shows using a minimal number of vacation days from work. I had a mental decision-tree to work out which shows to attend:
- first was a local show - then shows on a weekend in driving distance - then flying to shows on a weekend (favoring Philly or wherever our friends would be attending)
After booking flights on two tours that had been canceled, I announced to Roy that I changed my mind on that. I wanted travel plans that would be easily refundable, and that might mean driving to shows during the week and using more vacation time. We decided that two shows was a good number for this tour and hoped the shows nearby would still fall on a weekend. I just assumed that one of those shows would be in Chicago, or somewhere north of here and cooler, but they didn't book a show in Chicago this time.
And that is how we decided on shows in Kansas City, MO and Muskogee, Oklahoma. These shows were in the middle of the week, so I was using four precious vacation days in order to see a measly two shows. But it turned out nicely to come home from a trip and still have a full weekend to recover.
This tour was a bit different from the one we saw last fall. For one thing, "Howe Squire and White of Yes" were now just touring as Yes. And some of the band members were playing for less time. Yes was bringing along an opening act this time, so they were cutting their own set down to under two hours. I say some of the band members, because amazingly, Steve Howe played lead guitar both with Yes and the opening band Asia.
Buying tickets for this show reminded me of the bad old days. In the old days, I'd buy tickets at a ticket outlet, and have no say in where my tickets would be. I requested the number of tickets, and maybe what price I wanted to pay, and I was sold whatever tickets they gave me. Buying tickets online via Ticketmaster isn't wonderful, but Ticketmaster tells us exactly what tickets we've received. We can buy them or not. Some other ticket sites actually show me all available tickets and let me choose which ones I want. Like at most shows on this tour, the best seats were put aside for an exorbitant VIP package. The best of the regular seats were $155. I bought regular seats, but Ticketmaster wouldn't tell me where the seats were! All it would say was front left section, no Row number. I didn't want to spend this much money and not know where my seats were. Roy told me we should hold off on buying tickets until this gets resolved, but I bought them anyway. After buying them, I learned they were row CCC, third row on Steve Howe's side. Not bad. Way too stressful though.
The VIP seats didn't sell too well. A few weeks before the show, the unpurchased seats were released as general tickets. I kept an eye on the Ticketmaster site, and managed to buy two front row center seats. I also managed to sell my extras, but at less than face value. Someone I knew from the Yesfans site got the two seats next to mine. Even better, if I can't sit on an aisle, I'm at least sitting between people I know.
The trip had a bad start, but it was the only setback. The day before we left, I literally had $500 worth of preventative maintenance done for my car. Tune up, oil change, new whatever it needed. Before we even got to the interstate, the back window opened by itself, sliding down, and it wouldn't go back up again. We tried driving like that, but the road noise was too much. And it was going to rain. We stopped at a Walgreens and got duct tape to hold the window up. Not the prettiest thing to do to my car, but it stayed closed for the rest of the trip. We stopped at the college town of Columbia to have lunch and drive around, and then got to Kansas City in plenty of time for the day's events.
Roy and I also bought the Asia VIP package. The package came with access to the soundcheck and having at least two Asia members at a meet and greet. The website seemed disorganized, but said to arrive at 4:30pm. Other fans gathered there, but no one from the band had arrived yet. The guy who owned the Uptown Theater was there, and he invited us into the air-conditioned lobby to wait. We walked down the hallway and could see the roadies setting up the stage. The theater even arranged a lounge with appetizers for us. Close to an hour had passed before the VIP arrangements took place. We talked to some of the other fans.
We all got VIP passes to wear. The organizer told us Geoff and Carl would be meeting with us. Another woman who was there was a big fan of John Wetton and even brought a gift for him. She asked the organizer if he could please pass a message to John that she was there.
We were ushered into the auditorium and seated about halfway back. Steve was just starting his soundcheck. He played for about 15 minutes, this probably served as practice for him more than checking how his guitar was sounding. He played a part of All's a Chord, some piece of Topographic Oceans, Mood for a Day, and lots of bits I didn't recognize. The day after Roy and I first met, we were able to attend a Yes soundcheck and hear Steve Howe play similarly. This reminded both of us of that time. This VIP experience thing was $99 per person, but it was so worth it. Steve made one comment out loud, that it smelled like burning rubber on stage, but nothing music related.
Carl Palmer and Geoff Downes also came out, separately, to do their soundcheck. I heard Carl say Astral Traveler and Roundabout, but I don't know what he was talking about. What really surprised me is that John Wetton walked into the auditorium and over to our group. He was talking with the woman who so wanted to meet him. I didn't know if he was going to talk just to her or to the rest of us as well. I didn't know if I should approach him. He chatted with her for a bit, and then she got a picture with him. I stayed in my seat, but he did walk over to us. (There were only six people in the VIP thing, not a big crowd.)
I was wearing my King Crimson Larks' Tongue in Aspic t-shirt, and that was the first album he did with King Crimson. He walked over and said "Nice t-shirt". I replied that it was one of my favorite albums. Roy said he saw John look at his t-shirt, a Yes shirt, and then say nothing. John Wetton, the two guys sitting next to us, Roy, and I had a little conversation about King Crimson and the Red remaster that is going to be released soon. John Wetton has been in a lot of bands, but his time in Crimson is why I'm such a fan of his, so I'm glad we could talk to him in that context. I asked him if he would sign an autograph for me. He said he would, and waited for me to pull out my CD and Sharpie marker. I brought his "Hazy Monet", a live album from a show in New York that I attended. That was a magical night, but all I said was "I was at that show". I don't think he heard me. He made a comment about not doing the meet and greets or shaking hands because he doesn't want to get swine flu. I think it was so nice of him to come out and talk to us.
Here's a picture of John Wetton and me from the magical show at the Bottom Line in New York City in 1997. I'm even wearing the same t-shirt!
We never did get to see John Wetton do his soundcheck. Too bad, since he is one of my favorite bass players. Next, we were taken into a catering room with tables and a buffet set up for the bands and road crew. I could see the new singer for Yes, Benoit David, eating at one of the tables. I didn't want to bother him while he was eating. I did see him looking at me later on like he recognized me, and we gave each other a little smile and nod.
Carl Palmer came out first and then Geoff Downes. I got some autographs from Carl, but I really wanted to talk to Geoff. Like Steve Howe, Geoff played with both Asia and Yes, on their Drama album. Yes are playing two songs off that album on this current tour. It seems like such a good idea to me that Geoff play those songs live with Yes. They're his songs too, and he's here, right? But that hasn't happened. I asked him about that, and he said if he were to do it, he'd play it along with Oliver Wakeman, and they hadn't had to time work out who would play what parts. I asked him if he'd gotten to see Yes play those songs and what he thought of them. Geoff said they did a good job. Roy and I told him we saw Yes play those songs last year, which led into a discussion about what cities Yes played on each tour and what cities are considered the midwest.
Our conversation with Carl Palmer was really nice, but had nothing to do about music. I'm not a big fan of ELP, but I like him personally, as a musician in the prog world who seems like a nice, friendly person. I asked him if he liked doing these meet and greets. This is normally downtime for him, so he doesn't mind them. Carl is in very good shape, and Roy asked him about exercising while on the road. Another fan asked about his "ticker", since he had some surgery recently. The four of us had a really interesting discussion about health, eating habits, family history, hotel swimming pools.
John Wetton came out to get some food from the buffet, and some people started talking to him again. It was about 6:45pm, and we needed to get going. We had to meet the people who were going to buy our extra tickets at 7:30, and we had to get dinner before that. I stopped at the rest room and then we bumped into a friend outside. We found a great BBQ place near the Uptown Theater. They gave us a free sample of chicken wings when we stopped in earlier in the day and it was delicious. Unfortunately, they closed at 7, and we missed them. Ended up having a quick dinner at McDonald's. I sold my tickets, we got into the theater, I got my bottled water, and we got to our seats.
The stage setup was weird. Oliver Wakeman's keyboards were on stage, but covered, and they took up about a third of the stage. Asia was forced to set up in the remaining open part. I feel bad for everyone sitting on the right side of the theater - it must have felt like Asia was playing far away from them. Roy and I were sitting right in front of Geoff Downes. These were spectacular seats for viewing. All of the instruments sounded great. Unfortunately, the vocals were only coming through in the speakers above the stage - over our heads. I could hear the vocals low in the mix, but I had a tough time hearing what everyone was saying when they spoke to the audience. The same was true of Yes. Another downside was the squashed placement of the keyboards and drums - I could see Carl's drums fine, but Roy sitting right next to me, had his view blocked by the keyboards. I asked if he wanted to switch seats for part of the show, but he said no.
I had already seen Asia twice since they reunited, so I knew what to expect. They opened with two songs from their first album, Wildest Dreams and Only Time Will Tell, and then did a song from their new album called An Extraordinary Life. The show really picked up for me when they did some songs from their past bands. The fourth song was the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star. I like the energy in that song. And next was King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King. I told Roy I'd like to hear them do Schizoid Man or one of the songs from the John Wetton-era of the band, but this one is nice to hear and he does a good job singing it. Has Wetton's bass playing technique changed? I never noticed him playing with a pick before, but he had one taped to his thumb.
The big highlight for me was Fanfare for the Common Man. I'm not a big ELP fan, but everyone was playing great and doing great solos in that piece. I even liked Carl's drum solo, and I usually hate drum solos. John Wetton walked over to the far right side of the stage, in front of Oliver's keyboard setup and played his solo from there. The last two songs of the set were Sole Survivor and Heat of the Moment. Everyone stood up during the last song and people filled up the aisles to get close to the stage. I saw John Wetton throw his guitar pick to the woman who had been at the VIP meet and greet with us. She deserves it. This was a very good performance, and the energy level would be hard for Yes to maintain.
Roy and I were sitting next to Greg and Sharon. I knew Greg from the Yesfans website and met him at the St. Louis show last year. Sharon is a long time Yes fan, but never saw the band until two days beforehand in Denver. They were nice people to enjoy the concert with. Greg seemed to enjoy my bopping around and singing along, so I didn't need to tone it down at all. We hung out with them after the show too.
Yes started their show with the traditional opener, Siberian Khatru. Frankly, I was enjoying it, but it didn't wow me until Steve Howe's guitar soloing at the end. His playing and body language really jolted me and pulled me into the performance. Steve did a lot more rock star posturing in this show than I'd seen from him previously, standing up by the wall of the theater to do a solo and walking to the edge of the stage to lean on Benoit's microphone stand to do another solo. It was fun to see him engaging the rest of the band, rather than keeping to himself on stage. I saw Steve and Oliver making eye contact and smiling at parts. Our seats were right in front of Benoit, but I spent a good deal of time watching Steve. He was the star of the Yes performance that night.
Like last time, the front line band members took turns introducing the songs. Chris introduced Tempus Fugit, and also introduced the two new members of the band, Oliver and Benoit. I heard some boos when Benoit was introduced. I'm as big a Jon Anderson fan as anyone out there, but I don't hold it against Benoit for being the replacement singer. I understand why the rest of the band wanted to tour again. Steve introduced the two songs he didn't play on originally, Astral Traveller and Owner of a Lonely Heart. I remember reading a review from an early show in the tour that criticized Benoit for not saying anything to the crowd. This time, he spoke before Machine Messiah.
Machine Messiah led to an unintentionally funny moment of the show. The band uses dry ice to fill the stage. It's usually a few feet deep. But Chris had a fan on stage, and it woosh! blew the dry ice upwards, covering Chris. Everyone on stage was laughing. I noticed Chris being careful the next time the dry ice was used.
The setlist had a little variation in it from previous tours. Roundabout was done as part of the main set, rather than the encore. I always wanted them to do this, but it was confusing. Even people who sit for the entire show will stand up for the encore. I don't think I've ever sat down for Roundabout before! Benoit motioned for us to get up partway through the song, and I did. Chris usually does this thing with his index finger, circling around and then pointing up. I mimic him, jumping along with it. I think Benoit saw me do that.
The final song of the main set was Heart of the Sunrise. I've seen them do this on so many tours. But that song changed my life when I first heard it on Classic Yes. I hadn't seen them play it since 2002. Seven years. This was a blistering performance of it. Highlight of the night.
The encore was Starship Trooper. Some people in the audience were standing up for the encore, so I did too. I danced along. I tried to convince Greg's friend Sharon to get up as well. I noticed that the sound was awful standing up, just this huge amount of noise in with the music. I sat down for most of the song. Sharon caught my eye towards the end and gestured that we should get up then. We did, and danced, sort of together but two seats apart. It was towards the end of the jamming and just before Steve restated the melody line.
We were still standing and applauding when the roadies came out to tear down the set. I could see the setlists taped to the stage floor. I asked a roadie if he could give me one, and he did! He gave me the setlist Chris used. I've gotten these at other concerts before, but never at a Yes show. I was thrilled and people asked if they could take pictures of it. We met some other people from the Yesfans site as well, who stopped by the front row.
We also met up with some fascinating younger Yes fans. These two 20 years olds from Nebraska, a guy and young woman both named Alex, were big Yes fans. This was the first time they got to see Yes in concert and they were so excited. I saw them during the show sitting a few rows back from me. They made a banner with a Yes logo on it, and held it up during the concert. I am going to call them the "Alexes". They weren't sure if the band would think they were too fanatical with the banner or not, but we told them the band loves this sort of thing.
Earlier in the day, we scoped out the area around the venue. The band was going to exit via a door on a private parking lot. We couldn't stand by the door, but we could stand at the sidewalk and watch them leave. We told this to the Alexes and they decided to hang out with our group. Steve left first, got into his car, pulled out of the driveway... and then stopped to open his window and sign the banner. He signed a couple other things for people too. I brought something to get signed just in case, but I was having too much fun watching everyone else. Roy walked over to Steve to thank him for stopping.
The rest of the band pulled into their white van. We positioned the Alexes in front holding the banner so they'd see it. The van stopped, and Chris rolled down his window to sign the banner. The back doors opened, and the tour manager Paul got out of the van, followed by Oliver and Benoit. Alan stayed in the backseat. Chris handed the banner to Alan to sign, and he stayed back there, signing autographs for others as well. I talked to Chris, asking how he was doing. He said he was good, and I replied we were all happy he was doing better. Roy talked to Paul, telling him that we were at the Jon show last month (Paul was there too) and asked about Jon's tour in Europe. Paul told Roy he wasn't working with Jon on that because it was more like a vacation than a tour.
I stood around while Oliver was talking to the Alexes. He was joking with them that he saw the banner during the show, and saw them holding it so it covered their view of the stage. He said they should have cut holes in it for their eyes. I shook hands with him, but I'm not sure if he remembered me from last year or not. He's so friendly when meeting fans, I wish some of that could come across on-stage. Roy heard him say he's concentrating on the music and his equipment so much when he's playing that anything else is distracting. I think he's a good musician, but he needs to grow as a performer.
I was kind of following the Alexes around, because it was so much fun to listen to them talk to the band members and I wasn't trying to get autographs. They were talking to Benoit next. Benoit told them some of the same things he told Roy and me the first time he met us, that he could see them dancing during the show and singing along to all the words. He recognized me and asked me where he knew me from. I told him Bloomington and St. Louis last year. I don't think he put it together with the conversations we had back then.
The band left. I didn't get to talk to Alan. The Alexes were on cloud nine after not only getting to see the concert, but having the band all be so enthusiastic about the banner. They got autographs from all five band members. People took pictures and we said our goodbyes. Greg and Sharon waited with us until we got a cab back to the hotel. We'd be seeing Greg two days from then in Muskogee.
We weren't going to the next Yes show. They were going to Fort Worth, Texas, a nine hour drive away. I've driven home that far from shows, but I wouldn't want to travel that far on a show day. We spent the extra day being tourists in Kansas City. Then we drove down to Muskogee on Thursday.
I've been reflecting about how lucky we are, being Yes fans. I grew up in Philly, and I saw Yes ten times before I was 20 years old. I've had the opportunity to meet my idols so many times I can stand back and watch other fans get autographs for the first time. The lyrics of the new Asia song seem appropriate here:
Nights to remember and never forget Go, seize the day Wake up and say This is an Extraordinary Life
Sheryl Crow With Special Guest Elvis Costello MLB All-Star Charity Concert Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (The Gateway Arch) St. Louis, MO Saturday, July 11, 2009 General Admission free
I have an informal list of artists that I'd like to see live someday. I might not own any of their albums, but I like a number of their songs or know their reputations as live acts. If they come to town and it's convenient for me, I'll go. Sheryl Crow is not on this list.
That's because I've seen her twice already. I bought her debut album Tuesday Night Music Club when it was new and saw her on the tour for that album. Since then, I've heard a number of her songs, but I haven't kept up with her career. Then, a couple years ago, Roy and I saw her at the Crossroads Guitar Festival. I found out that she was doing a concert at the Arch grounds as part of the baseball All Star Game being held in St. Louis this week. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go, even though I enjoy her music.
Elvis Costello got added on to the show as a special guest. He is an artist on my list. He's gone through a lot of different styles, but I like a lot of his early singles and the level of integrity in his music. It's a free show on a Saturday night, and it became a must-see for me.
Everything about the day worked really well. It was raining heavily early in the day, but it cleared up in time for the concert. Even the grounds were dry. We took Metrolink downtown. Even with all the people in town for the All Star game, we still got seated immediately for dinner. We went to Burger Bar in the new casino downtown. We walked to the Arch afterwards and were able to get seats that were relatively close to the stage. It was humid, but not that hot out, and being so close to the river, we had a nice breeze.
Shows at the Arch are usually set up down by the Mississippi River, "Live on the Levee" style, where the steps leading up to the Arch form an amphitheater with tiered seating. For this show, the stage was on the same ground level as the Arch. We were encouraged to bring blankets or lawn chairs. Almost everyone stood for the entire concert, but the chairs helped space people out, so it wasn't too crowded. Of course, when everyone stood, I couldn't see the stage all that well, but I had a good view of one of the screens. The front center section was roped off with real chairs. We set up on the audience left, 15 or 20 rows back. Roy and I got there at 6:45 for the 8:00pm show. Lots of people came after us and the grounds filled up. The newspaper estimated the crowd as 45,000 to 50,000 people.
Roy looked at all the different age groups present, and wondered how many people were familiar with Sheryl Crow's music, compared to people looking for a free night's entertainment. It's got to be tough to know what crowd to appease, the people who want to hear songs they know or the fans. I saw Yes do a huge free show at the Taste of Chicago, where they did their regular setlist for that tour, full of long unfamiliar non-hit music. It was very brave and it seemed to go over well, but really, they probably didn't have anything else rehearsed. In other cases, I've seen bands play their hits and a lot of covers. Most people know most songs, and it also seems to go over well. This night had all of Sheryl Crow's hits, some covers, and a few songs I wasn't familiar with.
She opened the show right on time, doing the song A Change Will Do You Good. Sheryl grew up in Missouri and lived in St. Louis for a while. She brought this up a number of times, working the name of a local town into her lyrics, saying she went to the new casino while she was in town, and some other local things. Roy wasn't familiar with the opening song, and neither of us knew the next one. After that were a couple songs from her first album, Leaving Las Vegas and Strong Enough. When Strong Enough started, I pointed out to Roy that this was the song she and Allison Krauss dueted on at the Crossroads concert.
A half hour into the concert, Sheryl says that she's going to do a cover song from Cat Stevens. I can't see the actual stage, but the camera pans over, and we can see that Elvis Costello has come on stage. They sang The First Cut is the Deepest. This stretch of songs was among my favorite in the concert. The next one was Pump It Up. It had a lot of new wave energy and I bopped along to it. They played another of Sheryl Crow's songs together, and then What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding. I wondered beforehand if their sounds were all that compatible, but that backing band did a good job with both Costello's new wave and Crow's rootsy pop.
I wish they had continued trading off songs for longer, but Elvis left the stage at this point, not returning until the encore. Sheryl Crow did a bunch more well known songs, All I Wanna Do, Everyday is a Winding Road, and Soak Up the Sun, which was Roy's favorite of her songs. A couple times, she inserted a bit of a cover song into one of hers. I recognized I Can See Clearly Now. Roy told me another song was Sundown from Gordon Lightfoot.
Roy wasn't as familiar with Sheryl Crow as I was. He said afterwards that his impression of her changed. He thought she was going to be poppier, but discovered she had a range of styles. I think he liked it better than he thought he would. I liked most of her songs, except for the ones that drifted into hard rock territory, There Goes the Neighborhood and If It Makes You Happy. They just sound too generic to me. I remembered when I first saw Sheryl Crow back in 1995. I guess she was trying to build a rep as a serious musician then, playing guitar, but also keyboards and accordion. On this night, she stuck to playing backing guitar.
The people next to me were hilarious at first, and then annoying. One couple spent the whole first hour of the show calling people on their cell phone to say, "Guess what? We're at the Sheryl Crow concert! Can you hear it?" over and over again. I don't think they stopped to listen to the music at all during that time. Another woman in the group, after she got drunker, started dancing. I'm all for dancing at concerts, but this was bumping into people, making lots of noise, standing right in front of me when I'm trying to watch the screen and blocking my view dancing. When she moved away after a song, I darted in front of her dance floor so I could see again and try to block her out. Roy joined me.
The encore was a cover of Chuck Berry's Back in the USA. That seemed like the end of the show. Sheryl Crow and Elvis Costello left the stage. We wondered if there would be fireworks. Nothing started, so we began to pack our chairs.
The band came back on stage. I knew what the song would be just from the opening drum line. A cover of Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll! They did a great job with this, Sheryl Crow on vocals and Elvis Costello on lead guitar. I would not have pictured him as a Led Zeppelin fan. People rushed back to the concert area. It was the highlight of the night for both of us, an unexpected song and such a good performance of it. Afterwards, there was a nice fireworks display.
The night continued to be convenient for us. There's usually a long wait to get onto the Metrolink after events like this, and the train itself is packed. On this night, we got through the line quickly. As soon as we got to the platform, a train from our route arrived, and we got seats! It was a really enjoyable, easy evening.
Jon Anderson Intimate - Solo - Acoustic Mongo's Saloon Grover Beach, CA Saturday, June 6, 2009 Level Floor, Section A, Row 2, Seat 5 $45
Jon Anderson has been my favorite singer, favorite songwriter, favorite musician, favorite rock star, hero, idol since I was a teenager. I've loved his music for close to twenty years and I've been a fanatic for over the last fifteen. Roy and I both love him as well as his music.
Jon got seriously ill last year, suffering from acute respiratory failure. There were stories around that he was suffering from other health problems as well, and was on doctor's orders to rest for at least six months. It felt to me like this was happening to a dear friend rather than a distant rock star. He had asthma problems on a previous Yes tour in 2004 and has only done low-key touring of a few weeks at a time since then. Last summer was supposed to be the first Yes tour in four years, but it had to be canceled. Who knows if Jon will ever recover enough to do a big tour like that again?
We didn't know if he'd be able to sing again, if this would force the end of his career. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Jon started sending updates through Facebook and Twitter, song lyrics, some new music, notes about how he was feeling. In the last month, a tour of Europe was announced. I think he's doing this the right way, a very light touring schedule that is more like a vacation with occasional shows than a daily grind of traveling. I thought how I would love to see his first show back, but I couldn't justify going to Poland for it!
I'm a Facebook addict. One morning, I was already running late to work, but I had to go to my computer and check for updates one last time. This one instance justifies all the time I waste on the computer. Jon posted: "6th of June, I will be doing a solo show here at 'Mongo's in Grover Beach to celebrate my 'Honey' Janee's birthday, weeeeeee"
This would be the first show. I wanted to go for a number of reasons: I love being at his concerts and thought I'd never see one again, I went to the greatest concert of my life at nearby San Luis Obispo and Roy and I loved going back to the area, and like my friend Dian said to me, we wanted to show support for Jon, that we were there for him.
There was no question that Roy and I were going. I called the venue and confirmed that the show was taking place. We booked our flight that night. The show was on a Saturday night, and I was trying to conserve vacation days. Roy called it a whirlwind tour - we flew out to LA Friday night, drove up to SLO Saturday morning, saw the show Saturday night, and on Sunday, drove back to LA and flew home. We hit bad traffic on the drive back to LA and I was scared we'd miss our flight, but everything else was relaxed and well-paced.
Roy and I met in San Luis Obispo at the Yes concerts in 1996 at the Coffee Merchant and sat next to each other at dinner at the 1865 restaurant. Five years later, we visited the city again, and Roy proposed to me at the gazebo at Apple Farms. We didn't have any real plans for the day, just to visit our favorite spots in the city again. We walked by the Fremont Theater, where Yes played those legendary shows. It was between movies, so I asked the staff if we could take a look around. It's wonderful being in that room again. I softly sang the opening of Revealing Science to Roy to relive it a little bit. I wanted to tell Jon about this later on if I got the chance.
In addition to seeing Jon and SLO again, I also got to see some friends. We didn't make any plans beforehand, but a bunch of us went to Mongo's for dinner. Roy and I caught up with some acquaintances we hadn't seen in years. The place was really a bar with seats set up for the concert and tables for communal dining in back. We talked to another couple at our table. The guy was a long-time Yes fan, but had never seen Jon in a solo setting. I described my expectations to him: Jon wasn't a great instrumentalist, but the show would be very intimate and special. I was a little worried about how he'd look and sound after his illness.
A great surprise was learning our friend Steve would be at the show. Steve has been suffering from a degenerative disease for over a decade now. We last saw him in 2004 when he was living in Ohio. Since then, his e-mail addresses were no longer in use and we lost touch with him. It was such a relief to see him doing relatively well and to exchange contact information again. Steve is living in California again and is engaged to be married. This was his fiance's first Jon show; she seemed very nice. We talked to Steve for a while. It really is the people as much as the music that makes traveling and attending shows so important to me.
We got to our seats with plenty of time before the show started. We were in the second row, dead center. The stage setup was very nice. There were a number of candles resting in little swings hanging from the ceiling. There was an Olias symbol in back. It didn't look expensive, but it was effective in setting the mood. There were some tables in a raised section off to the side for Jon's friends and family. This show was in honor of his wife Jane's birthday. I've spoken with her a few times, but some of my acquaintances know her better. The tables were decorated with birthday balloons.
Jon came on stage a little after 9 (11pm St. Louis time). The first song was Yours Is No Disgrace. His voice sounded great, no issues at all. This song came across well all the other times I've seen him perform it at his solo shows. This time, he stopped in the middle twice to tune his guitar. He made some jokes that he had paid a guy $25 to tune it for him and later that this was like a nightmare come to life. I honestly didn't notice the guitar sounding that off. The next song, Long Distance Runaround, he also had a problem with, and stopped the song partway through.
It was a shaky opening. Afterwards, it was dramatically tighter. The next two songs were a couple of early Yes songs, Time and a Word and Sweet Dreams. Time and a Word was done in a reggae style and Jon sang a little bit of the Beatles' She Loves You with it. Sweet Dreams was a favorite of Jane's, he told the audience.
I don't know if it was because of the birthday party or just that it was a local show, but Jon seemed very relaxed. He joked about recognizing most of us from the local grocery store. While his voice sounded fine, he looked like he had lost a lot of weight. I didn't see it so much in his face, but he wore jeans that were quite narrow, but they looked baggy on him. He also had on a t-shirt with an open button-down shirt over it. I was so close and Jon was talking to us, rather than doing on-stage patter, I felt like we were all in a living room listening to music. Roy described the show as being heartfelt.
Jon played a few new songs, lyrically dealing with his illness and recovery. He spoke about it too, how this was his first show in 16 months, but he didn't get into any details of his illnesses or with his relationship with the other Yes guys.
The song that hit me the most was I'll Find My Way Home. I remember seeing Jon in Philly in 2004. I was visiting my hometown and very homesick. I reunited with a bunch of my old friends. Jon hadn't played that song the night before and it really got to me. This time, I found my way home in a different sense - in the audience at one of Jon's shows with so many ties to Jon and my friends in the audience - and I thought I might never get that opportunity again.
But if my spirit is strong I know it can't be long No question, I'm not alone Somehow I'll find my way home
That song always gets to me, this night particularly so. And Jon is home too, back on stage, bringing us together. I am so glad I went on this trip.
Jon did fewer of his solo songs than I expected. He did a couple unreleased songs that he performed on his previous solo tours, and three strong new ones. But the bulk of the show was Yes songs. In addition to the four he started out with, he played: Wonderous Stories, Owner of a Lonely Heart, a full Long Distance Runaround, And You And I, Starship Trooper, I've Seen All Good People, Roundabout, and Soon.
There was a fun moment for me during Wonderous Stories. Jon is notorious for forgetting lyrics. During the lines "In the giving of my eyes/to see your face", he got to "In the giving of my" and got stuck. People were yelling out the next line, but he was stuck on the word "eyes". I yelled out "eyes". Jon heard me and said okay.
It's actually on YouTube already. I can hear myself at the :06 second mark.
Owner was another highlight for me. I remember how he did this on his first solo tour - it was karaoke style and just awful. Now, he was playing it on guitar and vocalizing parts that he couldn't produce himself on the guitar. It was still lively, but it suited him better.
Owner was the end of the first set. Jon took an intermission. Everything was so low-key, people were still up and about when he started the second set on electric piano. He played a melody similar to what he had done on previous tours - a song called Set Sail, joined with snippets of Close to the Edge and Revealing Science of God. There was a new piece in there this time, a love song to his wife. I can only imagine what they've gone through during the past year. The chorus was "Will you marry me again?" and he sang it directly to her. It was sweet.
I started laughing during I've Seen All Good People. I've only seen Jon do the first half of this song in his solo songs, not the repetitive second half. A few years back, my friend Angela took me to a karaoke bar and sang this song for me. She told me it felt much longer than eight minutes. That refrain kept popping up on the lyric screen over and over again. "I've seen all good people turn their heads each day, so satisfied I'm on my way." Well, Jon went into this part of the song and it just seemed to me that he was thinking the same thing. It's a lot easier to play this song when the band is taking short solos in between the vocal sections and everyone is up and dancing. Otherwise, it's very repetitive, there's no cues, and he's just singing the same thing over and over again. After a few times of singing the line, he got the audience to clap along. That helped. But I can't imagine he'll want to do the full song live again.
After Roundabout, Jon led us in singing Happy Birthday to Jane. A fan had called out earlier for Gates of Delirium. Jon obliged with the last part of the song, Soon. That's a song that's a good test of his vocals. Yes have played that song on some tours early on in the tour, and then dropped it as it gets too hard to sing night after night. Jon sounded wonderful, although he messed up on the guitar part a little. That was the end of the show. He left the stage. Jane stayed at her seat for a while, and everyone was applauding for an encore. But that was it. Jon looked tired by the end of the show. He had played less than 90 minutes. I am so glad he feels well enough to perform, but I also understand that he's a long way from being able to do a Yes tour with long shows and traveling every day. He's still so fragile.
Had Jon and Jane left for good? I was hoping to get a chance to talk to him. I know he saw us in the audience.
After the show, Roy and I spent some time catching up with Dian. I talked to Steve again, and a group of friends that know Jon and Jane better than I do. Jon's road manager, Paul Silviera came over to us and said that Jane asked us (meaning the others in my group) to stick around because they were coming back. The venue wasn't making anyone leave. I asked Dian if she thought it was okay if Roy and I stayed too, and she thought it would be. A group of us went outside to the patio to talk and had a nice time catching up.
Jon and Jane came back to the venue. Jon had changed his clothes. He was still wearing jeans and sneakers, but he had on a dress shirt, suit jacket, and bowtie. Jon looked adorable. He came over to talk to us. He gave Dian a hug, and then came over to hug me. I tried to tell him my Fremont Theater story. I got out "We went to the Fremont Theater today", but other people were talking too and I didn't think he heard me. I said as much to Roy. Jon surprised me though, because he turned back to me and said he heard me and that he had played there before. I replied that I was at the show, but more people were talking while I rambled on about singing Revealing there that afternoon. After Jon had greeted everyone, I told him I'm glad he's doing better and we're all pulling for him.
Then, the party started.
When this show was listed on Mongo's website, it said "After the show dance and party with Jon Anderson. Dancing & Cocktails til 1:30am."
I didn't believe it. It looked like something they'd write about a local band's concert and just stuck Jon's name there. But Jane was having her birthday party and we were still there. Jane came over and greeted some of my friends. I don't think she knows me well enough to recognize me. Dance music started playing on the loudspeakers. Clearly some of my friends were invited, and Roy and I were allowed to be there, but we felt like we were trespassing. I danced with Anne for the first song and then went back out to the patio. We said our goodbyes to everyone.
I walked back inside and saw the most surreal thing I've ever seen in my life. Jon Anderson of Yes dancing to some disco song with his wife. KC and the Sunshine Band's Do a little dance, make a little love, Get down tonight. I pictured Jon back in the late 1970s, always sounding so serious and sincere in talking to the audience or in interviews, making music, dancing to Get Down Tonight. It doesn't even seem like he existed in the same world as disco. Now, I've seen everything. We left while the song was going on.
The next day, we heard the song in the rental car shuttle to the airport.
I think this will be one of those special shows that people will talk about for the rest of our lives. We were able to celebrate Jon's returning health and strength along with him and his family and friends. Dian, who has been to many more Yes concerts than I have, but missed the SLO concerts wrote on my facebook wall: "After all these years, now SLO has personal significance for me too." All the shows Roy and I have seen there have been so special, so life-altering. I think it's the journey there, the music, but more importantly, the people - the musicians know something special is going on and the fans are open to receive it. It's the equivalent of a big group hug. We're all together there, all friends, the same things are important to us. It would be hard to turn down any Yes related show at SLO, just to capture that feeling again.
