Old Friends

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.