An Extraordinary Life

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