House of Blues
Chicago, IL
Thursday, February 18, 2010
General Admission / Premium Ticket
$184.50
When a new Yes tour is announced, Roy and I look at all the tour dates to see which shows will work for us. Are they doing a local show? What shows are on the weekends? How many concerts do we want to do? We decided on two concerts, and the two in Florida would make for a nice warm trip in February. It would have been enough, except for one thing. I love being able to stand and dance throughout a Yes concert, and they were playing a general admission, standing room only concert in Chicago. I'd get that opportunity. Roy didn't want to, so I made arrangements to go to Chicago myself.
The Chicago concert was on a Thursday. I'd have to take a day off from work that Friday to travel home. Just for fun, I decided to stay an extra day up there. I could do touristy stuff. I booked my hotel and transportation. And then, Yes added another show at the House of Blues in Chicago for Friday night. Suddenly, I'm going to four shows on this short tour.
I took the bus up to Chicago on Wednesday night. I got really lucky with the weather. Thursday was the warmest day in Chicago all year so far, great for walking around. I made plans to meet an acquaintance for lunch, and I planned to get to the House of Blues by three. I was doing so much of this trip by myself, so it was good to see Jen and do something social. We both relocated to the midwest, but were out of touch for fifteen years before finding each other on Facebook. I had a light lunch, because I'd be having "dinner" at the House of Blues not too long afterward.
This was a general admission show, and I had to be in the front row. I had to be. Seriously, I'm five foot two, and anyone standing in front of me would block my view and I wouldn't be able to see. But also, given the opportunity to see my favorite band in the front row, I had to go for it. Ticketmaster offered a premium ticket package with early entry, and I had to do that. The House of Blues offers "pass the line" entrance to anyone eating at their restaurant that day. Just in case something went wrong with the premium entry, I had to be in front of the "pass the line" line too.
It was actually a lot of fun waiting there. The band was staying at the hotel in the same complex as the House of Blues, and the band members were walking right into the lobby and up the stairs to the stage area. Another fan was waiting there, who I think I met at a previous show in Chicago. He and I talked for most of the time. I was standing there for three hours, and I only read two pages in my book.
I spoke to Benoit David, the singer for this lineup of the band. I was just walking out of the restaurant and I saw him in the lobby. I called out his name, and he recognized me and stopped. I told him I was getting in line for the show, and he asked me how early it was. It was 4pm. I find it charming when musicians I'm a fan of try to show not just that they remember me, but they remember something personal about me. The last few times I saw Yes, my friend Greg was also there. Greg has a blog about an imaginary jackalope, and he brings a small stuffed animal jackalope to concerts. Benoit remembered that and must have thought of us as together, and asked if I had the jackalope with me. Between his accent and me not expecting to hear that word, I had to ask him to repeat himself. Ah, that's what he's talking about. No, that belongs to a friend of mine. (Greg and I have only met on three occasions, but they've all been recent Yes shows, where Benoit has seen us hanging out.) The next morning, I sent Greg a message about this exchange, and he replied that I made his day.
Chris Squire walked down the steps and caused a big stir. One guy got to shake his hand, another took a picture with him. I just hung back and watched their interactions. Both fans were talking about how nice Chris was. Alan White walked in with Yes' tour manager; they were talking to each other and didn't see us. When Alan walked back down, he talked to our group. He said his feet were tired and he was going back to the hotel to watch a movie. I love seeing the band in a city where the hotels, restaurants, and concert are all close by. I hope they appreciated being able to get around easily too.
Shortly before the doors opened, the premium ticket people were all grouped together. There were two levels of premium tickets - ones that came with a meet and greet with the band and ones that didn't. I bought a meet and greet package for Yes' tour in 2004, but I didn't need to for this lineup. I can usually meet them after the show just by hanging out, and I am more concerned about the front row seat. We were all together, without really being in a line. There were about a dozen people there. Security people brought us to another staircase where we stood single file. I was halfway back in line, no longer first. Security led us up to the club level, and then it got confusing. The employee leading us up walked around the perimeter of the club around the back, and people followed him. But they walked right past the entrance to the pit, the quickest way to get to the front of the stage. Was I supposed to follow the people in front of me or use my instincts? I broke from the line and grabbed the front row center spot. Everyone walking behind me followed my lead.
My goal was to stand in the center one night and in front of Chris Squire the other night. But there was a curtain covering the stage, and I couldn't see where the microphone stands were. This would be my night to stand front and center, and I could judge where to stand to be in front of Chris the next night. I made a misjudgment though, which worked in my favor. Oliver Wakeman's keyboards took up a huge portion of the stage, in front and audience right. The rest of the front-line was squished into the remainder of the stage. By standing in the center, I ended up right by Chris.
The premium package people mostly got front row positions. One couple decided to stand in the center, in the second row behind me. The guys I waited with in the "pass the line" line were also able to get front row, near where Steve was on the far left. We weren't right up by the stage. There was a metal barricade a couple feet from the stage, leaving room for cameramen and security people between the audience and the band. More nice, unintended consequences. The barricade had a metal floor going back about two feet into the audience. The people in the front row could stand on it, but there wasn't quite enough room for two rows of people on it. The rest of the floor stood back, so they weren't partly standing on the metal and partly on the wood floor. It meant we weren't being crowded and shoved up front. The barricade was also a good height to lean on and rest my arms on it. I think the people who chose the second row position regretted it as the floor got crowded. We had an hour to wait before the show started, and we all chatted. Nice group of people, all big fans.
Around 8:15, the room darkened and Firebird Suite began to play on the loudspeakers. The curtains parted and there was Yes! Seats up by the stage are great for seeing the band, paying attention to details, interacting with the bandmembers; the only thing they're not great for is sound. The speakers are over our heads pushing the sound back. What I'm hearing is coming from the on-stage monitors. (The flip side is, I could be further back by the soundboard and surrounded by people talking or constantly adjusting my spot to try to see.) I had a seat once before at a Yes concert directly in front of Chris. All I heard was the bass all night. I was expecting the same thing from this position.
Chris Squire is my favorite bass player in the world and his melodic lead lines are one of the things I love most about Yes music. I could hear every note Squire played like it was turned up for a solo. His tone was beautiful. I got to hear every bassline highlighted and played right in front of me. I thought nothing would take my attention away from Chris, but Steve also had on-stage monitors and I could hear him clearly, particularly on the solos of Siberian Khatru and Yours Is No Disgrace.
I was in my happy place for the whole show. In the zone, in the present, the music had my rapt attention the entire time. I could barely hear the vocals, but I sung along, singing along with Chris' harmony parts whenever he was singing. Float your climb! He almost came in early on the vocals during Onward, but caught it. I felt the music rather than hearing it all. I wouldn't want this mix for every show, but it was fascinating to hear everything Chris played so clearly. I later wrote on Facebook that it's not the same band I fell in love with, the balance of delicate beauty versus power is off, but they rocked. And I danced along to that glorious bass for the whole show. I was thrilled.
Here's a few funny / interesting moments that I caught being up front:
There was a waitress making the rounds of the pit carrying a case of beer up over her head back and forth through the crowd. Chris said before he introduced Steve Howe's solo that he was wondering about that Bud Light case the woman was carrying. He said it looked like weight training. Someone in the crowd asked Chris if he wanted one. Someone tossed a can on stage during Machine Messiah. Chris saw it and laughed. During Owner of a Lonely Heart, Benoit moved to that part of the stage. He saw the can, and offered it to a couple people in front, and tossed it back to someone.
Steve Howe rotates the songs he does in his solo portion of the show. For this show, he did All's a Chord and Diary of a Man Who Vanished. Some people standing near him were talking during the songs. Steve announced what songs he had played, and then said "and I wish those talkers would vanish". Aside from this part, Steve looked like he was in a great mood. Steve was more animated than I've seen recently, even smiling a few times. As he came back on stage for the encore, he did the duck walk across the stage.
One song that particularly stood out was Machine Messiah. I had never seen Yes play in until this lineup formed. I thought during the performance that if some other band in a prog festival played a song that sounded like this, we'd all be going nuts for it. The instrumental parts of the song sound so Yes-sy and fit in so well. I'm glad they're doing it again. One thing different on this night's performance was that they didn't use dry ice to fill the stage. I was standing so close, I hoped to be able to play with it.
After the show ended, the band came to the front of the stage for their bows. One guy in the audience was hoping to get a setlist, and was pointing at it to Alan. Alan saw him, but didn't do anything. Just after the band left the stage and the curtains closed again, a roadie came out to hand the fan a setlist. I don't know if Alan asked him to or if he saw the exchange, but it was a nice thing to do.
Everyone who purchased the premium ticket package got a letter from the box office, saying to meet after the show by stage left. Most people were doing the meet and greet, and got black laminates. I hadn't spent the extra $100 to do that, but I was still getting a souvenir t-shirt and poster. I remembered reading that people buying the lesser package could also be "upgraded" to the meet and greet. We were all brought up to a little room where the meet and greet would be held. The coordinator calmly went through his list and distributed the t-shirts. I thought there were more people downstairs, but at this point there were three people with the lesser package. The coordinator said if we wanted, we could meet the band too! We'd have to wait until the meet and greet was over, and wait with the people with regular backstage passes. This was wonderful!
It wasn't coordinated very well. Just as the official meet and greet ended and those people left, someone turned off the lights. We were brought into the dark room. Oliver Wakeman and Alan White were there. Oliver tried to make the best of it, going to a part of the room with indirect lighting, and offered to do any autographs from there. I went over and asked him to sign my new poster. Alan waited for the lights to come on. At some point, Steve Howe walked by, but he looked like he was on his way out, so I didn't stop him.
Usually my ideal spot at concerts is one where I can be in front, but out of the way, in the aisle dancing. I don't get a great view of Alan White that way, but I did this night. And the reverse was true. After the light situation was fixed, Alan told me that he saw me dancing along. He said I knew the words better than he does. If this had been a different lineup of the band, I would have joked that I know the words better than Jon, but I didn't want to bring his name up now. I asked Alan to sign a couple CDs for me. I brought House of Yes: Live from the House of Blues and Magnification.
Chris Squire came out a little bit later. I told him his playing sounded wonderful. He also told me he watched me dancing during the show. Here are two of my idols, musicians whose talent I admire so much, and they both went out of their way to tell me they saw me enjoying the show. Speaking of which, someone on the Yesfans site wrote, "Seeing you dance has become part of the Yes concert ritual for me; you so echo the joy of the music."
I couldn't get cell phone reception inside, so I went outside to call Roy and tell him what just happened. Nights like this one are a gift, and I'm so glad I was able to take full advantage of it.
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