Culture in Boca Raton

Yes
Sunset Cove Amphitheater
Boca Raton, FL
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Section C, Row 1, Seat 15
$80

I'm posting this on March 11th - my blog's third birthday!

Sunday in Boca Raton was the last show of this short tour. Roy wondered if they'd be doing anything different or fun, like we'd seen in previous end-of-tour shows. We were certainly doing this one in style. We would be in the front row again, with reserved seats this time, and we were attending the after-show meet and greet. I still wasn't sure of the point of this tour. They did about 20 shows, few different songs, playing some of the same cities they did previously. Working on new music seems like a better idea to me than potentially wearing out their welcome. Still, I can't miss chances to see my favorite band.

Roy and I drove down from Orlando on Sunday morning. We stopped in the town of Palm Beach for lunch and a walk along the beach.

We wanted to check into the hotel before the show. We missed some turns along the way, and it took longer than I wanted it to. We got to the hotel around 5:50, and the show started at 7. I was in a foul mood when I realized I wouldn't have time to rest up before the show. I was so worried about being late, I didn't even want to stop to grab something to eat first. I was right to want to be there early: it didn't take much time to get to the turn-off for the venue, but there was big backup getting to the parking lot. The only access was a long, single-lane road, with cars backed up all the way. I still needed to pick up our tickets from will call, and I was tempted to get out of the car and hike over. I found out that this traffic caused quite a few people to be late for the show.

Once we parked, things got better. There was no line to pick up our tickets, and the employees were friendly. We had a weird time getting tickets for this show, but it worked out great. By accident, Roy and I both bought tickets right when they went on sale. Roy got third row center, and I got the first row of a section off to the side. Ticketmaster had an auction for true front row center seats, complete with a parking pass and access to a meet and greet with the band. I planned to check it out near the end of the auction, but I forgot until it was too late. A month later, I happened to check how tickets were doing, and saw they had another auction going on with front row seats. There was no publicity for this. I won, with the minimum bid even. We were able to sell the extra sets of tickets. Now, we picked up our meet and greet passes and our tickets.

Roy stood in line to get pretzels while I found our seats. The front row was a good ten feet away from the stage. The security guard restricted access to this space to only the people sitting in this row. No one else could walk up to use it as an aisle or take close-up pictures during the show. Every group of two seats were tied together. I was the first one sitting in the row, so I shoved some of the other seats over a bit to give Roy and me an extra couple inches to ourselves. Even 20 minutes before the start of the show, the venue was not very full. Our seats were right in front of Oliver Wakeman's keyboards, just like the night before. According to the seating chart, I thought we'd be on Steve Howe's side, but the sections were in the reverse order.

Roy joined me. The venue was called Sunset Cove Amphitheater. We could easily see why. We stood up and turned around, facing the rest of the audience. I saw the most beautiful sunset I'd ever seen. Very vivid colors, unobstructed view. I was surprised more people weren't looking at it.

Just before the show was about to start, I looked around, and saw some friends of ours walking in. I hadn't seen Diana and Rick since we came to Florida for a Yes show in 2004. We hadn't reached out to any friends to meet up on this trip. We had a few minutes to catch up, and made plans to meet up afterward. They hadn't seen a show yet with this incarnation of the band and wanted to be surprised about the setlist. An usher came over to tell us the show would be starting soon and we needed to get to our seats.

I don't know how empty the rest of the amphitheater was. But when the show started, the four seats directly next to me and the four seats next to Roy were still empty. That's eight seats right in the front row. Later on, six of those seats were filled. I guess they were all stuck in the slow crawl to the parking lot.

Siberian Khatru was played with more energy than the night before. It set the tone for the night, happy and light-hearted. The sound was excellent. I don't know if Chris Squire saw us and recognized us or was just looking at the happy people bopping along to the music in the front row, but he looked over at us and even played his bass towards us for a little bit.

Chris really made me happy during his introduction to Tempus Fugit. He mentioned that this was the last show of their tour and that this is the 106th show this lineup has played. He acknowledged that people were still coming into the venue because of the traffic tie-up. Then he said they were going to do two songs from Drama tonight. Two! We were getting Machine Messiah back tonight! I applauded more for this than anything in the actual show. We got a shorter show in Orlando at Sea World the night before, but this one brought the Incredible Shrinking Setlist back to what I had seen the first night in Chicago. Still no South Side of the Sky though.

During Yours Is No Disgrace, the ushers brought out two chairs and placed them in front of the front row, off to my right. A woman sat down with a toddler. I knew that Chris and his wife had a baby over a year ago, and Roy wondered if this was Chris' family. I thought the little girl looked too big to be that age, but we found out later, she was. The baby sat on the chair, stood and danced a little, and then started crawling around. Chris looked down at her. This is one of my favorite songs of the night, and watching the little girl experience the concert distracted me, but it was fun to watch. They got up and left before the song was over. (The baby was wearing a lot of sound protection from the loud noise of the concert.)

I would not go to an outdoor concert in February at home in St. Louis, but I figured the people in Southern Florida knew what they were doing. After the sun set, I'd bet the temperature dipped into the 50s. I was wearing a t-shirt with a sweatshirt over it and cropped pants. I didn't notice it being that cold while the band was playing, but even bopping around in my seat, I didn't need to take the sweatshirt off. Benoit asked the audience how we were doing in the cold. He said it was warmer on stage. I saw Steve Howe frequently blow on his fingers, trying to keep them warm.

The one part of the setlist that changes from night to night is Steve's guitar solo. On this night, he played a solo piece called Second Initial and part of Vivaldi's Lute Concerto in D. The crowd was much quieter here than at the club-like atmosphere of the shows in Chicago, and Steve didn't have to berate the crowd for making too much noise. He was funny in talking to the audience, announcing the songs he played and what Yes was going to do next. The Vivaldi music was a bit of "culture, culture, culture," he repeated. "And here's culture from the 1980s" with Owner of a Lonely Heart.

I kept an eye on the rest of the front row. Would people rush up to the stage at the end? I didn't want to be left out. Benoit gestured for the audience to stand up partway through Roundabout. I saw a few people in the center left section walk up to the barricade by the stage. Ushers indicated for them to sit down, and then it seemed to be okay. Roy and I grabbed a spot. The sound was noticibly worse up by the stage, but it was fun being so close. When the band came back for the encore, Chris mentioned again that it was the last night of the tour. He named all of the road crew and thanked them for their work.

The encore was Starship Trooper. Benoit changed the lyric to "long winters colder than time can remember". During the instrumental final part of the song, he was playing a tambourine and walked towards our side of the stage. I could tell that he saw us. I waved, and he waved back. When the band did their final bows, Chris brought his baby daughter out on stage. He waved to the audience, and then she did a little wave. I don't know if Chris even saw it, because he took her arm and moved it to wave to the crowd. It was really cute.

There were many people with meet and greet access after the show. We were organized in lines based on what type of pass we had - real backstage passes, the auction winners, the premium packagers got t-shirts, and so on. There was some confusion about what we were getting. A woman came by and told us first that we'd get pictures with the band but no autographs. I hadn't brought a camera, and I was just glad to have another chance to talk to the band. Later on, it was decided we'd get autographs too, and the woman handed us a photo of Yes to get signed. We stood in line outside for a half an hour, until the band was ready for the meet and greets. That's when I noticed the cold. It would have been fine if I were dressed for it. I really felt bad for the guy wearing shorts and some women in flip flops. Some people in our group left, rather than wait a little bit longer to meet the band.


We were ushered into the meet and greet room. Alan, Chris, Oliver, and Steve were sitting at a table. Someone in line asked where Benoit was. He's being fashionably late, one of the band members replied. Benoit walked in and saw me. He walked over to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said hello, before walking over to the table. He sat between Alan and Chris. I heard Alan telling another fan that the tour lasted a month, but it felt like two, because of the snow and show cancellations.

I had a couple goals in speaking to the band this time. First was to find information about their next tour. My friend Greg spoke to a couple of band members at an earlier show and was trying to find out more information, when the shows would be and where, if they were hitting the midwest at all. I also had a question about comparing venues like this one to the all-standing shows at the House of Blues. Did the band notice the crowd being more energetic at the standing shows and where did they prefer playing?

I asked Alan the first question. He told me Yes would be playing in June and early July with Peter Frampton. Since the concert, this news has been announced on YesWorld. In Alan's words, "I have no idea where we'll be playing. I just get on the bus and show up." I'll find my way to a couple shows, no matter where they play.

Benoit surprised me by asking me a question, to confirm that I've been to four shows on this tour. He's keeping track?! That's really flattering! I confirmed it and said I've seen this lineup nine times total. The person in front of me was talking to Chris, so I asked Benoit my question about the venues. He said that yes, he noticed a difference without elaborating. I didn't have a chance to ask what they preferred before I had to move on.

I didn't have anything planned to say to Chris. I just blurted out, "You were awesome!" Chris didn't give an indication that he recognized me, but he joked back that his goal was to be awesome.

I smiled and nodded at Oliver, without saying anything. I told Steve that I thought his playing was great on Yours Is No Disgrace. Roy asked him if he felt his playing was affected by the cold temperatures.

I guess I wasn't paying attention to the rest of the people in line. We finished talking to the band, got my autographed promo picture, and headed back to the door. Alan White stood up and walked over to stop me. I then noticed that the other fans were in line again, presumably to get pictures with the band this time. I didn't have a camera with me anyway, and Alan said I probably already had pictures with the band. The woman who was organizing things said that our group wasn't getting pictures and we were done. I was glad that it wasn't too rushed.


Diana and Rick didn't have access to the meet and greets. They waited in their car in the parking lot for us. I called Diana's cell phone when we got out. Roy and I both got the autographed photo and a poster, so we gave our extra ones to Diana and Rick. It was almost 11pm on a Sunday night. We stopped at a few restaurants that were already closed before passing a Cheesecake Factory with cars in the parking lot. We ate there, catching up and reminiscing about the old days.

I was interested in getting their take on the show. This was their first time seeing this lineup, and I know for Roy and me, it took a show to get over missing Jon Anderson and to accept this version of the band for what it is. Also, Rick is a musician, and having more knowledge about music could make him more critical. But they both really enjoyed it, especially the Drama songs.

The next morning, Roy took me to Delray Beach, where his parents used to have a condo. We got out to walk in the downtown section before heading to the airport.

It's tough for me to objectively review a Yes concert. It's my favorite band, my favorite music, I'm expecting to love it. And there are so many things outside the band's performance that can add or detract from the show, distractions from people sitting around me, bad soundmix, my own mood. But there are a few changes I'd like for Yes to make on future tours:

I don't think opening with Siberian Khatru and I've Seen All Good People is working well. I know Khatru is the classic opener, and we're all conditioned to hear it after Firebird Suite ends. But the band has only occasionally been playing it with the energy it deserves. They should open with something that doesn't take half the song to warm up, Yours Is No Disgrace or Roundabout, maybe. Roy says Sound Chaser, like on the Relayer tour!

I think All Good People worked better in previous tours where they played it as the last song of the main set. People would stand up and dance to it, without the band prompting us. It works better that way, than with everyone just sitting and listening to it. As much as I want to hear more classics from the 1970s, I think this lineup would do a good job with It Can Happen.

Especially with the shortened set we'll have on this summer's tour, I don't want to wait half the show for it to "pick up" and come alive. I hope they make some change to the flow of the first half of the concert. I truly loved a number of these recent shows, and I will see multiple shows on each leg of every US tour. However, it's getting harder to get excited about so many short tours with basically the same set, even for me. I hope Yes freshens up the setlist soon.

The Fish at Sea World

Yes
Nautilus Theatre - Sea World
Orlando, FL
Saturday, February 27, 2010
General Admission
$128 (Sea World Admission + Bands Brew and BBQ VIP pass)

It's rained every time I've gone to Sea World. I thought about that when Yes booked a show there, and when Roy and I decided to attend. The forecast called for a high of 50-some degrees and a 40% chance of rain. I thought about times it's rained at recent outdoor Yes shows at Great Adventure and National Harbor near DC; the stages were open to the elements and the rain forced the band to play severely shortened sets. Friends described the shows as depressing. I also thought about the movie This is Spinal Tap, where the fictional band is playing a concert at an amusement park, billed as second to a puppet show. How bad was this show going to be?

I also remembered ProgDay a couple years ago, when it rained. ProgDay is held outdoors, and when it rained, most of the audience ran for shelter. But I was dressed for it, and stayed up by the stage. There were just a few of us remaining there, and it was kind of fun. Maybe the bad weather would keep everyone else out of the line, so I could be right by the stage. Maybe my enthusiasm, despite the weather, would buoy the band's spirits, regardless of a small crowd. I think it's happened before. I packed my raincoat and hoped for the best.

I didn't have to worry. Sea World stepped up and took care of us. With cold (for Florida) temperatures and on-and-off rain, they moved the concert to a back-up venue. The Nautilus Theatre was dry, warm, and offered really good sound. This was probably my best sound mix of this era of the band. I could even hear what Oliver Wakeman was playing. Sea World was very good to us.
The whole couple days surrounding the trip were nice. Roy and I chose the Florida shows partly because a trip to Florida is nice in winter, but also because the two shows were on a weekend. I try to conserve the time I take off from work. We could fly out Friday night, see the shows on Saturday and Sunday, and then fly home on Monday, only using one vacation day for two shows. But then, we're flying to Orlando, might as well work a half-day on Friday and book an afternoon flight to get into town early. By the time Friday rolled around, I was taking the whole extra day off from work.

Friday was a good day. Roy and I watched my car reach 100,000 miles on the odometer, bought some Hamentashen at Pratzel's Bakery for Purim, listened to some Yes and walked around the Loop. Nicer weather than we'd get the next day in Orlando. It was an easy flight, and we drove to Downtown Disney for dinner. I bought one souvenir - a Mickey Mouse themed reusable grocery bag for $3. The hotel was a nice mix of clean, inexpensive, and stylish. We saw a car at the hotel with a license plate of "125 Yes". We were in the right place!

On Saturday, we got to Sea World around 11AM. It was already raining. I brought my raincoat along in my backpack, but I didn't want to get it wet unless it was really bad out. The umbrella would do for the time being. We found out that the show had been moved indoors. I bought VIP passes for the show. The advertisements touted "reserved seats", but it really meant general admission seats within a reserved section, up front and center. The VIP thing also came with early entry to any of the rides and a free barbeque lunch. The concert was going to be at 4PM, and the doors were opening at 2pm.

I wanted to find the venue and scope out the situation first. We started walking there, but we found the Whale and Dolphin Theater just as a show was about to start, so we did that first. The Blue Horizons show was really good, with the highlight being the human dancers and divers, rather than the sea creatures. We got to the Nautilus Theater after that. There were already two people in line.

Roy and I each wanted to do different things. For me, the only thing that mattered was that Yes would be playing in a few hours, and the sooner I got in line, the better our seats would be. Roy didn't want to waste the opportunity of enjoying Sea World. This was a general admission show, but there would be seats. I felt that I could wait in line by myself and hold a seat for him. If I couldn't, we wouldn't be able to sit together, but he'd still be in the VIP section. We got lunch, and then Roy walked me back to the theater. I ended up being 5th in line. The people in line said that the other concerts in this series lasted only an hour. I hoped we'd get more than that.

The doors opened. The venue had metal benches for seats and a catwalk jutting out from the stage to the third row. The ushers led us down to the that third row and started seating people. The first people in line sat there, in the center of the row, right at the end of the catwalk. They looked happy. What about the front row? I walked up and asked the usher if I could sit there. The row was split in half by the catwalk. There were half a dozen actual seats towards the middle and then a shorter bench closer to the aisle. The usher didn't answer my question. Other people were filling in the third row. I needed to know quickly whether to try for these seats or take something else. Finally, she said I could sit on the bench there. I saved a spot next to me for Roy. Whew! Front row, in front of Oliver's keyboards.

I wonder if I'm pushy about asking for what I want or if other people are just following the usher's lead. All the seats around me are empty for a little while. It looks like the seats by the center are saved for some VIPs. A younger couple asked me if the seats on the bench are taken. I told them I was saving one for Roy, but the rest is free. Four people can sit there, but it was a tight fit. I chatted with them while we waited. Mark played in a Yes cover band and had seen them a number of times. He was very knowledgeable about their music. Starr was a good six inches shorter than even me. I was glad she got a seat up front; I know it's hard to see when everyone around is blocking the view. The conversation was a strain because of the loud country music playing. I could hear Starr fine, but Mark had a lower voice and was sitting further away. I had some trouble hearing him. Roy came in and found me. He filled me in on what he did at the park.

The show was introduced by some local TV weatherman. He addressed the recent tragedy, where a trainer was killed earlier in the week. I did feel a little weird about going to Sea World and having fun as if nothing had happened, but he said we needed to change the mood and this concert would help do it. This concert was free with admission to Sea World, so I'm sure Yes imagined a large crowd coming to see them. The bad weather kept a lot of people away. This venue only held a couple thousand people, and it wasn't full. I wonder how many people there attended who weren't already fans.

Yes came on stage. My first impression was the sound. I could clearly hear what Oliver was playing throughout Siberian Khatru. Usually, he's inaudable except for his lead parts. My second impression was one that I've had at all the Yes shows I've seen since Kansas City last year: this song doesn't take off until Steve's solo towards the end. It didn't help that Roy and I just listened to Yessongs the day before. Siberian Khatru has explosive energy on that live version. It didn't here.

During I've Seen All Good People, Benoit David walked out on the catwalk to sing. I wonder if they practiced on it at all during the sound check, or if it was a spur of the moment decision to make use of it? Later on, Chris Squire played bass from the catwalk during Starship Trooper. Great reaction from the audience.

The first stage announcement has been before the third song, Tempus Fugit. The band takes turns talking to the audience, and Chris changed up his usual spiel. He welcomed everyone to the special matinee performance at Sea World, did his usual intro of the new guys and Tempus Fugit, saying they'd be doing one song from Drama. (No Machine Messiah. Bummer!) People on the Yesfans site had been saying that the band should play Don't Kill the Whale in light of performing at Sea World. I don't know how serious they were. Chris added that for those of us in the audience that knew their music, there was one song the band wouldn't be doing, and that the statement was a private joke for Yesfans (or maybe it was Yes fans in general). I thought it was a fun way to acknowledge the requests for Don't Kill the Whale.

Roy's favorite song of the night was Yours Is No Disgrace. Steve Howe was great on that song, even doing a little call and response with the audience. Someone yelled during a pause in his solo. Steve must have liked it, because he paused again for the crowd to yell, and then a third time, with more people cheering. He tried doing it again during the next show in Boca Raton, but the audience didn't know they were supposed to participate. It was a unexpected cool moment here.

I was aware of the usual setlist and what songs Yes were skipping over. They dropped Onward, Astral Traveler, Steve Howe's solo. I don't know if they were only given a ninety minute set, but it worked well. All the songs that have a change of pace were dropped, and it was a tight rocking set of one amazing song after another.

I noticed more mistakes during this show than the ones last week in Chicago. The group of us on the bench - Mark, Starr, Roy and me - all looked over at each other every time we noticed one. It made it more fun, like we noticed our favorite band messing up rather than putting a damper on our mood. I can't remember what songs they were now, but Benoit was off on a note and Oliver played something wrong. Chris was late on a booming bass part of And You And I. I noticed Alan peering around his drum set to see Chris and get back on track. Steve didn't play anything obviously wrong, but he made a weird announcement before Owner of a Lonely Heart. He said the song was from the infamous 80s lineup from the great 90125, and they were going to play the title track. He must have meant lead track. Afterward, Roy joked that we did hear a new Yes song at this show - the infamous title track of 90125.

After seeing two standing room only shows in Chicago, I sat for this one. Benoit gestured for us to stand partway through Roundabout. We did, only to sit again during the encore. I wondered what would happen during Starship Trooper. Quite a few people were standing in the aisle to take pictures. There was a lot of space on the floor between our seats and the stage. Would they push their way into the front row? I had my coat and backpack sitting on the floor. We moved them out of the way, but it wasn't necessary. Security kept people out of our row. I stood back up towards the end of Starship Trooper and danced along.

I was really happy with this show. I need to take back every joke I made comparing this gig to Spinal Tap.

The weather was a lot better after the show. I hoped to meet the band. We tried to walk around the venue to see where they might exit, but the back was fenced off. Roy and I ended up seeing a couple more Sea World shows. We sat several rows up from the "soak zone" but I still got soaked. The park was closing, so we went back to the hotel so I could change clothes. At this point, I was ready for dinner and we ate at the Fridays near the hotel.