Jon, Jon, Jon, and more Jon!!!

Part I - The Revealing Science of Jon

Jon Anderson & Paul Green's Allstars
Performing Music of Yes
Thursday February 15, 2007
Keswick Theater
Glenside, PA
Section Left, Row G, Seat 27
$39

The Adrian Belew and Umphrey's McGee show I wrote about earlier was surrounded by four very special concerts - two we attended in February and two this past weekend. Roy and I flew out to the East Coast twice to see Jon Anderson with the School of Rock.

The School of Rock is music class for teenagers that teaches rock music instead of classical. These students put on concerts, like other music students would have recitals. They are good. Recently, they have been doing concerts with well-known musicians - they are able to learn a lot from the process and do higher profile shows. And it's so heartening to see these young kids really get the music that I love. We had seen the School of Rock last year, playing with Adrian Belew. I'll write about that some other time. I'll just say that it was February, snowing, and a really fun time.

I found out towards the end of last year that Jon would be doing these shows. At first, we only knew Philly would be on a Thursday and NYC on a Sunday night. To see both would take three vacation days - too much. We had to choose and buy tickets before knowing the rest of the itinerary. I decided taking two vacation days to spend some time in Philly would be worth it. Maybe they'd add another show on Friday that we'd get to see.

The Philly show was actually out in the burbs at the Keswick Theater in Glenside. We got seats about 14 rows back, on the far left aisle. I love seats on the aisle - you can stand up and dance without getting in anyone's way. Dancing seats. Everyone wins.

A Friday show was added, in Connecticut. Tickets went on sale unannounced, but I checked the website regularly, and was able to pick up front row, way off to the side, tickets. I put out some feelers to our friends, and we would be able to get together with lots of people. Our personal itinerary was to fly into Philly on Valentine's Day night, see Angela and Kathy on Thursday day, dinner with Dian and Tina and family before the Thursday show. Visit with Debbie and Susan and families on Friday, then drive up to Connecticut to see Jon again. Saturday, we'd drive back to Philly, dinner with Linda. Fly home Sunday afternoon. Not much time in Philly, but lots of Jon.

It snowed. Lots. The day we were supposed to fly out. Half the flights into Philly got cancelled. We didn't have a direct flight, but we were able to take an earlier flight into Chicago - it would give us more chances of being able to reach our destination. Linda says I have good concert travel karma - we got the earlier flight and it arrived in Philly early.

The snow did change our plans. Angela and Kathy had to cancel. Roy and I walked to the South Street diner for breakfast and then took the El to Penn. Walked around campus for a bit and had lunch at Allegro's. It really wasn't too bad walking in the snow - I'd rather have this than ice anyday. We picked up the rental car and drove out to the Keswick.

Dian, Tina, and we were all late. It took forever to get up Broad Street. But we all got there around the same time. As usual, I couldn't wait to be there already. Dinner was good conversation with nice people. And then, our reason to be here.

I bumped into a few more people inside the Keswick, but none that I really wanted to see. One I actively try to avoid. I got my bottled water, program, and got to my seat. whew. We made it. My only disappointment was not seeing Philly friends that were at the last Jon Keswick show - especially Mark and Bill.

The show had a great setlist, with some true rarities. Since the night before's concert had been cancelled due to the bad weather, this was Jon's premiere live performance of one Yes song from 1971. Jon sang on about 2/3 of the songs, the rest were sung by vocalists from the School of Rock - girl vocalists, because they could hit Jon's notes! And so could Jon, his voice is so amazing.

Jon sang A Venture (first time ever), No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (first time since 1970 and it was the show highlight for me), Give Love Each Day, Long Distance Runaround, Roundabout, All Good People, Yours Is No Disgrace, America, Starship Trooper, Owner, Time and a Word. The School of Rock also did We Have Heaven (all those layers of vocals completely live. Yes can't even do that), South Side of the Sky, Clear Days, Siberian Khatru, The Fish,... Going for the One was really cool. The girl singing was doing a fine job, and then Jon came out and did backing vocals for it.

There were 24 SOR musicians, switching off between songs. The violinist was just awesome - such stage presence for a high school student! They rearranged The Fish to play the main riff on the violin instead of bass guitar, and she was all over No Opportunity. A guitarist did Steve Howe's two usual solo pieces - Clap and Mood for a Day.

Tina's daughter Sara was in the audience, and she really enjoyed seeing people her own age up on stage. After the show, she went around getting autographs from all the kids.

The previous times I'd been to a concert there at the Keswick, the bands did meet and greets afterwards. I never had to hang out to meet someone. But Jon wasn't coming out for autographs. Tina showed me where to wait outside. The SOR kids were coming in and out of backstage with their equipment, so we congratulated them. I didn't know if Jon had left already or not. It was freezing out and I was wearing my long wool coat with a ski jacket over it. We were really only there about 15 minutes when Jon came out. There were only half a dozen fans waiting for him.

Jon was going to get into his car. Didn't he see us? I think one of the other women with us called him over. He was in a really good mood. The first woman walked over and gave him a hug and a kiss. I thought that was a bit too forward - I never invade his space like that, but follow his lead. He posed for a couple pictures with people. When he saw me, he made eye contact, and took my hand in his. "Good to see you again." He had gloves on. We told him we'd be at the show the next night as well. I think we were the only people he recognized. He stayed chatting for a few more minutes. Roy asked him about the song selection. I can't remember Jon's response, but I think it was that it was hard to relearn all these old songs. He hugged another woman, and then the first woman said something about Jon hugging all the girls. So he walked over and gave me a hug too.