The Beacon Theater
New York City, New York
Thursday, October 30, 1997
Section Orchestra Left Center, Row Q, Seat 21
$50
Happy Birthday Roy!!!!
Zoey and I had a good day. The weather was beautiful. We traveled down to Manhattan and hung out with some new acquaintances. We walked around Greenwich Village and found Yes bootlegs and funky clothing shops. I would have preferred to go to the venue earlier, but we had a small group dinner before the show and took the subway to the Beacon.
I had slightly worse seats this night, about 17 rows back. Another guy from the ticket line was sitting next to me, much nicer and mellower than the previous night's. The crowd was awful though. I compared and contrasted with the relatively tame Philly crowd the week before. The next time I went to the Tower Theater, I realized it: the Tower did not have a liquor license back then. It made such a difference.
I moved up front in time for the stage rush. Mare made some room for me up by the stage and we were right in front of Jon for the encores. I noticed that Starship Trooper really went on too long. Everyone took a solo, and it seemed to lose the song in all the jamming. I didn't want the concert to be over, but it was kind of nice when the melody came back near the end of the song (and show).
In addition to the Yes Art exhibit, Yes was selling a new poster. It had a large Yes logo and words talking about the 25th anniversary of Close to the Edge (and the Yes logo). It came with the logo in blue or orange. Dian bought the blue one. Had I known the cover of Open Your Eyes album would be just that orange logo, I would have bought the blue one as well. It was an expensive poster, something like $25 and Mare teased me about spending the money on it. But just as I bought it, I saw Roger Dean standing by himself in the lobby. I walked over to him, and he remembered me from the night before. We walked over to an unused counter, where he opened the poster up and signed it for me. "For Rhea, Best wishes, Roger Dean".
I met up with my new friend Brian from Scotland again. We were standing outside and talking after the show. I think it was this night, we saw John Amick again. He had gotten an aftershow pass and had just left the backstage area. He pulled his access sticker off and handed it to me. The "backstage meet and greet" part of the evening was over, but I ran in and saw the band as they were leaving. Billy said hi to me.
For all the years he had been a Yes fan, Brian had never met them. But we knew where their exit was, so we walked in back of the theater again. Brian was so excited. He told Alan how he had come to New York from Scotland to see them. Alan seemed touched by this. He told Brian Yes was planning to play there in the next year. Watching Brian get excited by meeting these guys was just as special as getting to talk to them myself.
Jon was very nice to me again. He signed my new poster with a big signature. Chris signed it with, well, the sloppiest signature I've ever seen of his. Even though Alan did not play on Close to the Edge, he's been in the band since its release, and I asked him to sign it too. (On purpose, I did not ask Billy to sign it. He hadn't been in the band long enough to sign a 25th anniversary Yes logo poster.)
Brian now had a dilemma. He had planned to go to San Francisco as well at the end of the US tour. But those plans were made before he knew he'd get to see them in Europe. What should he do? I told him his "Brian's US Yes Tour T-shirt" which lists all the US shows he was planning to attend listed San Francisco, so that meant he had to go. Brian printed up a "Rhea's US Yes tour" shirt for me with my ten shows listed. I still have it. Ironically, Roy was going to be in San Francisco, so Brian would see him there, and that was possibly before I'd get to see Roy next. That day was Roy's birthday, and I missed him, but it felt nice being with a friend who knew Roy too.
Nine down, one to go. The same town and one more show!
No comments:
Post a Comment