 |  | ||
YES 35th Anniversary Tour Allstate Arena Rosemont, IL Tuesday, May 4, 2004 By Jim Hillegonds & Lisa Sotiros
The 35th anniversary tour brings us the original YES lineup. Steve Howe on guitar, Rick Wakeman on keyboard, Alan White on drums, Chris Squire on bass, and Jon Anderson on vocals. Even though each member may be in their late-50s, they showed why they are among the best musicians to have ever graced a radio dial. There were a few exceptions to the rule of the set list. The show started with "I've Seen All Good People". Then proceeded with album renditions from their early albums YES, and Fragile. The band took a "tea break" as they called it and returned to perform an acoustic set. After performing "Long Distance Runaround", the band commented on old writing experiences in Switzerland. The next tune, "Roundabout", brought the crowd to it's collective feet. Then they proceeded to play "Be Good To Yourself" and a few other numbers which kept the momentum going strong as their graying, elder fans sought to recapture a piece of their youth by singing and dancing along with their rock heroes. To bring the stage back to the electrical set, Steve Howe performed an instrumental interlude in the vein of Robert Johnson blues, and played it in a classical style. But what got our attention the most was "Rhythm of Love". Anderson gets off the stage escorted by security, walks down the aisles through the crowd and sings the song which was the only one he performed off of their latter day album, Big Generator. The group proceeded to perform more songs off of the album Close to the Edge before calling it a night. They returned to encore with the very first song they ever recorded "Every Little Thing" by the Beatles delivered in true YES fashion. Fans there who were looking to hear YES to play only their "hits" were surely let down, but those who have been there for YES throughout their three-plus decades in popular music...saw a show of shows! The classic YES line-up doing classic YES songs...some not performed live in many years. They may have been at it for a long, long time, but YES clearly showed Chicago fans on this chilly May night, that they can still rock! | |||
Web Design By: All Rights Reserved © Hungry Mind Design2003 | |||
To begin with, if you are planning to see YES live for their hits, this special summer-long anniversary tour may not be for you. This particular YES show is geared towards those long loyal fans who made the British Prog-Rock band popular back in their early, formative days.