Joedude
11-24-2002, 10:59 AM
Surpise, surprise!!! I open the Saturday Chicago Tribune, get to the Weekend section, and there on the first page is a picture of Jon Anderson!!! Since the Trib tends to force you to subscribe in order to get back articles (including from yesterday's paper), I thought I'd type this in. As soon as I get a chance, I'll see if a scan of Jon's picture will come out.
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Yes on roll with '70's rock
Vigorous group puts positive spin on prog-rock
by Rick Reger (special to the Tribune)
You can chalk it up to longevity or you can chalk it up to album sales. But no matter how you gauge sucess, the band Yes stands as the quintessential symbol of '70's progressive rock.
Yes also merits that distinction because its music embodies what made prog-rock so exciting and so reprehensible. And both facets of the group's sound were displayed during Yes' well-attended set at the Chicago Theatre Thursday night.
The show was particularly exciting for the fans because it found Yes' classic mid-70's lineup-vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White-reunited with flamboyant keyboardist Rick Wakeman. During the set opener, "Siberian Khatru", Wakeman - in a glittering cape, of course - ad the fans on their feet by bouncing among his keyboards to contribute fast, fluid string textures, harpsichord runs, squiggly synthesizer lines and steamy organ chords.
Yes filled the first hald of its generous 2-1/2 hour performance with newer material, which occasionally rocked, occasionally dazzled but often simply billowed like so much artsy stage smoke. Anderson may have traded in his white robe for "earthier" lavender sweats, but his fondness for New Age Muzak often undermines the band's newer material.
One longer, recent piece began with a syripy piano ballad that could have served as the title song to a Meg Ryan movie, while "Don't Kill the Whale" came off as an earnest but melodically punchless anthem that should have been harpooned years ago.
In one of the evening's genuinely charming moments, a children's choral group from Lincolnwood was asked to join Yes on stage for an accoustic rendition of "Nine Voices (Longwalker)" after members of the band overheard the choir singing one of its songs.
Yes eventually tapped into what made it famous with "South Side of the Sky", a craggy, jagged rocker that the band dusted off and delivered with all the rough-edged enery that marked Yes' best early work. The song bristled with the crunchy riffing and prickly fills o reinvigorated guitarist Howe, whose specially rigged guitar stands enabled him to move from electric to acoustic to lap steel axes.
But what truely kept Yes from going over the edge into a mystic pastel mist was its rhythm section. Bassist Squire still wields his trademark Rockenbacker like a thunder stick, and drummer White looked and played like he's still got some unresolved issues of youth coursing through his veins.
The power with which White, Howe and Squire pounded out the ascending/descending riff that opened "Heart of the Sunrise" provided a stunning contrast to Anderson's angelic, clarion singing during the song's wistfully beautiful verses and choruses.
Yes' set also mingled riveting renditions of long-form epics "Close to the Edge" and "Awaken" among sometimes self-indulgent individual soloing. In so doing, it captured both the band's and the prog-rock movement's yin and yang of innovative fusion and famous virtuosity.
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Not bad positioning in the paper. The picture and article were the headline on page one of this section. However, Saturday is usually the least-sold paper.
**************************************************
Yes on roll with '70's rock
Vigorous group puts positive spin on prog-rock
by Rick Reger (special to the Tribune)
You can chalk it up to longevity or you can chalk it up to album sales. But no matter how you gauge sucess, the band Yes stands as the quintessential symbol of '70's progressive rock.
Yes also merits that distinction because its music embodies what made prog-rock so exciting and so reprehensible. And both facets of the group's sound were displayed during Yes' well-attended set at the Chicago Theatre Thursday night.
The show was particularly exciting for the fans because it found Yes' classic mid-70's lineup-vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White-reunited with flamboyant keyboardist Rick Wakeman. During the set opener, "Siberian Khatru", Wakeman - in a glittering cape, of course - ad the fans on their feet by bouncing among his keyboards to contribute fast, fluid string textures, harpsichord runs, squiggly synthesizer lines and steamy organ chords.
Yes filled the first hald of its generous 2-1/2 hour performance with newer material, which occasionally rocked, occasionally dazzled but often simply billowed like so much artsy stage smoke. Anderson may have traded in his white robe for "earthier" lavender sweats, but his fondness for New Age Muzak often undermines the band's newer material.
One longer, recent piece began with a syripy piano ballad that could have served as the title song to a Meg Ryan movie, while "Don't Kill the Whale" came off as an earnest but melodically punchless anthem that should have been harpooned years ago.
In one of the evening's genuinely charming moments, a children's choral group from Lincolnwood was asked to join Yes on stage for an accoustic rendition of "Nine Voices (Longwalker)" after members of the band overheard the choir singing one of its songs.
Yes eventually tapped into what made it famous with "South Side of the Sky", a craggy, jagged rocker that the band dusted off and delivered with all the rough-edged enery that marked Yes' best early work. The song bristled with the crunchy riffing and prickly fills o reinvigorated guitarist Howe, whose specially rigged guitar stands enabled him to move from electric to acoustic to lap steel axes.
But what truely kept Yes from going over the edge into a mystic pastel mist was its rhythm section. Bassist Squire still wields his trademark Rockenbacker like a thunder stick, and drummer White looked and played like he's still got some unresolved issues of youth coursing through his veins.
The power with which White, Howe and Squire pounded out the ascending/descending riff that opened "Heart of the Sunrise" provided a stunning contrast to Anderson's angelic, clarion singing during the song's wistfully beautiful verses and choruses.
Yes' set also mingled riveting renditions of long-form epics "Close to the Edge" and "Awaken" among sometimes self-indulgent individual soloing. In so doing, it captured both the band's and the prog-rock movement's yin and yang of innovative fusion and famous virtuosity.
**************************************************
Not bad positioning in the paper. The picture and article were the headline on page one of this section. However, Saturday is usually the least-sold paper.