Milwaukee - Shorter Set

[mikemiller35]

Am I first out of the gate? I live only a half-hour (on foot) away, so. . .

No intermission, no Parallels, no Soon.

That being said, it was a very strong opening (as I've already concluded about this tour) and momentum stayed high.

Benoit's vocal performance was as strong as ever but his onstage persona is flamey. (I'll go ahead and use that word because we all know the real story.) No intermission meant Ridiculous Outfit stayed on the whole show. I can't believe they decided he needed a makeover and changed. . .the haircut.

Oliver started off good, but I remain distracted by the, in part, ridiculous patches. There's one in CTTE (three notes right before the slammin' part) and one in Machine Messiah (also towards the end) that were especially jarring.

I guess the biggest surprise was Howe much SH's set did for me, especially the first piece. I always used to pretty much yawn through those. First two were new to me, and I've heard a lot of bootlegs in addition to the shows I've attended. The crowd seemed really respectful.

My background is about ten or so shows from 1997 though 2002. . .hard to do anything close to an A/B comparison, but this go-round seems really tight. I think generally I'm just disappointed by the decline of concert etiquette. I can't believe the amount of standing up and walking around. I think we, as a society, are at the point where we need ADD medication added to the drinking water! *LOL*

[Dramato]

Oh well, I thought it was only the casino dates where people were getting up and being rude.

And no Parallels or Soon--they are cutting out the mid-1970s, while still playing the whole CTTE album. Strange. Let's see what further set changes are in store.

[Fragyle Ladder]

They did a shorter set at the Cincinnati show as well on Friday night. I suspect it may have been because of the following post I saw a couple hours ago. I pasted it here for people to read. My heart goes out to Chris and the others in the band as I am sure they feel this loss quite deeply.

As posted by Steve Nardelli at Allgoodpeople.
net:

"I am very sorry to inform you that Nigel Luby passed away last night.



Nigel was an amazing recording engineer and sound man, considered by many as the finest in England. He was a close friend of Chris Squire and worked on some the great Yes albums, as well as the Francis Dunnery Fearless album and with many other iconic musicians including Pete Townshend. In 2005 he recorded the first Syn concert for 40 years at the Marquee club and through that I got to know him well, some times meeting up with him on Eel Pie Island, where he lived.



A very talented, kind and charming man, a great loss to his family and the world of music.

[big generator]

Enjoyed the show! My first time seeing this tour. I got lost twice on the way there (while Machine Messiah played on my MP3 player). Got to our seats on time. The ushers were literally running back and forth to get all the people to their seats by 8. Then, the show didn't start until 8:16. Don't know why. But as I've been reading every Yesfans concert review, I knew that as the minutes passed by with nobody on stage, they'd end up cutting songs. I was really looking forward to Machine Messiah. Thankfully they didn't cut that.

My impressions of Benoit:

I have a vocal background, and have been really worried to hear Benoit since there have been several discussions regarding his being out of tune. I thought it would ruin the concert for me. Well, I can honestly say, that to my ears he was very solid and stayed in tune. There were very brief bits at the start of Onward and during Your Move that were a tad off, but honestly, he was more consistantly in tune than just about any singer I've heard live. He did a fantastic job, and didn't struggle with the high notes. In fact there were a handful of notes that brought loud cheers from the audience when he nailed them. I think he was born with a strong woman's voice which I don't mean in a negative way. He doesn't sound like Jon, but he serves the songs well.

Oliver:

Oliver struck me as a strong sideman. He reminded me of the guy in the back of the stage during a Toto concert before David Paich left. (Paich would play all the main stuff, while this other nameless guy in the back would be there but you didn't really notice him until he bowed at the end). The songs all sounded full to me. I didn't hear any bad notes from him. But my attention was never drawn to him or his playing. He seemed to reproduce the songs faithfully without ever playing or doing anything that made me take notice. No complaints though.

Alan:

He seems to be in better physical shape than at the start of the tour. Enjoyed his performance!


Chris:

His bass was too loud as was his microphone. He's someone that needs to put a lot of breath and power behind his vocals to hit the notes. He should have been turned down accordingly. His bass made the place rattle, and the snare drums rattle. I loved his playing and his singing, but from my seat which was the middle of the main floor in the center, I heard too much of it. He had some harmony troubles as well in that he was singing some wrong notes in Astral and Roundabout. Maybe he wasn't feeling well. Still, he's great to watch. Everybody loves Chris.

Steve:

His playing was great as always, but I often couldn't hear it from my seat. Don't know why he was turned down. And his energy didn't seem to be any different from four years ago. Maybe he wasn't feeling well. But he only did his little dance moves and starnge glances into the audience 4 or 5 times all night.

I wasn't too upset about not hearing Parallels or Soon as I know how challenging Parallels is to play. Of all the songs they could've cut, I guess those were good choices. I would've preferred they cut all the solo's first, but it's not my decision.

Firebird: Since they were on late and I knew something was going to get cut, maybe this should have been axed. I love this dramatic standard intro, but they came out too soon, and were standing there for an eternity waiting for it to end.

Khatru: Good as always.

I've Seen All Good...: Rough start on the vocals. Then some drunk lady and her husband right in front of me stood up for the whole song while everybody else sat. Hard to enjoy the song that way. Thankfully, it was only one song.

Tempus: Very good. Better than on any youtube video I saw.

Onward: Beautiful; especially when Chris joins in. Benoit got cheers for his great high notes. Some drunk guy behind me yelled "You guys rock!" during the song.

Astral: Insrumentally, this was great. Loved the drum solo. Benoit's vocals were solid. Harmonies were not as solid.

Close to...: What an experience. The audience ate this up. I have to say that I enjoyed the clever changes the band made to this to make it more realistically singable. Normally, the first two "Seasons will pass you buy I get up" are structured so that the lead singer hits the very high note on "up" and then by the the third time, the chord is restructured so that it doesn't go quite so high. Wel, it seemed that they changed the chord the second time so it doesn't go quite so high. Then with a clever key modulation down near the end, the third time is in the same key as the second. I'll have to hear it again. Anyway, they did a wonderful job with it.

And You...: Very good. I though that from this point to the end, either I got used to Benoit completely or the songs were better for his voice, but I really thought he sounded totally natural on this one. Oh, Steve had a problem with one of his guitars. I didn't catch exactly what happened, but he swung to look at his tech guy, I heard a "twang" sound like a string breaking, his tech guy ran and gave him a new guitar and then everything conitnued just fine. He then gave a look to his tech and wiped his brow saying "whew." I think whatever happened to the guitar, it happened right at the end of the section so no real harm was done. But it was an exciting moment. Nothing like a live concert.

Steve's solos: Two numbers I can't name followed by Clap. It's funny that when he sat down to play, everybody hushed up, and some people even said "shhhhh." Everybody knows that Steve demands respect and he is treated as such. (I think Benoit is scared of him. He never stood very close to him during the whole concert.) The drunk guy behind me yelled "yeee hawww" during the second number Steve did. Good thing Steve didn't hear it.

Long Distance: I never enjoyed this song so much. It really is a crowd pleaser in the live setting, and Benoit sounded better on this than any other song.

Fish/Aliens: The Fish was entertaining as always. Chris is a fun guy to watch. I was suprised at how much I enjoyed Aliens. It was pleasant to listen to with nice piano and harmonies, and it was nice that Alan started in half way through as well. Incidentally, Benoit messed one harmony word and looked over at Chris confused. A nice midtempo song with an enjoyable melody.

Machine: This is what I came to see. They didn't disappoint. Steve's guitar wasn't quite loud enough, but I still enjoyed it. Oliver comes through the mix better on the Drama songs for some reason. The funniest part of the concert to me was when Benoit was putting his guitar away after the first verse so he could play tambourine. Well, the bottom of the guitar stand was tilted, so he couldn't get it on the stand correctly. He tried and tried and finally just left it on there nearly falling off. He continued to look back at it as he played and even looked backstage and laughed toward the guitar tech. It never did fall though. What I didn't expect was that Chris had the lead line on much of this with Benoit harmonizing lower. I'll have to listen to the original again to see if that's how it always was. Guess I'm not very observant.
Sounded great.

Starship: Another song that Benoit sounds very natural doing. Oliver's solo was pretty good. Steve's was great of course.

Owner: Someone turned off Benoit's microphone during the encore applause, so you couldn't hear him at the beginning of the song. He fiddled with it and eventually it started working. Then later someone ran out and gave him a new one, which then also didn't work at first. Funny. Why did they start this with a drum sample rather than having Alan play it? And during the middle "yow yow yow" part the whole thing seemed sampled including the keyboards. Reminded me of the unconvincing live "Leave It"

Roundabout: Great ,except for some harmony problems with Chris accidentally taking Benoit's part a few times and then looking at him apologetically.


Well, I had a great time! Can't wait for the next tour!

[big generator]

In my comments about the individual songs, the songs aren't listed in the order of the evening's set list. Sorry.

[jondeedotcom]

As posted by Steve Nardelli at Allgoodpeople.
net:

"I am very sorry to inform you that Nigel Luby passed away last night.



Is this true? If so, it's truly sad news. I met Nigel a lot over the years and he was a true gentleman.

---- that's bad news. Lovely lovely man.

[Bobby Dread]

Thanks everyone, for your impressions of the Milwaukee show.
I'm in a hotel in Bloomington, anticipating tonight's show!

There's a fairly significant snowstorm happening right now, so I'm hoping there's no weather-related issues for all concerned. I now remember why I moved south!!!!

[Red]

So does everyone think that intermissions are gone for the rest of the tour, along with Parallels and Soon? I have been dying to hear Parallels. Greensboro doesn't seem to have a curfew (time says 8 PM > ?)

[desiderata]

So does everyone think that intermissions are gone for the rest of the tour, along with Parallels and Soon? I have been dying to hear Parallels. Greensboro doesn't seem to have a curfew (time says 8 PM > ?)

Seems they have been changing things up from time to time--we had an intermission with Parallels and Soon in Cleveland, so you never know. Here's hoping they'll do everything you want on Friday--either way, you're in for a real treat!

[Dirk Gently]

Thanks everyone, for your impressions of the Milwaukee show.
I'm in a hotel in Bloomington, anticipating tonight's show!

There's a fairly significant snowstorm happening right now, so I'm hoping there's no weather-related issues for all concerned. I now remember why I moved south!!!!

Yeah, it's coming down quite hard! I didn't notice until my girlfriend (who will be hearing many of the songs for the first time ever tonight) texted me. I'm soooooo psyched for this show. It's my first time seeing Yes!

[desiderata]

Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts, big generator!

[GeddyRules]

God, I hope that doesn't happen in Greensboro. If they're gonna drop a couple, how's about OOALH and ISAGP.
"Parallels" hasn't been performed since 1980, for christ sake.

RIP, Nigel

[desiderata]

Yeah, it's coming down quite hard! I didn't notice until my girlfriend (who will be hearing many of the songs for the first time ever tonight) texted me. I'm soooooo psyched for this show. It's my first time seeing Yes!

Hope you'll stop by our humble forum afterwards and let us know what you thought--I have a sneaking suspicion you'll have a ball!

[Dondeh]

As posted by Steve Nardelli at Allgoodpeople.
net:

"I am very sorry to inform you that Nigel Luby passed away last night.



Is this true? If so, it's truly sad news. I met Nigel a lot over the years and he was a true gentleman.

---- that's bad news. Lovely lovely man.

Jon. Did you used to live in Stourbridge and run YesMusic mag?

[relayeire]

They did a shorter set at the Cincinnati show as well on Friday night. I suspect it may have been because of the following post I saw a couple hours ago. I pasted it here for people to read. My heart goes out to Chris and the others in the band as I am sure they feel this loss quite deeply.

As posted by Steve Nardelli at Allgoodpeople.
net:

"I am very sorry to inform you that Nigel Luby passed away last night.



Nigel was an amazing recording engineer and sound man, considered by many as the finest in England. He was a close friend of Chris Squire and worked on some the great Yes albums, as well as the Francis Dunnery Fearless album and with many other iconic musicians including Pete Townshend. In 2005 he recorded the first Syn concert for 40 years at the Marquee club and through that I got to know him well, some times meeting up with him on Eel Pie Island, where he lived.



A very talented, kind and charming man, a great loss to his family and the world of music.

hmm, no mention yet on Yesworld... his name is almost as familiar as Roger Dean, Eddie Offord and Michael Tait to Yesfans who've read their album jackets over the years - and I imagine that's most of us...

RIP Nigel...

[relayeire]

PS: still hoping for a full show in Clearwater!

[big generator]

Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts, big generator!

It was my pleasure. What a fun concert!

[zanerx]

God, I hope that doesn't happen in Greensboro. If they're gonna drop a couple, how's about OOALH and ISAGP.
"Parallels" hasn't been performed since 1980, for christ sake.

RIP, Nigel

Agree with you on OOALH, but AGP needs to stay due to Steve's solo! "Soon" can go, IMHO; I've heard it enough on recent tours. Don't ban or flame me anyone! It's beautiful, but can lay fallow for awhile.

[witeskyn7]

Yeah, it's coming down quite hard! I didn't notice until my girlfriend (who will be hearing many of the songs for the first time ever tonight) texted me. I'm soooooo psyched for this show. It's my first time seeing Yes!

Welcome to Yesfans!
There's sooo much to enjoy here.

The 1st concert I saw of Yes was back in 1980
and they Rocked!

Be prepared, By the time the concert concludes, you'll want to hear even more!

I hope you both Enjoy!

[relayeire]

Be prepared, By the time the concert concludes, you'll want to hear even more!

judging by the shrinking set list, I'm certain that's true...