So, two days ago, I went to see Yes play on thier In the Present tour at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, PA. As thier opening act, they had Asia, since Steve Howe was in both bands. All I have to say is I was TOTALY AMAZED! Most prog fans consider Asia a disgrace of sappy pop by prog greats, but this concert proved that's not true. As for Yes, they were fantastic.
Asia has a 9 song set, and I can't really tell you everything that was on it since I'm not familiar with thier distography. The Asia origonals sounded really good, but the higlights were songs from the member's former carrers. For Geoff Downes, they played "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. John Wetton got "In the Court of the Crimson King", which initially struck me as odd, seeing he wasn't in King Crimson till 4 albums after In The Court. Then I saw why: Ian McDonald came out to guest on flute! For Carl Palmer, they played "Fanfare for the Common Man", with a fan-tastic drum solo. Honestly, in both bands, Carl was the best player all night. Wetton and Downes played really energetically too. Steve Howe looked like he wasn't too in to it, since he probably wanted to get on to the Yes set. Overall, good stuff.
As for Yes itself, I was blown away. Since Jon Anderson is sick with resperatory problems, Benoit David of Montreal Canada got to be vocalist, and since Rick Wakeman more or less comes and goes in and out of Yes as he pleases, his son Oliver did the 'boards. Then, of course, there was Howe, Squire and White. Chris Squire was the show stealer, moving around his part of the stage and really going at that bass with is distinctive pseudo- slap style. Howe was much more into the Yes stuff than Asia, and Alan White definatly preformed well on the drums. His solo can't hold a candle to Palmer's, but then again, not much can. David not only sounded very similar to Anderson, he looks like him, too! His perfomance was strong. Wakeman was sort of invisible compared to the other four, but did his job well. Here's the setlist, with asterisks next to songs done paticuarly well:
Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru*
I've Seen All Good People
Tempus Fugit*
Astral Traveller*/ Drum Solo
And You and I
Steve Howe Solo
Owner of a Lonely Heart
Machine Messiah
Roundabout
Heart of the Sunrise*
Starship Trooper* (Encore)
The best concert of my life. Be sure to catch them next time they come to town!
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