Vol. 5, No. 14 - November 1998
YES LIVE IN BUDAPEST.
Budapest, Turkey Television Broadcast.
1 Hour long with no interruptions.
Set list:
Wonderous Stories
Owner of the Lonely Heart
The Revealing Science of God
I've Seen All Good People
Roundabout
Starship Trooper
As we all know Rick Wakeman had left the band only months before the new tour due to some type of conflict. After seeing Yes live in Milwaukee last October, I walked away feeling cheated with Yes' current keyboard replacement, Igor Khoroshev, a native of Moscow Russia. My very first impression of Igor was not good at all and left me saying all types of things about him that would not be proper for TATW's family dinner table reading. Mostly my anger stemmed from the fact that Igor was turned down so low in the mix I didn't hear a note he played. It was as if I was
listening to Yes without a keyboard player at all. It left a very stale taste in my mouth. However, seeing Yes once again last July I could here Igor very well and found him to be an incredible technician and a rather remarkably good fit for Yes' blend of classically oriented rock n' roll.
Even more ear opening was listening to him on my stereo while watching the Budapest TV appearance. Igor was truly impressive on this show. In fact he was the only thing impressive on this show!! I was amazed at his rendition of Wonderous Stories, and it seemed like Yes couldn't keep up with him during The Revealing. I must point out though that the mix had Igor turned WAY up, too much even. He was the star of the show! In fact Steve was a bit too low but not too bad, and Chris was so low he could have stayed in his hotel sleeping and not bothered showing up. Jon
sounded fine and was wearing his new half-day beard. In fact, the whole dichotomy of the band is weird to see on TV now. You have Igor who looks young enough to be in "Hanson". Then the camera cuts to Steve Howe who, in comparison, looks like the Crypt Keeper from "The Tales from The Crypt."
Best songs played were of course, Wonderous Stories & RSOG, as there has never been any live TV footage of these songs. So it was quite a treat. Roundabout was a gas too with Igor playing with one hand while clanging a cowbell and bongo with the other. I'm telling you he blew me away, he sounded great!!! I take back every rotten, nasty thing I ever said about him. And the visuals were good too with the hyperspace and other cool effects under the tent! Interesting that Steve did all the guitar parts in OOTLH leaving Billy Sherwood to do... to do... to do... Does anybody know what Billy is supposed to do? He doesn't seem to do much at the shows at all. He did a short guitar lead in "Starship" but it didn't really add anything. On the other hand, he doesn't really take anything away either.
All in all, it's a nice show. Their age seems to show a bit more on TV compared to TV footage from the Union tour where they all still seemed to be hopping around the stage creating hi-energy rock-n-roll. You can really see how they don't move around much anymore and how truly old they look. Steve also totally screwed up during "Starship" and Chris shrugged it off. But, for the most part they still can make it happen! It was great fun to watch! Don't forget Igor, who stole the show with his brilliant keyboard
playing, youthful appearance, and help from his buddy at the soundboard!
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YES ON HARDROCK LIVE, VH1 U.S. Cable TV
20 minutes long (commercials excluded).
Set list:
Roundabout
Owner of the Lonely Heart
I've Seen All Good People
There was a lot of exciting buzzing around the web about this appearance on a popular national US TV station. All which came to a crashing halt after the show aired in July. People who attended the taping told about YES playing an hour long set including a couple new tracks from "Open Your Eyes." And the show "Hardrock Live" usually features 1 hour of live music from their featured band. However, for Yes they ended splitting the show in half with The Moody Blues. Leaving YES with only 3 live tracks. Much to everyone's disappointment, they didn't feature "Close to The
Edge", "The Revealing", or "Siberian Khatru." Instead they played it safe and chose YES' Hit staples. Except for a few letters of grief after the show aired, not much was said about it from fans on the web.
I'll have to say though, the live performance of "Roundabout" was pretty daring when you think about it. And "Roundabout" is progressive rock at it's finest. Think when the last time a live YES performance was featured on NATIONAL U.S. TV? Would the answer be NEVER? Pretty close actually. They never appeared on The Midnight Special or Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Yessongs was aired in the early days of cable TV, on a show called Nightflight, but not many people had cable back in the early 80's. The biggest one was the 1989 ABWH Pay-Per-View special, and we had to pay to see that, if we were able to order it! There was a 5 minute David Letterman appearance in 1994 featuring a song from "Talk". But other than that, mostly only a few short local TV appearances and an MTV Documentary in 1991. All other Live footage comes from other countries or Japanese Laser Discs. So this was the first major U.S. TV appearance in 9 years and
the only one from the OYE tour. I'm amazed they were on VH1 at all! I have never seen VH1 show any YES videos. So why are fans complaining?
The performance itself was quite good. With a very professional TV production that blew The Budapest show away. The Mix was perfect, the camera angles exciting and the small venue gave the band a very special energy. In fact, in comparison with The Moody Blues, who played during the first half an hour, Yes seemed a lot younger and full of life. Not to mention they played all their own instruments. Where as The Moody's had a back-up drummer & keyboard player to pump up the sound. Everyone in YES was dressed up for the show. Steve Howe in a hip bright Blue shirt similar to something he wore in Asia. Jon was dressed casual, and Chris
was wearing his long-tail Yes jacket. The cameras were buzzing around Steve so much, you really didn't notice he was just standing there. And Billy Sherwood... he was... he was... Well, Billy was still being Billy. Often looking confused and hoping they'll need him to play something soon.
Maybe we complain because we so rarely get live progressive music on TV, that this just isn't enough? Making us greedy and wanting more and more. We were limited to only 20 minutes of music, and with YES that means only a few songs. I believe the problem actually was that they opened the show with Roundabout, which was the strongest song. Then put "Owner" in the middle and ended the show with "All Good People" which most hard-core YES fans hate, and those are hardly Progressive at all. If the set list was in reverse, I think we all would have been much happier at the shows
end. In all though, we shouldn't complain. It was good exposure for YES. Think about how many people must have been flipping through channels and came across YES playing "Roundabout" in their living room. Let's stop complaining people! It is truly a triumph for Progressive Rock to be aired on VH1! One might even say... it's a "Wonderous Story."
Martin Kornick
Chicago, U.S.A.
Write me at: treasures@interaccess.com