Yes to prog rock: When the seat on the live performance is extra necessary than the music | EUROtoday

SEven as a younger progster you needed to determine: Are you extra Team Genesis or Team Yes, i.e. extra aggressive-romantic or extra esoteric-many? I've all the time been a Genesis man. But we're not into soccer, so after all I've been going to Yes for many years. I've all the time had no expectations, by no means been disenchanted, relatively been pleasantly stunned repeatedly.

It wasn't really easy within the Berlin Theater at Potsdamer Platz. Rock music, particularly loud and reside and on stage, wants house for motion. A drum bridge positioned exactly in the suitable place within the air, and the arms generally, should fly if there’s something to be emphasised within the textual content or music.

And after all there's quite a lot of that in progressive rock. You must also sing alongside, that's clear, reveal your lyrical certainty and connoisseurship. And really feel just a little sorry when the world ends once more.

But now you sit there, on the ground, row 11, seat 9, in plush pink cinema seating and combat with the person and lady subsequent to you for the suitable to armrests, like in financial system class on the aircraft to Crete.

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I don't fairly perceive why the 2 of them are right here, as a result of apparently what they need most is peace and quiet. How nearly all of the viewers reacts relatively reservedly to the truth that there are actual folks on stage. Well, it doesn't should be the expressive dance that some substance customers rejoice on the perimeters of the corridor. But it's so much nearer to this rock'n'roll factor than the neighbor's piqued seems to be at my drum arms.

Seated concert events are a sin in opposition to the spirit of reside concert events and needs to be banned. Basta. If you don't wish to stand for 2 hours, it is best to keep at dwelling and watch a BluRay. And for individuals who can't stand, there are a couple of rows of chairs within the again. It used to work too.

I imply: Steve Howe stands for over two hours, a 77-year-old hyperleptosome with out an oz. of physique fats and enviable health. Of course, he’s the reigning mega-genius of the present extremely gifted formation of Yes.

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Howe's enjoying, completely distinctive, is why most individuals are right here. He is aware of how good he’s, however in a likeable means. He's all the time teasing the viewers; he's by no means been way more inaccessible on stage.

The undeniable fact that Jay Schellen replaces the late Alan White, who was not too long ago severely affected by his struggling, makes Howe and Yes extra secure. There is once more extra room for improvisation and deviations – very good on the finish of “The South Side of The Sky”, when even singer Jon Davison made all types of drums mounted on the bells and that was a extremely colourful, free, chaotic yes-fiddle with three delayed climax.

The setlist on this tour is a complicated mixture of classics and requirements (however not: “Owner of a lonely heart”), a couple of gentle surprises and naturally the core of the night. “Tales from Topographic Oceans”, condensed into twenty minutes.

“Tales”, that four-page album that you simply as soon as indulged in to extra after which didn’t take heed to for a protracted, lengthy, very long time – three many years – since you not had the peace or in the long run even believed the critics who stated it for you pompous nonsense that was shattered by punk.

You can hear it once more now, intercourse along with your ex in your ears and abdomen, the hairs in your arms rise up each second, and the lyrics are nonetheless there. And, no, Yes aren’t a delicate hippie group with butterflies of their heads. The steel content material can simply compete with Metallica's black hit album.

All of this additionally wakes up the occupants of the pink sleep chairs within the theater. During the encores, “Roundabout” and the, as all the time, extremely informal “Starship Trooper,” a couple of viewers members rise up after which everybody stands up for the applause. It works.

That Yes magic once more: I shrugged my shoulders, was ready for failure, after which was taken in and captivated by this glorious music that burned itself into my mind stem after I was twelve or 13 years previous. What occurs is all the time the identical: for the subsequent three weeks I'll solely take heed to Yes. And then no extra. And then comes the subsequent tour.