Sunday 31 August 2014

Album Format Plays to Yes’ Strengths

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Photo by Chase Stevens/ Erik Kabik Photography

Yes has taken the trend of bands playing entire albums in concert and perfected it. After playing three of their albums in full on last year’s tour, the prog-rock giants performed 1971’s Fragile and 1972’s Close to the Edge this time around, sandwiched around two tracks from their 2014 release Heaven & Earth. Starting with Close to the Edge, which was played in reverse order, guitarist Steve Howe showed he was in top form, closing “Siberian Khatru” with a blistering jazz-tinged solo, then following with the gentle acoustic intro to “And You and I,” on which he played three different guitars.

Some longtime fans still lament the 2008 dismissal of original vocalist Jon Anderson, but current singer Jon Davison, now in his third year with Yes, has firmly established himself as the band’s frontman. Not only a major contributor to the new material, Davison also asserted himself on the classic tracks, with a confident delivery and a powerful angelic voice that breathed fresh life into each song.

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