35th Anniversary Tour Celebrating 35 Years Of Yes In One Magical Night
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Anthony Anselmo:

My evening started off with me trying to find the pre-show meeting spot. (Damn was it muggy up in Cleveland.) I have never been to preshow get-to-gether, but I was pleasantly surprised. After I arrived and I was introduced to the webmaster of yesfans.com, I got my own official name tag (insert typical Jon whoo! here). I ended up meeting some extremely nice people, even one individual named Matt who shared the same love for Genesis as I did. Very cool get together and very amazing to see so many people just get together and talk with perfect strangers, like they where long lost friends, just from having common musical tastes.

I arrived at Blossom and as I walked in I caught someone playing Genesis's Afterglow. Funny I thought as I just was discussing Wind and Wuthering with people. After a quick bathroom break I sat down in row 5 from the stage, right smack dab in the middle.

Now here's where some of the complaints go, because after I sat down some other gentlemen came down during the Dream Theater show. They basically had tickets for some other area, but where going to try and sit down up front. As the evening progressed they kept moving from seat to seat, hoping that an individual would not show up at the concert tonight, so they should steal a seat. While they were very nice and where extremely polite to me, I found this a bit unfair for those who did arive late during the Dream Theater production. The one guy (althought once again very nice) was on his fifth beer probably, and offered me a Vicadin. I politely declined. Needless to say as people rolled in they kept moving from seat to seat. While I understand that ability to say 'Hey if someone shows up let's sit there'. I found this seat-hopping method I bit un-moral.

Dream Theater came on exactly at 7:30. Now I only know these guys from covers they do of other bands (Genesis, Yes, Kansas etc...) But needless to say I was quite impressed with their set. They defintely sounded like a combination of Rush and Genesis. The keyboardist was on a revolving keyboard which was cool because he could turn around and show you what he was playing. The guitarist was AWESOME and the songs they played created a whole atmopshere that was incredible. The only complaint is that the lead singer who always just looked pissed off, was very hard to hear at times. But I blame that on the lack of acustics at Blossom. (He also was just dresssed BAD, blue jeans???)

After the intermission they pulled up the black curtain, strung up the giant balloons and rearranged the instruments. As typical they started with Firebird Suite, and then the curtains came down, Yes strolled out and broke into Going for the One. Jon and Steve seemeded in high spirits, while Alan and Chris seemed a bit tired. And Rick, well does Rick always seem to be jumping from keyboard to keyboard like a mad man, or is it just me?

Perfect rendition of Going for the One. From my experience last time at Blossom in 2002, the band was very unevenly mixed, with Rick very hard to hear at times (power went out right before the show). Here the sound was much much better, but Rick was hard to hear until Close to the Edge, (again). I've noticed as I went to the bathroom that the sound changes depending on where you are in the theater.

After Going for the One they went into Sweet Dreams which gave us a glismp of the Robo-kicks (unforuantely they didn't play Mind Drive tonight so I never got to see the kicks up close ARGH). Once again perfect rendition.

They next went into I've Seen All Good People with the full intro included. The crowd went nuts, and at this point people where trying to figure out should we sit up or stand. Some people had their hands in the air with the peace symbol during the song.

Next was America, which I have to saw Steve performed flawlessly. Tonight he was right on the ball with every lick and note, just as percise as the guy from Dream Theater. Althought here it was made apparent to me that Cleveland people can't be quite for soft sequences (shut up and just enjoy the music already, you don't have to be the guy that shouts out during the quite parts all the time!)

With a huge crash next came Close to the Edge and everyone went nutz. Perfectly done, every lyric right, we couldn't have asked for more.

A small interlude with Steve playing the Clap helped to allow the technicals to bring out the acoustic instruments. Steve played this flawlessly as well and everyone clapped along (although I could have heard Masquerade again, I've heard the Clap enough times.)

The band did Long Distance Runaround, which got off track somewhere in the song. Jon stopped them and everyone slowly came to crawl smiling and looking at Jon. He said "We made it mistake, its okay, alright ready one two three" and broke into it again. Very cute but I have to tell you it seems that this cute joke is happening way too often now.

Before the Acoustic version of Roundabout, Chris started telling a story to which he said something to the effect of "You know I sometimes tell these stories and feel (mumbled). so maybe I should just be quiet." The crowd went "NOOO!!" and he smiled and started to tell a story. During his story Jon juggled, and Rick read a newspaper which was really funny.

Acoustic Wonderous Stories and Owner of a Lonely Heart weregreat as well. You could tell Steve REALLY hates playing this song though.

The crew took Rick and his piano and rolled him towards the back. As he rolled Rick played an exit song and waved to the crowd, to which everyone yelled "BYE RICK!". After Jon did his usual "Your so great thank you for coming" comments the band broke into Any You and I. It seemed that Rick just got back to the other side, and got the keyboards together just in time for the creshendo. With Chris Squire's amazing bass, Rick soaring keyboards and Steve's great guitaring playing a perfect job here as well.

Now here's where the evening got funny. Jon started at various points walking around the stage throwing his hands up in the air. I can't tell if he was a) amazed at the big ballons, b) telling people to get up or c) tellint the crew to turn it up, but he seemed to be doing the Peter Gabriel Sledgehammer dance at times. At the end of And YOu and I (which they almost had another New York Incident cause everyone was clapping just before the end.) it looked like they where going to walk off stage and come back on for Awaken as an encore. Rick however started to play Awaken to which Jon made the motion for him to "cut". However it was too late and Rick had already played the famous notes and Jon sorta looked pissed. Rick looked like a deer in headlights for some reason and then realized "oh poop" afterwards.

They broke into Awaken as the rest of the members hurried to get into positions. Awaken was fantastic, with Jon hitting every note and this time I could definetly hear Rick's keyboards a lot better. This was ten times better than their 2002 performance. During the middle section, fake fire lamps with strobe lights came on and totally created a mood and atmosphere with Rick on keyboards.

At the end Jon jumped in a bit early, walked around and re-started the first verse. He was either frustrated, tired or both. But I could defintely tell something was up. Rick came out at the end and helped Chris with his guitar and gave him a hug. You could tell he said "sorry!" and then he came over to Jon, put his hand on his shoulder and said "sorry" but Jon either was a) pissed b) too into the crowd) or c) didn't want to a big deal over it.

They came out, did Every Little Thing as the encore, which I have to say was sub-par, but then at the end when they took a bow, none of them put arms around each other. This was either a) armpit smells or b) just tired or c) uh-oh everyone's pissed at each other. Needless to say they seemed very open and thankful to the crowd. Jon went around even and shook everyone's hands in the front row.

How I drove back two hours after the show being extermely tired and overwhelmed and made it, is beyond me, but needless to say it was a flawless performance with amazing talent and a fantastic visual representation. A great evening with wonderful people, new friends, great music and more. As a Yes fan this was the best concert I've seen yet and I continued and amazed that these old guys can produce such an amazing vision of sight and sound.

Just hope they aren't fighting again... (stay together guys!)

Great show in the Cuyahoga Valley last night. The guys leaned heavy on the albums CTTE and GFTO. Mind Drive was eliminated from the set, to make room for CTTE. South Side was also axed. The fellas seemed relaxed and loose, but the performance was tight. The mix was suprisingly good for this venue, though Rick coulda been turned up a little. Chris botched a bass note during the acoustic version of Long Distance Runaround, and Jon, laughing, called the whole thing to a halt: "We made a mistake! Whoooo! I love it! I'm excited!" Then they started back up again, tacking on an extra verse at the end to compensate. America was back in the set, and they encored with Every Little Thing (switching back from YiND from the previous show). The pavilion was near capacity, and a bunch of stragglers dotted the lawn. Everyone seemed to dig the show; the crowd was very responsive and the band must have tapped some of that energy. I know that some fans don't dig the Roger Dean inflatables, but from the lawn it looked great, and the lighting people did a wonderful job--it was the most unique, strange and beautiful stage I've ever seen--great colors! Here's the set as best I can remember: Firebird, GFTO, Sweet Dreams, ISAGP, America, CTTE, Clap, Long Distance, Roundabout, Wonderous Stories, Owner, AYAI, Awaken, Every Little Thing. Opening act Dream Theater played an accurate six-minute instrumental version of Machine Messiah. A magical night.

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