Yes' vocalist was recommended by childhood friend Taylor Hawkins. Photo: Kelly A. Swift, for the Register
Set list: Yes at the Orpheum Theatre
Close to the Edge: Close to the Edge / And You and I / Siberian Khatru
Going for the One: Going for the One / Turn of the Century / Parallels / Wonderous Stories / Awaken
The Yes Album: Yours Is No Disgrace / Clap / Starship Troopers / I’ve Seen All Good People / A Venture / Perpetual Change
Encore: Roundabout
Regardless how many aesthetic-shifting phases and lineup permutations these particular prog-rock legends have undergone in more than four decades of work, one thing has remained constant: Yes never says no to big ideas.
Grandiose designs, epic pieces that eat up entire sides of vinyl, banks of keyboards and drum sprawls that take up more stage space than your average punk band requires – this most unfairly vilified of the excessively progressive groups that rose to popularity in the early ’70s rarely comes across an outsized concept it doesn’t like.
But Wednesday’s nearly three-hour show at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles was an altogether riskier proposition.
A year ago Yes announced it had replaced original vocalist Jon Anderson’s replacement, Benoît David, with a relative nobody out of Laguna Beach named Jon Davison. Plucked from tribute band Roundabout (and still frontman for another prog outfit, Glass Hammer), he’s a childhood friend of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who strongly recommended the singer to founding bassist Chris Squire, the only constant in Yes’ lengthy career.
After easing Davison into the role with retrospective shows last summer, however, the band has now baptized him in deep prog waters. While downsizing their choice of venues (the 2,000-capacity Orpheum is the norm) they have upsized sets by performing not one but three classics: The Yes Album, their defining 1971 breakthrough; Close to the Edge, arguably the group’s zenith, from 1972; and the underrated Going for the One, a return-to-form after the lambasted double-disc disarray Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) and its good-not-great follow-up, Relayer (1974).
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO
 | Union (Standard DVD) DVD - £9.99 |
 | Union (2CD) 2CD - £7.99 |
 | Rock Of The 70's DVD - £12.99 |
 | The Lost Broadcasts DVD - £7.99 |
| Rock of the 70s DVD - £9.99 |
No comments:
Post a Comment