Guitarist Steve Howe says Yes to playing entire albums in concert

Howe even recently gave up his slot in the seven-year-old reunion of 1980s prog rock hitmaking group Asia to concentrate on the similarly reunited Yes, the classic band with which he sold nearly 10 million albums and had timeless hits such as "Roundabout" and "Owner of a Lonely Heart."

When Yes was working through ideas of what to do on its next tour, Howe says it was he who suggested performing complete albums. And when it came to deciding what albums to do, Howe says he was an advocate for the classic albums of the 1970s: "The Yes Album" from 1971, "Close to the Edge" from 1972 and "Going for the One" from 1977.

That will be the playlist when Yes stops April 7 at Sands Bethlehem Event Center.

"I said, Why don't we do some albums, 'cause we hadn't played a complete album on stage since 'Tales from Topographic Ocean' in '73," Howe says in a telephone call from a Chicago tour stop, amazed that his reference is now 40 years in the past.

He said the band — which includes bassist Chris Squire, drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes and new singer Jon Davison — decided on doing three discs.

"That's a complete show, as opposed to the one or two albums, which means you're going to play an album, but there's other things, other ingredients," Howe says. "This is a complete onslaught, if you like.

"I had a suspicion that people would like that, and the immediate reaction from promoters 

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