Search - Anderson Bruford Wakeman & Howe :: Evening of Yes Music Plus

A few flaws on an otherwise stellar performance

WithPalmInHand | a cold, dank basement | 08/07/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the version to get. I was listening to this CD with a friend who got all upset and yelled, "Hey wait! My CD doesn't have Starship Troopers!" Indeed, we checked and there are two separate versions of the recording available on CD. Make sure that the one you purchase has "Starship Troopers". It is easily the high point of the album.The negatives: -Chris Squire is sorely missed. His creative bass playing as well as his vocals would have made this fine concert even better. He is one of the few electric bass players that doesn't merely fade into the background. His distinctive voice would have enriched the harmonies.-Bill Bruford has spent way too much of his career trying to remind everyone that he is a percussionist and not a drummer. Fine, we understand. Now please throw away your electronic drum set! Some of the more powerful moments in the recording are given a coat of cheese when he bangs on these things!-Teakbois(This studio version of this song was painful enough!)-Owner of a Lonely Heart(I can only guess that Howe decided that he'd trash this Rabin tune.)The positives: -Incredibly clear recording job. -Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe are clearly at the top of their game.-Most of the songs are energized by lively performance making them accessible to anyone who enjoys great music.-This is a very long recording and provides hours of good listening.Don't let my criticisms stop you from purchasing this great set of CDs. There is so much good happening on this album that it makes the bad stuff a little more conspicuous."

ABWH plays Yes music.

K. L. Woomer | 06/13/1998

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Although former Yes members Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe are generally recognized as being the best players of their respective instruments in the rotating lineup history of British progressive rock band Yes, they were not allowed legally to use that name while creating their studio album and going on this tour. Due to legal questions to difficult to explain here, bassist and founding member Chris Squire retained the rights to the name Yes in the late nineteen-eighties and refused to give his blessing to a project in which he was not a participant. The subsequent result was the band traveling under their own names for a round the world arena tour. Bill Bruford brought along bassist Tony Levin from King Crimson to perform on both the album and tour. By all accounts he did remarkably on the ealry half of the tour. He was briefly stricken with a serious illness at the time this recording was made at a live pay-per-view event near San Jose California. Brought in to replace him on short notice was another long time Bruford session buddy, bassist Jeff Berlin. Berlin pulls off a pretty good job in spite of only having a few days to learn all of the material for the two and a half hour show. Yet, there are moments in which Levin - or for that matter Squire's presence is missed, particularly on the tricky bass riff opening to 'Heart of The Sunrise'.The other performances are quite good. Jon Anderson's voice rings with clarity during a vocal melody opening the concert. Steve Howe's playing is on target, particularly on long time favorites such as 'And You And I' and 'Roundabout'. Meanwhile Rick Wakeman amazes the crowd with frequent, lightning fast solo melodies. Bill Bruford continues to be an impressive drummer, but it is disappointing that he insists on using an all electronic drumpad set for this concert.The only other negative about this concert were te poor vocal harmonies. Anderson carries the load, with weak backings from Howe and the session mu! sicians. Although Chris Squire was probably not in any shape to contribute with good new material to this project, his high-range backing harmonies are clearly missed on this 2 cd album."

Sans Starship Trooper!!??

K. L. Woomer | San Antonio Texas | 04/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, I love reading these reviews on Amazon... sometimes you realize something that you didn't before... Like the fact that I didn't have Starship Trooper on this recording... nor did I know that other people did, nor did I realize that this CD had two versions. ODD indeed... now I am going to attempt to find the copy of the song from this CD. iTunes don't fail me now. 99 cents for a long song is quite a deal. I also didn't realize that Tony Levin was not playing here.. very interesting.



Anyway, I love this CD. The songs are as tight as they can be for Live YES MUSIC (this stuff is complicated, and I saw them on this tour back in 89 -with Tony playing) So, the songs are great, and if you buy this CD I suppose you already know the songs, or are already familiar with YES. If you don't know anything about YES, this is not a bad way to start out, although I would recommend purchasing Fragile/Close to The Edge/Relayer/Tales from Topographic Oceans, then this.



The only trouble I have with this release (other than getting robbed of an apparently great version of Starship Trooper) is the fact I felt the bass playing was very weak... the bass was desperatley needed on the ABWH CD as well.. but learning that Tony Levin was not with them on this live recording explains a lot. That is the only problem I have with this CD.. and filling in the shoes of Chris Squire and Tony Levin must have been tough stuff on two days practice. Lets just say that was impossible for Jeff Berlin to really do convincingly.



ALL in all, a good cd, with excellent playing on the part of Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe.



If you like YES, you will enjoy this pleasently long Cd.



Have fun"