Man they look old ( yeah I know, they are...and so are we but.. you know.
For anyone who missed it, it was a bit of a disappointment for me, but still not too bad.
It was Chris Squire, Alan White, and the new vocalist, Benoit David. Steve Howe and Oliver Wakeman did not appear. They jammed with 2 guitarists from “The Little Rockers,” which I would imagine was quite a thrill on “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” I really think that this wasn’t pre-planned, since they weren’t using their own instruments - Chris was playing Mike’s Tobias bass. Lauren Green was NOT playing, there was no keyboardist... Bummer. They didn’t quite get through the entire song before the show ended.
I’m not really sure how I feel about Yes replacing Jon Anderson for the “In the Present” tour, as it’s now known, vs the “40th Anniversary Tour,” which was canceled back in June. As I posted earlier, I do know that Jon Anderson’s feelings were badly hurt, as he expressed them on his web site. The guy seems to be pretty good, but there’s something not quite right to me about his vocals. But Yes has been without Jon on tours and albums before...
Anyway, it was nice to see Chris and Alan playing together again. And yes, they DO look old... Given that Chris is 60 and Alan is 59. And so am I. We are all getting old :-(. Jon is sidelined, as is Rick with a heart condition, and I recently heard the same about Carl Palmer (ELP and ASIA), having recently had heart surgery as well.
Finally, when introducing the three, Mike botched Chris’ name - BADLY! I believe that it was from nerves, since he had credited Chris as being a major influence on bass for him.
Mark