Yes - Live From House Of Blues
Performance
Production
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Yes - Live From House Of Blues
Performance
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Live From House Of Blues was the first of the four Yes concert DVDs that they have released since 2000, and it is my personal favorite of the bunch, although Symphonic Live is equally brilliant. This DVD presents Yes performing at the Las Vegas House Of Blues club in support of their excellent 1999 album, The Ladder, which was more of a return to form of the classic progressive Yes sound than their previous few albums. The band lineup for this show, and for the recording of The Ladder, was a great one - Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White, with Igor Khoroshev on keyboards, and Billy Sherwood on guitar and vocals. I was hoping to see this particular Yes incarnation stay together for the duration, but Khoroshev and Sherwood departed soon after this tour. Khoroshev is an excellent young keyboardist who effortlessly handled Wakeman and Kay's complex noodlings on the keys...OK, maybe some of Wakeman's parts required LOTS of effort. Sherwood allowed them to play more of their 80's material by closely matching the Trevor Rabin guitar and vocal style. Although I greatly prefer the classic 70's Yes material, it would be nice, for once, to hear a few more songs from the 90125 album such as "Leave It", "Hearts", and "Changes", instead of just the requisite boring "Owner Of A Lonely Heart". With Sherwood in the band, this would have been their big chance to play a few more of those songs, as well as one or two of the better songs from Big Generator and Talk, such as "Love Will Find A Way" and "The Calling", but they only played "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" and "Cinema". Besides, Anderson and Howe would have had to stand around with nothing to do but maybe lend some tambourine or triangle accompaniment or something. Sherwood is not quite the vocalist that Rabin is either. On a positive note, however, they did play five great new songs from The Ladder album. What makes this concert so special is the fact that The Ladder was such a good album. It was finally a step in the right direction for Yes, after floundering through the late 80's and 90's with mostly subpar material. The Ladder included all of the signature Yes components, progressive arrangements, sophisticated melodies, bass and keyboard wizardry, rock-solid drumming, a myriad of guitar styles, stunning harmony vocals, and Jon Anderson's charming lead vocals. Yeah, I love Jon's vocals, and he absolutely shined throughout this show. The epic title track "Homeworld (The Ladder)" is certain to become a Yes classic. This song followed the opening numbers "Yours Is No Disgrace" and "Time An A Word", and you might have sworn it was an outtake from The Yes Album. The other new song I particularly enjoyed was the Bob Marley tribute "The Messenger". This song is far from the normal Yes style and has more of light, bluesy rhythm to it. Anderson's vocals were especially gorgeous on that song. I feel that he is singing better today than he was 30 years ago. Many of the classic song performances were some of the best I have ever heard. This is especially the case for "Yours Is No Disgrace" and "And You And I". The old timers in the band seemed especially inspired that night. Steve Howe, as usual, was a wizard on the guitar - seamlessly alternating between a variety of electric, pedal steel, and acoustic guitars. Each time I see Chris Squire, I become an even bigger fan. His bass playing is energetic, distinct, and often eccentric, but he and Alan White always drive a powerful and steady rhythm section. Squire's excellent harmony vocals are also an indispensable and underrated aspect of the Yes sound. Anderson seemed genuinely moved with appreciation by the audiences overwhelming show of enthusiasm and admiration for the band. He had a constant smile, joked with the crowd, waved to people, and gave one of the highlight performances of his career. The production of this DVD was as magnificent as the performance. The concert was shot live on high definition video, and the picture quality is nearly perfect. I had no complaints. The audio quality was equally excellent. The live atmosphere is reproduced well, with good separation of the instruments and brilliant use of the surrounds. They employed several craned cameras that provided numerous outstanding angles of the performance. The camera editing was superb - not too many quick angle changes, plenty of nice solo close-ups, and the entire stage show was captured beautifully. Yes seems to really be on a roll now. They followed this up with the equally outstanding Symphonic Live DVD in 2002, stumbling only briefly with the atrociously produced, but decently performed, Keys To Ascension DVD in 2001. Keep 'em coming Yes, I'll take all I can get. Warning: Their are numerous reports on the web of people's disks going bad after only a few plays. This happed to me as well, and I though I just had a bad disk. The disk will not load at all. As much as I want to buy a replacement, I am reluctant until I can confirm that the problem has been fixed. If anybody has further information please let me know. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - January 2004 |
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Audio Transfer |
Video Transfer |
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Set List |
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Running Time: 112 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - July 2000 |