Yes - Symphonic Live
Performance
Production
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Yes - Symphonic Live
Performance
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I was a bit skeptical of this DVD when I first purchased it. It has been the very rare occasion when a rock band and symphony can play well together and not step on each others toes, or sound just plain ridiculous. Michael Kaman has lent his orchestra to several rock bands and movie soundtracks - Metallica being the most recent and famous. Deep Purple and The Scorpions have recently released symphonic concert DVDs, and Kiss, for Christ' sake, even joined the fray recently with their Kiss Symphony DVD. These rock/orchestra hybrids have produced very mixed results - occasionally interesting, often terrible. Other bands have used orchestral arrangements on their albums to brilliant affect - The Beatles and The Moody Blues for example. With legendary keyboardist Rick Wakeman no longer recording with them, and longtime keyboardist Tony Kay no longer in the band, Yes basically decided to use a full orchestra to fill the void while recording their excellent new album Magnification. If any of you saw Yes with Rick Wakeman on their 2002 Full Circle tour, you will realize that that is a pretty even tradeoff. Since the Magnification album turned out so well (highly recommended), Yes decided to see how it would sound live with their classic songs as well. The results are stunning. The concert was recorded in Amsterdam with the help of the European Festival Orchestra. I've got four words to describe this orchestra: young, hot, European, chicks! Not your typical orchestra, but they played as good as they looked. Certain styles of rock music lends itself better to orchestration than others. Progressive-rock is one of those styles, and Yes is the granddaddy of all progressive-rock bands. Their style of music is also often referred to as symphonic-rock. How appropriate now. For the past eight or nine years, Yes has been back together with the classic lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, and Alan White. Rick Wakeman has done some work with them during this time, both in the studio and on tour, but they have basically had a revolving door of keyboardists lately. Their keyboardist-of-the-moment for this concert was Tom Breslin who does a mighty respectable job. It is truly inspiring to see a great band like Yes make such a grand comeback this late in their careers. Most people had written them off after a few mediocre albums and major personnel changes during the early nineties. Their last two studio releases, The Ladder, and Magnification, are both outstanding albums, which contain some of their finest work in twenty years. And as this DVD amply demonstrates, they are still one of the best live bands in the world. The setlist for this concert couldn't have been much better. The show started with the epic "Close To The Edge". Right off the bat you could tell that the orchestra blended perfectly with the band - in no way upstaging the original music. After the classic "Long Distance Runaround", Yes played two of the best songs from the Magnification album. The first one, "Don't Go" is a catchy little pop song with some great harmony vocals. It would have fit perfectly on the 90125 album. The next song, "In The Presence Of", is surely destined to be a classic. Alan White comes out from behind the drum kit to begin the song with a beautiful piano intro. The song then follows a similar arrangement to "Starship Trooper", with the slow, steady buildup that leads to an incredible crescendo. Great harmony vocals, great bass, great steal guitar, great frigging tune! OK, so how do they follow that up? What else..."Gates Of Delirium". Holy Shit! For those of you who don't know, this is their album side length, ultra-progressive, epic from the classic Relayer album, and is not exactly a concert staple. John, looking more like a gypsy than ever, introduced this song with a few choice, sentimental, peacenik words about the current state of affairs in the world. I quote: "war is not needed, the light is more powerful". The guy is just so damn likeable and enjoyable to watch perform, that I couldn't even make fun of him for that one. He reminds me of someone on Ecstasy - the big happy smile and so full of LOOOOOVE. "Gates Of Delirium" is definitely not for the timid, occasional Yes fan, but for those fanatics who actually dug the Tales From Topographic Oceans album. It is long, heavy, and intense. "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" this song isn't. After an excellent performance of "Starship Trooper", they played a third great new song from the Magnification album called, get this, "Magnification". This sounded superb live because it was originally written and performed with an orchestra. It was very inspiring to see these new songs hold up so well against the classics. Two more album-side epics followed - "And You And I", and "Ritual". Once again, the orchestration skillfully breathed new life into these classics. Yes saved their 1980's, number one hit song, "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", for the encore. Guys, I beg of you, please consider playing something, anything!!, else off that album other than the played to death "Owner". You can just tell that Howe despises playing that song, but he begrudging plays it like a good little starship trooper. Although I love the 90125 album (it did come out while I was in high school after all), that song really seems out of place against the likes of "Gates Of Delirium", and "Ritual". That is, however, what makes Yes great. The grand finale was non other than "Roundabout" - possibly the most played song on album rock radio during the 70's and 80's. The damn song does have it all though - smoking guitar riffs, incredible bass, soaring vocal harmonies, and of course Rick Wakeman's jaw-dropping keyboard solos. Although I am an expert air-guitarist, I was always inspired to play Wakeman's parts when my friends and I would drunkenly perform the air band version of this great tune. Well, what else can I say. For a bunch of guys that are all pushing sixty, they look like they have caught their second wind and are really enjoying being Yes again. Steve Howe is getting more and more Skeletor looking everyday, but, Holy Christ, the guy is a virtuoso on the guitars. He looks more like he should be debating William F. Buckley on PBS, than playing guitar in a rock band though. Howe uses the cleanest electric guitar tone I have ever heard, but it still sounds flawless. John's vocals have not diminished with age at all, and are still mesmerizing. I never could understand the critics who slam his voice as being annoying. Chris Squire remains the anchor of this band. He conveys amazing presence on the live stage with his energy, enthusiasm, awesome vocal harmonies, and, of course, thunderous bass playing. This DVD provides a second camera angle that shows animations throughout several of the songs. Some of them were interesting to watch, such as the realistic WWII animations during "Gates Of Delirium". Nice job to the producer for providing a separate camera angle without any animations - just the straight concert. The audio and video quality were both exceptional. The picture was clear and sharp and the colors were vibrant. Both the DTS and Dolby 5.1 surround mixes transported you right into the audience. The DTS mix had a little more volume and greater impact. Each instrument had nice separation and was mixed perfectly. The rear surround speakers were used effectively to broadcast much of the orchestral sounds and percussion, as well as provide for a nice live ambience. Oh and another thing, it is gloriously long as hell. YES, YES. Run out and get this NOW! Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - June 2004 |
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Running Time: 168 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - June 2002 |