Reuploaded: 2004 - Yes and Dream Theater

19 September 2004, Universal City, California, USA

During 2004, Yes did a small tour with Dream Theater, having around 20 concerts opened by this band. No, they didn't play together. But Dream Theater played a good cover of Machine Messiah, so I'm putting here also their show.

This one was the last night of the tour. An amazing night by both bands. It's an audience recording, but of high quality. The place's mix was really good. Except for some seconds cut on Awaken (the bootlegger didn't expect such a long song and he was short on tape...), the complete concert is here.
Yes had a really changing set-list at this tour... This particular show has the acoustic set, with new arrangements to Long Distance Runaround, Wonderous Stories, Roundabout and Owner of a Lonwely Heart. But my favourite performances here are Awaken and Starship Trooper, both featuring perfect musicianship.
Oh, and here you'll also listen to Jon performing Singin' in the Rain... it's kind of weird in his voice, but I bet you'll want to listen!

Disc one - Dream Theater
01 - Overture (1:37)
02 - About To Crash (5:14)
03 - Learning To Live (10:17)
04 - Machine Messiah (3:19)
05 - Trial Of Tears (13:12)
06 - Stream Of Consciousness (10:35)
07 - The Spirit Carries On (6:56)
08 - Solitary Shell (5:39)
09 - About To Crash (reprise) (4:10)
10 - Losing Time – Grand Finale (6:12)

Disc two - Yes

01 - Firebird Suite (2:51)
02 - Going For The One (5:25)
03 - Sweet Dreams (7:27)
04 - I’ve Seen All Good People (8:11)
05 - America (10:35)
06 - South Side Of The Sky (11:56)
07 - Yours Is No Disgrace (13:21)

Disc three - Yes
01 - Clap - Singin' in the rain (5:33)
02 - Long Distance Runaround (acoustic) (5:16)
03 - Wonderous Stories (acoustic) (7:21)
04 - Roundabout (acoustic) (5:51)
05 - Owner Of A Lonely Heart (acoustic) (6:46)
06 - And You And I (13:29)
07 - Awaken (19:13)
08 - Starship Trooper (13:55)

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Rick Wakeman - Moogfest 2004 - Catherine Parr

B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, New York, USA
Tue, May 18, 2004

Catherine Parr is a song with lots of room for improvisation and different arrangements: Rick has already played it with a horn section (in the 70s), with choir, with long guitar solos.
But to me the definitive version is this one, from Moogfest.
Rick writes on his site:
Sometime way back at the beginning of the year, I had been asked to perform at Moogfest, a celebration of 50 years of the Moog Synthesizer in the honoured presence of Dr. Bob Moog at a club called Ben E Kings on 42 nd Street in New York. By pure coincidence the show was to take place on my birthday and, as I had nothing else planned for my birthday, (well when you reach 55 you start trying to forget how old you are) , it seemed like a really good idea.....and so it turned out to be as well.
The world and his uncle seem to be taking part in the evening and it was brilliantly organized as well. There was a wonderful party atmosphere and the camaraderie was amazing. I was playing just the one piece, (a very long version of Catherine Parr), and had a pretty amazing band performing with me containing some of the top New York session boys and to say they were “good” would be the understatement of the year! Jason from Dream Theater joined me as well to play the parts that Adam used to play years ago and all went swimmingly well. Korg were amazing in sorting out keyboards for me to go with the mini-moog and my great friend, ex NYPD detective Billy Burns, was on hand to “look after me” and keep me out of trouble, which he certainly did!
As I went on stage I was unexpectedly followed by Bob Moog and Keith Emerson, the latter playing Happy Birthday on the Moog synthesizer and then in front of a very enthusiastic crowd I was presented with a huge cake on a huge stand by a very pretty scantily dressed young lady with huge........well, some things are best left to your imagination I think!

Jordan Rudess, from Dream Theater, played keyboards with him, and I suppose the other musicians were the backing band for Moogfest (James Genus on Bass and Gene Lake on Drums). But the important here are Rick's fast fingers, doing some of the best moog improvisations I've ever heard.
This live record was sent to me by a keyboardist friend, who calls attention to Rick's "fan fingers", that is, the ultra-fast hand whose fingers open and close like a fan, a technique common in Bach.

No need to say the audience to Moogfest was crazy during Rick's performance. One review says: "Until Bob Moog came along, we (keyboard players) were hidden in the background. He gave us an instrument that can cut through concrete and frighten guitarists to death," growled Rick Wakeman, the hulking, platinum-blonde keyboard player for the progressive rock band Yes.

The following video shows Rick's conversation with Bob Moog (recently dead) and some seconds of Catherine Parr, where we can see Jordan Ruddess's bald head behind Rick. But don't forget to download the complete song!


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1996 - Key to Chris' Birthday

1996-03-05
San Luis Obispo, US
(second show of three)

In the three shows at San Luis Obispo, Yes declared every kind of audience recording was authorized.
This bootleg is from the second show. Eight songs from this show went to Keys to Ascension (the other five songs from Keys are from the other two shows).
It's interesting to listen to it for some reasons:
- Different performances of the instrumental jams on America and Starship Trooper. I'm crazy about what they did to Würm in these concerts.
- Long speeches by Jon before and after songs.
And the main reason: to notice the huge amount of overdubs that Keys to Ascension suffered. The vocal harmonies in Revealing Science of God, for example, are weak (normal for a song not played for 20 years, as there was little rehearsal for that show), but in Keys to Ascension the voices are perfect.
Going for the one (indeed a hard song to sing) Jon loses his breath and skips words, but guess what, they appear in the album.

So Keys to Ascension may be a great album, but it surely isn't an honest live one.


Set list:
Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru
Close To The Edge
I've Seen All Good People
Time And A Word
Happy Birthday To Squire
And You And I
The Revealing Science Of God
Going For The One
Turn Of The Century
America
Onward
Awaken
Roundabout
Starship Trooper
Songs in boldface are the ones which were used for the two official live albums, Keys to Ascension 1 and 2.

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1974 - Tales at Nassau Coliseum

1974-02-14
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Uniondale
New York
Another show featuring the complete Tales, originally posted at the blog The clock that went backwards again.
Remastered by Tooleman.
Small segments of Revealing Science of God and The Ancient are missing... But overall the sound is good for audience bootleg (there was no soundboard record of this tour)

101 Firebird Suite
102 Siberian Khatru
103 And You And I
104 Close To The Edge
105 Album Introduction by Jon Anderson
106 The Revealing Science Of God (part 1) (tape flip)
107 The Revealing Science Of God (part 2)

201 Comments by Jon Anderson
202 The Remembering
203 The Ancient (part 1) (tape flip)
204 The Ancient (part 2)
205 Ritual
206 Roundabout

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