Location: Budapest (Hungary), Sportarena
Concert date: 17.06.2003
Attendance: 3500
Ticket price: 25,00€
Or, as the 2003 Yes tour is called, “Full Circle”. The clock was ticking toward general panic stations, and after a long, lazy feast at Pizza Hut in the middle of one of Budapest’s low-class-society neighborhoods, the two of us joined the columns of cars winding through the city, across the Danube to the other end of Budapest, heading for Nep Stadion. In three days we hadn’t seen a single foreign license plate (except for a “real Yugoslav”, a diesel Golf with Novi Sad plates). People are obviously still skittish, or else they’re piling up “invisibly” somewhere in Budapest’s safe five-star hotels. The food is great, the people are friendly, the scene is relaxed, and the city reminds me a lot of Belgrade. Right on June 18th, after a long dry spell, the rain finally paid us a visit and cooled down the muggy, sultry climate. Prices are about the same as back home, only the food is a bit cheaper. It’s worth treating yourself to a juicy steak.
Sportarena at 6:00 p.m. We’d burned our last forints on the ticket (25€/person), hey! So how do we get a Yes shirt now? We rode the metro back to the center to swap euros for forints and found out it was all for nothing, because the band hadn’t set up its official merch this time. The show looked like a family holiday. People were on the mature side, with the exception of a cute blonde who started hanging around Peter suspiciously after she’d obviously missed the right hall for a rave party. I was shocked. It was 7:30 p.m., the show was supposed to start at 8:00, and the floor was almost empty. And that’s the floor of a hall that holds 13,000 people. But obviously, after all those years under a totalitarian regime, the Hungarians got used to Russian punctuality, and at 8:00 sharp the floor filled up in an instant.
Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird took flight into the night, then the opening motif of Siberian Khatru kicked in and Yes started their show. Head director Jon Anderson, dressed very simply in a yellow shirt and sweatpants like a tennis coach, with his trademark yoga gestures; on his left stood a tall dude draped in a musketeer’s silk shirt and black leggings, in boots, swinging his Rickenbacker high in his hands. The indestructible warrior Chris Squire. Further along on Chris’s left, buried under stacks of keyboards, stood another giant with long, straight blond hair. Piano virtuoso and outstanding composer, the returning member Rick Wakeman. How self-assured Yes are when Rick is with them. Just think of the song Mind Drive from “Keys To Ascension Pt. II” (1997) with this lineup (with Rick), which sounds like it was lifted from the mid-seventies. That’s a completely different band. Those are the golden 110% Yes! And Rick really is the irreplaceable link in their music. Of course, Rick didn’t forget to bring a bit of glam to the show this time either, and for that purpose he threw on a scarlet, glittering cape. The big guy really did look like a mountain on stage and radiated incredible energy with his presence. The engine on drums set the tempo with total commitment, and in Siberian Khatru the heavy, metallic drum sound keeps standing out, with Jon’s vocals and Rick’s keyboards providing an unbelievable counterweight. That’s Alan White, the man who pounds the drums with his whole body. In style he kind of reminds me of John Bonham. And last but not least, the band’s most important medium and link, Steve Howe. The man whose presence in the band makes sure Yes get through what they themselves call constant “perpetual change”. Yogi, spaceman, the purest soul in the band and the main culprit for Yes being what they are. Yoda Steve projects the information, the others amplify it together and translate it into a peculiar language that’s accessible to everyone. Right during Siberian Khatru Steve swapped between a steel pedal guitar and two semi-acoustic Gibsons. One more little thing: glasses look great on Steve in his Indian shirts. Every one of them is a one-off, all charisma, and just by showing up on stage they beam heavy vibes into the room. Together with the live sounds of their instruments, that extraordinary energy magnificently bathed the entire hall.
The band also promoted their latest album “Magnification” (2001), which featured a full philharmonic orchestra. Well, really, all Yes music sounds kind of like it’s being played by an orchestra. I was curious how Rick would take on the orchestra’s role when performing Magnification. I was shocked. How he merged all those motifs, all the parts and all the instruments’ work into one grandiose mix and poured it into the song. Where the hell does that come from? Genius! He simply spun from one keyboard to the next, in his characteristic twisted poses, but with a deadly serious look on his face the whole time. His playing came across as heartfelt, as if he’d stepped into his own safe world. Relaxed, spontaneous, and yet with one eye he was constantly keeping watch on what the other four on stage were up to. Steve picked up a mandolin while Jon worked his way through the song’s opening verses. Once you truly get what Jon is serving up through his poetry, especially the verse in this song that reveals the realization that everything is love, it can help you find the right path for your soul, the one it was karmically given at birth. Sounds crazy, huh? For those in the know, not at all, more like something perfectly normal. Okay, enough of my personal enlightenment enthusiasm! But these guys really do live like that. Otherwise their inimitable music and the singular parallel world they’ve built with it would never radiate such greatness, timelessness, sincerity, freedom, and therefore reality.
Let me come back down to earth. The setlist had been freshly aired out, and the third track was one of the sensations of the night. The eco-minded Don’t Kill The Whale (“Don’t kill the bees!”, as Jon joked at the start), a mini hit from the “Tormato” album (1978). I really didn’t expect that one, since Rick said in a recent Classic Rock interview that he doesn’t like the sound of the “Tormato” album at all. A completely different ambient mood came with the first mini epic, In The Presence Of (“Magnification”, 2001). The intro builds an extraordinary atmosphere that flows in perfect sync into a swaying, gentle, fragile rhythm and conjures up a whole new picture in the song. A song with a lot of variety in motifs and moods. Aural images kept swirling on the screen in the background. This song confirmed that the guys can literally read each other’s minds, they’ve been through so much together. They really sense each other on stage. The sound and the tightness were pure perfection. After the song Jon said: “This power of your listening is so great!” How important the vibes of the audience are to the band. Can you imagine being surrounded by a 5,000-strong crowd in Sportarena, swaying along with you and backing you up? That must be an absolutely insane feeling!!!
Then Jon went on: “I wrote this song thirty years ago and it goes something like this….” The short excursion We Have Heaven, in which Chris and Steve contributed vocal parts alongside Jon, came off phenomenally. But I’d have thought Yes were pulling our leg if it hadn’t been followed by… Yes, exactly! During the short pause it even looked like it wouldn’t follow, but when Jon addressed the crowd with: “This song is about climbing a mountain!” it was a clear sign that Yes were moving on to South Side Of The Sky (“Fragile”, 1972). Madness! Yes really hadn’t played this song live for practically thirty whole years.
Next came another mini epic lesson, And You And I (“Close To The Edge”, 1972), a standard of the band’s setlist. “We wrote this thirty years ago…”, Jon continued, “…and if you ask me which times were better, I’d pick today’s, because today we can play in Hungary, which wasn’t possible thirty years ago.”
Then only Steve stayed on stage. He picked up a folk guitar and sat down on a bar stool closer to the audience. He masterfully pulled off To Be Over (“Relayer”, 1974), which came out as a perfect acoustic “Howe-style” instrumental. A magical moment when an artist shines in all their sincerity. In that respect Steve is, for me personally, one of the most convincing musicians I’ve ever heard. So special, so offbeat, the way he combines influences, extracts them and translates them into his own musical expression! Incredible freedom shines out of that expression. Steve fully and wholeheartedly strummed through his first number, then woke up the crowd with the band’s standard, classic set inclusion The Clap (“The Yes Album”, 1971), with the audience dictating the rhythm to the guitarist the whole way through. Steve thanked the crowd and winked his way off the stage.
Then the hall lights came on. Strange, very strange, like something was wrong. Three roadies rushed onto the stage and frantically checked the gear. During And You And I, Rick had kept blinking at Steve. Had the guitarist maybe been too loud for Rick? I didn’t notice it myself, everything sounded okay to me. 20 minutes of my paranoia passed (apparently it was an intermission), the hall went dark again, and through the taped sound of Merry Melodies, Jon came prancing onto the stage, flapping his arms at the audience to stop clapping. “That’s not the real song!” the lovable singer added with a laugh, and at the same time announced his solo number Show Me, which he performed on a specially designed MIDI folk guitar whose headstock is made from the head of a viola. Toward the end Rick joined the song and lifted the atmosphere to an even higher level with a blanket of keyboards. But for the maestro that was only a warm-up.
The man literally exploded on stage in his solo spot. He also played inserts from his solo record “Six Wives Of Henry VIII”. All the while he flew from one end of his fortress of keyboards to the other. The organ sound was grandiose, I can’t remember ever being at a concert where the organ sounded so expressive, full and powerful. What a lively, mystical atmosphere! I had goosebumps all over!
And then Heart Of The Sunrise! Jon went on in his usual style: “This song is very old, I think more than thirty years!” From his cynical smile you could tell that even Jon was starting to find his own repetition (about “30 years”) funny, and the crowd’s booming laughter rolled through the hall. “Those were the times when record labels didn’t care what bands were creating, so we freely composed whatever we felt like!” he nailed it. This time Chris took the reins. A thick, rattling bass line backed by Alan’s drums dictated the tempo. Chris was having fun and fired up the crowd with gestures, and people started getting involved again. Later, with Long Distance Runaround, people also got a chance to sing “normally” along with Jon, because the song is basically set in a lower register. But don’t try to imitate Jon’s vocals if you want to keep your voice.
The next spot was dedicated to a pure assault by the rhythm section. The warmed-up joker Chris rolled up his sleeves especially for the occasion, while Steve opened The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) with harmonics. The whole band took part in this opening section. Chris was the director and leader. Soon after Rick, Jon and Steve left the stage, he turned sharply to Alan and gave him a sign, and the two launched into the kick-ass opening motif of Tempus Fugit (“Drama”, 1980). Alan and Chris didn’t skip On The Silent Wings Of Freedom (“Tormato”, 1978) either, and at the end of it they returned to The Fish and wrapped up their solo spot. Chris used a triple-neck bass guitar here.
So, now everything was ready for the big finale. The harp on stage meant only one thing. Awaken (“Going For The One”, 1976). Rick gently opened the song on piano. After a minute and a half Jon and Steve joined in (Steve coaxing interesting effects out of his steel pedal guitar). As a bonus, the rhythm section comes in. The intense beat of the bass guitar, Alan high up on the cymbals, and Steve moves on to the main motif and opens the door for Jon’s verses. The mood of the song hits its first peak. This song is really always something special. It’s structured so that all five of them can always find tons of room for musical expression in it, and it was more than obvious what a pleasure the guys took in playing it. An incredible feeling of eternal freedom is trapped inside it. Through the dark mood of the middle section, when the stage and the hall were bathed in deep blue light and the musicians on stage looked like dark silhouettes, the atmosphere changed completely. Now Rick took the lead role and rode his organ melody in the manner of J.S. Bach, while the others built an exceptional rhythmic counterweight to that mood. Bit by bit they brought the hypnotic atmosphere down to almost complete silence in the hall. Only Jon somehow managed to break that silence with his harp. When at one point it looked like everything had died, the light of Rick’s keyboards suddenly washed over us again and the hall came back to life. So many different moods in one song. Awaken was without a doubt the peak of the evening. And with it, Yes ended the regular part of their set.
The first encore and the “Yesgreen” that the band can of course never skip, The Roundabout (“Fragile”, 1972), literally blew the audience away, so that it started to “twist” and sing along with the band, which deftly chased the melody of the song. Of course, Yes couldn’t forget to add Starship Trooper (“The Yes Album”, 1971). Würm (as the third part of that song) was a real treat, with the most stretched-out ending possible. Rick opened the final crossfire with a long solo, followed by Steve, and then the two traded duels until the end of the song. Würm is built on one basic three-chord motif, which is ideal for improvising over. Chris also couldn’t resist his noodling and spiced up the whole thing to the extreme. The end.
I saw Yes live for the first time! It’s hard to put all those feelings into words. So precise, so in tune, the guys read each other’s minds, and yet the whole thing comes out so spontaneous and unpredictable at every moment. These gurus form a perfect musical body, inimitable in every sense of the word! Everything is in perfect balance! All five of them seem incredibly youthful! The current lineup tailored the repertoire, which it also composed together in this lineup, with the emphasis on songs from the “Fragile” album. And that’s of course where classic Yes are strongest. Now, and at the end of the nineties, they reactivated, reaffirmed and revived themselves. That’s why the tour is called “Full Circle”. Let’s hope the reborn, fascinating story called Yes, with Rick Wakeman rejoined, will add a new studio continuum to this story and soon delight us again with a new tour.
Setlist
1. The Firebird Suite (intro)
2. Siberian Khatru
3. Magnification
4. Don’t Kill The Whale
5. In The Presence Of
a. Deeper
b. Death Of Ego
c. True Beginner
6. We Have Heaven
7. South Side Of The Sky
8. And You And I
9. Steve Howe solo: To Be Over
The Clap
—- 20 min. break—
10. Jon Anderson solo: Show Me
11. Rick Wakeman solo
12. Heart Of The Sunrise
13. Long Distance Runaround
14. Chris Squire and Alan White solo:
– The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
– Tempus Fugit
– On The Silent Wings Of Freedom
15. Awaken
—encore—
16. Roundabout
17. Starship Trooper
