Is it possible that it’s really been about two decades since Jon Anderson officially has been a member of Yes? Although that unfortunate separation stunted the consistent evolution of the legendary band that he co-founded, Anderson has never stopped playing Yes music. During those nearly twenty years he has kept coming back in various forms: as a solo acoustic artist, with groups of teenage musicians in the School Of Rock, with solo bands of his own devising, or with more established musicians such as Jean Luc Ponty’s band, Transatlantic and, of course, with Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman who controversially even dubbed themselves “Yes” for a short while. Throughout these projects, Anderson always kept Yes songs front and center, even as Yes “Official” simultaneously toured the catalog with Steve Howe presiding over various incarnations of what Yes was becoming.
There’s good irony in that Howe’s version of Yes sometimes gets referred to as a “cover band” by catty fans. Still, Jon Anderson has now literally enlisted a cover band to be his backing support band to go out and sing Yes material. That band, of course, is The Band Geeks, whose scope is much wider than simply being a Yes cover band, but who nonetheless technically fall into that category in this circumstance if we’re being catty about it.
So, hopefully, this move will persuade all true Yes fans to stop slinging derogatory phrases like “cover band” and start opening their eyes to the fact that in this day and age, this is as good as it’s going to get: legacy bands who feature one or two “classic” (not necessarily “original”) members, but all of whom play the music damn well. In Yes fans’ case, we now have two touring bands who are doing just that: Jon & The Band Geeks, and Yes (Official). And guess what? They’re both releasing new music as well. We should be so lucky!
Anderson’s discovery of The Band Geeks was pretty classic, and not too different from Yes’ discovery of the two singers who replaced him over a decade ago: seeing a YouTube video and saying, “Wow, these guys are good! They play my old music perfectly, maybe I’ll see if they want to go on tour with me.” Last summer Anderson embarked on a short tour with the Geeks playing some of the most challenging Yes material imaginable. Their approach was to play the compositions very close to the original recordings, as opposed to the liberties taken in arrangements during the ARW or 1,000 Hands tours.
The response from fans was overwhelming: here was a younger band who could play Yes music with the energy that the original band had from the ‘70s, and so the crowd lapped it up. There was no slowing of tempos with this band…if anything, the tempos seemed faster and Anderson was able to keep up with them. After testing the waters during a handful of dates, a longer tour was booked for the summer of ’24 but not before the ensemble actually recorded a full studio album of new material.
Unfortunately, the new album – “True” – will not be released until later in August when most of the tour is already complete. But that didn’t stop the band from airing three new songs off of it during this run of shows. Even Yes (Official) rarely plays more than one or two new songs off their latest albums on their tours, instead dedicating most of the show to much older material. Considering that ARW didn’t manage to record any new songs during their two-tour-run (the demo “Fragile” notwithstanding), and Jon’s notorious habit of not completing most recording projects that he starts, it was somewhat of a shock to hear that a full new studio album is already in the can.
But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. Onto the live show, as witnessed in Denver’s Paramount Theater. Sporting the same stage design that is featured in their two recent videos of the new songs, the show exudes a sleek, crisp vibe that supports and even elevates the music (usually) without overshadowing it. As the classic strains of “The Firebird Suite” inevitably came through the speakers, the three narrow video screens displayed images of Dean-esque designs and classic Yes vibes.
I say “esque” because if you looked closely, these were not actual Dean illustrations! Perhaps they couldn’t get the licensing to use Dean’s genuine artwork, Dean being aligned with Yes (Official) and not necessarily on great terms with Anderson. Instead, these were cleverly disguised AI knockoffs (maybe taken from Avatar? Ha.) which still conveyed the essence of Yes, and few fans probably noticed the difference. In support of whoever created the visuals for the evenings – the images and effects were stupendous, whether of astral images from across the universe, or serene nature pastures. Often synching directly with the music, they lifted the energy of the room significantly, igniting the band’s performance, and only occasionally being a little bit much. The designers knew what they were doing…even during “Owner of a Lonely Heart” there were AI images of skyscrapers, as if from the original music video for that song.
“Firebird” went right into “Your Is No Disgrace” (no “Khatru” on this tour) which immediately let the audience know they were in very capable hands. Every instrument was soundly accounted for, including backup vocals. There was no extended Howe improvised guitar solo in the middle like he always plays live, but for a studio-version rendition, it was spotless.
But it was Anderson – about to turn 80 years old – who continued to stun the crowd with his angelic voice nearly as completely intact as it ever was. As the band next went into “Perpetual Change” and he sang, “I see the cold mist in the night and watch the hills roll out of sight” amidst guitar harmonics, I couldn’t help but think that he sounded exactly like he did over 50 years ago. Or at least more so than anyone should reasonably be expected to. Although there’s nothing like hearing Howe play his original licks and runs, it’s also true that there’s nothing like hearing Yes music with Anderson’s inherent tone, in addition to his vocal range. And here it was again, in all its glory.
“Perpetual Change” was stunning. It had been far too long since I had heard Anderson sing the entire piece and thus was a personal highlight of the show. Smiling widely with a scarf wrapped around his neck, waving his tambourine high in an arc, Anderson seemed nearly as delighted as when he had reunited with Rabin and Wakeman 7 years earlier in the same venue. He teasingly recalled deciding what to call the next song as Yes were writing it: “What should this be titled…’close to awakening’? Oh, I know, ‘close to the edge’!”
The band then served up a brilliant rendition of this beloved prog classic, from the jarring opening section to the electric sitar-laden verses. “I Get Up I Get Down” was predictably transcendent – as Anderson climbed higher and higher he emphasized the emotion with a final series of additional sung “Yeah’s” before keyboardist Christopher Clark unleashed one the best solos of the night. Although the Geeks already have their own keyboardist Rob Kipp who played very animatedly throughout the set, Clark was additionally brought in (perhaps at Anderson’s request?) to fill out the arrangements and he often took the most blistering solos. Hailing from Brand X – amongst many others – Clark appeared as an understated wizard on the keys: less flamboyant in appearance than Wakeman (no cape here), but equally dazzling on those runs.
Such was the overwhelm of “Close To The Edge” that its successor “And You & I” almost seemed to be overshadowed and didn’t quite live up to the full grandeur that it usually attains in live performance. Perhaps this was because guitarist Andy Graziano didn’t utilize a pedal steel guitar, though his slide guitar playing did quite well. The thundering bass pedals were in full effect but those final strains of pedal steel were missing and surprisingly were covered by Kipp on the keys. Clever, but ultimately not as satisfying. But this is nitpicking, just to find some manner in which the arrangement veered from the original. Guest Rob Schmoll opened the song on acoustic 12-string (as he had in recent School Of Rock tours) and subsequently played the lute intro spot-on on an acoustic guitar for a rousing version of “Your Move/All Good People”, which got the whole theater bopping.
“Owner” was the only 80s track presented tonight. Feeling a little out of place, it still was a good rendition with Kipp adding some wild keyboard soloing to spice it up a bit. Closing the first set with “Heart of the Sunrise” – which was the Band Geeks original calling card that wooed in Anderson – bassist and Geeks leader Richie Castellano relished in jamming over Squire’s opening bass spotlight section before Anderson came in with those iconic lines. “Sharp! Distance! How can the wind with its arms all around me?”
Although Anderson doesn’t write lyrics as evocatively as he used to, he was plenty inspired as Set Two opened (after a brief intermission) with the new single “Shine On”, a surprisingly upbeat rock piece that mixes in just enough pop and prog. All three of the new songs sound as if they fit somewhere between “Talk”, “The Ladder” and “Magnification”, the best of which was “True Messenger” with plenty of musical dexterity to thrill the crowd. The second set featured the highly revered “Awaken” in all of its glory, with a spine-tingling piano intro from Clark, Anderson on harp, Castellano getting by just fine even without a triple neck bass, and Graziano wrapping everything up with that signature country guitar lick at the end. It was magnificent, as expected.
“Starship Trooper” was yet another highlight, Clark again bearing the Wakeman crown via a spirited solo over “Würm” before Graziano hit the climactic solo for the finale. “Roundabout” got everyone on their feet, including wife Janee Anderson who came on from the side of the stage to dance with her husband briefly. It was a joyous conclusion to a spectacular night. No rigamarole of going off stage before an encore song – the band had played two long sets of music already and the crowd was more than satiated. Despite a teleprompter at his feet to assist in remembering all of those evocative lyrics, Anderson’s stamina, enthusiasm, voice, and sheer love were overly impressive. And truth be told, he mostly looked at the teleprompter just for the new songs which had only been played live a handful of times thus far.
Any Yes fan within striking distance of these shows has little reason to complain: you’ve got Anderson crisscrossing the country this summer, and then Yes (Official) going back out this month with Deep Purple. Resist the urge to proudly proclaim which you think is the better of the two – just Rejoice that so much Yes music is getting played, with new material on the way.
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FYI, Jon’s wife is Jane. He calls her Janee but her real name is Jane Luttenburger Anderson.