Témpano/Yes. Caracas. Teatro Teresa Carreño 21-22 septiembre 1999
Posted by: Gabriel Perez (gabrielp@telcel.net.ve)

So... finally we got the opportunnity to see a Yes Concert... what a night !!!
The concert started after a 30 minutes delay, with a local opening act, a prog rock band called "Tempano".This band was formed about 20 years ago here in Caracas and recorded a very good first album by the name of "Atabal Yemal", then the band split and the further reincarnations of the band moved towards a more Pop Rock aproach. Last year the french label Musea contacted the band to reissue this excellent first album worldwide and asked the band to record some additional material, the band re-grouped and has been receiving great reviews of the CD and their live perfomances including the Baja Califormia Prog Rock Festival earlier this year.This was the first time that Tempano returned to play in our country, and even thought the set was rather short (they played only for a half hour or so) it was a great opening for a wonderful evening of Music.
Great virtuoso playing from the four musicians.

After a short break, the notes from the Britten theme anounced the start of a unforgetable concert !!!
The concert took place in a very beautiful concert hall in Caracas that was originally used for classical music performances, and this was going to be an extremenly good classic performance by an extraordinary band.
The first song, as it has been in all the appereances on this south american tour was "Yours is not Disgrace", and the crowd was on their feet, cheering and shouting out loud when the first notes came out of the stage... it was amazing... this crowd has been hungry for this kind of shows for years and after each song the standing ovation was incredibly loud... The solo by Howe was out of this world, i think i heard bits and pieces of other yes songs in this long solo... throught the concert Anderson barely did speak at all, enjoying the standing ovations with very humble gestures...

The rest of the band looked like they were having a great time: Chris Squire jumped and ran across the stage with energy and played his bass with an amazing and strong attitude , Steve Howe, the maestro, switched guitars almost every song and played incredible solos that were received with great ovations each time he took the spotlight, Alan White was quite busy behind his drumkit, and the new guys, Billy Sherwood and Igor Koroshev, had big wide smiles upon their faces most of the time.
This time they played two of my favorite yessongs: "And You And I"; and "Close to the Edge". It was amazing for me to watch the band play this two pieces live, and the crowd aproved with long standing ovations after each of these songs were interpreted. I particulary enjoyed Igor's playing in these songs, filling Wakeman's shoes is not an easy task, specially in these two classics, and the guy played really good in these pieces adding his own personal touch.
The new songs (they played three songs from the new record) sounded quite good specially a long piece of music (i believe it was called Home World or something like that...)
After "Closed to the edge" the band closed the set with "Roundabout" and by this time everybody in the concert hall was standing and claping .... they left the stage and returned to play "Long Distance Runaround" and "I've Seen All Good People". A great ending to a wonderful evening of Yes music...

 

Posted by: Manuel Fernández Otero (destruye@cantv.net)

A sold-out Rios Reyna hall greeted Yes on their first Teresa Carreño date. If fact, it seems that tickets were all sold out in a couple of days -for both presentations, even though the price was an outrageous $110 aprox. for prime seats. Not surprisingly most audients were grey-haired (those who still had hair) geezers and your average yuppie; but I'm sure the younger ones were upstairs in the second, cheaper floor. Of course, the promoters and their VIP suck-ups and suckees took up the front rows. Yeah, and this was a Rock concert.

The opening band was the local (but french-signed) Tempano. I dismissed them beforehand as a radio-friendly outfit so common from last decade here; but it turned out they were real outstanding prog-rockers and they blew me away, along with the rest of the audience who gave them a standing ovation. The singer, a popular local pop icon, half-jokingly suggested that some rich friends bring on King Crimson next. This made the crowd go wild. Promoters, take notice! All in all Tempano was amazing, specially from the minimalistic gear, time and stage area they had alloted to themselves. Quality stuff!

A deafening roar welcomed the band, who inmediatly launched into "Yours is no disgrace". I'm sure that many people there, just like me, couldn't believe that this was happening. The yes group that materialized before us was there to give the venezuelan crowd a long-overdue dose of historic songs, as most of them were the early classics we all love. Stephen hawking is wrong -you can travel back in time! I think of the almost certain impossibility of watching a Gabriel-era Genesis, for instance, and felt very lucky to experience a classic yes performance.
The band was awesome. They have a reputation for accuracy toward their recorded material and I suppose this show was no exception; even down to the actual tone of their instruments. Squire's trebly bass was definitely there; and more dear to me, Howe's inimitable tone from his multiple guitars. I wonder if this guy is using the same vintage set of pedals/strings/amps from the early days, as he sound exactly the same. I sure would like to hear them jam and improvise more, but it's yes' nature and you don't fight nature. Of course, Steve played Clap and we all went wild.
Yes' ultimate instrument -Jon's voice- was absolutely perfect. This guy is not human. He must be an elf or a hobbit or something like that. Even in middle age he manages to sound youthful and beatiful, and he doesn't seem to make an effort at all. Whatta guy.

It felt a bit odd, but it was very interesting to see (and hear) Steve Howe play the power chords of the intro to "owner of a lonely hear". I noticed many women among the group of people who inmediately jumped of joy (literally)and started to dance. Clearly, that was the song they came to hear; and it was obvious that many of the female audients were dragged along to this concert by their enthusiastic partners. A few of them left before the concert was over, and I felt a bit sorry for the true fans that couldn't get a ticket. "New guy" Billy Sherwood took center stage for a while during his rendition of Rabin's wacko solo for this song and it was clear what his role in this band seems to be: Reproducing rabin's parts so Steve doesn't have to "bother". I must say in his defense that I haven't heard Open Your Eyes or the ladder albums yet; so i can't judge his role from this concert alone, but his parts are not very substantial.

Anyway, the majority of the people did gather here to hear the classic songs and we got more than our fair share. Holy cow! They even played "close to the edge" in full. And "America". Some people might dismiss yes as a nostalgia act; but I think that they miss the whole point. You just don't go around calling Beethoven or Tchaikovsky's music a 'nostalgia act', do you? And I, as well a a whole bunch of people there that night, were barely being born when "The Yes Album" and "Fragile" were just coming out.
Come and kill me now `cause I don't care. I have seen the true Yes.

Manuel "Owner of a blown mind" Fernández Otero.

This comments were posted at yesworld.com and taken by permission from the senders.

 

Reviews from Baja Prog.Fest - May 1999