Greetings:

Wow --- it has been 35 years. It doesn't seem like that many years have already passed.

On Friday night, Paula and I drove up to Toronto to see YES for the umpteenth time. I have seen YES more times than the total amount of some concerts some people have seen. I have seen every tour and band configuration since 1977 --- that would be GOING FOR THE ONE --- for those who are not aware of the awesome power behind this band.

I even had the pleasure of meeting the band on their UNION tour, and to personally witness the mighty power of the angelic energies invoked and manifested by Jon Anderson, a very special man. They were staying in the same hotel as I was --- I was there for a medical convention.

Friday night's show was their only area appearance on this entire tour (so far). Toronto is about a two hour drive each way from Buffalo --- it is a straight blast up the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way), their thruway that runs between FORT ERIE and way past Toronto. I have been up there many times over the years to see concerts, like the time I met both Robert Plant and Stevie Ray Vaughn at a Robert Plant show on the NOW AND ZEN tour of 1987-88.

YES played for three hours, minus a fifteen minute intermission.

They came out and Jon said to the crowd:

"Canada, sweet Canada --- thank you for thirty-five wonderful years. Tonight, we are here to play all the music you most want to hear."

And, they did not disappoint.

There were two highlights of the evening:

01) They played the most fan-requested song of the past ten years, a twenty-minute jam called MIND DRIVE. It was interesting to hear the introduction of this song:

"This is a song about the greatest computer known to man. The human brain can store much more than even the fastest supercomputer. This is a song about the MIND DRIVE . . ."

This is their most excellent song of all the stuff they have released in the past decade. MIND DRIVE can be found on two albums, it is a studio only song. It can be found on the following:

01) KEYS TO ASCENSION

02) KEYSTUDIO

KEYS TO ASCENSION was a four disc set --- three LIVE discs, with the fourth filled with five great studio songs, including the magnificient MIND DRIVE.

The KEYSTUDIO album is a single CD capturing all the studio songs only.

The band used their 1974 RELAYER stage set, which was great, and photos can be seen at YESWORLD, the band's official website. It was excellent to see such classic staging. I used to work in community theatre as a lighting director, so I get jazzed on weird things, like the lighting rigs or lighting system, or the staging.

02) The second excellent part of the show was the reworking of ROUNDABOUT as a twelve-bar CHICAGO BLUES tune. This was excellent, and I am looking forward to having this released. It was great to see such an overplayed song given such a fresh breath of life.

I will not post the setlist, simply not to ruin the surprises for anyone who may be going to see the band in the next leg of the tour. However, interested parties can head on over to YESWORLD and check out the requisite links.

KDB RATING: A++!

KDB = Buffalo, NY USA