On my way to the Stockholm YES concert

[ThomasJedenfelt]

Avian, All,

An evening to be remembered, indeed.

The last time this line-up visited Sweden
was in 1977. (http://www.svenskayes.com/konsert/index.html)

Arriving early at Cirkus, I could hear, very faint, the end of their soundcheck through the closed doors. The sound had rough edges, similar to a garage-band. Bad omen.

A slight tinnitus (which I'm not much aware of and with still perfect hearing) causes me to use ear plugs. With that mind, the sound was not great. Not well mixed with the orcherstra, too much low end notes from the bass-synth, slight distortion from the speakers every now and then, Alan's bass-drum did sound too much heavy-metal-like on accented notes and the tom-toms didn't have the usual characteristics.

Even Chris noticed the speaker distortion when standing in front of them.

What I can remember, the playlist was...
Orchestral intro
1. Close to the Edge
2. Don't stop
The Clap
Long Distance Runaround
Gates of Delirium
Ritual
Starship Trooper
I've Seen All the Good People
And You And I

I don't remember the order, saved for the first two.

Chis' solos (two, I think; Gates, Starship) was not up to his (early?) standards and seemed unfocused and not well executed.

An orchestra can't replace Rick. He was needed, though the orchestra did a fine job. As did the keyboard player, who was very skilled.

(Bear in mind that I have their live and studio records as a reference, and this is but my personal perception of the performance.)

Only one encoure (one song). It seemed a bit strange with prolonged standing ovations after every song. They were long aspired for. But, they are not youngsters anymore. Age and much touring probably takes its toll.

Nevertheless, it was a wonderful exeperience and everybody had a great time. It wouldn't have mattered to me if their guitars weren't in tune or of false vocal notes.

Thomas