Yes — Classic Tales of Yes - Hard Rock Live, Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood, Florida — August 14th 2024 Hard Rock Event Center, Tampa, Florida — August 15th, 2024

Yes — Classic Tales of Yes, Florida 2024

Hard Rock Live, Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood, Florida — August 14th 2024
Hard Rock Event Center, Tampa, Florida — August 15th, 2024

Review by Robert Corich

Sometimes getting to a gig is almost as much of an adventure as the gig itself.

I flew into Miami on the day of the Hollywood show, then had to battle my way across South Florida’s sometimes completely bonkers freeway system. I eventually arrived with about 30 minutes to spare — just enough time to collect the press passes the band had kindly supplied for myself and two friends.

No time for a leisurely drink then. Straight in.

And fortunately, what awaited us was Yes.

The band were out on their Classic Tales of Yes tour and opened with the suitably grand strains of Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite before launching into Machine Messiah.

Now, there’s an interesting thing about Yes as an opening act.

They aren’t exactly the sort of band you would describe as a quick musical appetiser.

This is music that demands a little concentration. Complex arrangements, intricate rhythms, soaring vocal harmonies and musicianship that occasionally makes you wonder whether these people have secretly been issued with extra fingers.

And yet Yes proved to be a brilliant opener for the new-look Deep Purple.

Steve Morse had only recently been replaced by Simon McBride, and this was the first tour for the new incarnation of Purple following the recording of =1. So both bands were, in their own way, entering another chapter.

It was a surprisingly good marriage.

Yes came out and delivered a substantial, confident set rather than simply filling the support slot. And given what sometimes seems like the increasingly short attention span of the American rock audience, that was no small achievement.

There was very little time for audience drift.

I’ve Seen All Good People got things moving, followed by Yours Is No Disgrace, while Clap gave Steve Howe one of those opportunities to remind everyone why he remains one of the great guitar players.

No need for pyrotechnics.

Just Howe, his guitar and a remarkable set of fingers.

Going for the One and Siberian Khatru kept the progressive juices flowing before the inevitable arrival of Roundabout.

You know it’s coming.

They know it’s coming.

And nobody cares.

Because when that riff kicks in, you’re suddenly transported back several decades.

The voice

John Davison is a damn good singer.

There’s no getting away from that. He has the range, control and stamina required to tackle this material, and after all these years he has certainly established himself within the Yes family.

But I’m going to stick my neck out here.

I always thought Benoît David was a brilliant choice for Yes — and personally, I preferred him to Davison.

David had something that worked beautifully with the Yes catalogue. He wasn’t simply trying to be Jon Anderson; he brought his own character while fitting naturally into those demanding vocal arrangements.

I’ve also always thought Benoît David was very unfairly treated in the Yes story.

His relatively short time with the band seems to have left him strangely overlooked, which is a shame because I thought he was bloody good.

Of course, nobody is going to replace Jon Anderson.

Anderson’s voice is one of those things that became part of the DNA of Yes. It’s ethereal, distinctive and instantly recognisable. You can find someone who can sing the notes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can recreate that voice.

Davison does an admirable job.

For me, though, Benoît David was closer to the mark.

And then there’s Chris

For me, however, the biggest absence on that stage wasn’t vocal.

It was Chris Squire.

Chris had become a very close friend in the years before his death, partly because he rented an apartment from me on London’s King’s Road for many years.

Our friendship also crossed into my own work, as I had the privilege of working on the recovery and remastering of tapes from some of Chris’s solo projects, including Fish Out of Water.

So watching Yes without Chris was never going to be quite like watching Yes without any other former member.

Chris Squire is much missed.

Very much missed.

His bass wasn’t merely accompanying the songs. It was part of the architecture of Yes. That huge, melodic, muscular sound was one of the things that made the band immediately recognisable.

But the lovely thing about music is that it can outlive the people who created it.

And hearing these songs live again, played with energy and respect, brought back plenty of memories — not only of Yes, but of Chris himself.

The set concluded with Starship Trooper, leaving us with exactly the sort of epic finale you would expect from Yes.

And then, the following evening, I did it all again in Tampa.

Same set.

Same songs.

Different room.

Different audience.

And somehow it still worked.

In fact, both shows were very well delivered. Yes proved they could hold an audience in that rather unforgiving opening slot and, more importantly, make the audience want to hear them.

That’s not always easy in today’s concert environment.

But Yes aren’t really a band that needs to play the attention-span game.

Give them a stage, give them some decent sound and let them play.

They’ll do the rest.

And that’s perhaps why the pairing with this new version of Deep Purple worked so well. Both bands were carrying enormous histories onto the stage, but neither was simply presenting a museum piece.

They were still working bands.

Still playing.

Still evolving.

Still making the old songs sound alive.

For Yes, Classic Tales of Yes proved a pretty damn appropriate title.

Chris Squire may be gone, Jon Anderson’s voice may be irreplaceable, and Benoît David may have been unfairly forgotten along the way.

But the music remains.

And on two Florida nights in August 2024, Yes proved that the music is still very much alive.

And, despite Miami’s best attempt to stop me getting there, I’m very glad I made it through those traffic jams with thirty minutes to spare.

Because Yes were absolutely worth the rush.