OFF: Kansas & Yes

[Alex S. Garcia]

Hi all !

So I went to see Kansas and Yes last night, in Albuquerque. Awesome show. If
you get a chance, go see them ! Kansas is touring with its original line-up
- well, almost : Steve Walsh, Robbie Steinhardt, Billy Greer, Rich Williams
and Phil Ehart. I've read though that Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope
occasionally join in at some venues. Here's the playlist, for those with an
interest :

1) ??? [no idea what song this one was - I think it's one from their new
album. I didn't recognize it, anyway]
2) Paradox
3) Miracles out of nowhere
4) Icarus II [from the new album]
5) Icarus
6) Hold on
7) Not man big [from the new album]
8) Portrait (he knew)
9) Point of know return
10) Dust in the wind
11) Carry on wayward son

So alright, not ALL of it was awesome. Even though it was a thrill to see
these guys playing together again after all those years, the bass was way
too loud and there were a few quirks here and there, like Walsh forgetting
some of the lyrics to "Dust in the wind" - of all songs ! *laughs* Actually,
I thought "Dust" was the one that sounded the less convincing live. OTOH,
they did a GREAT job on "Portrait" & "Carry on"... that last one was really
awesome (so OK, I say awesome a lot - sue me ;-) "Hold on" was very good,
too. Oddly, I never really hooked to that song, but I loved it live.

The new songs have some good parts, although I wasn't convinced by the whole
pieces. Then again, if this had been my first exposition to "Paradox",
"POKR" or even "Icarus," I likely wouldn't have thought all that much of
them either. So I'm curious to hear the album itself... It's called
"Somewhere to elsewhere," BTW, for those who don't know yet, and it'll be
out late June on Magna Carta (yes ! Shadow Gallery's label !). Check out
www.magnacarta.net for more info. Great page for the album, with tons of
info on its genesis and who played on it (all the original members ! amazing).

So Kansas played an hour, and than Yes was on stage for two. Bleh. I would
have preferred it the other way around ;-) But hey, Yes is cool too. Their
songs were much longer, though. They only played 8 pieces in 2 hours, most
of them 20-30 minutes long :-) They were all old stuff from their earlier
albums, some they hadn't played in 25 years ! Playlist :

1) Close to the edge
2) ??? [no idea what the title of this one was]
3) The Gates of Delirium
4) Soon or sooner the light [not sure if title is correct ?]
5) Heart of the sunrise
6) Ritual (Nous sommes du Soleil)
7) I've seen all good people
8) Roundabout

Line-up : Jon Anderson (the voice !), Steve Howe (the guitar !!), Chris
Squire (oh my, the attitude ;-), Bill Bruford (at least I _think_ it was
Bruford) and Igor Khoroshev (the name !) on keyboards.

The sound was much better during the Yes concert, BTW. Bass was not quite as
loud, and much more bearable :-)

Yadi yada.

Not much of a review, but that's all I can say at this point. I'll just add
that I was thrilled just to be there. A real experience :-)

Oh, and for tour dates & locations, check out Kansas' official website :
http://www.kansasband.com/

The dates are on this page :
http://www.kansasband.com/tour.html

Rock on !



Alex.
*laughs as "Carry on wayward son" starts playing on the radio*

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