Gig review: Yes

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 21:46

USHER HALL, EDINBURGH ***

OVER the years, the line-up of prog rock behemoths Yes has never been etched in stone but in the past decade or so fans have been spoiled by the steady presence of frontman Jon Anderson, guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White. Last year, Anderson's health problems curtailed their 40th anniversary tour and a temporary replacement frontman, Benoit David, was recruited from a Yes tribute band.

Although Anderson is now fit to tour, his bandmates have settled with second best and David is now officially in the fold, alongside Oliver Wakeman, the second of Rick Wakeman's sons to follow in the family business.

David is a more than capable soundalike, showing off his ethereal chops on the soaring passages of And You And I and Heart Of the Sunrise, but he lacks Anderson's charisma and eccentricity and looked more Butlin's redcoat than pixie mystic, wearing Anderson's regulation waistcoat and blouson shirt and awkwardly imitating his pseudo-shamanic dance moves.

With Anderson at least temporarily out the picture, the group revisited a couple of tracks from their keyboard-heavy Drama album and unearthed Astral Traveller, a vintage psychedelic jam they have not played live since 1971.

But something else was missing from the performance as a whole – that sense of the ridiculous and no-holds-barred lunatic pomposity that makes a Yes show entertaining as well as stimulating.

There is no room for timidity in progland, yet in the course of this two-and-a-half-hour set there was no moment of glorious, epic impact, just a succession of reasonably enjoyable renditions of Yes standards.