Yes
Yesshows

Before starting, a premise...

I had to order Yesshows from my trusted store, and just when I felt it in my hands, ready to savor it properly, I receive a call telling me: it is temporarily out of catalog, you will have to wait another month. I WANTED TO KILL MYSELF! ...but after a long wait of 30 days and more, I went to retrieve it and rushed home to put it in the CD player, and it catapulted me directly into 1976, among the stands of Cobo Hall in Detroit, where the album was recorded.

Our journey begins with the engaging "Parallels," from Going For The One: the brief performance of the track (7 minutes are nothing compared to what awaits us later...) highlights the technical skills of Alan White, who frequently performs exceptional drum rolls that make everything more listenable; but now we need to take a step back and return to the origins of this Band, thanks to the not so excellent (in my opinion...) "Time And A Word": not excellent because in the performance present here, towards the middle of the track, there is an improvisation by Moraz that ruins the final part of the track, which still remains very pleasant and listenable.

We now enter the core of this album, thanks to the extraordinary "Going for the One," which needs no comment as it is even better than the studio version, thanks to the indescribable vocal performance of Jon Anderson, who is tasked with introducing the renowned "The Gates Of Delirium," my absolute favorite track by Yes (not coincidentally, Relayer is my favorite album of the group). A separate review would be needed to describe this suite, composed of four motifs: The beginning is magnificent, with all the instruments supporting Jon's vocal performance, who takes us to fantastic worlds at the edge of human knowledge. The suite continues through its central part, entirely instrumental, which significantly enriches the version present on Relayer; now we enter the final part of the track, where Anderson's voice reappears to conclude this indescribable motif. The result of all this is this 23.05-minute journey, which perfectly concludes the first CD.

I interrupt for a few seconds the reading of The Lord of the Rings, to insert the second CD. Our journey resumes with "Don't Kill The Whale," from Tormato. In the performance here, the track gives way to Moraz's keyboard solos, accompanied by White and Squire, who performs an exceptional guitar solo at the end, introducing the two suites of this second CD: I'm talking about "Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) Pt.1 and Pt.2. For the moment, let's focus on the first, and it must be said first of all that now Wakeman is on the keyboards (since it's a recording from 1978). The endless suite initially unfolds through the keyboards with impressive solos, then peeks at Jon's voice, which in turn gives way to a mini drum solo by White that reintroduces the keyboards to begin the second part of the suite: here, really anything happens (also because the first part was 11 minutes while this one is 18) indeed, after the usual keyboards, a violent guitar solo resumes, which is continuously applauded in the background. Pleasant also the reference to Close To the Edge, which serves as the finale for these two crazy suites (and I repeat... CRAZY!!)

Unfortunately for us, we reach the end of the album, with a piercing version of "Wonderous Stories," much, much shorter than the studio version (only 3.54 minutes).

I would like to conclude by saying that I chose to review this album because it concerns the part of Yes's career that I know the most, but mainly because the tracks of the album are mainly taken from their albums that I prefer (Relayer, Going For The One... etc., etc.). Now I just await your opinion. See you soon!