Yes - Tavistock Review

It is always a great experience getting to see a well-established band play at a venue which is much smaller than is typical for them. This does not happen too often but when it does a special night for those in attendance is almost guaranteed. I have been to a handful of such gigs over the years, but one which sticks out is getting to see the British progressive rock legends Yes kick off their 2022 touring cycle at The Wharf in Tavistock - a local venue for me. The Wharf is probably the venue which I have visited the most over the years but generally my visits there have been for smaller bands. I did see Uriah Heep there a decade or so ago, before they started playing larger venues again here in the UK a couple of years later, but Yes is easily the biggest band which The Wharf has likely ever hosted. The reason for their 2022 show was that they had booked the venue out for a week or so to use to rehearse for their 2022 tour, their first run of post-pandemic shows, so decided to use the venue to also host something of a dress rehearsal. The 2022 Tavistock show was the band's first since 2019, then, and there were certainly moments of rustiness during the performance, but it was still a special night - with the band playing to a packed house of Devon locals just enjoying the moment. I had been a casual fan of Yes for years, and had seen them live previously in 2014, but that night in Tavistock made me a real fan. Since then, I have delved much deeper into Yes' back catalogue and am much more familiar than I was with their work since 2022. There are still a few albums I need to get, and really sink into their many and varied live albums, but I think it is fair to say that I am now a 'proper' Yes fan rather than just a casual one. Imagine my excitement, then, when it was announced a month or so ago that Yes would return to The Wharf - again to kick off their upcoming European and UK tour. Given that the band undertook an extensive tour of America last year, I am not sure that a dress rehearsal was perhaps as necessary as it had been in 2022, but I can only assume that the band enjoyed their time at The Wharf last time so they decided to repeat it. The band again used the venue as rehearsal space for a few days and capped off their time with another concert - before they head off to Europe to start the tour proper in a few days. If this is to become something of a Yes tradition then I am certainly not going to complain - and The Wharf is a great venue so it deserves the attention from a big band like Yes. It was with excitement that I headed to Tavistock on the bus from Plymouth after a day's work to take in the concert, then, especially as the evening also included a trip to a local excellent Indian restaurant. When I got to The Wharf, the bar area and garden were already pretty full. The Wharf generally attracts decent crowds but Yes is certainly a step up from most - so the place was full throughout. It was also an early show with no support act - with the band hitting the stage at 7pm and finishing up just before 9pm.

The great thing about this show was that, apart from the two songs which made up the encore, the entire main set was different from the last Tavistock show two years ago. Yes have a big enough back catalogue to make this possible, but there are more than a few veteran bands who rarely shake up the setlist - so having only two repeats from the last tour really made this night more exciting. The mix of material played was interesting, too, with some real classics thrown in alongside lesser-played fan favourites and a couple of genuine deep cuts. When the lights went down at 7pm and an orchestral intro filled the speakers band, led out by guitarist Steve Howe, made their way onto the relatively small stage - and immediately launched into the riff-heavy Machine Messiah from 1980's Drama. Yes have never been a metal band, but Machine Messiah is one of those songs which likely influenced the booming progressive metal scene of the 1980s with its Black Sabbath-esque riffing and doomy keyboard textures - albeit with plenty of excellent melodic leads for both Howe and Geoff Downes (keyboards/vocals) to sink their teeth into. The song is a pretty lengthy one, but it really allowed the band to spread out early on. Billy Sherwood (bass guitar/vocals) was high in the mix throughout, driving everything with his busy playing, whilst frontman Jon Davison perfectly delivered the material vocally - even if he was occasionally slightly low in the mix. The crowd were enraptured during the 10 minutes or so of Machine Messiah, and when it finished the place erupted - and the band knew that they had little more to do to keep everyone on side. A deep cut in the form of It Will Be a Good Day (The River) from 1999's The Ladder was then played and I liked the contrast between the heavy Machine Messiah and the more laid back pop which followed. Howe's guitar soloing and lead playing is rarely typical, but some of his leads throughout the second song were almost David Gilmour-esque at times - and the shimmering arrangement really brought the best out of Davison. A more hard rocking sound was then returned to via Going for the One - with Howe laying into his lap steel as the rocked up country vibes of the song filled the venue. These three opening songs showcased a huge variety in sound but this was only really just the beginning. Despite Going for the One being a single in 1977, perhaps the first genuine classic to be wheeled out was I've Seen All Good People. The song was one of the band's early forays into true progressive rock - with the gorgeous acoustic-based opening section perfect for Davison's floaty vocals, whilst the closing section allowed for the band to rock out a little more. This led nicely into an instrumental portion of the band's interpretation of Simon & Garfunkel's America - which gave Davison a bit of a chance to play around with his various pieces of percussion whilst Howe let rip with some busy solos. Perhaps the only track which felt somewhat out of place in the set was the acoustic pop of Time and a Word - a song which does not really represent what Yes become following its 1970 release.

Everything that followed was excellent, though. Howe pointed out that Yes could have been a bit ahead of their time environmentally, which heralded a performance of Don't Kill the Whale, but the next real highlight for me was a slightly re-arranged Turn of the Century which was packed full of emotion. The version started off with Howe on acoustic guitar and Downes on piano, alongside Davison's vocals, and around half of the song was sung acoustically like this. Sherwood and Jay Schellen (drums) did join in later - but even the song never returned to its true roots. Schellen's drumming was more percussive than usual whilst the bass added depth - and the song really came alive in this format, with Davison finding plenty of space in the mix around the acoustic instruments. Following this calmer moment, it was fitting that the band returned to a heavier territory and launched into South Side of the Sky - which on reflection sounds like a bit of a blueprint for where the band went later with Machine Messiah and also seems to borrow a bit from what bands like Deep Purple were doing at the time. Downes' organ really brought the song to life, despite Howe's heavy riffing cutting through the mix, but it was a track that showcased the band's long-time keyboardist in a big way - with plenty of lead and solo sections for him to show off during. Given that most of the set had been culled from the band's 1970s albums, it was fitting that their 2023 release Mirror to the Sky was featured with the inclusion of the bouncy and melodic Cut from the Stars. Given the song's reference to dark sky parks, it was fitting that the song was played so close to the Dartmoor National Park - and the new track was greeted as warmly as many of the classics were. There was only one piece of music left in the main set, but it was a lengthy one - and likely a highlight for many long-time fans. The closing medley took parts from all four of the side-long epics which made up 1973's Tales from Topographic Oceans and smashed them together - forming a new song from the parts. The medley flowed pretty well, though, and it covered a number of different moods - with some of the key themes from The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) kicking things off. Perhaps the delicate Leaves of Green section of 'The Ancient' (Giants of the Sun) was the overall highlight of the piece - but the ending segment from Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil) brought the set to a pleasing end, and the crowd made their appreciation known as the band trooped off stage. As mentioned before, though, a two-song encore followed. The two songs included were the two everyone was expecting, but after such a varied set I do not think anyone minded singing along to Roundabout - which included Downes' best organ solo of the night, alongside lots of excellent synth leads. Not to be outdone, though, the spotlight was then turned over to Howe for Starship Trooper, with his closing guitar solo bringing the house down as expected. The duo ended the night on a high and when the band took their bows the cheering from the crowd could gave rivalled that of a crowd more typical of size for Yes. The setlist was:

Machine Messiah

It Will Be a Good Day (The River)

Going for the One

I've Seen All Good People

America [Simon & Garfunkel cover]

Time and a Word

Don't Kill the Whale

Turn of the Century

South Side of the Sky

Cut from the Stars

The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)/The Remembering (High the Memory)/'The Ancient' (Giants Under the Sun)/Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil)

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Roundabout

Starship Trooper

Having Yes come to Tavistock once was a lot of fun, but having them return was even better. It is clear that the band really enjoy their jaunts down to Devon to rehearse and road test some material - so I hope that we might be treated to a third such show in the future. I will certainly be there again if they do and Yes will continue to feature heavily in my listening going forward - as they become closer to becoming a real favourite.