Yes-In the present-Live from Lyon

Frontiers
2011

This live album fro prog rock legends Yes was recorded in Lyon, France back on December 1st 2009. I am not totally sure why they choose a nearly two year old show for release instead of choosing one from this years "Fly from here" tour. This band has gone through numerous line-up changes over the years. They have gone through style changes too having been real pioneers and leaders in their genre and then dabbling in more pop leaning styles although they have always kept some of their original prog sound too. This long set mixes up the selection fairly well as they of course have a large catalog for which to choose. We are treated to classics like “Roundabout", but we inevitably get tracks like the 80's megahit “Owner of a Lonely Heart" as well. Of course every track here is extremely tight as I would expect nothing less from this band no matter who is in the line-up. Although precision is more important that raw energy because you'll never hear them pick up the tempo more than on the studio versions either. New singer Benoit David does a fine job handling his duties really hitting every note perfectly. We get 14 tracks here and several over ten minutes yet it never seems too long, instead it just flows very well and I felt very satisfied with the album as a whole. While listening to it I could really appreciate the impact Yes has had on progressive music over the years. It did strike me slightly funny that in between each song there seems to a controlled splatter of hand clapping from the audience. This is perhaps a far more contained response than the band would have received say 35 or so years ago. I suppose this may have to do with the fact that much of their audience is now at least somewhat grey haired. Anyways this was an enjoyable enough live album and fans of the band will surely be pleased.