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Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller
This week Mark and I have been listening to the great live album by Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks – Live Perpetual Change. Listen out for our comments in a few minutes and do let us know if you agree or disagree with us by leaving a comment on the show notes for this week.
- How does Jon Anderson sound these days?
- Is this a cover band?
- What are the epics like?
Let us know if you agree with us!
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Yes – The Tormato Story
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YMP Patrons:
Producers:
- Joseph Cottrell
- Wayne Hall
- Ken Fuller
- Jeffrey Crecelius
Patrons:
| Aaron Steelman | Lind |
| Al Dell’Angelo | Lobate Scarp |
| Barry Gorsky | Mark Baggs |
| Bill Whittaker | Mark James Lang |
| Bob Martilotta | Mark Slater |
| Brian Harris | Martin Kjellberg |
| Brian Sullivan | Michael Handerhan |
| Chris Bandini | Michael O’Connor |
| Craig Estenes | Miguel Falcão |
| Dave Owen | Paul Hailes |
| David | Paul Tomei |
| David Heyden | Rachel Hadaway |
| David Pannell | Robert Nasir |
| David Watkinson | Robert Vandiver |
| Declan Logue | Ronnie Neeley |
| Dem | Scott Colombo |
| Doug Curran | Simon Barrow |
| Fergus Cubbage | Stephen Lambe |
| Fred Barringer | Steve Dill |
| Gary Betts | Steve Luzietti |
| Geoff Bailie | Steve Perry |
| Geoffrey Mason | Steve Rode |
| Guy DeRome | Steve Scott |
| Henrik Antonsson | Steven Roehr |
| Hogne Bø Pettersen | Terence Sadler |
| Todd Dudley | |
| John Cowan | John Thomson |
| John Holden | John Viola |
| Jamie McQuinn | Tim Stannard |
4 replies on “Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks – Live Perpetual Change – 667”
Reaction to Jon & BG Live-Perpetual Change The Good & The Bad:
The Good: Top notch playing—Faithfulness to the standard versions while adding little touches, like the mellotron bits in CTTE (including best non-Rick organ solo since Tom Brislin), the sweet double-stops in Ritchie’s bass solo in HOTS while Andy A effortlessly shifts between Bruford & White styles…the return of some powerful grunge guitar tones & serious shredding to AWAKEN which also features impeccable organ work…I barely noticed that they lowered some of the keys for Jon (the 5-string bass does the trick)…powerful PERPETUAL C & magnificent GATES, just exquisite!
The Bad: Ritchie Castellano’s voice, try as he might, just doesn’t like Chris, whereas Billy Sherwood DOES sound like Chris…the Geeks’ version of the Yes choir is off, I even miss Steve Howe’s voice ‘cause these Geeks are all tenors/high baritones, there’s no low end! It sounds more like a Blue Oyster Cult choir than YES! Totally in agreement Mark & Kevin re: really missing the harmonica on AYAI & what is up with the intro of GATES???!?! The rest of Gates is brilliant IMHO. And, truth be told, these guys were chosen for their (non-harmonica) instrumental virtuosity, not their vocals…btw here’s the downside of 2 keyboard players: in YIND, the synthbrass in the recapitulation of the main theme at 4:12 sounds like Springsteen’s “Glory Days.” Thank heavens for Jon & the 2 Andys holding down the fort because otherwise YISD would sound like a cover version played by the E Street Cult but with those few exceptions, an excellent live album & welcome addition to the world of live Yes, or at least Yes-Adjacent music!
And sorry Kevin & Mark, but I think you spent more time discussing crowd noise & vocal pitch correction than you did on the actual music.
Ah well, we know that what we miss, the fine listeners like your good self will provide. Thank you for taking the time to add your well-considered thoughts!
Hi Team.
Kevin and Mark, hope you are both well. Another thought provoking episode!
A big thanks to Brian’s comment above, I agree with most of his insightful points.
I was delighted to listen to ‘Perpetual Change’. In my personal opinion Jon Anderson will always be the spirit, the soul the creative catalyst and arranger of what we call Yes music.
I thought Jon’s vocals on the album were excellent and I was delighted to hear these songs sung by the person who wrote them. I know concerns were raised about editing of his vocals. Personally I can’t tell.
But seriously. Is anybody questioning Jon Anderson’s ability to hold a tune or deliver a strong live performance? The bloke wrote the book. Even now at 80 years am genuinely awestruck by his voice.
Obviously I’m a Jon fan. Gotta admit to also loving the brilliance of the Band Geeks live performance. They are truly extraordinary musicians, and in my view bring off these pieces as well as anybody, other than the band Yes at their seventies peak.
I loved Ritchies bass, particularly his solos.
Andy the guitar guy is also outstanding but I did feel his tone and speed occaisionally incongruous with the delicacy of some parts of the music. After hearing his Awaken I went back to listen to Awaken with Trevor and decided that the piece really needed Steve and his Hawaiian slide guitar…Likewise AYAI.
But it also needed Wakeman.
Themain difference for me were the keyboards. The two guys playing keys with Jon now are truly fantastic, but unfortunately do not a Wakeman make. I felt some pieces were overly keyboard dense and personally I prefer Ricks live soloing style to Chris Clark’s. There are differences in sounds and textures too, with Rick still faithful to his mini moog.
As somebody else noted the syncopated instrumental section on Perpetual Change had some obvious issues. But to their credit I assume nobody has played with the recording to correct it in post production.
As a more general observation, I would say I was disappointed that so many compositions were played just as the album recordings and not developed in live performance as Yes would have. I would have enjoyed additional improvisations beyond the obvious solos…
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this album. It’s maybe not as monumental as ‘True’, but a great high energy recording of Yes classics performed by the voice of Yes. Particularly looking forward to another studio album.
Great episode Kevin and Mark!
Here are some better quality videos of the current band playing selections from “True” to tide you over.
True Messenger
Counties and Countries
Once Upon a Dream