House of Yes - Live From House of Blues CD and DVD

FIrst of all the CD. I had questioned the logic of Yes releasing yet another live album only two studio releases since the last one. However, when I learned that the album was to be almost the full set from the "Ladder" tour I looked forward to it with anticipation. If they could recreate the wonderful concert I saw back on 13 February 2000, I would be a happy chappie. The album cover is a wonderful Roger Dean illustration of  the "Union/YesYears" logo being savaged by a colourful dragonfly. Very distinctive and very Yes. The track listing is as follows spread over two CD's :

1. Yours Is No Disgrace  2. Time and a Word (excerpt)  3. Homeworld (The Ladder)  4. Perpetual Change  5. Lightning Strikes
6. The Messenger  7. Ritual - Nous Sommes Du Soleil (Excerpt)  8. And You And I  9. It Will Be A Good Day (The River)
10. Face To Face  11. Awaken  12. Your Move/I've Seen All Good People  13. Cinema  14. Owner Of A Lonely Heart
15. Roundabout

The first thing you notice about the album is the overly bright production. The bass is virtually none existent, and considering my hi-fi has been painstakingly tuned to grab all the bass (especially bass pedals!) available, it is very disappointing. A Yes album where you can't here the thundering Chris Squire might as well not exist. The keyboards seem a bit loud too, perhaps the producer is compensating for the fact that you could hardly hear Igor at the concerts! On the plus side though, you can finally hear what a great player Mr Khoroshev is. Also, the vocals seem to have been left pretty much alone, with not much "sweetening" which makes the performances sound very alive. Overall though, the production and mixing is dreadful. "Keys To Ascension" blows it away sonically. It is more like "Yesshows". Very poor indeed (as Vic Reeves might say).

I'm a big fan of "The Ladder" album, I think it is the best thing Yes have done since "Going For The One". So I'm particular pleased to hear the live versions of the new tracks. "Homeworld" is suitable immense, and "Lightning Strikes" works even better than the studio version. "The Messenger" is particularly well done and it has to be said that everyone's playing on the new songs is spot on.

My favourite track just happens to be the first one! "Yours Is No Disgrace" is probably the definitive version of what is one of my favourite yes songs of all time. Steve Howe just shines, he exudes class. A pity you can't hear the wonderful bass lines very clearly but the song is excellent. "Perpetual Change" is very good too, though not quite in the same class as the set opener.

"Awaken" had the potential to be immense, but the lack of bass just kills the song for me. A pity because when I saw them live it just totally blew me away. It was perhaps the best think I'd ever seen live, maybe just behind ABWH's "Close To The Edge". The same goes for "And You And I", it's a pretty good version, but it just lacks something.

"I've Seen All Good People" is as rousing a version as you could want, and leads very nicely onto the trio of encore songs. "Cinema" is played with panache, and blows away the studio version even without Trevor Rabin's brilliant guitar. But perhaps the surprise of the album is "Owner Of A Lonely Heart". It could have stuck out like a sore thumb amongst this collection of epics, but its perhaps the best version I've ever heard, even Squire doesn't play it too well. Billy Sherwood does a good Rabin impersonation, and then Steve Howe plays a solo! He plays a solo on "Owner of a Lonely Heart"! And it is pure Howe at his best. He takes a pretty standard chord progression (after all this track isn't particularly complicated) and just lifts it into another world. A unique talent and a genius! "Roundabout" is pretty standard fair these days and they play is pretty well even if it is a bit truncated. It segues into a bit of a bluesey "tour" song which brings the hole thing to a close.

Jon Anderson gives his usual solid performance, he still sounds as good as ever. Alan White too sounds better than ever, he seems to be kicking harder than I've heard him before. Chris Squire isn't as exuberant as he was in on the "Open Your Eyes" tour, but that's because of the material selection. He is still brilliant, a pity you can't make out the bass lines very easily due to the poor mix. Billy Sherwood contributes more than the last tour, and a worthy effort he makes too. Igor Khoroshev is obviously enjoying himself, and his style is emerging more as a Patrick Moraz than as a Rick Wakeman. No bad thing there, but I still think he should try and be himself rather than play at being a "Wakeman". Steve Howe shines on this album. He always does. He is the person that makes Yes what it is. If he has a good day then so does Yes. If he performs well on a Yes album, then it is a good Yes album. He played well on "The Ladder" and he plays well on "House of Yes". Need I say more.

I still think the live bits of "Keys To Ascension" are better, but on the whole "House of Yes - Live from House of Blues" is a great album. A pity about the production though!

Now for the DVD. We've had to wait a year for this in the UK, the question is - Was it worth it? Probably. Soundwise, the DVD is the same as the CD, perhaps if anything even thinner. Its a real shame that the production is so lightweight. Without bass a live recording is always going to sound a bit empty. Anyway, to compensate, you also get a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, which is quite interesting and certainly livens things up a bit. But I do think in places the mix is trying to be a bit too clever, and it doesn't quite work. Occasionally you get really rough sounding surround pans, that stop unnaturally. On the whole, I think the stereo mix is perhaps the more cohesive, if you can stand the lack of bass.

The visuals are brilliant. Compared to the "mind numbing visual effects" on "Keys to Ascension", "HOB"s are in a different class. Clear, sharp video of the band, hardly any extra distractions apart from what the band was back projecting at the concert. In the main the cameras follow the action well, only occasionally missing an important solo (eg. do we really want to see Jon Anderson banging a tambourine when Steve Howe is playing the stunning solo from the beginning of "Awaken", err, no).  At least they managed to get the visuals in sync with the music this time!

The extras you get are OK but nothing too exciting. A brief documentary is laughably short and shallow. The music clips and interviews in the extras are just taken from the documentary. You get an interactive tour book which is basically the tour programme on screen to click through, pretty useless really! You also get a Dolby 5.1 mix of "Homeworld" with the video which is OK but suffers from terrible compression (like listening to Radio One FM!) and sounds like it was mastered using Auto Level Control. Poor.

On the whole though, the video or DVD is worth buying. It is perhaps the best concert DVD/video of the band available in the UK. At least you can watch it without being embarrased by the "effects" (which happens watching "Keys to Ascension") but the sound is unforgiveably poor. One day I'm sure Yes will get it right. Here's hoping but not expecting!

(Copyright David Hopton - 8 November 2001)

Yes Logos and Cover Artwork Copyright Roger Dean