Tag Archives: steve howe

Features, Tours and Festivals

Progressive Rock Fans Say “YES” To Their Summer Tour 2014

Leave a comment

“Let there be Prog” is what fans will be saying as the news about the summer tour by Yes and with this go round they will be playing two of their incredible albums in full. Since the press copy is rather lengthy I will keep it brief here but will return with my own opinions at the close. Here you go.

Tour - Yes - Summer 2014

The Press Release:
Throughout 2013, the iconic and Grammy-winning rock band YES marked a career first by performing a triple-header concert featuring three of their classic albums in their entirety, all in one concert. For 2014, the band is back to rock crowds nationwide with a brand new show. The 35-date summer tour will feature YES performing–in their entirety–1971’s groundbreaking album FRAGILE for the first-time ever and a repeat performance from last year’s tour of 1972’s CLOSE TO THE EDGE, followed by an encore of the band’s greatest hits. Kicking off July 8 in Boston, the tour will then stop at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall July 10 before making its way throughout the Northeast, hitting Wallingford, CT, Westbury, NY, Newport, RI, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and more. Among their many tour stops, YES will perform in Detroit, Madison, Chicago, Nashville, Louisville, Atlanta, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego and San Jose before wrapping August 24 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. See full itinerary below.
Continue reading Progressive Rock Fans Say “YES” To Their Summer Tour 2014 →

Music, Reviews

“Spirit Of The Night: The Phoenix Tour” by Asia

Leave a comment

Artist: Asia
Title: “Spirit Of The Night: The Phoenix Tour”
Label: Frontiers Records
Release Date: 3/8/2011
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 4/5

Active again since 2006, The Original Asia of Geoff Downes, John Wetton, Steve Howe and Carl Palmer have been keeping as busy as possible for their fans by releasing both live and studio material along with full concert DVD’s that pay proper attention to the tour they come from. I loved the bands eponymous debut album of “Asia” when it was released way back in the ancient times of 1982 and believe that I still have the LP version somewhere in a box over at my parents house. The bands reunion tour was celebrated on “Fantasia” and this release focused mostly on the debut. It was not long before the band delivered the commendable “Phoenix” as their first album together since 1983’s “Alpha”. There were many that felt the album successfully captured some of the same magic that made the band so appealing back when the project was first introduced and I had to agree since I really enjoyed it myself.
Continue reading “Spirit Of The Night: The Phoenix Tour” by Asia →

Reviews, Videos

“Fantasia Live In Tokyo” [Blu-ray] by Asia

Leave a comment

Artist: Asia
Title: “Fantasia Live In Tokyo” [Blu-ray]
Label: Eagle Vision
Release Date: 3/31/2009
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 3.5/5

The standard edition of this video came out back in 2007 and it was a great one that presented to the world’s Progressive Rock fans the mighty Asia reunited and stronger than ever. Since that time the advancements in video technology have given us a higher definition format to enjoy these kinds of releases and in 2009 we saw this film upgraded to the Blu-ray format. In 2010 this format is slowly becoming the dominant version and now laptops, PC’s and gaming systems are letting you enjoy them with brighter colors and incredible audio sonic quality. Having reviewed this with its initial release and finding no real difference in the content presented, I have slightly edited my original narrative and present it to you with thoughts about the Blu-ray version.

Even though the history books will note this as fact I still refuse to believe that it has been more than twenty five years since I first purchased my original vinyl copy of the debut by Asia – the blockbuster album that was simply entitled “Asia”. Twenty five years old and this album when played today still sounds as fresh and exciting as it used to and reminds me of the Progressive Rock promise that it held for all the fans of the individual players who made up the group. For those who might be too young to remember this album and group let me bring you up to speed a little; Asia was essentially a super group when such a term was not as commonly used and that included members that were true legends from their genres. In Asia we found John Wetton (King Crimson), Steve Howe (Yes), Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) and Geoff Downes (The Buggles) all working together to create a masterpiece of Melodic Progressive Rock. Their efforts were a resounding success and yes it was geared more for a wider audience than some of the more stoic Progressive Rock fans would have liked but in the end it worked out like gangbusters with Asia achieving a #1 position on the Billboard album charts and offering up six charting singles. Not bad for an album that only had nine songs to begin with. Sadly this super-combination of Rockers would not remain together in this incarnation past the second album and this release “Alpha” was not too well-received as it delved deeper into the commercial aspect of the first one. Fast forwarding twenty five years into the future we find the original and founding members of the lineup reunited for a world tour to celebrate the anniversary of their initial formation and this breakthrough album. The Blu-ray DVD film “Fantasia – Live In Tokyo” of course finds the band performing in Japan in front of a sold out crowd as they celebrated one of the many evenings on this very well-received reunion. Since I was unable to attend any of the shows that came around my area I was very pleased to see this released for the home viewing audience and thanks to Eagle Vision Entertainment who have once again brought the event right into our homes. Given this was done for the anniversary of the album “Asia” itself, the set list for the concert features the performance of the entire album but instead of doing it straight through as some bands who would be doing such a presentation would likely do, Asia mixes it up across the course of the evening. The hits from the debut release and interlaced with songs from the individual members original bands and even some music from the bands follow up release.
Continue reading “Fantasia Live In Tokyo” [Blu-ray] by Asia →

Music, Reviews

“Symphonic Live” by Yes

Leave a comment

Artist: Yes
Title: “Symphonic Live”
Label: Eagle Records
Release Date: 2/24/2009
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 4/5 `

Originally presented to the fans of Progressive Rock giants Yes on the DVD that bears the same name comes the audio release of this very concert. The recording was initially done in 2001 as the band toured for their own orchestral album “Magnification” and if you think that you have enjoyed Yes in the past just wait until you hear them do their thing with the added power of a symphony orchestra behind them. These days the idea of bands releasing albums with an orchestras help is not so new or often even exciting but one of the true musical sounds that works with this idea best is the sound of Yes. If you are one of those fans that have been following Yes for a long time then there is a good chance that you already own the DVD companion piece for this album. That fact alone makes the appeal of owning the audio companion for your stereo, music player or just to leave in the car for those long trips somewhat of a necessity. In 2001, the lineup of Yes was John Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Alan White and they are joined by the European Festival Orchestra which was conducted by Wilhem Keitel. The music of Yes has always been big in scope and often took the listener to different worlds based on just how many musical doors it was opening in their minds and that made my hearing these classic tunes with the accompaniment of the orchestra a wonderful thing. I did enjoy the new tunes from the “Magnification” CD that were performed but when it came down to it I was more keen on the time honored classics like “Long Distance Runaround”, “I’ve Seen All Good People” and the tune of tunes “Roundabout”. What comes through crystal clear on every song is just how perfectly Yes seem to mesh with the orchestra and neither one overpowers the other as we have found happening on a number of other similar releases.
Continue reading “Symphonic Live” by Yes →

Music, Reviews

“Phoenix” by Asia

Leave a comment

Artist: Asia
Title: “Phoenix”
Label: EMI Records
Release Date: 4/28/2008
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 4/5

It’s been some twenty six years since we’ve found ourselves in ’82 and it seems as though the disco hot spots still hold no charm for many of us who had grown up in music since Asia first came upon the scene and released their incredible self-titled debut. While their biggest hit was “Heat Of The Moment”, the bands success was not really surprising to many considering the groups makeup of members from Yes, King Crimson, ELP and The Buggles. With Steve Howe, John Wetton, Geoff Downes and Carl Palmer under one musical roof this was without question a supergroup at a time when the term actually meant something. The lineup would do another full album before many of the members went their separate ways until the critically acclaimed reunion tour of 2006 which gave us a live CD and DVD release entitled “Fantasia”. The success of the tour found the members once again writing material which fans are finally able to enjoy on the their first album together in twenty five years – “Phoenix”. Named after the mythological bird, “Phoenix” represents a rebirth of the group in some sense while in another case it presents a logical progression from their last album together which was “Alpha”. Yes, the band continued on with different members for two decades and had a popularity of its own, but this is the return of the core starting point that many had been hoping for. The album starts off with a rousing number called “Never Again” and it’s one of the most up tempo offerings on the release and shows that the band is again locked into place and able to deliver powerful and worthy tracks.
Continue reading “Phoenix” by Asia →