Yes, there was a time I got to see Yes!

There are a number of progressive rock bands I've followed closely for a long time yet there's a good chance I'll never get to see any of them perform live for whatever reason.  King Crimson is one.  Gentle Giant and Genesis with its classically progressive lineup are out because chances are they're among those groups that will never get back together again.  There was also a time when I thought I'd never get to see Yes.

Thankfully, I was wrong on that count when they came to Utah in the late 1990s for their 30th anniversary tour.  With all the Yes albums I've had in my collection, all the great Yes music that I've enjoyed, there was no way I was going to miss that show.

I was among the Yes fans who weren't overly thrilled with the studio album that came before the anniversary tour, "Open Your Eyes," seeing it as leaning a bit too heavily on vocal harmonies and not letting the instrumentation stretch out as much as I'd hoped it would.  So in the back of my mind, I was hoping Yes would focus more on its catalog of mind-opening songs that came throughout its history.

I wasn't left disappointed.  They seemed to turn the show into an absolute celebration of that 30-year history.  It gave me a glimpse into what a Yes show must have been like many years earlier, when the players were taking the music world by storm as younger lads.

This was the music of Yes performed live as I'd always imagine it.