Yes Concert Review

Well last night was the YES concert at the Chicago Theatre. For those of you not familiar with the latest YES lineup it was Squire, Howe, White (core) with Oliver Wakeman on keyboards (Rick’s son) plus Benoit David (no that’s not backwards) doing Jon’s part (lead vocals and raucous tambourine playing during long musical interludes).

The demographics at the show were interesting. I think I would put the Yes concert only slightly above a Linux SysAdmin monthly meeting and GenCon (geek game board convention) as worst odds to meet a women you might want to marry. I’m guessing the audience was 80% male and heavily laced with ex or current Dungeon and Dragons players. I was also probably on the younger end as well. Also of note, at no point during the show did I smell that “concert smell” (you know the one I mean). I was also impressed by the $45 concert T-shirts. That’s right a $45 shirt. Yikes…

First the negative stuff… Please just cut “All Good People” and “Roundabout” out of the set list FOREVER. My apathy towards Roundabout in particular is now turning to genuine dislike of the song. It’s dull, it hasn’t aged well, and I’ve just heard it too many times. The people at that show knew your entire catalog, you don’t have to play your “pseudo-hit” to make them happy. That it was the last song made it even worse (never end on a down note).

Now on to the good stuff. Overall I thought it was a great show. The set started with the traditional Firebird Suite/ Siberian Khatru duo. Nicely done and very engaging. My favorites of the night were definitely “And You and I” and “Tempus Fugit”. “Machine Messiah” was a close 2nd/3rd. David on lead vocals was simply amazing. He was able to do young Jon, old Jon, and even Trevor Horn for the Drama tracks. You had the feeling that he listened to YesSongs a couple hundred times and matched just about everything. Bravo! I thought Steve and Chris were “on” as well as engaging and fun to watch. Oliver played keyboards and Alan White played drums ;-)

Here’s what I remember of the set list (not in exact order):
· Firebird Suite/Siberian Khatru
· I've Seen All Good People
· Tempus Fugit
· Onward
· Astral Traveler
· Close To The Edge
· Machine Messiah
· And You And I
· Steve solo
· Long Distance Runaround/The Fish
· Some Chris song (new)
· Starship Trooper
Encores:
· Owner Of A Lonely Heart
· Roundabout

As a bonus...

Hideous video of the Fish below with audio of the really drunk guy in front of us.

Turkey Trot Race Report (week old)

We had a great race day on Thursday (Thanksgiving). I'm sure it was a bit cold for many people but at 8am near the end of November; 32 degrees, sunny, with no wind was about as perfect as I could expect. The course is also completely flat so everything was in place condition wise.

My goal was to PR (19:07) and I had spent a lot of time this Fall doing speedwork especially 6x800s and similar repeats. I was curious to see if this, combined with my increase in mileage (from 20mpw to 35) would pay off. I ran a 10K three weeks ago in 40:30 which (according to the equivalence charts) predicted a 19:25) but I knew I would get better as the distance got shorter.

I did a little weaving in traffic the first half a mile but generally my path was pretty clear. I settled into a comfortable pace but found that between 1/2 and 1 mile I was passing the "out too quick" crowd. My only concern for the first mile was to not to absent-mindedly go out too slow. I knew I wouldn’t go too fast because I can feel “too fast” on a 5K very easily in my breathing pattern. I hit mile 1 at 6:04, about what I had hoped. Mile 2 was horribly mismarked on the course (which I knew from previous years in this race) so I glanced at my watch, saw it was at 4:59 and didn’t even bother to hit the “lap” button. I really had no idea how I was doing until I hit the 3 mile mark and my “lap” was 11:57. I was completely out of gas but died over the line at 18:47. Whew!

Had a great Thanksgiving dinner with the family and haven’t taken a fast step since.

(IMHO) The 5K is really a tough race. The last 1/2 a mile I felt like I could collapse and I just couldn't get enough air to keep my legs moving fast. I'm not sure I'm up for what it would take effort-wise to improve for next year. There's something ringing in my head about "all that work for 20 lousy seconds".