What's the best Yes DVD

[3-LockBox]

I have Symphonic, but would like to hear a concert sans orchestra.

I'm torn twix Keys To Ascention and Songs From Tsongas.

Opinions wanted

[Dave_G]

TLB,

To me, a yes fan from 1972, there is not really a great dvd out there of them.

The ABWH is very good, however.

Keys is very good too, but has a bunch of artsy fartsy crap that makes it a little less desirable.

Tsongas is also pretty good but is kind of sterile.

Go for Keys.

Hell, I'll let you borrow my copies, PM me.

Dave

[BarryL]

I have Symphonic, but would like to hear a concert sans orchestra.

I'm torn twix Keys To Ascention and Songs From Tsongas.

Opinions wanted

I've just taken a look at both of them.

Keys sounds good, and it was recorded in 1996, so the boys are ten years younger than in Tsongs. But Dave is right. The videography is extremely annoying and amateurish.

Tsongs looks like a concert video should look, but the band looks old and tired, although the music is still great. It's just that it all seems to have been slowed down just a tad so the band doesn't have to play as fast.

Tsongs has state of the art sound, and the crowd is miked in, but it sounds real, not like the Rush in Rio DVD. Maybe that's because Yes fans for the most part listen to the music, instead of sing through it. Also, Tsongs is a double DVD, and includes some tunes from the Keys To Ascension studio albums. Keys includes only the old Yes standards and nothing from Keys Studio. Both contain the same five musicians, including Wakeman on keys.

So here's the trade off. Keys has a much younger and spritely looking band that still want to rock out, but the videography is childish. Tsongs is lovely to look at, if you can stomach your favorite rock stars looking like aging old men and sometimes struggling to play the music the created thirty years ago. It's also got twice the material, and better sound mix.

My choice is to go for Tsongas. Overall, I think it is more enjoyable to watch, has great camera angles from the sides, top, and in the audience, and has twice the material, including almost everything on the Keys DVD.

[BarryL]

I watched the first disk of Tsongs and now I'm spinning the second.

It's no contest now as far as I'm concerned. Tsongs starts off slow ithe a rather lackluster version of Going For The One, but builds in momentum as the boys kick up the intensity. This is the one to buy. You can tell they love the music they play and the audience is loving it to.

I'm loving this DVD all over again.

[BradH]

I'm torn twix Keys To Ascention and Songs From Tsongas.

Keys To Ascension was a horrible idea. They hadn't played w/ Wakeman & Howe in 5 years or any live gig in at least a year after the Talk tour. A couple of rehearsals and BOOM it's filmed for posterity. Then it had all that goofy new-age scenery plastered over it by moronic video editors. I made a copy of the Japanese laserdisc but I think the option to remove the graphics is available on the domestic DVD. Anyway, I was amazed at how much tighter they sounded the next year on the Open Your Eyes tour. Just a couple of months touring made all the difference. I remember thinking, why couldn't this have been filmed?

Songs From Tsongas is another lost oppurtunity. Again, they rollled the dice on a one shot deal. Stupidly, they picked the last night of the tour when they were guaranteed not to be fresh and then the air conditioning wasn't working in Tsongas in the middle of summer. So, yeah, they look old & tired. Who wouldn't? The editing is bland in a garden variety PBS fund raiser kind of way and the sound is way too smooth and processed for the DVD mix.

Yes couldn't put out a top-notch official live release if their life depended on it, audio or video. Although I guess the 9012Live would have to be excepted if you're into the Rabin years. It's just one of their quirks. Something always goes wrong. But that's on the official side. I've got a bootleg DVD taped from Swiss television of the Lugano jazz festival that blows away Tsongas and it's from the same tour. It's everything Tsongas is not. You can hardly believe it's the same band and it has better editing, better lighting (instead of the Roger Dead balloon-fest), better soundtrack and a much higher energy level. Some kind of miraculous transfer from PAL to NTSC with apparently no loss at all. Beautifully filmed. Why in the hell wasn't this released instead? If I could copy it I would trade for it but, for now, just go for Songs From Tsongas.