YES : IN THE PRESENT LIVE FROM LYON

YES : IN THE PRESENT LIVE FROM LYON

Disc One (69:21)

Siberian Khatru
I've Seen All Good People
Tempus Fugit
Onward
Astral Traveller
Yours Is No Disgrace
And You And I
Corkscrew
Second Initial

Disc Two (62:58)

Owner Of A Lonely Heart
South Side Of The Sky
Machine Messiah
Heart Of The Sunrise
Roundabout
Starship Trooper

Label : Avalon Records

Venue : Bourse Du Travail, Lyon, France

Recording Date : December 1, 2009

Release Date : November 29, 2011

Review (AllMusic) : Following Fly from Here, the first new Yes studio album in a decade, but recorded before it, In the Present: Live from Lyon chronicles a December 1, 2009 concert performance by a configuration that, initially in 2008, was being billed as "Steve Howe, Chris Squire, and Alan White of Yes," joined by Oliver Wakeman on keyboards and Canadian singer Benoît David of the Yes tribute band Close to the Edge. By the time of this show, however, Squire (who apparently controls the rights to the name) was calling the band simply Yes. The inclusion of David, with his sound-alike vocals copying those of original lead singer Jon Anderson, completes the conversion of this long-lived outfit into what many acts of a similar vintage have become: a tribute band to itself. That is confirmed by the repertoire here, which draws heavily on the early ‘70s LPs The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge. There are a couple of tracks from Drama (another album on which Anderson was absent) and one from Tormato, plus, inevitably, "Owner of a Lonely Heart," the most recent song in the set, at a mere 26 years old. Otherwise, the players re-create Yes music of four decades ago. Of course, there are numerous other live renditions of this material, starting with Yessongs, and these performances, while competent, are not on a par with either the studio originals or earlier recorded concerts. While ersatz bands like this are perfectly capable of pleasing nostalgic concert fans, they may not be well advised to issue recordings of their efforts that, like this one, suffer in comparison to previous efforts. The album is also available with an accompanying DVD of video excerpts from the concert.

Review (Wikipedia) : In the Present – Live from Lyon is a 2-CD/DVD live album by Yes, released on 29 November 2011 in North America and 2 December 2011 in Europe. In the Present – Live from Lyon is a recording of a Yes show on 1 December 2009 at the Bourse du Travail, Lyon, France as a part of their In the Present Tour which they undertook before the release of their new studio album Fly from Here (2011) featuring newcomer Benoît David on lead vocals. It is the only Yes live album featuring lead vocalist Benoît David (from Mystery) and also the band's first live record without lead singer Jon Anderson, whom David replaced. It was also the only release with Oliver Wakeman as a member of the band, until the release of the From a Page album in 2019.

Review (ProgArchives) : The first time Yes plays a song at its original tempo on In the Present - Live from Lyon is nearly an hour into the show. Apparently this CD is the entire concert, perhaps with most of the banter removed, and it's easy to picture them taking their time getting up to speed. The opener "Siberian Khatru" is a bit slow - though we've certainly heard it slower - and a bit sterile compared to the version on Yessongs, for example. Two songs later is a disappointing "Tempus Fugit:" it's slow and sloppy, especially the keyboards, and frankly not like Yes. I got to see this tour about a year before this show, and I felt like new keyboardist Oliver Wakeman was still getting used to the material -but it was just his fifth show with Yes. The show recorded for In the Present - Live from Lyon was, but by my count, his seventy-ninth. Kudos to the group for not going back and fixing every error on the recording; I feel like this is an accurate transcription of the show. This even goes for the vocals. Even though Chris Squire's are obviously auto-tuned, this was done live. Anyway, "Tempus Fugit" is followed by the already plodding "Onward," which is done beautifully, but the tempo reduction is almost putting me to sleep! Things pick up noticeably with the fifth number, "Astral Traveller," which was the highlight of the concert I saw. Here it's a bit slow, but it sounds great, including the organ parts. Interestingly, Squire is the only one on this recording who'd appeared on the original forty years earlier. Drummer Alan White does a nice job moving between Bill Bruford's original parts and his own straight-ahead playing - and manages to squeeze in a precisely two-minute drum solo. Finally we get to the the seventh song, "And You And I." The third movement, "The Preacher The Teacher," at 6:49 into the track, is played at the canonical speed! After a couple of obligatory solo acoustic numbers from guitarist Steve Howe, things stay on track with the first and only Rabin-era track, "Owner of a Lonely Heart," to which Howe contributes a very nice guitar solo. The next string of songs, "South Side of the Sky" ? "Machine Messiah" ? "Heart of the Sunrise," is the strongest on the album, despite the fact that the tempos flag a bit on the first two pieces. The concert closes predictably with nice renditions of "Roundabout" (at a good tempo) and "Starship Trooper" (a bit slow). Of the fifteen tracks (including the Howe solo "Second Initial," included on some versions), only two - "South Side of the Sky" and "Machine Messiah" - are among the best live versions of their respective compositions, so it's tough to call this album essential, even to many Yes fans. But In the Present - Live from Lyon is unique among official Yes releases as the only live album to feature Oliver Wakeman or vocalist Benoît David. And David is completely fantastic throughout the concert. As has been said many times, he can hit every note as well as longtime lead singer Jon Anderson, and his voice is ideally suited for singing Trevor Horn's lead vocals on "Machine Messiah" and "Tempus Fugit." I'll also echo a common complaint about In the Present - Live from Lyon: it's too bad that the official recording from this tour doesn't include "Aliens (Are Only Us from the Future)," which Squire sang at many of the shows earlier in the tour. Although Squire eventually recorded a studio version of the song with Steve Hackett, it was never released by Yes, live or otherwise. In all, In the Present - Live from Lyon is pretty good, especially compared to their other post-Anderson live albums.