It seems like some of the very best concerts are the ones that you almost miss. This was certainly the case with the Yes show on Wednesday night at Cain Park.

For me, it came down to time. It had been a long time since the tour was announced, with the first details trickling out in December of last year. At that point, I really wasn”t sure that I needed to see Yes again.

After all, I’ve seen many a Yes show, starting with the first time that I saw the “classic” Yes lineup in 1997 at Music Hall. That’s a story by itself. That was another Yes show that I almost didn’t go to. I grew up as a fan of the 90125-era of the band and had little interest in the ’70s material. But a friend asked me if I could get free tickets for him to take his girlfriend to the show and I figured that as long as I was making the effort to get tickets, I should try to score some for myself and take a chance on the show.

I went to the show that night at Music Hall and got a huge education on all things Yes. Besides a smattering of tracks from Open Your Eyes, the band’s current album at the time with a couple of ’80s Yes tracks wedged in for good measure, it was all about the epic ’70s stuff, with tracks like “The Revealing Science of God,” “Heart of the Sunrise,” their famous version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “America” and “Starship Trooper” as the closer.

Holy crap.

Each year after that, I found my way to a Yes concert at least once per year as long as they were on tour, with the band’s lineup shifting slightly (mainly on keyboards) in that time. 2003 would put a wrap on my “classic Yes” experience with a lineup that featured Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White.

The band would take a short hiatus in 2004, returning in 2008 sans Anderson with Canadian vocalist Benoit David at the helm. As much as I was against the idea of a Yes that didn’t include Anderson, I gave it a shot and it was an enjoyable evening of music. With David, the band returned to the studio with Trevor Horn producing and in the midst of the recording sessions, Horn’s former Buggles bandmate Geoff Downes rejoined the lineup on keyboards  as well. Fly From Here was the result of their efforts and against many sets of odds, it was a new album that sounded a lot like classic Yes. Who would have thought?

Sadly, David encountered vocal issues in the midst of the touring for Fly From Here and found himself jettisoned from the group, replaced by another relatively unknown vocalist, Jon Davison.

Here’s where my hesitation came in about attending this summer’s tour. Do I really need to see Yes performing three classic albums with a new replacement singer, taking over for the previous substitute vocalist not named Jon Anderson? Having seen Yes with a lineup of Anderson, Wakeman, Squire, Howe and White, I wasn’t so sure.

But earlier this year, I had the chance to interview both Chris Squire and Steve Howe separately regarding the tour and my interest grew. The jury was still out regarding the new vocalist, but I was willing to spend an evening with Yes and find out.

I was intrigued by the album choices, something which predictably either got a thumbs up or thumbs down reaction from the Yes fanbase, who are always ready for a good debate. You can’t argue with Close To The Edge and The Yes Album, but Going For The One was an interesting pick.

When I spoke with Howe, he was a bit perturbed that the band wasn’t performing the albums in the order that they were released.

Seeing the concept in play on the night, I can’t argue with the path that the remaining members of the Yes brain trust chose. What could be more epic than seeing Yes open the night with the lengthy title track of the Close To The Edge album? The entirety of that segment of the evening was awesome.

[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QWOmY-_9oI”]

The Going For The One portion might have lost some folks, as it felt more like the “deep cuts” section of the show, because of the unfamiliarity of many of the tracks for casual fans.

But by the time they got to the closing portion of the evening, The Yes Album felt like the victory lap that brought it all home for the sold out audience at Cain Park. For nearly three hours, Yes held court with a performance that was vibrant in a way that is still quite unbelievable to witness, when you’re talking about a group that is 45 years into their journey. A bit of reduction in overall energy levels would make a lot of sense, but with Yes, that’s not the case.

Vocalist Jon Davison, the band’s newest addition (he joined in early 2012) is in his early 40s, although he looks deceptively younger than that and there’s no doubt that his presence and enthusiasm adds a lot to the group’s combined stamina onstage (with stage clothes that were very ’70s Anderson-esque). But looking 10 years back, even with Anderson on vocals, the durability of Squire, White and Howe has always been something to behold.

[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_jRFm1fAeY”]

Davison’s performance reminded me a lot of the first time that I saw Kelly Hansen on vocals with Foreigner. Like Hansen, Davison had his work cut out for him, stepping in for a legendary vocalist like Anderson. But he handled the material with ease and there wasn’t a single rough patch. It sounded like Yes music and Davison sounded like Anderson, without being an emotionless clone. The songs were communicated with the same feeling that Anderson had served up for decades prior.

Geoff Downes is another key addition to the lineup and as a heritage player, he certainly knows his way around the nine keyboards that he brought with him and his performance was both natural and skillfully executed without feeling mechanical.

Once the confetti cannons blew in the closing moments of the show (sorry about that, clean-up crew….), it had been a really incredible evening of music and it’s hard to imagine that anybody walked away with disappointment.

While the full album format left some of the favorite “hits” on the sidelines for this particular run, the band has certainly done enough tours in the “greatest hits” vein that it was a very welcome change and one can hope that they will continue to explore further albums in the years to come.

Hopefully they will also find a way to document this tour with a live release (audio and video) of some sort. Yes fans will be aware that the band has released more than a few live albums and videos over the years, so this seems like a relatively safe bet. Let’s hope.

For now, there’s word that plans for a new album, the first with Davison,  will begin to take shape once touring commitments have wrapped. With what we’ve heard from Fly From Here, there’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic that a new album from Yes will once again be a good thing.

Setlist:

The Firebird Suite

Close to the Edge

Close to the Edge
And You and I
Siberian Khatru

Going For The One

Going for the One
Turn of the Century
Parallels
Wonderous Stories
Awaken

The Yes Album

Yours Is No Disgrace
Clap
Starship Trooper
I’ve Seen All Good People
A Venture
Perpetual Change

Encore:

Roundabout