Live at the Apollo (2018)
1. Intro/Cinema/Perpetual Change
2. Hold On
3. I've Seen All Good People
4. Lift Me Up
5. And You And I
6. Rhythm of Love
7. Heart of the Sunrise
8. Changes
9. Long Distance Runaround / The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
10.Awaken
11.Make it Easy / Owner of a Lonely Heart
12.Roundabout
I’m not entirely sure who decided this should be officially labeled as a “Yes” album, though that’s not so much a complaint as an observation. The band’s history is nothing if not convoluted—few groups can claim to have operated as two separate entities simultaneously. The late ’80s and early ’90s gave us Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, an offshoot that felt like classic Yes but couldn’t use the name. Their one studio album bore their own surnames on the cover. Fast forward to around 2016, and you get something similar with Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, and Trevor Rabin forming a new touring unit informally dubbed ARW.
The irony is rich. Wakeman and Rabin had never actually played together in the same Yes lineup before this (other than the Union combo). Diehard fans will tell you Yes was practically a different band entirely in the Rabin-led ’80s era, and the difference wasn’t subtle. Yet somehow, against the odds, this particular incarnation worked surprisingly well. It was warmly received by fans, even as the “other” version of Yes continued touring under the familiar name. With Chris Squire’s recent passing, that other lineup felt like it was missing a critical piece of its soul—giving ARW a bit of an edge in the legitimacy debate among longtime followers.
Credit where it’s due: the show captured here really does a fantastic job spanning Yes’s sprawling history. The setlist cleverly bounces between the classic ’70s epics and the sleeker, hook-heavy ’80s hits. For the ultra-obsessive, it’s also worth noting they even perform a couple of tracks that predate both Wakeman and Rabin’s tenure in the band. In that sense, this isn’t just a nostalgia trip for one particular era—it’s practically a guided tour through the whole, messy, glorious Yes story.
Unfortunately, there’s a major asterisk that needs mentioning: whoever was responsible for editing and mixing the crowd noise for this release should probably be banned from ever touching a mixing board again. The applause and cheering are crammed so far forward in the mix that it becomes an almost constant intrusion—even during quieter, more delicate moments. It ends up feeling weirdly artificial, like a laugh track on a sitcom. I haven’t watched the companion DVD, but by most accounts the same problem shows up there too. It’s honestly kind of infuriating, like trying to enjoy a film while someone in the row behind you loudly narrates every scene on their cell phone.
That gripe aside, there’s no denying this is an impressive document of a surprisingly effective hybrid lineup. It’s genuinely gratifying to hear these three musicians blend the classic and the modern eras so seamlessly, reminding everyone why the music endures even as the personnel keeps changing. There was talk for a while about this configuration hitting the studio to record a proper new album. Sadly, that rumor never turned into reality. But at least we have this flawed yet fascinating live set to show how good it could have been.
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