Chris Squire passed away on June 27, 2015. His last stage was at the NHK Hall in November last year. About eight months after that, "YES without Chris" started the tour. This work is a real live album that contains the first day, "August 7, 2015 Mashantucket performance" with amazing quality. There are various sound sources of this memorable YES show on the Internet, but this work combines two top sound source masters to realize the "best sound & complete version". Among many rock bands, YES has had a particularly intense member change, and Chris was the only original member, and since the formation of the band in 1968, there has never been a concert without him. That has finally become a reality. Originally, this day was scheduled to be "YES without Chris". In May of this year, when the summer 2015 dates had already been announced, Chris was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It was announced that Chris would leave the band for treatment and that former YES man Billy Sherwood would take his place. But who would have thought that Chris would suddenly pass away? This work, which contains the first concert in the 47-year history of YES, starts with the biggest highlight. It is "Onward," a tribute to Chris. This song was written by Chris alone, and was a ballad that expressed his love for his wife at the time, Nicky Squire. It was not a live performance, but a studio version of "TORMATO," but at the venue, a Rickenbacker was placed in the position where Chris would normally stand, and a spotlight was shone on it. The image of Chris in his old days was projected on the screen, and words of love written in the voice of John Anderson, as if falling from the heavens, were given to Chris himself, speaking for the feelings of everyone in the venue. It was a moment when a prayer-like feeling that went beyond even emotion welled up. Although we live in the Internet age, where information is transmitted quickly, the audience at the venue had no idea about this production because it was a premiere, and the atmosphere of the venue, which was facing a completely new experience, leaked out from the speakers. Celebrating Chris' life, "Firebird Suite" rang out, and the new YES show finally began solemnly. The first song, which became the biggest turning point in YES history, was "Don't Kill The Whale". Chris' last stage in Japan was a perfect reproduction of "Fragile" and "Crisis" with new songs and encores, but this tour was a greatest hits show with songs selected evenly from his representative works. It was as if the whole show was celebrating Chris' life itself. The notable substitute Billy Sherwood also gave a solid performance, as expected of a former YES man who supported YES in the 90s. Although I thought that "something was a little different," he did a wonderful job without giving any sense of the true identity of that "something." Rather, Geoff Downes and John Davison are clearly different from the golden age, but they are also the current YES. Davison's vocals in particular are superb. His vocalization is different from Anderson's, with a solid core, but it is still the YES world that falls from the heavens. It is his singing voice that minimizes the absence of Chris' chorus, which should be a big blow. The sound of this work is also what allows you to understand the subtleties of such performances in detail. At the beginning, I wrote "combining two masters," but both are recordings of a tremendous level of each seat, and boast a wonderful sound and balance that makes you think "is it an official board?" rather than a sound board. In fact, it was only combined to complement the incomplete recording master, and the original sound is frighteningly similar. The two masters are switched in the middle of "Don't Kill The Whale," but probably no one knows the switching point. To be honest, I'm not sure whether I should recommend this work. "YES without Chris," which I didn't really want to realize. It jumps in with an extremely, extremely wonderful sound. I have witnessed many "YES new chapters" before, but I have never faced them with such complicated feelings. Even though in my heart I think "YES without Chris is not YES", and I feel this more strongly than ever, what I hear from this album is definitely "YES music". "Time and a Word" has been revived after more than 10 years. Even though Chris is not there and none of the recording members remain, it stirs my heart in a hopeless way. What will happen to YES from now on? At least, there are dates until June next year, which were announced while Chris was alive, but what happens after that? How should we face "YES without Chris"? Not only us, but the members themselves may not know. However, if Chris himself wanted YES to continue, we have no choice but to find out. I can't help but think that "blocking my ears" is the only right answer, even though I have loved it for my whole life. YES has reached the biggest turning point in history. We are living witnesses to this. This is the best album to take the "first step that no one wanted" with them.
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