Yes - Columbia, Maryland, USA - August 13, 1972

Yes
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Columbia, MD
1972-08-13
AUD, B+

Recently, someone asked for opinions on what would be the top 10 must-have Yes ROIOís. On my list, this is definitely near the top. Good recording quality, a powerful performance, and Mother Nature's fury all wrapped into 80 minutes.

This remarkable recording documents Yes summoning a strong thunderstorm on a summer's afternoon. The clouds gather, thunder booms and rain pours as the band plays ìAnd You And Iî and ìHeart of the Sunrise.î Natural rumblings augment Rick Wakeman's synthesized bombing of London and the Hallelujah Chorus. Jon and Steve both seem at ease with the situation. Jon sings a bit of The Eagle's hit ìTake It Easy (The Eagles were opening for Yes on this leg of the tour) and Steve chimes in with a few chords of It Don't Come Easy, a hit for Ringo Starr during the same period. Jon also suggests that everybody from the back come and sit on everybody's knee and we'll have a good time while it rains. Whether or not that happened cannot be gathered from the recording, but the crowd never loses its enthusiasm for the music. By the time Yes returned to the stage for their encore, ìYours Is No Disgrace,î the clouds had parted and the rain ended.
What more could you want? Close to the Edge, perhaps, but that track had its live debut the next night in Hartford, CT.

TheTooleMan
August 13, 2007

Tracks:
Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru
I've Seen All Good People
Mood For A Day
Clap
Heart Of The Sunrise
And You And I
Wakeman Solo
Roundabout
Yours Is No Disgrace

Jon Anderson(Vocals), Steve Howe(Guitars), Chris Squire(Bass), Rick Wakeman(Keyboards), Alan White(Drums)