Yes guitarist Steve Howe says seeing the band perform whole albums live gives the audience a chance to see tracks they otherwise wouldn’t consider playing onstage.
The band recently wrapped up a European tour where they played 1971’s Fragile and 1980’s Drama in full, and will head out across the US next month playing Drama and sides one and four from 1973’s Tales From Topographic Oceans.
And he says revisiting albums from their back catalogue allows them to be more creative in a live environment.
Howe tells One On One With Mitch Lafon: “It’s a lot more inventive than just playing Roundabout or Heart Of The Sunrise because we are actually playing the whole album. It’s a kind of opportunity, a demonstration, of what we do instead of saying, ‘Here’s the song you know best from the album.’
“We play the whole album and it gives you a chance to experience things that sometimes have never been onstage. Five Per Cent For Nothing was never played onstage, Run Through The Light has never been played onstage – so we bring those songs into play as well.”
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Howe also reflects on the experience of playing live with Yes for the first time without Chris Squire, who died last year aged 67, and was replaced in the lineup by Billy Sherwood.
Howe continues: “We knew that Chris had contributed a great deal to the band and we’d never done a show without him so we just kind of got on.
“The feedback when we got that at the meet and greet afterwards with about 50 people was we were doing something that they were really pleased we were doing.
“After a few nights,I did start to look over at Billy and get a nice friendly tingle that Billy was the only person that could stand in for Chris that we knew.”
Yes kick off their run of US shows in Columbus on July 27 and wrap up in San Diego on September 4.
Yes 2016 US tour dates
Jul 27: Columbus Celeste Center, OH
Jul 30: Atlantic City Tropicana, NJ
Jul 31: Bethlehem Sands Event Center, PA
Aug 02: Lewiston Artpark, NY
Aug 04: Lynn Auditorium, MA
Aug 05: Walingford Toyota Oakdale Theatre, CT
Aug 06: Westbury Theatre, NY
Aug 09: Staten Island St George Theatre, NY
Aug 10: Englewood Bergen Performing Arts Center, NJ
Aug 12: Port Chester The Capitol, NY
Aug 13: Morristown Mayo Performing Arts Center, NJ
Aug 16: Washington Warner Theatre, DC
Aug 17: Munhall Carnegie Of Homestead Music Hall, PA
Aug 19: Sterling heights Freedom Hill Amp, MI
Aug 20: Chigago Copernicus Center, IL
Aug 21: Milwaukee Pabst Theater, WI
Aug 24: Denver Paramount Theatre, CO
Aug 26: Anaheim The Grove, CA
Aug 27: Las Vegas Downtown Event Center, NV
Aug 28: Santa Barbara Arlington Theatre, CA
Aug 30: Los Angeles Orpheum Theater, CA
Aug 31: Saratoga The mountain Winery, CA
Sep 02: Reno Silver Legacy Casino, NV
Sep 03: Paso Robles Vina Robles Winery, CA
Sep 04: San Diego Humphrey’s, CA
