It’s been another fun and busy week for music. Last Thursday I saw the current touring versions of the classic prog bands Yes and ELP at the Capitol Theatre. It was a really good show. The only surviving member of Emerson Lake and Palmer is Carl Palmer, and he did an ELP tribute show that combined live musicians with canned tracks and video from ELP’s 1992 tour. It was pretty effective. They opened with Karn Evil 9 1st Impression Part 2. Both the bass player and the guitarist had midi pickups on their instruments. Once the singing part was done the bass player played the organ solo, and then the guitar player did the synth solo. Very impressive. They did one new tune with no legacy tracks, a pretty cool instrumental prog jam. The only thing I didn’t love was using vocals from old fat 90’s Greg Lake rather than from the 70’s when the band was in their prime, but I guess they didn’t have isolated tracks they could use from way back then.
Yes was actually Jon Anderson with The Band Geeks, a Yes tribute band he apparently saw on the internet and asked to tour with him. They were very good, actually better than some versions of real Yes I’ve seen. The bass player and and guitarist in particular leaned heavily into the classic sounds of Chris Squire and Steve Howe, with the the same instruments, and every nuance of every riff lovingly memorized. The set was entirely the big numbers off The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge, with one new song that fit right in. Jon can still really sing and lead that great vocal harmony sound. And, sitting on 12-string acoustic guitar for And You And I was special guest John McLaughlin!
Then on Saturday night I saw my friend Erik play a set of rock covers on the patio of a bar next to parking lot in Hastings. I haven’t seen him since before the pandemic. Good to get together and talk, even if only briefly. I’ve been trying to connect with friends again recently.
Also, I biked twenty-six miles in an hour and forty-five minutes on Sunday, a personal best for the season.
But the big news for tonight is the tracks for the new Buzzy Tonic record, Plutonium Dirigible, are complete!
You can hear the tracks here:
https://zingman.com/music/#beezeevee
And learn more about all the songs and the whole project here:
https://zingman.com/music/beezeevee.php
All that remains is the album artwork and to submit it for publication. So watch this space for the release of the album on CD and streaming services in a few weeks.