Customer Reviews

Live at Montreux 2003 [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I am like everybody else with a whole shelf of Yes DVDs. I swore I would never buy another one until a new album came out but in a weak moment I bought this one. I am sad to report that if you are a Yes fan, you have to own this! Remember the "Keys" DVD; this is what we hoped that one would have been the best video of the classic line up. That one fell short but after all now we have the 35th anniversary one right? Well, this one as the other reviewers have pointed out is the best one yet & they are right. The band was on fire and on their best behavior. Just buy it now and put the 35th on the shelf for awhile.

Although YesYears is the perfect documentary DVD to have of Yes, this new DVD of Yes "Live at the Montreaux" even exceeds the quality and appeal of the "Songs of Tsongas" DVD that I've bought last year.

The picture quality is excellent. I'd say that this was filmed in either High Definition or it was, at least, filmed with very high quality cameras put to high quality film. What makes this one better (to me) over "Tsongas" is the line-up of the tunes. They played more of the classic standards from the seventies, plus it allowed for them all to enjoy showing off some of their solo work. Rick Wakeman's solo alone makes the whole show so rewarding to watch and to own. I don't have any Rick Wakeman DVD's where his performance entertained me as much as his solo did on this DVD.

I am hearing some sound quality flaws here and there but it's not too disturbing. And, at one point, I think Jon Anderson was censored for saying something that had to be "bleeped" out. Oh well.

"Keys to Ascension" was my favorite live Yes DVD because of the chosen songs. But this new "Live at Montreaux" DVD surpasses the appeal of all the known releases of Yes performed live. (To me anyway).

Jump on it people! It's that good!!!!

Curse you, YES! Though I swore I wouldn't buy any more of your bi-annual live DVDs, you got me again! Great set, great setting, the right cast of players, 16:9 picture, DTS, and notably the only YES live DVD I own that has Heart of the Sunrise on it.

I'm a little weirded out that, even though this was recorded in Montreux, Going for the One wasn't played... or Vevey... weird.

I really mean it this time, guys... this is it! No more!

At least until your imminent stream of 40th anniversary CDs and DVDs next year...

Sheesh.

Don't get me wrong... I love this band and I am thankful that we have another DVD to capture the live Yes experience. The audio is great and it doesn't seem to be "touched up" in any way, although I only got to watch the first couple of songs last night before my kids took over the TV... If you are into close ups of Steve Howe's fingers (even during Rick's solo's), you've come to the right place. I couldn't even tell what Chris Squire was wearing until the third or fourth song. It seems like they had four cameras, with one permanently focused on each person but Chris, who is obviously the most dynamic performer of the bunch. Again, I am grateful for any recording of this band, but it's frustrating to have the camera focusing on Steve or Jon during keyboard or bass solo's. Any Yes fan knows that you need to be ready to watch Rick's fingers during the harpsichord part of Siberian Khatru, but the director (who was probably affiliated with the Jazz Festival or the original TV broadcast, not the band) seems a bit late on all of these types of parts. All in all, though, it's a great set list and a piece of history that every Yes fan should have.

I own every Yes DVD to date... Montreux is good, but not as good as I hoped it would be. I may have over-hyped it a bit in my mind. I was really looking forward to this release which is basically the same concert that is contained in the Yesspeak "concert slideshow." Unfortunately the sound on this release isn't much better than the Yesspeak version. In addition to the audio letdown, the band just didn't seem to have the energy as they did on the 35th Anniversary Tour. I haven't seen or heard a Yes recording yet that does justice to how powerful and energetic they were playing at the end of the 35th tour. Steve plays well, but doesn't really get animated playing until the end of the concert. In Tsongas, he actually looks like he wants to be there and really rocks. Jon's voice seemed off a bit, they hardly showed Chris, Rick looked good but was back in the mix, and Alan was hardly audible. The recordings of "Southside" and "And You and I" aren't as good as on Tsongas either.

That being said, there are many positives to this recording. "Don't Kill the Whale" was energetic, the solos are fantastic (I've seen Steve play "To Be Over" several times live, and this is the best I've heard), and Awaken is extremely powerful, especially at the end.

All in all it is certainly worth buying, but I would recommend that you buy Tsongas, Symphonic, and An Evening of Yes first if you are looking for the best overall product.

What I would have given to see this show. Montreaux is a small venue, with not a bad seat in the house. The stage was set to allow all of the musicians to be featured. If you have ever been to a Yes show, you know that at some point in the show, each musician is going to have the stage to himself and play a solo. Each does, and they are still at the top of their craft, after all this time. While the show started slow, and there were a few pieces that they played that I was not familiar with, by the end (And You and I) I was standing and shouting IN MY OWN LIVING ROOM--it was 1976 all over again! This was the best concert video that I have ever seen.

I don't have an account, so this is filed under 13, but I've been around just as long as Yes has. I own all of their concert DVDs, and this one tops all of them by far. I saw Yes on this tour in Camden, NJ 2002, and it was just as spectacular a performance as the one on this DVD. The sound is crystal clear, as well as the picture. The setlist was very impressive as well. As one reviewer already stated, it's difficult to name any highlights, since the entire show was basically flawless. My only gripe about this DVD is that I thought (and others have said this also) that there were too many close-up shots of Steve's fingers and not enough shots of Chris Squire. This definitely isn't a major drawback, but it leaves the show feeling a little unbalanced. Other than that, I could not find anything wrong with this show. Even if you already have all their DVDs and have seen them over 30 times (like myself), I highly recommend picking this DVD up. It shows not only how good a band Yes was back in the day when they wrote these phenominal songs, but how well they can reproduce those sounds on stage in the year 2003.

It is very amazing to see these premium line up playing so accurate. I read some Anderson interview and he said "we want to play as the audience expect" and they really do it. Siberian excellent, We have heaven and South side of sky brilliant, I've seen all good people and Roundabout are perfect and the And you and I I think is permormed better than Yesongs since Howe plays and acoustic guitar for it.

I saw them in August 2002 in NYC and it was the best performance I ever saw in last 10 years, I would say even better than ELP, but this performance is much better. The guys are old but if you like what you use to listen from Yes, this the perfect one so you only should to apologize those genius wrinkled faces.

Anderson's voice very acceptable, Howe's playing is exceptional, Squire's bass empower the show, White's percussion help the performance to be as a modern piece of art and the brilliant Wakeman's hand will make remind why he is the better keaboard player ever (although Keith Emerson is close).

YOU KNOW WHAT?: BUY IT, ENYOINED IT AND KEEP IN A SAFETY PLACE, sure thing!

Wow, only a couple of days ago I thought that I would "be the first person to review this item", but now already a handful of reviews! It's good to know that people have bought this DVD, since as one reviewer said there have been a lot of Yes DVDs lately, ranging from pretty good to not so good. This may be the best Yes DVD so far. I agree that the camera work/directing may not be the most amazing ever, but it's not bad enough to warrant deducting a single star from the rating. Even with the familiar setlist, this is a concert that has been captured with a freshness and energy that has been missing from some of the previously released shows. The band is tight, and they look like they are enjoying themselves and having fun during the performance. The audio mix is very crisp, with a little more of an emphasis on Steve's distorted guitar than usual. Overall a more "rocking" performance than we usually see from the guys. Enjoy it!

I, like many other reviewers, couldn't resist buying this dvd. I've been a major fan since the release of Close to the Edge and have endured the changes in personnel, styles and even album artwork (Roger Dean vs. others). The 5 members that comprise the lineup for this concert are among my all-time favorite musicians in their respective categories and I enjoy both hearing and watching them play. That being said, this dvd both delights and disappoints me. Starting on a positive note, the set list is my favorite of the live dvds. My personal disappointment with the set list is the inclusion of a few fan favorite but over-played/over-filmed songs such as Roundabout, All Good People, and Long Distance Runaround. I do realize that this was a documentation of a concert and not a "hardcore fan's dream-set" so I'll move on. This band is the only one that comes to my mind as being as tight, if not tighter than they were in progressive rock's heyday. The musicianship on this performance was practically flawless but unfortunately the recording of it was not. There were times throughout that any given instrument, or even Jon's vocals, were barely audible. Still, it blows my mind that (in my opinion) Jon's vocals are as good as they've ever been. You can't say that about too many vocalists in his register these days (Plant, Daltrey, Delp rest his soul, etc.). Steve's playing is spot-on and he showcases his talents by switching between slide guitar/6 string electric guitar and ebow/guitar pick during the same song. Rick is still at the top of his game as was displayed in his phenomenal keyboard solo, leaving me wishing it were twice as long. Chris continues to be an inspiration to all bass players and is a joy to watch ... even if his camera shots are fleeting. I was delighted to find that The Fish was included in this film. Alan is as sharp as always and does a fabulous job with the songs that originally featured Bruford, whose style is a little more jazz fusion. My main gripe is with the video. I haven't a single complaint about the quality, as with S. Schuman's review, my beef is with the angles and feature shots. One of the camera men must have had an obsession with Steve's fingers, which I found to become increasingly annoying as, especially on Heart of the Sunrise, Chris is ripping up his Rickenbacker while we watch a closeup of Steve's fingering. As fascinating as Steve's guitar playing is, he's nowhere as much fun to watch as Chris. We get occasional shots of Rick and excellent coverage of Alan's back. The coverage leaves the impression that Chris, Rick and Alan are back up musicians. I just wish somehow the Symphonic Live dvd could have included Rick, the set list from Montreux, Close to the Edge, Ritual and Gates of Delirium. The video and sound from that dvd were both superb but Rick's absence was a big disappointment for me personally. It was surprising to see We Have Heaven included in this new dvd but with all of the obvious overdubs it left me wondering how much was really live and how much was Memorex.
I really enjoyed the three solo performances and was delightfully surprised at Steve's refreshing instrumental version of To Be Over.
All-in-all I would recommend this dvd to any Yes fan as a must-have for the collection but would warn against expectations that one would have of overcoming disappointments of the previous live dvds as this one contains it's own set of faults. As stated above, the shortcomings lie within the video production, so perhaps we may all look forward to a live cd of the set with the audio flaws worked out.