NEW TIMES
February 29-March 7, 1996

Yes, at Last

Concert Will Give This Yes Fan a Chance 
to Recapture a Missed Opportunity

By A.J. Schuermann

  I had been waiting in line outside Boo
Boo's for six hours, periodically going
up the street to get coffee, listening to
the street sweepers go by, thinking about
my childhood, young adulthood, friends,
family and the irony of life.
  Then, at 3 a.m., the morning Telegram-
Tribunes arrived hot off the press. "We
made the front page," I announced to a few
people on the street who were
still awake, and gave them a copy of the 
paper.  Our clandestine vigil
for Yes tickets had been discovered and ex-
posed on the front page with a headline
asking, "Is it worth the wait?"
  A silly question for Yes fans. But for ev-
eryone else, perhaps an explanation was
needed.
  Call it supply and demand. You see, only
500 tickets were available and more than
500,000 Yes fans might have shown up had
this thing been widely publicized.
  So I went down to Boo Boo's at 9:30 on
Thursday night and there was already a
line. l think l was No. 19.
  I saw NewTimes writer Steve Jones the
following morning taking pictures of the
jubilant crowd outside Boo Boo*s. "I didn*t
know you were a Yes fan," he said.
  "Oh, yeah," I said. "I*ve been listening to
them since I was a kid."
  That statement, perhaps, provides the
best framework for my explanation of why
this concert means so much to me, and why
I would stand in line for 12 hours freezing
my ass off for two tickets.
  My brother and I have been listening to
Yes for nearly 20 years. We*ve seen the band
before, in the *80s and *90s, but we never got
a chance to see the classic Yes lineup from
the *70s„and this was the Yes we always
wanted to see.
  We lived in New York City in the *70s, and
often regretted being too young to go to
Madison Square Garden to see Yes. My
mother wouldn*t let us take the subway
which was probably wise of her. But we still
resented being born too late to see our fa-
vorite band.
  "Don*t worry. They*ll still be around
when you guys are 18 and can do what you
want," my mother said.
  Not exactly. Yes broke up and went
through several personnel changes over the
years. We moved to Southern California
and by the time I saw them in concert in
1983, they were more of a glorified pop
band.
  MTV, and all that stuff.
  As a Yes fan in California, I was some-
thing of an anachronism, somewhat out of
my contemporary time and place. When I
told people I liked Yes, they would say, "Oh
yeah, *Owner of a Lonely Heart,* right?" To
which I would issue a dismissal. "No. More
like *Parallels* and *Turn of the Century,*
and the stuff off of *Tales."'
  "Tales*?" they asked.
  Why bother? I thought. These people
don*t understand the art of the 20-minute
song.
  They had no patience for "Close to the
Edge," "The Gates of Delirium," or "Ritual."
They barely got through an eight-minute
piece like "Roundabout. "

  The symphonic song, a trademark of Yes
for many years, is only for those with so-
phisticated and patient ears. Their music is
spiritual, jazzy, and classical, and quite un-
like anything else in the world of rock.
  I came to San Luis Obispo in 1984, went
to Cal Poly, and now I work there. My
brother came up here one year to visit and
we hiked up Bishop Peak. Lookingout at
the Morros, he commented that the view
looked like something off an old Yes album.
  True. The surrealistic landscapes created
by artist Roger Dean resemble the same
kind of spirit found at Montana de Oro, or
in the Elfin Forest, or Poly Canyon, or any
number of beautiful landscapes in this
area. I*ve been trying to tell people this for a
number of years.
  My brother and I joked then that San Luis
Obispo is Yes land. lt*s not so much of a joke
any more, since I met San Luis Obispo resi-
dent and Yes lead singer Jon Anderson out-
side of Buona Tavola a week ago. The next
thing I knew, Yes was scheduled to play at
the Fremont Theatre„and it*s the lineup
from the *70s.
  So I got my two tickets and called my
brother with the good news. He said noth-
ing but I could hear him playing the Yes
song "Rejoice" over the phone. He was
waiting for my call and knew I would come
through for him, for us.
  The answer is Yes. It was worth the wait. I
have been able to capture an opportunity
missed many years ago. Time and money
mean nothing to me. I am grateful to bring
back, if only for one night, a bit of my youth.
I can*t get those years back. But I never
thought I*d get the chance to do something
I always wanted to do back then.
  And all of this is happening in my neigh-
borhood. 

  Freelance writer A.J. Schuermann will be
in the audience Wednesday night.