This theatre is a quaint, older venue, fully restored with beautiful ceilings and perfect acoustics.

The show opened up with the “School of Rock” musicians doing a set. I enjoyed it and thought that the Heart hit tune “Barracuda” sounded good.

Staten Island is a Yes hotbed and when Anderson opened up with “Owner of a Lonely Heart” the crowd erupted. The violin played by Jocelyn Hsu added an extra dimension to the hit song. That would be a theme for the evening. This band is very different and super talented.

“Yours is No Disgrace” was the next song and that’s when Chris Charles showed off a bit on the sax. Tommy Carlton played it beautifully on guitar. I’ve heard this song, so many times, by so many different Yes musicians and I felt I was hearing it for the first time.

On “Ramalama” a song on Jon’s new album 1000 Hands, his voice sounded crystal clear. There’s no point in mentioning his age because his voice is ageless. His voice sounded crystal clear. His background vocals were added the same as the studio song and the results were fantastic.

Hsu was terrific again on the first single on the new album, “Makes Me Happy”. She played the ukulele, as Jon does on the video, and possibly better.

“State of Independence” was a nice surprise. A song from one of Jon’s most successful solo albums “The Friends of Mr. Cairo”.

After only one rehearsal on the second leg of this tour the band killed it on “Wondrous Stories”. A song that Jon has always knocked out of the park.

On “First Born”, Jon carried around a cheat sheet while he sang. He told the audience and laughed about it. It was a great moment.

Charles played a mean flute on “Come Up” which morphed into “Starship Trooper”. The screens behind the band showed amazing images all night long but at this time they showed off some classic Roger Dean artwork. When the song ended, he heard thundering applause and fans were standing.

“Roundabout” wasn’t the final encore and it was the most interesting rendition of the song that I’ve ever experienced.

“Soon” brought the house down as the show closed with the hit song off the Relayer album. Again, another song Jon always seems to enjoy.

Jon related so well to the audience. He was in great spirits and the band was having a great time.

Here are the remaining tour dates:

Aug 02 – Asbury Park, NJ – Paramount Theatre
Aug 03 – Bensalem, PA – Xcite Center at Parx Casino
Aug 05 – Alexandria, VA – Birchmere
Aug 08 – Grand Rapids, MI – 20 Monroe Live
Aug 09 – Detroit, MI – Rocking on the Riverfront
Aug 10 – Fort Wayne, IN – Clyde Theatre
Aug 13 – Rocky Mount, VA – Harvester Perf. Center
Aug 14 – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre
Aug 16 – Marietta, OH – Peoples Bank Theatre
Aug 17 – New Buffalo, MI – Silver Creek Event Center
Aug 18 – Wichita, KS – Orpheum Theatre
Aug 20 – Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater
Aug 23 – Ridgefield, WA – Iliani Resort
Aug 26 – Folsom, CA – Harris Center
Aug 29 – Pasadena, CA – The Rose
Aug 30 – Ojai, CA – The Libbey Bowl
Sep 01 – Montclair, CA – The Canyon
Nov 02 – Las Vegas, NV – Orleans Showroom

Read more about the new album here:

1000 Hands Doesn’t Disappoint Jon Anderson Fans