Steve Howe

[colterphoto1]

I saw guitar legend Steve Howe from Yes last night do a solo, mostly acoustical show at a little rock club called the Vogue in Broad Ripple. Steve was a consumate

showman tonight. Actually very funny between songs in a wry British

kind of way. Played some Yes songs, some solo works, and did kind of a

'guitar clinic' with various stringed instruments. Spoke about the old cars built in Indiana and Wes Montgomery.

He began with Spanish guitar, moved to steel 12-string, then the Spanish 12 string (looks kinda like Lute with long headstock), some fancy work with a 'changeable' guitar' (forgot the name- avaaxe or something like that) back to 6 string classical, and finished with 50's Fender Lap Steel (don't give me Gibson, wouldn't take it) on a Yes track. Played some Chet Atkins and Montgomery tunes. At one point did a medley of little tunes we all recognized, then announced 'Introductions were my specialty'.

It was a very polite audience, couple shouts out to

Steve, otherwise the requisite applause while seated and then await the

next number. I had kind of a flashback to Victorian times of being

seated in the parlor listening to chamber music. Some of his Spanish

guitar and 12-string work was exquisite. He hung out afterwards and signed items for fans. My buddy had gold record awards for Close to the Edge and Fragile. Steve was amazed to see those!

We sat on the floor in front of the Vogue stage- 5th

row. Only 1:45, but some great tunes by one of the legends of guitar.

Yes is one of my fave bands, I tend to favor the British Classic Rock

from 70's mostly. It was an 'old guys' show from 8 to 9:45. I was safe comfy and sober in bed by 11.

If you get a chance, go see the show, it was $25 well spent.

I shall now go put on my Tales from Topographic Oceans LP and listen to side three 'The Ancient' Steve commented that it was a very difficult album to record, lots of changes and cues. Said they had all forgotten the cues after 30 years.

Michael

[Erik Mandaville]

Michael:

I would have really enjoyed this, too.

"My buddy had gold record awards for Close to the Edge and Fragile. Steve was amazed to see those!"

Great, great albums! They are what opened the door to everything Bill Bruford did then and after. I used to also pretend I understood the lyrics, which at times were almost too poetic, but it was more the sound of Jon Anderson's voice (and not the words) that for me was/is such a good compliment to the instrumentals.

Erik

[www.records]

Thanks Michael, sounds like a fun night. Sadly I rarely get to listen to live music. There are a few decent local bands, but not of the genre that I enjoy. What you experienced last night would be something I would really enjoy. Thanks for sharing it.

Steve

[oldbuckster]

Nice review, nice to see that caliber musician in a small venue. Yes, to me, were Progressive Rock, there were others, but they did it best. A talented group of musicians, all of them, with Steve leading the way, with his own brand of guitar playing. Glad you enjoyed it, price was right, and you didn't have to struggle through warm-up bands until 11 or 12am for headliner to grace the stage.

[Daddy Dee]

Steve,

Thanks for the review. It has been years since I've been to a concert, and don't feel tempted to purchase a ticket to most. This is one, though, that I would thoroughly enjoy.

[Daddy Dee]

http://stevehowe.com/index.html

Steve Howe's website is good.

MP3 downloads to sample his approaching release of "homebrew 3".

I looked at the tour dates... the solo tour ends tonight in Nashville. It was somewhat surprising to see that all the dates (except Nashville) were in the east and midwest. Nothing really in the south or west coast.

[DizRotus]

Michael-

When I saw "Steve Howe" I thought you were referring to the other SH who was an often suspended, due to drug and alcohol problems, MLB pitcher. It was good to see that your great review was about the more positive SH.

Then I opened the paper and read that SH, the troubled former pitcher, just died in a rollover accident in his pickup truck. Two gifted individuals with the same name and much different outcomes; such a waste of life and God given ability.

[meagain]

Just as soon as you mentioned it, I did a "doh" and a slap to my own sorry head. Totally forgot about this. He was at the Cubby Bear bar a couple nights ago. WHY he was at this little local bar - IDK. I wanted to go if only out of respect to give props.

What's even more pathetic is I missed Squire who played at Martyrs here... Yes, a corner bar type place (that does get in great acts like King's X, etc.

Ooops! Glad you went Colter. I only wish you would have mentioned it BEFORE you went so the ding dong lightbulb would have gone off in my head.

[colterphoto1]

That's sad Neil.

I have to give a couple other snippets of the concert. Amonst his onstage banter, Steve was very dignified, yet funny. He always took time to fine tune his guitar himself prior to beginning a song. If this took a bit longer than comfortable, he'd start ambling 'you have to tune them until they're sweet, I won't play until it sounds sweet'. Or 'this is a twelve string, you don't want to get far into retuning or we'll be here all night'.

Later in the show, after an extended monologue about Studebaker cars and how they're too large for British roads, Steve told about how the camera systems in Britain caught him for speeding twice in ONE HOUR. Then apologized for talking so much, pointing over to stage right and exclaiming 'I always stood over THERE and never got to say anything' to much audience laughter.

Songs best as I could sort out from memory

The Clap (song written on eve of son's birth- now 36)

Other solos from Yessongs

The Ancient from Topographic Oceans

And You and I from Close to the Edge

a Relayer tune

Some solo works including Beginnings

Chet Atkins and country segment

Wes Montgomery ditty and blues bits

Your Move with acoustic backing track and Steve on lap slide- audience sing-along.

Came back on for two encore songs.

I'm going to try to burn a Howe CD of songs he played at this show. Gotta do some digging.

It was a beautiful night of music, not too smoky, not too loud, not too late. I think I'll take on more shows of this type. Carl Palmer of ELP is bringing a trio to the Music Mill near my home- they have no smoking policy and huge JBL system in acoustically great hall. Probably another $25 ticket ( I can see 4 of these shows for the price of one Roger Waters ticket!)

Michael

[Mike Lindsey]

I think Steve is one of the greatest guitarists of all time and always list him in my top 5. I've seen Yes twice and would love to see him solo. If anybody wants to get a nice taste of Yes with Steve playing some awesome guitar, then check out Yes Live At The House Of Blues. It's a great DVD with a very good recording. Some great bass from Squire as well.

Mike