Yes: 9012 Live

For those who never cared for YES's music, this video probably won't make them fans of the band. For those (like myself) who live for their music, it's awesome! YES disbanded in 1981 and reformed in 1983 with three long time core members (Anderson, Squire, and White) one original member (keyboard wiz Tony Kaye) forced out of the band early on, and a new kid from South Africa (Trevor Rabin), and this group of musicians put out a YES album (90125) that not only won over past skeptical critics, but youngsters who had never heard of the band. The 90125 album not only sold over 5 million copies, but kept the band touring for over 20 months around the world to sold out shows everywhere. The musical also attracted a young Steve Soderburg, who was recently out of film school. He approached YES with the idea of filming a whole concert and then adding all kinds of avant-garde doodles around the edges, that makes the film seem like one continuous music video! Even to this day (21 years later) this film stands out as not only a great music experience, but a hilarious film event as well. Great job to YES, and Soderburg!!

This is a great performance by this incarnation of Yes. Although I was disappointed by the abbreviated version of "The Fish." However, the old movie clips interspersed throughout were totally stupid and random. Unless there is some connection between Yes, 90125 and these old movies that I don't know about, all they did was detract from the songs. I suspect Soderbergh used them because they were public domain, but in reality, they were public so lame! I couldn't believe that during Rabin's monumental solo near the end they were putting these inane clips of a lady ironing. I really wish they would put out a just the music version of 9012Live so we wouldn't have to sit through the rest of the garbage!

I never thought I had seen Yes perform until I viewed this. Sure, You probably won't find it in your local video store or even bootleg on eBay, this is the definitive version of 90125 and anyone who ever liked music should watch it. Knobgobblingly good, this film has been underrated by film and music critics such as Rolling Stone and Bob Guccione. Nevertheless, time will prove them successful masters of their genre. On par with A Hard Day's Night.

This film, along with STOP MAKING SENSE, is one of the great 1980's concert films. Yes is at the top of there game here. The highlights are "Cinema", "It Can Happen", and "Starship Trooper". The involvement of CHARLEX, who did the same sort of graphics for The Car's "You might Think" video, was a smart choice. Having seen Yes 5 times, there stage shows and persona are not very captivating, and could easily bore someone, visually.

A great film by Soderberg and Yes.

To say it right off the bat, I'm not a very big Yes fan. It probably wouldn't compel me greatly to see them live, but I do think they have some incredible musicianship at times and some of their songs from their prime in the late 60s/70s and from the album 9012 are impressive as a pop-rock group. If you are die-hards, however, this concert shouldn't disappoint in the slightest. Performing from Edmonton in Canada (not the first place I'd usually think of for a live recording of a rock concert), Yes goes through some of its then-recent hits, with 'Changes' and 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' showing them at their best in crafting seemingly long but elaborate melodies. It would be one thing if they were simply good at performing the hits, but even with the lulls such as 'Leave it' and 'Hold On' (and they are lulls, with Cinema coming close to being one), they do pull through a nice cut of 'Starship Trooper', and it's goofy fun to see them get the crowd excited for 'Seen All Good People'. By the end a band that is well revered for many years and has sold a boat-load of records delivers a good, if not great, concert for the time.

But the other cool thing about the concert is the director. Most who seek this video out now will watch cause they're fans of the band, though looking at it as the first signs of Steven Soderbergh as director is something else much more surprising and delirious (in that 80's way). He's like a kid in a fun-factory getting together the images in a style that could only be done through the kind of graphics and cinematography available. The live concert itself is filmed with utmost professionalism and, not too unusual with some of Soderbergh's work, sleek in how it glides around its subjects on the stage and in the crowd without missing beats or feeling jagged. But fans of the director, should they come across this if only as a curio, may find some crazy, repetitive images of old 50s film footage- before the concert there's a hilarious intro where a girl and boy are wanting to hear some music and once the needle hits its not quite as 'groovy' as she expected- to be of more worth and technical value. It's one of a kind even when it's derivative of any given number of music videos of the period (mix archival footage with the band can be seen in the likes of an Iron Maiden video). Somehow, Soderbergh has a way with getting around making it rote, and keeps the energy going, at best during 'City of Love'.

For fans of band &/or director, it's worth seeing once at least, and at best it could be something more than the run-of-the-mill hip 80's music video product.