Majesty, Bombast & Grace: Jon Anderson & the Band Geeks at the Riviera Theatre

Iconic Yes singer and his merry band of virtuosos take us close to the edge, then bring us safely back home

May 05, 2025

Jon Anderson. Riviera Theatre, North Tonawanda, NY, 4/30/2025. Photo by Michael Lee Jackson.

The battle over who truly “owns” Yes Music has been a lengthy and, frankly, depressing one for fans of the band. For this writer, that question was answered in 2004, with the departure of founding member and vocalist Jon Anderson, and again with finality on June 27, 2015, when founding member, bassist and vocalist Chris Squire died. Though I have nothing but respect for guitarist Steve Howe and the various musicians he employs as Yes in the present day, the band as we know and love it should not exist without Anderson, and simply can’t without Squire.

Which is not in any way to suggest that Yes Music - which, let’s be clear, is really its own genre - shouldn’t be approached, reinterpreted, and performed by anyone who has been associated with it, or has taken on the incredibly daunting task of living and learning the music.

So, in truth, the universe “owns” Yes Music these days, and of everyone in the universe I’ve heard perform it since Squire’s death, Jon Anderson & the Band Geeks are the most fiery, passionate, skilled, and on-point, by a significant margin. The band’s sold out April 30th stop at the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda, NY, drove this message home with a soul-stirring blend of subtlety, bombast, majesty and grace.

Jon Anderson & the Band Geeks. Riviera TRheatre, North Tonawanda, NY, 4/30/2025. Photos by Michael Lee Jackson.

Fronted by the beatific Anderson - who, at 80, has lost basically none of his jaw-dropping range - the Band Geeks have granted Yes Music a new lease on life, breathing fire into the timeless Yes catalog, and releasing a rather brilliant album of new material in the form of last year’s epic True.

With bassist/vocalist Richie Castellano acting as Musical Director, these Geeks perform the sacred canon like they are honored and privileged to do so, and that makes all the difference. They also have clearly taken the time to study deeply the intricacies of the music, paying close attention to the strikingly and beautifully idiosyncratic tones of each instrumentalist.

That meant that, when the introductory tape off Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite excerpt faded into the 20-minute multi-movement ‘Close to the Edge’, the Riviera Theatre resonated with the ‘true-to-Chris-Squire’ wallop of Castellano’s Rickenbacker bass, and that the brilliance of guitarist Matt Beck, who took over from original Band Geek Andy Graziano for this tour, was immediately apparent as he poured his own personality into Steve Howe’s original guitar figures.

As the ‘Close to the Edge’ intro built in intensity, Anderson emerged from the wings, beaming like a beneficent Buddha, to rapturous applause. And then he began to sing, immediately transporting all of us to that singular universe where Yes Music is the soundtrack For the next two-plus hours, spanning two sets of music, the spell was never broken.

‘Close to the Edge’ is a journey of a piece, a cinematic trek through a dark night of the soul that ultimately leads to a new beginning, and the realization that “seasons will pass you by” as you travel through life’s cycle of emotional peaks and valleys. I turned to my wife as the song concluded and whispered “It’s almost like we could leave now - I already got more than my money’s worth.”

And then, the band members wasted no time tearing into “Perpetual Change,” another multi-movement face-melter, as if they eat this sort of emotionally, rhythmically and harmonically dense material for breakfast. Again, Anderson sang with the commitment and clarity of a man less than half his age, and the band - in addition to Castellano and Beck, drummer Andy Ascolese, keyboardist and arranger Chris Clark, organist Robert Kipp, and occasional guest acoustic guitarist Rob Schmoll - absolutely tore it up. The tempo was bright and crisp, the groove deep, and the visceral thump of it all impossible to miss. These guys play Yes Music the way it was meant to be played - with a true sense of dynamics, a fearlessness, and a willingness to be loud when the music demands to be so.

Jon Anderson & the Band Geeks. Riviera Theatre, North Tonawanda, NY, 4/30/2025. Photo by Michael Lee Jackson.

It was telling that, during the Riviera Theatre gig, the band fit three songs from the True album into a setlist that included many of the most revered songs in the history of progressive rock music, and they sounded like they truly belonged there. “Counties and Countries,” “Shine On” and “Once Upon A Dream” are highly inventive compositions that place the conceptual tenets of Yes Music firmly in the present, and they made perfect sense alongside pieces like “And You And I,” “Starship Trooper” and “I’ve Seen All Good People.”

That said, the evening’s highlight, in my view, was the band’s inspired version of the monumental “Awaken,” a song that encapsulates Anderson’s genius as both a lyricist and a writer of melodies, and is one of the major cornerstones of the Yes temple. Guitarist Beck and keyboardist Clark both absolutely slayed it here.

During “Awaken,” the evening moved up a tone, from “rock concert” to “spiritual experience.” This moment of transcendence is a hallmark of all great Yes Music. That Anderson and the Band Geeks could make all of this sound fresh, new and vital again is a testament to their prowess.