I saw Yes two weeks ago and the band was touring, once again, without Anderson but the person standing in for him was a skilled Canadian vocalist named Benoit David who emulated Anderson's voice to a T. With the exception of Rick Wakeman's son Oliver, who has replaced his father in the band, the rest of the members were all original with Steve Howe on guitar, Alan White on drums and Chris Squire on Bass.
I can't say enough how amazed I was at how well David sang. It was like listening to Anderson at the peak of his abilities in the 70s.
Jon Anderson's voice is high, dramatic, and angelic and is so different than anyone I've ever heard live or recorded. Here's a song for those of you unfamiliar with Yes to get an idea of how hard it would be to mimic Anderson's unique singing:
The band opened up with Siberian Khatru and the crowd erupted. It's the only song that the band allowed us to film which was ok with me since it would cut down on the number of non-concert going dorks who would try to film the whole show. They played songs from almost every album except for "Relayer" and "Tales of Topographic Oceans", both of which I really enjoy but were not well-received. I kind of wish they'd have played something from Relayer but the best song is over twenty minutes long so I can understand why they wouldn't perform it. My favorite two songs were probably Siberian Khatru and Heart of the Sunrise but the entire set was phenomenal. Even though the original members did look very old, they moved, played, sang, and acted like they were in their thirties again. It was one of the best shows I've ever been to, hands down. They played all the standard numbers along with a few rarities which made for a well selected set list.
Here's part of their opening song, Siberian Khatru, off of the album "Close to the Edge":
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