BigBlueTarp.US: Bethel Woods Center for the Arts Fansite

June 18, 2010

Yes & Peter Frampton

Last night Bethel Woods opened up its gates to start their fifth season. In the past five summers we have seen multiple acts open up the season at Bethel Woods, including; New York Philharmonic, Chicago & America, The True Colors Tour, and Chicago with Earth, Wind and Fire. However, none of those acts received the mixed feelings that last nights Yes/Peter Frampton show did.

As we pulled onto Hurd Rd. from 17b, we noticed the very potent smell of fresh cow manure. Thinking nothing of it, we went on into the parking lots where the smell got stronger and stronger. When we were in the parking lots, we noticed that there were a decent amount of concertgoers headed to the show. This was a nice little surprise for us, as there was not very much buzz about the concert. When we got out of the car we were met with that smell again throughout our whole walk into the venue gates. Our group started discussing what it was, wondering, could it be Bethel Woods fertilizer on the lawn? Or could it possibly be one of the local farmers retaliating on the hot and sunny day, for all of the traffic that Bethel has brought into the community. Once we got to the lawn, we put down our tarp and got ready for the show.

No more than five minutes after sitting down, Peter Frampton’s band walked on the stage and started playing without a word being said. For the casual fan, you would have had no idea if this was Yes, Peter Frampton or a local bar band. After about a minute or so of playing, a buzzed white haired Frampton walked out onto the stage with his guitar. This was an unfamiliar scene for anyone who has not seen him since the 70’s, when he was known for being a Teenie-bopper with long, dirty blond hair. Frampton jumped right into the set and sounded great, playing batches of new unknown songs and hit songs such as, Baby I Love Your Way. One of the most intriguing things I noticed about Frampton’s set was a dedication of a song to “his friend”, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden. At that point, Frampton and his band played a very strong, jammed out version of Soundgarden’s hit song Black Hole Sun, which included vocals by Frampton through his talk box. They closed their set with the always familiar Do You Feel Like We Do. The song was a nice 17 minute jam, very similar to the one made famous on the album, Frampton Comes Alive. For his encore, Frampton brought out his son and played a song off the new album, which his son was on lead vocals for. The song was more of a hard rock song than the soothing, jammed out tunes that you would normally hear at a Peter Frampton show.

After about a half hour break in the show to switch out the bands’ gear, the stage went black, with blue ambient lighting and on the back video screen, the Yes symbol popped up. Yes had a lot more going on stage musically and theatrically then Peter Frampton did, but what else would you expect from the progressive rock gods. Close to mid-set Chris Squire introduced Steve Howe and the band left the stage for what would become two acoustic songs by the guitar great. Throughout the night the band sounded very tight, but you could easily get lost in the music, especially if you are just a casual fan or just at the show to have a good time. At this point in the show I was starting to hear complaints of not hearing many hits and that people were bored. At the end of their set, Yes performed two of their staple songs, Owner of a Lonely Heart and Roundabout.

Roundabout closed out the set for the band and at this point the crowd pulled out the normal Bethel Woods routine and started pouring off the lawn and from underneath the pavilion. There was only a 5 minute encore break and during that time almost half of the crowd, which was originally approximately 6,000, had left the venue. When the band came back on stage, they had said “We are now going to play the song you have been waiting for.” My first thought was I’ve Seen All Good People, but instead they played their triumphant suite of music Starship Trooper. During Starship Trooper, a man from the front row of the venue jumped up on stage and was immediately tackled and pulled off the stage by security. When the band left the stage the house lights stayed off for a minute, with the blue ambient lighting on from the start of the concert. This brought in a great expectation of getting a second encore, but I believe due to the mass that left the audience before the end of the song, and the man jumping on stage, they did not see any point in coming back out.

In my opinion, the show was very good, possibly one of the best musically inclined performances to open up a Bethel Woods season so far. My only disappointments would be Peter Frampton letting his son sing some random song as the final song of his encore. Peter, we came to see you play, not your son singing a song, and not do that great of a job. It is ok to promote a new single in your show, but do it mid-set and at least sing yourself. The other issue I had with the show was the crowd leaving. I have this issue with almost every show I have seen there. For those of you that do not know, I am a huge Dave Matthews Band fan, and they are a band that lives off of their crowd’s energy. So, I know that it can not be a good feeling for the act on stage to see the crowd leave. It is actually disrespectful, possibly more disrespectful then jumping on stage or talking on your blackberry when sitting front row. Well, I hope to find out more about the horrible smell on the way into the venue last night and hope it is not something that becomes repetitive at every show this season. I hope you enjoyed the show yourselves and feel free to write any reviews you may have in the forums section.



June 18, 2010 Yes & Peter Frampton Last night Bethel Woods opened up its gates to start their fifth season. In the past five summers we have seen multiple acts open up the season at Bethel Woods, including; New York Philharmonic, Chicago & America, The True Colors Tour, and Chicago with Earth, Wind and Fire. However, none of those acts received the mixed feelings that last nights Yes/Peter Frampton show did. As we pulled onto Hurd Rd. from 17b, we noticed the very potent smell of fresh cow manure. Thinking nothing of it, we went on into the parking lots where the smell got stronger and stronger. When we were in the parking lots, we noticed that there were a decent amount of concertgoers headed to the show. This was a nice little surprise for us, as there was not very much buzz about the concert. When we got out of the car we were met with that smell again throughout our whole walk into the venue gates. Our group started discussing what it was, wondering, could it be Bethel Woods fertilizer on the lawn? Or could it possibly be one of the local farmers retaliating on the hot and sunny day, for all of the traffic that Bethel has brought into the community. Once we got to the lawn, we put down our tarp and got ready for the show. No more than five minutes after sitting down, Peter Frampton’s band walked on the stage and started playing without a word being said. For the casual fan, you would have had no idea if this was Yes, Peter Frampton or a local bar band. After about a minute or so of playing, a buzzed white haired Frampton walked out onto the stage with his guitar. This was an unfamiliar scene for anyone who has not seen him since the 70’s, when he was known for being a Teenie-bopper with long, dirty blond hair. Frampton jumped right into the set and sounded great, playing batches of new unknown songs and hit songs such as, Baby I Love Your Way. One of the most intriguing things I noticed about Frampton’s set was a dedication of a song to “his friend”, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden. At that point, Frampton and his band played a very strong, jammed out version of Soundgarden’s hit song Black Hole Sun, which included vocals by Frampton through his talk box. They closed their set with the always familiar Do You Feel Like We Do. The song was a nice 17 minute jam, very similar to the one made famous on the album, Frampton Comes Alive. For his encore, Frampton brought out his son and played a song off the new album, which his son was on lead vocals for. The song was more of a hard rock song than the soothing, jammed out tunes that you would normally hear at a Peter Frampton show. After about a half hour break in the show to switch out the bands’ gear, the stage went black, with blue ambient lighting and on the back video screen, the Yes symbol popped up. Yes had a lot more going on stage musically and theatrically then Peter Frampton did, but what else would you expect from the progressive rock gods. Close to mid-set Chris Squire introduced Steve Howe and the band left the stage for what would become two acoustic songs by the guitar great. Throughout the night the band sounded very tight, but you could easily get lost in the music, especially if you are just a casual fan or just at the show to have a good time. At this point in the show I was starting to hear complaints of not hearing many hits and that people were bored. At the end of their set, Yes performed two of their staple songs, Owner of a Lonely Heart and Roundabout. Roundabout closed out the set for the band and at this point the crowd pulled out the normal Bethel Woods routine and started pouring off the lawn and from underneath the pavilion. There was only a 5 minute encore break and during that time almost half of the crowd, which was originally approximately 6,000, had left the venue. When the band came back on stage, they had said “We are now going to play the song you have been waiting for.” My first thought was I’ve Seen All Good People, but instead they played their triumphant suite of music Starship Trooper. During Starship Trooper, a man from the front row of the venue jumped up on stage and was immediately tackled and pulled off the stage by security. When the band left the stage the house lights stayed off for a minute, with the blue ambient lighting on from the start of the concert. This brought in a great expectation of getting a second encore, but I believe due to the mass that left the audience before the end of the song, and the man jumping on stage, they did not see any point in coming back out. In my opinion, the show was very good, possibly one of the best musically inclined performances to open up a Bethel Woods season so far. My only disappointments would be Peter Frampton letting his son sing some random song as the final song of his encore. Peter, we came to see you play, not your son singing a song, and not do that great of a job. It is ok to promote a new single in your show, but do it mid-set and at least sing yourself. The other issue I had with the show was the crowd leaving. I have this issue with almost every show I have seen there. For those of you that do not know, I am a huge Dave Matthews Band fan, and they are a band that lives off of their crowd’s energy. So, I know that it can not be a good feeling for the act on stage to see the crowd leave. It is actually disrespectful, possibly more disrespectful then jumping on stage or talking on your blackberry when sitting front row. Well, I hope to find out more about the horrible smell on the way into the venue last night and hope it is not something that becomes repetitive at every show this season. I hope you enjoyed the show yourselves and feel free to write any reviews you may have in the forums section.