The Syn - Pre Yes Group w/ Squire in Cleveland

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Well, I got to meet, finally, Chris Squire up close and personal at the R&R Hall Of Fame and at Beachroom Ballroom outside of Cleveland.  Seemed like a nice fellow.  The two other members were one original member from the late 60s where Squire performed with them right before Yes and the other fellow was a younger guitarist who reminded me more of Trevor Rabin more than anything, minus the weedly 80's guitar sound. 

The nice extra was Alan White playing drums for the group, but he seemed like a rather sour grapes kind of fellow.  Not too friendly during fan meet/greet.  Almost seemed like he could have cared less.  Seemed like he wanted to get the hell out of dodge.  The Syn's original drummer is on tour with Sheryl Crow where White agreed to sit in and he did a great job.  But man, oh man, I didn't even want to speak to the guy.  He seemed VERY snippy with people.   Oh well...about half of the people in rock music are dyed-in-the-wool pricks anyway.

However, The Syn played a hell of a set at the Beachroom.  No Yes material, but the music was very good.  Squire had his crunchy-dirty bass sound kicking lively, was a very talkative fellow on stage telling about how The Syn opened up for Jimi Hendrix at the Marquee where he was just 17, seeing Lennon, Townshend and Clapton in the audience and almost s**tting his pants.  Which, I could imagine that would be scarey for one of any age at that time, let alone being a teenager.

The singer was very good, definetly not of Anderson's high pitch area.  The songs were not spacey and were very straightforward in their lyrics.   Stuff about war protesting, girls and newer songs about life in their 50's, which was really nice to hear.

If they come to your town, I highly suggest you check them out.  The funny part is, even though they sound not much like Yes - far from it - but if you like Yes, you'll probably like The Syn. 

Check them out!

I'll post pictures I took when I find out how to transfer them from my new phone!  It's not as easy as digital camera, unfortunately.