Pop Music Review : Yes-Man Rabin Delivers a Picture-Perfect Show

Trevor Rabin, who joined Yes in 1983, was responsible for much of the group’s smash “90125” album and for its biggest hits since then. He was the perfect Yes-man to bring that tired band into the mercenary ‘80s: He’s “classically trained,” which shows up in predictable little instrumental flourishes here and there, but is basically interested in writing hit pop material. His music has the veneer of “progressive rock” without any of the progressiveness.

Now he has a solo album out that sounds just like the recent, hyper-commercial Yes he helped revitalize. The first of his two sets on Wednesday at the Roxy was the kind of picture-perfect show where, if Rabin’s voice is filtered during a certain verse on the album, a technician was sure to be on hand to filter it just so at the Roxy as well. But, with slightly longish hair combed unfashionably over the ears, he looks more like an eager but mild-mannered kid trying out axes at the Guitar Center than a rock star.

Amid the billowing dry ice, Rabin does at least sport a fairly unpretentious stage manner--”This is a little number from the new album,” he said, introducing a symbolic, eight-minute-plus behemoth supposedly about his native South Africa--and he doesn’t grimace quite as much as a metal guitarist would while taking speedy solos.

On the pop side, hooks and lyrics were serviceable and little more; as prog-rock goes, those familiar, swirling synth arpeggios kept getting in the way of anything that might be interesting in the instrumental passages. His anti-apartheid stand is commendable, but still, rock ‘n’ roll really doesn’t get any whiter than this. Verdict: No.