Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks: Perpetual Change Live Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks: Perpetual Change Live Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 30, 2025

There are so-called "Tribute Bands" all over the world, and I should know because I've played keys in some of them. Trying to recreate an iconic band's music is always a challenge, but there may be a bit of slack offered from most audiences when these sorts of aggregations perform since they obviously aren't the "originals". The Band Geeks, for those unaware, actually began their life in podcast form, but ultimately went viral for some of their recreations of classic rock material, notably some Yes tunes. Kind of incredibly, they caught the eye (and ears) of Jon Anderson, whose own relationship with Yes was challenging at times. Anderson suggested that he and The Band Geeks collaborate, which actually resulted in a new album called True, which came out in 2024. Anderson and The Band Geeks are currently on tour as this review is being written, though this concert is from 2023. Anderson has had some well publicized respiratory problems through the years, but he sounds absolutely fantastic (especially for what was at the time of this concert an about to be 80 year old), and The Band Geeks do generally superb jobs in recreating the iconic sound(s) of Yes. Unfortunately the technical presentation of this Blu-ray will probably not pass muster with everyone.

The concert's set list includes:

• Yours Is No Disgrace
• Perpetual Change
• Close To The Edge
• Heart Of The Sunrise
• Starship Trooper
• Awaken
• And You And I
• Your Move/ I’ve Seen All Good People
• Gates Of Delirium
• Roundabout

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks: Perpetual Change Live Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks Live Perpetual Change is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Frontiers with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. I'm frankly not familiar with Frontiers, and this is the first Blu-ray from them I've personally reviewed, but this is a pretty shoddy looking transfer that has at least some anomalies that resemble upscaling, though there are other moments that at least approach what I'd consider a "true" high definition look. There are compression and interlacing issues galore here, with noticeable noise in some of the darkest areas of the frame, and some really weird macroblocking and/or splotching that can show up during lighting changes (look at the keyboard players' face in screenshot 4 for just one example).

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks: Perpetual Change Live Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks Live Perpetual Change will probably disappoint ardent audiophiles by offering only a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 surround option, but at least there's an LPCM 2.0 track. The stereo track probably competes with the Dolby Digital track in terms of energy in the midrange and low end (the latter perhaps a little surprisingly, at least to this ardent audiophile). The 5.1 track does admittedly open things up, but just toggling between the two options shows what a difference in amplitude and overall sonic force is available on the lossless track when compared to the Dolby Digital track.

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks: Perpetual Change Live Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The disc has no bonus features.

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks: Perpetual Change Live Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Vintage vinyl collectors, especially those who loved boxed sets, may recall the venerable Time Life Records, which kind of stunned the market in the 1970s with a series called The Swing Era, which offered re-recordings of Big Band material in stereo, obviously in much more technologically advanced versions than old shellacs or 78s, and which became a surprise smash hit with the buying public. Weirdly, Time Life followed up that set with As You Remember Them, a much more widely variant set of re-recordings of decidedly more contemporary material, which was completely odd to begin with simply because many of the original versions were in stereo and not all that "ancient". Instrumental "recreations" of hits by, say, Henry Mancini or Percy Faith sounded more or less like the originals, even if things could sound not quite "right", but some of the recreated vocals were absolutely cringeworthy (this Sergio Mendes fan could not stomach the Brasil '66 recreations). In an at least a somewhat similar vein, the tunes on this concert are rather like recreations themselves, though commendably in this case the original lead vocalist is there, giving a bit of authority to it all. The big plus here is probably Anderson. He's admittedly a little weird on stage (is he chewing gum?), but his singing is absolutely thrilling, and as mentioned above, it's especially impressive given his age. Unfortunately this Blu-ray doesn't do him or The Band Geeks full justice with shoddy video and only a lossy surround track.