Alright peeps, thought id give a bit of a review over here of the show sat night.
Even walking to this gig was fun! the stadium had just let out all the football fans and got to hear them all say "who the hell is Dream Theater!?" and "whats with all these heavy rockers?" on the walk from station to arena.
Got the arena and met up with my mate and his people he was meeting off the forum he is a mod for. Grabbed a chilli dog then headed to the queue as it was already starting to get pretty big.
Got inside and had my mate rub the fact he isnt a student in my face as he bought loads of merch (friggin people with their proper jobs!!) then headed inside.
Stood around for a bit, then with an hour to go before symphony X were scheduled to play everyone stood up and marched over near the front, leaving us to get nice n sweaty whilst cheering at the roadie with a beard who kept coming onstage. Oh yeah, and knocking inflated condoms around!
After a very long and uncomfortable hour, Symphony X came on. Sound guys had done a pretty good job on them considering they were "only" the support band, although it was almost impossible to make out any of the riffs what with the mushy guitar sound. I was very impressed by their singer though, he has a really good voice and great stage presence. He also isnt afraid to be a bit cheesey, doing the classic crowd warm up of splitting the crowd in 2 and making them see who can shout loudest.
Then came another wait, while the PA played string quartet versions of DT songs. Only other form of entertainment was watching the crazy roadie climbing up to do something on the lighting rig (it looked suspiciously like the remote for the projector was out of range from the stage and he was risking life and limb just to turn the thing on!!). The traffic light changed from red to yellow (it was yellow! crazy people with yellow instead of amber!) and the lights went out and some orchestral piece came on the PA.
Light turned green and on came DT playing the theme from 2001:A space odyssey. pure cheese but it sounded fantastic! Was cool to watch portnoy stand up and thump those toms like a monkey too
The whole set was fantastic in my (first time at a DT gig) opinion. Petrucci did a fantastic job of playing all the parts he can be known to struggle a bit and all the songs off the new album were great live songs with plenty of shout potential. The vocals were fantastic thanks to JLB being back on top vocal form, and as always the bass,keys and drums were faultless. The sound quality was top notch too, band sounded as powerful as JP looked with his bear physique and big beard!
Highlights for me:
the new version of surrounded with the soft chord intro on keyboard, guitar/keyboard solos then unison section which saw rudess come to the front of the stage with his keytar. Cheese on toast, but great fun to watch!
Hearing the complete "In The Presence Of Enemies" and chanting along to the call and response section in the second half while the screen showed the chant lines in flame font. again, complete gorgonzola but fantastic to be part of.
The dark eternal night. The intro riff brought everyones best metal gurn on, and it was a great chant song with all the portnoy/labrie call and response sections. Solo section was great too with the animation on screen of them fighting the monster!
Only disappointments of the show were the selections of "As I am" and "i walk beside you", both some of the weaker songs the band have. Although good live songs, i would have preferred something from the awake album.
setlists:
Symphony X:
Oculus Ex Inferni
Set The World On Fire
Domination
Serpent's Kiss
Paradise Lost
Unleash the Fire
Sea Of Lies
Of Sins and Shadows
Dream Theater:
Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)
Constant Motion
Strange Deja Vu
Blind Faith
Surrounded '07
The Dark Eternal Night
JR solo
Lines In the Sand
As I Am
I Walk Beside You
In the Presence of Enemies
Encore:
Shmedley Wilcox:
I.Trial Of Tears
II. Finally Free
III. Learning To Live
IV. In The Name Of God
V. Octavarium (Razor's Edge)
(the ITNOG part was the legato section and it was unbelievably tight!!)
Overall a superb gig and any DT fan must go see them this tour!
some of my mates photos:
Rock n roll eh!?
cheers
Tim
