Back from a Dream Theater concert
Mar. 7th, 2004 01:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sharanWell, I just saw Dream Theater again tonight, and thought I'd write up a review of the show here while I'm still thinking about it:). I wasn't sure if I was going to make it this time. I wasn't sure if I was going to be going to Las Vegas with my roommate, but he decided to go on his own. He has family in town there he hasn't seen in 3 years, so he wanted alone time with them. And then when I finally looked for tickets a couple of days ago there was nothing available. But yesterday around 6pm I was sitting at work and decided to try again and I got lucky! Not only did I get a ticket, but I got orchestra row H, in the center section. Definitely not bad:). The only problem is the ticketmaster extortion charges, which brought a $45 ticket up to $60. *OUCH!*
So I went to the show, and as usual it was a great one! On this tour they're basically doing 2 sets with a 15 minute intermission in between, so they played for about 3 hours. Before they came on on the middle screen (there were 3 screens on stage constantly showing scenes of them mixed with videos and other cool stuff) they showed a video of them year by year from the beginning, starting with actual video of them as Majesty (which was very cool, especially since I used to live next door to Chris Collins, their lead singer back then. Nice guy, and I got to hear him through the walls, which was very cool:). Some day it would be nice to get back in touch with him.). They had video and live footage from then up until the present. The first set had a nice mix of music, including a few songs from the new cd, Train of Thought. I guess I remember more of it than I thought since I recognized every song they played from it. It's been tough to really get into cds lately when it seems like I mainly listen to them at work while I'm busy, so they wind up being background music:(. At least at a concert I can really listen to the music!
The second set was where things got really interesting! Mike Portnoy (the drummer) came to the front of the stage when they came back out and told everyone they'd be doing something tonight they wouldn't be doing anywhere else. 15 years ago today their first album, When Dream and Day Unite, came out, so they were playing the album in its entirity! I haven't listened to that album in years, although I used to play songs from it back when it came out on my radio show Local Rock as a "Local Celebrity":). But it was very cool hearing the whole thing, and with James Labrie on vocals (the singer on that one album was Charlie Dominici, and Jame Labrie started on the next one). After that they left the stage and came back for an encore and started playing one of their unreleased (outside of singles and/or fan club cds) songs, "To Live Forever." James Labrie sang the first verse and then introduced none other than Charlie Dominici, their old singer! He sang the rest of it, and he sounded great! Then in the next song they introduced another familiar face, their last keyboardist Derek Sherinian! Both Charlie and Derek were on stage, and during the guitar solo for a while, Derek, Jordan Rudess (their current keyboardist) and John Petrucci (the guitarist) were going back and forth doing 'guitar solos', only one of them on an actual guitar:). But they were obviously having fun with it! I guess they got the idea from last summer's Dream Theater/Queensryche/Fates Warning tour, where the bands made a bunch of guest appearances on each others sets, and at the end Dream Theater and Queensryche both got on stage and did 3 songs.
Well, it was a great show, although over too soon as usual. I think this was the first time I saw them where they DIDN'T play "Pull Me Under". It's interesting to see how much the audience has changed over the years. I guess a lot of the audience has grown up, and there are a lot of younger people who obviously got into them recently. The guy next to me was there with his young son, and it was his first concert. And you don't see nearly as many guys with long hair at there shows as you would have back in the 80s. As usual, I was probably the only 34 year old (or any age) woman to be there by myself;) (it always seems like most of the women at progressive metal concerts are there with their boyfriends, although there are definitely exceptions!). And as usual, it was definitely worth the trip:).
I was watching the guy next to me take pictures on his cell phone, so I decided to get out my Sony Clie and see what I could get. I took 2 pictures with digital zoom (so I don't know how well they came out) and my Clie shut off and wouldn't go on again. I thought it might be the battery but it turned out it just needed a reset. Oh, well. I should probably try to put those up somewhere eventually. Let's just hope the concert venues don't catch on to this stuff;).
BTW, I'm trying out one of the new LiveJournal clients, Semagic. They really changed the client a lot! I'm still reinstalling from reformatting and installing a new OS last weekend, so I went to check the LiveJournal site and they didn't even have the original client anymore, so I decided to try this..
So I went to the show, and as usual it was a great one! On this tour they're basically doing 2 sets with a 15 minute intermission in between, so they played for about 3 hours. Before they came on on the middle screen (there were 3 screens on stage constantly showing scenes of them mixed with videos and other cool stuff) they showed a video of them year by year from the beginning, starting with actual video of them as Majesty (which was very cool, especially since I used to live next door to Chris Collins, their lead singer back then. Nice guy, and I got to hear him through the walls, which was very cool:). Some day it would be nice to get back in touch with him.). They had video and live footage from then up until the present. The first set had a nice mix of music, including a few songs from the new cd, Train of Thought. I guess I remember more of it than I thought since I recognized every song they played from it. It's been tough to really get into cds lately when it seems like I mainly listen to them at work while I'm busy, so they wind up being background music:(. At least at a concert I can really listen to the music!
The second set was where things got really interesting! Mike Portnoy (the drummer) came to the front of the stage when they came back out and told everyone they'd be doing something tonight they wouldn't be doing anywhere else. 15 years ago today their first album, When Dream and Day Unite, came out, so they were playing the album in its entirity! I haven't listened to that album in years, although I used to play songs from it back when it came out on my radio show Local Rock as a "Local Celebrity":). But it was very cool hearing the whole thing, and with James Labrie on vocals (the singer on that one album was Charlie Dominici, and Jame Labrie started on the next one). After that they left the stage and came back for an encore and started playing one of their unreleased (outside of singles and/or fan club cds) songs, "To Live Forever." James Labrie sang the first verse and then introduced none other than Charlie Dominici, their old singer! He sang the rest of it, and he sounded great! Then in the next song they introduced another familiar face, their last keyboardist Derek Sherinian! Both Charlie and Derek were on stage, and during the guitar solo for a while, Derek, Jordan Rudess (their current keyboardist) and John Petrucci (the guitarist) were going back and forth doing 'guitar solos', only one of them on an actual guitar:). But they were obviously having fun with it! I guess they got the idea from last summer's Dream Theater/Queensryche/Fates Warning tour, where the bands made a bunch of guest appearances on each others sets, and at the end Dream Theater and Queensryche both got on stage and did 3 songs.
Well, it was a great show, although over too soon as usual. I think this was the first time I saw them where they DIDN'T play "Pull Me Under". It's interesting to see how much the audience has changed over the years. I guess a lot of the audience has grown up, and there are a lot of younger people who obviously got into them recently. The guy next to me was there with his young son, and it was his first concert. And you don't see nearly as many guys with long hair at there shows as you would have back in the 80s. As usual, I was probably the only 34 year old (or any age) woman to be there by myself;) (it always seems like most of the women at progressive metal concerts are there with their boyfriends, although there are definitely exceptions!). And as usual, it was definitely worth the trip:).
I was watching the guy next to me take pictures on his cell phone, so I decided to get out my Sony Clie and see what I could get. I took 2 pictures with digital zoom (so I don't know how well they came out) and my Clie shut off and wouldn't go on again. I thought it might be the battery but it turned out it just needed a reset. Oh, well. I should probably try to put those up somewhere eventually. Let's just hope the concert venues don't catch on to this stuff;).
BTW, I'm trying out one of the new LiveJournal clients, Semagic. They really changed the client a lot! I'm still reinstalling from reformatting and installing a new OS last weekend, so I went to check the LiveJournal site and they didn't even have the original client anymore, so I decided to try this..
