An Evening With Dream Theater

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REVIEW BY: Chris Perugini

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I had been looking forward to seeing Dream Theater again ever since Train of Thought was released. I think it is an amazing album and really shows the Dream Theater of the new millennium. This show proved to me again how amazing and talented all five of these musicians really are.

The show started right around 7:45 PM. They started with a vignette showing a brief history of the band, including the Majesty days of the mid-eighties. They then showed each album cover in order and played a song or video clip for each album. They finally got to Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and they played the fade out at the very end of “Losing Time/Grand Finale.” At this point the year, 2004 showed up on the screen. It was almost like a “when we last left off” type of thing.

Before I knew it, the first notes from John Myung’s bass rang out as the band played “As I Am.” They then went straight into “This Dying Soul,” a song where James LaBrie got to play with all of his new voice effects. After that, James LaBrie welcomed us and thanked us for coming. After a few more words, he said we were going back to Images and Words. They then played “Under a Glass Moon.” I had never heard this song live from them, so that made it extra awesome for me.

Although they were only three songs into the set, they had already been playing for a half hour, so most of the band took a short break as Jordan Rudess played a keyboard solo that to me was his opportunity to say, “Hey everyone, here’s all the cool stuff that my keyboard can do.” Nonetheless, he is an excellent keyboard player and his solo definitely held my attention. His keyboard seemed to be an upgrade from the one he was using a few years ago including an LCD screen with his music built right into the keyboard. Very nice.

The band then came back on and played the classic “A Mind Beside Itself,” consisting of “Erotomania,” “Voices” and “The Silent Man.” Great stuff, especially the version of “The Silent Man” that they played. They then returned to the present to play one of my favorite songs off of Train of Thought, “Endless Sacrifice.” They nailed everything, including the cartoon sound effects in the middle of the song. To end the first set, they played “Trail of Tears,” which is far from being my favorite Dream Theater song, but I’m not going to complain about one song I didn’t like out of nine in the first set.

There was then a fifteen-minute intermission between sets. I figured that this would only be an estimate, since fifteen minutes isn’t really that long of an intermission period but there was a timer on the screen counting down. If I needed something to drink, I was going to have to move pretty quickly. I made it back with four minutes left. The second set started with more music from Falling Into Infinity with “New Millennium.” They then played “To Live Forever” and some instrumental stuff that I didn’t recognize. This turned out to be an improv jam.

This jam then led into “A Fortune in Lies,” which is awesome hearing live. Then came the Six Degrees section. They played “Goodnight Kiss” and “Solitary Shell.” Don’t get me wrong... These two songs are great, but I would have rather heard “War Inside My Head” and “The Test That Stumped Them All.” Once again, I really shouldn’t complain because the entire Six Degrees epic is amazing.

Then came the highlight of the concert for me. This was the one song that I needed to hear to make this show a complete success. They played “Stream of Consciousness,” and let me be the first to say that every Dream Theater fan needs to hear this song live at least once in their lives. The solo during this song just made my jaw drop. I’m sure the same thing was happening to a lot of people in the theater.

What better way to end of the second set than with one of the best closing songs in the band’s repertoire. I looked up at the screen and saw the words “Friday Evening” in the lower left corner and knew that “Finally Free” was coming. What a way to wrap everything up. By the end of the second set, I was blown away, but somehow, I still felt that something wasn’t right. Something was still missing. I was hoping that the encore could fill that void that I was feeling. They did just that when they came back on and played “In the Name of God.” The song clocked in at about twenty minutes long and, like with their other albums, it was the perfect way to set up the next chapter in the story. Dream Theater: To be Continued…

Setlist:

Band history video (intro tape)
1. As I Am
2. This Dying Soul
3. Under a Glass Moon
4. keyboard solo
A Mind Beside Itself:
5. I Erotomania
6. II Voices (abridged)
7. III The Silent Man (electric version)
8. Endless Sacrifice
9. Trial of Tears
~~~intermission~~~
10. New Millennium
11. To Live Forever/extended improv jam
12. A Fortune in Lies
13. Goodnight Kiss
14. Solitary Shell
15. Stream of Consciousness
16. Finally Free
~~~encore~~~
17. In the Name of God