On Saturday, August 11th, 2007, I was fortunate enough
to witness one of the finest set-lists ever put together
by any band. Unfortunately, before the wonderful set
list, I had to endure two opening bands, one of which
was much more than just endurable, and in fact was
very good (Redemption), and another that was quite
obnoxious with just about everything they did (Into
Eternity). Their singer had one of the largest ranges
I have ever heard, and I respect him for that but
he still sounded pretty bad. He either did very growly
death metal vocals, or Sebastian Bach-like high pitched
hair metal vocals. Rarely was there anything in between.
Once the opening acts were over, random applauding
occurred about ten times before Progressive Metal
icons, Dream Theater finally showed up, opening their
set with the single from their newest album, Constant
Motion. This was fairly predictable since they usually
open with the new single from their album, but it
was still very enjoyable as their head banging Metallica
vibe really came out in the song. Next came Panic
Attack, which I have always enjoyed but have remained
unsatisfied with since it came out on Octavarium.
It was good, but it wasn’t the real meat of
the set list. The best was still yet to come.
They then transitioned into Blind Faith which was
incredible to see live, especially when the cameras
focused on Rudess’s (keyboards) and Petrucci’s
(guitars) fingers as they nailed the sick unison in
the song. Then came Surrounded, off of Images and
Words. This was by far the best song of the night.
To begin the song, Petrucci had one of his extremely
melodic, bluesy solos with a tone that very few guitarists
can produce live. The song then progressed, sounding
better than ever, until they decided to throw in a
little bit of “Mother” from Pink Floyd’s
“The Wall”. This was a perfect choice,
as Petrucci once again played one of David Gilmour’s
solos with as much emotion as Gilmour himself. They
then improvised for a while, and finally finished
off the song. By the time it was over, it was hard
to move from the emotion that had filled the air because
of the awe-inspiring performance.
Next up was The Dark Eternal Night, which was probably
the heaviest song of the night. If someone watched
The Dark Eternal Night right after Surrounded, they
would know just how incredible the musicians are in
Dream Theater. They do a Pink Floyd-esque beautiful
ballad, with incredibly phrased solos, then all of
a sudden turn into Pantera and play some of the fastest
and heaviest stuff you’ve ever heard in your
life.
Next came Rudess’s keyboard solo. Now to be
honest, I don’t really care all that much for
Rudess’s solos when he’s not soloing on
a keyboard in a regular piano setting. That is where
I think he sounds his best and most virtuosic. But
I couldn’t really grumble when he picked up
the Keytar, and started playing it. It is such a cool
(and yes, very 80’s)instrument that I didn’t
really care that he was playing stuff that sounded
like it was just trying to mimick a guitar sound.
Next came Lines in the Sand, which I had been waiting
to hear live for years. It is definitely one of my
top five favorite Dream Theater songs. There was a
lot of energy when the song got rolling, and Portnoy
pulled off all his amazing grooves perfectly. The
riff after the chorus still had all the punch that
it had the first time I heard it, and Petrucci’s
solo was once again beyond belief.
As they transitioned into the next song, Scarred,
Petrucci had yet another slow bluesy solo, which is
more than I have ever heard him do before in one concert.
His sense of syncopation really shined on this one,
as he did a great job of restraining himself from
shredding inappropriately. I never really enjoyed
the song scarred, but the last couple minutes always
stood out to me, as they did at the concert also.
Before the next song started, Labrie gave a small
speech dedicating it to victims of recent tragedies
in the news over the past couple days. He never mentioned
anything specific but one could guess he was talking
about the bridge collapse in Minnesota, and possibly
our soldiers fighting in Iraq. Everything Labrie said
was excellent, and well put. He didn’t ever
resort to U2ified/Ted Nugent sickening political ranting.
Of course, the song they played was The Spirit Carries
On. Instead of being struck by the beautiful melody
of Petrucci’s solo, as I usually am when I hear
the song, I was struck with how much feeling Labrie
and the band had when they were playing the song.
In its original context, it dealt with reincarnation
in a fictional context, but over the years, the band
seemed to be playing the song with a more non-fictional
Christian context in mind. The song in its entirety
was very touching.
To end, they played In the Presence of Enemies one
and two back to back. From my perspective, there was
no way they could come up with an ending more majestic
than the one from In the Presence of Enemies part
two. Well…for the Encore, they played the last
songs off of five of their albums. It started with
Trial of Tears, then went to Finally Free, Learning
to Live, In the Name of God, and then Octavarium.
With all the songs combined, and then the ending to
Octavarium, the final ending of the show, was, of
course, more majestic than I thought they could ever
do. The concert was probably one of the most memorable
nights I’ve had in the last couple years.
Reviewed By: Mark Chenoweth
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