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Dream Theater w/ Redemption and Into Eternity
Bell Center - Montréal, Québec Canada
August 17th, 2007
Dream Theater Set List:
Constant Motion | Panic Attack | Blind
Faith | Surrounded | The Dark Eternal Night | Keyboard Solo | Lines In The Sand
| Another Day | In The Presence of Enemies
Encore: Medley – (I) Trial of Tears, (II) Finally Free, (III) Learning To Live,
(IV) In The Name of God, (V) Octavarium (120 minutes)
By Ryan Sparks
Progressive hard rock titans Dream Theater have always been
a band that not only the critics love to hate, but music fans as well seem to
have either a love or hate relationship with the American quintet. The complaint
that I’ve heard most often is that the bands sound and live concerts are too
clinical and the overall sound too polished on record. While there may be some
validity to those statements, what people might tend to forget is that in Dream
Theater you have four musicians who can definitely be referred to as virtuosos,
not to mention a lead vocalist who possesses one hell of a set of pipes. Three
of the founding members, guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung and drummer
Mike Portnoy met in the mid 80’s while studying at The Berklee College of Music
in Boston and keyboardist Jordan Ruddess studied classical piano for years at
the prestigious Julliard Music Academy. Sure these guys have chops up the wazoo
and you wouldn’t be wrong calling them perfectionists either, but just because
they are all accomplished players doesn’t mean they don’t have a sense of humor
or lack emotion either. Where a lot of the shred it to death bands beat you over
the head repeatedly until you cannot even detect one hit of anything resembling
emotion (if there was one to begin with). Dream Theater have always combined
their technical expertise and attention to detail (such as trying to ensure the
set list isn’t the same in each city from tour to tour) with a professional
attitude and respect for their fans, which comes across loud ‘n clear in their
music. While they’ve never had a huge following in North America or been a band
that sells millions of records compared to Europe, Japan etc… they’ve maintained
a core fan base, one which continues to grow.
This tour in support of their latest record Systematic
Chaos doesn’t fall under the “Evening With” shows which usually feature an
intermission and tend to run around three hours. What we got here was two solid
hours of material which delved into all aspects of the band’s storied career, so
if you didn’t do your homework or are just a casual fan, many of the song
choices may have flown over your head. The band has never caved in to musical
trends and they’ve always done things their own way so you come to expect the
unexpected when attending a DT show. As mentioned drummer Mike Portnoy keeps a
record of which songs are played in each city on every tour in order to keep
things fresh and I personally think more bands should adopt this method instead
of simply grabbing the hard earned money of the music fan and going through the
motions by playing the same songs night in and night out.
The evening got off to a pretty promising start as we were
treated to two high quality opening bands that each got approximately 30 minute
sets each to deliver the goods. Into Eternity who kicked things off first faired
better as they ripped through an electrifying set of intensive metal highlighted
by vocalist Stu Block’s alternating clean and death vocal assault. The band’s
set featured quite a few tracks off their most recent Century Media release
The Scattering of Ashes and it’s easy to see why they’ve been on the road
constantly supporting this record, including a spot on last years Gigantour.
They knew perfectly how best utilize their limited amount of time and even
managed to draw a hearty ovation when they were done. After a quick 10 minute
break the second band of the evening Redemption had the unenviable task of
following the opening carnage of Into Eternity’s set. Redemption’s style of
progressive metal is definitely closer in style to Dream Theater’s so one
expected the fans to warm up to their offerings. While they didn’t necessarily
fail they also didn’t do much to win the fans over either. The band boasts
former Fates Warning singer Ray Adler, so the credibility factor is definitely
there and no one can doubt his vocal prowess. The problem seemed to be a general
lack of interest on Adler’s part, as more often than not he was bounding off
stage left or right at seemingly every opportunity, especially during some of
the longer instrumental sections. I can’t fault him for wanting to take a quick
breather here and there but it didn’t say much for the bands onstage chemistry.
Vocally he was spot on and their material was pretty solid but they definitely
should have been opening the show and not in the middle slot.
Dream Theater’s set began as the house lights went down and
the intro music pumped out into the arena as the stoplight which was positioned
high above the front of the stage, turned green and the band dove headfirst into
the evenings opening song “Constant Motion” off of Systematic Chaos. As
the band played the visuals on the screen directly above the back of the stage
played blurry images of high speed freeway travel. In fact the screen was kept
pretty busy for practically the whole show as each song had accompaning images
to suit the music which was very Pink Floyd-ish at times but also allowed close
up’s of the musicians themselves while they were soloing on their respective
instruments. Right from the very first notes of the first songs everyone on the
floor were on their feet pumping their firsts in the air and I quickly noticed
that most of the people in attendance around the arena were doing the same. I’ve
been to over a hundred shows in this city and seen bands of all styles but I
can’t recall ever seeing practically everyone in the arena standing on their
feet for almost an entire show. The last time Dream Theater played in this city
was one year ago in a venue that holds approximately 1,500 people and was a
sellout. This time around the crowd looked to be in the range of 5,000-7,000
which is a true reflection of the band’s increasing popularity, at least in this
city. Without so much as a minute to shift gears, they ripped into the second
number “Panic Attack” off of 2005’s Octavarium. This track featured some
fabulous guitar work from Petrucci while vocalist James LaBrie pumped out each
line with a dramatic sense of urgency. It took only 4 songs into the evening
before they visited a track from their most successful album of their career,
1992’s Images and Words. “Surrounded” came off beautifully and for those
who caught the clever lift of both Marillion’s “Sugar Mice” in Ruddess’ solo and
Pink Floyd’s “Mother” in Petrucci’s, it was nothing short of magic. Mike
Portnoy was all over his kit as usual and he was making funny faces at the band
all night long, not to mention he continues to live up to his ‘Camel’ moniker
for his ability to launch loogies with both alarming height and distance.
Another new song “The Dark Eternal Night” preceded an
electrifying keyboard solo from Ruddess as at one point he left his main
console, strapped on a Zen Riffer, which is made to look like a guitar but is in
fact a very futuristic looking keyboard. He stepped up to the front of the stage
and proceeded to blow the first few rows of the audience back a couple of feet
with his keytar playing. After “Lines In The Sand” off Falling Into Infinity
the band slowed things down a bit by going back to Images again, this
time for the excellent ballad “Another Day”. The mellow moment didn’t last long
though as they turned things back up with a stellar run through “In The Presence
of Enemies, again off the new disc. After this epic number concluded the members
took their bows and jumped off into the shadows before returning to offer up
what was probably the highlight of the show, a 15 minute medley which
encompassed 5 songs from 5 different albums. This definitely wasn’t your typical
encore but once gain further proof that Dream Theater isn’t your typical band.
Dream Theater’s return to Montréal can be
considered nothing short of a triumph and as mentioned before; it looks like the
word has definitely been spreading in this city. After over 20 years the band
still takes chances and plays by their own rules and the band’s fans all over
the world respect them for it, myself included. |
