Hey guys, long time no write here... Don't see many reviews here, hope this is the right place to share my yesterday's DT experience. I'll post a link to my pics as soon as I upload them.
My brother in law and I arrived at the venue 20:50 and the concert was scheduled to 21:30, the place was half full, but when the music began, the house was totally full.
Yesterday was my 4th DT concert, but had this additional surprise component which is called Mike Mangini. Don't know if it was due to the spot from which I was seeing the stage, but I had the impression that his drums are set nearer to the public, this is nice because he has much more iron in his set and, being nearer, we can see his face and movements very well.
The setlist is posted above, but it had some details. When JP was praparing his accoustic guitar, James took his spot next to JP and started talking to us, complaining that they'd have to fly from Rio the next morning and wouldn't be able to enjoy the city. "I don't know who booked this, but I swear I'm gonna shot him!" It was hilarious. JP started to play a melow, a romantic song and James said "hey, stop playng that song" with a very girlish voice, pretending he would cry or something, hahaha very funny. JR run to his keyboards to follow the song and suddenly Mangini took JP's mic and started singing along. The guys are really, really having a good time. Maybe you can find that on youtube today...
Another highlight was Spirit Caries On intro. It started more or less like the SCORE version, but suddenly JP sit in front of the drums, looked to JR and started playing State of Grace, from LTE. It nothing less than beautiful. From that they started improvising, James said some words about our journey on earth and the way we all can relate to the lyrics of this song. The rest you know, SCO is one of that songs that lift one's soul up very high...
What to say about our James...? The man is trully ON FIRE!!! Can easily say that it was his best performance here in Rio. Screaming like hell and now I noticed that his voice's low tunes are increadibly strong, I mean, that guy goes from deep in the seas to high in the skies like no one does. Thank you James! I would mention Surrounded as one of his best moments... but ok, I have a very personal bound to that song, so
The crowd was singing alog every song like never befor, I could notice that the band was really appreciating that. After some normal ajustment and comparing to the last DT concert I saw, it was the best sound ever. Everything was very balanced, we could hear every instrument and James' voice.
One thing I can't forget is JP's performance. Great as always, but, in James' words: "This is guy is sicker than a dog tonight, and he's still up here on stage". I mean, of course I want him to get better, but man... he was VERY inspired. Trully in a State of Grace.
Well, the concert was a 3 hour proggy-metal-with-no-stop concert. Mangini doesn't get tired, hahaha, the man is from another planet. I met a frind there who said before the show: "His is great, it's not Portnoy, sometimes you feel that MP is missing", and after the show he said "wow, this man is increadible, he just fits this band". Don't want to start another old discussion here, I just can say that the band is missing NOTHING at all!
I want to end with James words (more or less like this...): "We will take a break now and will be back in the studio in the begining of 2013 to write another album. As long as we have here in Brazil this kind of reception like we did in the past have today, we will come back. You guys are great. Keep the Dream alive!" You can bet we will, James! Thank you!
