“And at last the time has come” for me to finally joined this thread, after having put the seal on my 9th Dream Theater experience!
First, the black clouds: last Friday I fell ill with high fever, and even though it passed after a day, I was left with coughing, sneezing and general weakness. Now, I attend shows since 1998 and I never missed a single gig because of a sickness, so statistically I’ve been very lucky, but still skipping the DT gig was not something I was even remotely taking into considerations.
Then the silver lining; although still not 100% fit, yesterday I was “able to walk” enough to show up at work and then go at the gig, condemning myself to sitting and not singing (well, I would have went for the seats anyway, but the original plan was to go crazy neverthelesse
) and have a more relaxed experience.
After Periphery (Totally and completely not my cup of tea) DT took the stage at 21:30; I so insisted with the coworker I went with that I didn’t want any spoiler, but he couldn’t refrain from half-mumbling something like “Well, theystrtwithBrdgsinthsk well I have told you nothing”… I thought he was kidding, also because he added immediately after that he didn’t really read any setlist, but when I heard the intro I was “holy shit… they ACTUALLY start with it!!”… who would have thought!!
Still, I thought they would start with On the Backs of Angels, I would have saved such a grandiose epic for the latter part of the set, also because it was a bit demanding for James; it’s not that he sang bad, but I felt like he needed to warm up a bit. And boy, warm up he did; already the second song, 6:00 (never heard it live so far!!!!), was nailed by him, and by the fourth song (Surrounded) he was absolutely great.
What’s up with his new mic stand, hower?
weird to say the least, but cool… speaking of weird things, Jordan had his fish-keyboard-guitar thing on stage all the time… but he didn’t play it!
I realized it only at the end of the concert…
Mike II’s setup was not smaller any less than Mike I’s, and of course he was a beast behind the kit and during the drum solo. But then again I never really followed drumming or drummers, so I see this huge kit, I see a guy blasting the hell out of it, fast, hard and powerful… of course I can only say he’s kickass
To talk about highlights would be, basically, to quote the entire setlist. A Fortune in Lies was another song I never heard live so far, all the new songs were great, and how lovely was the Silent Man / Breaking all Illusions acoustic mini-set.
Also, a class move by DT, they dedicated The Spirit Carries On to a hero fan of them who passed away. You may know of the Concordia cruise ship disaster, a ship that half-capsized in circumstances that would be comical, if there wasn’t a loss of life involved. One of the casualties was a musician and a DT fan who left his lifeboat he was already in to make room for a baby, and eventually died while going back and forth around the ship to save people. He was shown in the cube-videos behind the stage and James actually spoke his name altering the first chorus, to say that HIS spirit would carry on. Emotional rendition of a really emotional song and it was hard to fight back the tears.
I also noticed they played The Root of All Evil, so there isn’t a ban on MP’s songs; I hoped however, as encore, to get The Count of Tuscany, but instead I got Pull Me Under. Uh well, I guess it’s my fault to have not shown up at the Italian gigs where they actually played it
9th time I was seeing them, and still I was moved, excited and touched. Dream Theater are alive and strong as ever, there’s nothing with MP’s departure that affected them – if only, it made them even stronger!!!! (Not a dis against MP, just stating the facts – the band is alive and healthy and will be so for a long time!)
It’s also the opinion of those I went with and mutual friends on FB – Everyone agree that it’s been an AWESOME gig and everyone is happy with it! (And I bet the DT guys are happy as well – James spoke of how they were backstage when the doors opened and felt the roar of the people coming in, and how they exactly expected such a strong reaction)
Now… when does my 10th time comes?
