As I mentioned yesterday, I've been a Dream Theater fan for a long time. I was introduced to their music by my musician boyfriend (now my musician husband) as a cool, wickedly good bunch of local whiz kids making good. We used to see them at small clubs like Sparks in Deer Park and I'm told we were at a couple of the same parties back in the day. We even went to see them play an entirely instrumental set while they were between singers, during which, I hate saying now, I was bored.
True fandom kicked in when I heard Metropolis Part I off the Images and Words album. I just couldn't get over what was going on in that song, and played it over and over. I have followed the band religiously ever since. Their music never fails to thrill me.
Their live shows are also awe-inspiring. I'm always amazed to watch them recreate such intense, power driven music in a live setting.
That being said, I have to admit to usually being disappointed by the set list at most of the shows. With 11 studio albums, several side projects, cover recordings and songs that extend way past the length of the typical, I'm sure it's extremely difficult to choose which songs to play live. So when the band came on stage at the Brookhaven Amphitheater for their set this past weekend, I was hoping for the best. They opened the show with the first two songs from the new Black Clouds and Silver Linings CD, A Nightmare to Remember and A Rite of Passage, which got the audience going. Then the mood shifted with Misunderstood, which is where I started to have those "uh-oh" feelings. Too mellow.
Every Dream Theater set must have an instrumental to showcase these fabulous players, so it was time for Erotomania. After Voices, the band played Forsaken, which is one of my favorite songs, so I was pleased, but then the mood dropped again while they played Sacrificed Sons. The song, which is about the loss of life on 9/11, was accompanied by video images of that day. While the song is beautiful, I can't help but think there were countless others that could have been chosen in place of that one. It was a beautiful Saturday night at an outdoor venue, packed with New Yorkers who maybe didn't need to be reminded of that day at that particular time. They closed the show with As I Am, and the encore was The Count of Tuscany off the new CD.
The highlight of the show for me came about halfway through. Mike Portnoy's son Max ran out on the stage behind his dad's drum riser and sat on the edge and watched the rest of the show. I don't know if the audience on the right side of the stage saw him, but he perched there for the rest of the show and watched his dad intently. At some point he was joined by John Myung's son as well. As a mom of two, I can't help it, I thought it was adorable.
The tour moved on to the Beacon Theater in Manhattan the next night, and my husband went with friends. He reported the next morning that Portnoy sat in with both Bigelf and Zappa, and that Dweezil joined Dream Theater for their encore, so clearly I missed the better show. But since the CD is still fairly new, hopefully there'll be another one to catch soon.
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