Dream Theater performs at The Fillmore in Detroit MI on April 4 2014. Photo/Brian Quintos
[dropcap]P[/dropcap]rogressive metal titans Dream Theater have been hard at work on their 2014 ‘Along For The Ride’ world tour, which delivers an ‘Evening With’ style three hour performance divide into three acts. The band made their stop in Detroit, MI this past Friday at The Fillmore to play for a packed crowd of exuberant fans.
In fact, when the show started at 8pm, an hour after doors, the line to enter the venue was just finally thinning down to completion.
Now is as good a time as any to make a very important confession; this show was my first time ever seeing the legendary Dream Theater live.
Why do I point this out? Because when I first set eyes on their booming, elaborate, and visually rich stage show, it felt almost as if I had been thrust into a front row seat for a rock n’ roll opera. Every song in the band’s set was accompanied by a video production comprised of customized animations and live footage of the show displayed on a large screen, and an even larger scrim piece covers the entire front of the stage.
As the intro of ‘False Awakening Suite’ concluded, the band was welcomed with thunderous applause as they opened up with their single ‘The Enemy Inside’ from the most recent, self titled release.
Later on in the set, vocalist James LaBrie would speak of the song’s message of dealing with post traumatic stress disorder, and encouraged the crowd to embrace and support the veterans coming home from war. LaBrie made it clear early on that Dream Theater wasn’t here to preach to anybody, and that sharing the message of the music and what they stand for would be as far he went. The next song in their set was ‘The Shattered Fortress’, a near 13 minute epic that was met with multiple bouts of applause from the audience.
The first part of the band’s performance was heavy on material from the self titled album, and was highlighted by the group’s instrumental track ‘Enigma Machine’. The unique synergy featured in the song allowed Petrucci, Rudess, Myung and Mangini to each boast their chops with memorable impact.
One of the most rewarding experiences of seeing this band was getting to appreciate the amount of stylistic nuances and seasoned tricks that they’ve amounted through their decades of writing and performing. Each member is a master of his instrument and displays an immense passion for their work. Part one of the band’s set closed with another massive epic, the 12+ minute ‘Breaking All Illusions’ off of ‘A Dramatic Turn Of Events’.
When intermission came the crowd was left to their own devices for a good fifteen minutes. More band merchandise was purchased (as well as drinks) by many and when the show was back underway we were all treated to a very extensive and good humored video montage, which featured clips, bloopers and animated skits about the band.
And by the time it was over I REALLY wanted to buy a John Petrucci action figure (which is also a Transformer, obviously). When the band returned to the stage, LaBrie shared that they were celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album ‘Awake’, which would lead to the group playing the entire second half of the record in its entirety.
The significance of the anniversary wasn’t lost on many in attendance, and at one point an eager fan tossed a wizard’s hat he had been wearing throughout the night to LaBrie, which the frontman dawned briefly during their song ‘Lifting Shadows Off a Dream’. The set concluded with the group’s lengthiest, most ambitious offering of the night, the 22 minute juggernaut ‘Illumination Theory’. The transition from several songs off an album with two decades under its belt, to an elaborate epic from their most recent, 2013 release, served as a testament to the Dream Theater’s growth and continued vision for what they stand for as artists. Powerful, unique, and unrelenting in creativity. The band would return to the stage after the track to close the night with a medley of tracks off their album ‘Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory’, which was also celebrating an anniversary, fifteen years in the making.
A crowd of 2,000+, young and old, male and female, was treated to a true showing of might and merit from one of progressive rock’s grandest vanguards. And in every sense it was a show that lived up to the lore.
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