Dream Theater

See you on February 15th, DT. :cool:
Anyone here from the Czech Republic? Let me know if you're going to that gig.

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Listening to The Astonishing for the first time in a year or two and noticed some similarities to A Matter of Life And Death.

Both were among the highest charting lps by each band, both were played in their entirety live, both were divisive among the fans, and both tours have not been released as live lps or blu rays (yet).

I did see the Astonishing tour, but not AMOLAD. I saw the first leg when they played the entire lp (even though I had to fly across the country to do so). Glad I didn't wait because by the time they got near my home, 1. I was out of town working and 2. they had cut about five tracks to make room for older songs during a 2nd encore. Sure it would have been cool to see some older stuff too, but not at the expense of seeing the ENTIRE lp live.
 
You know... it might not seem so lately, but I am still a DT fan and they are one of my favourite bands... And I'm really crazy about narrative music in general, be it individual songs, opera, operetta, musical theatre or concept albums.

But although I still like TA and give it a listen from time to time, it's a fail in my book. Really, it has few of the stuff I like DT about and possibly even less of the stuff I search for in o/o/m. For one, the narrative itself is pretty shitty. I really appreciate the way music can supplement the poetry and the drama in development of the characters and moving the plot forward... but TA is seriously lacking in those regards. This is a concept album that's over 2 hours long, yet the basic story with all the character development could be told in an hour or so (let alone the fact it's so clichéd that Ratatouille feels like a subversive deconstruction of Parisian life in comparison).

That's not just a DT problem - in all honesty, Operation: Mindcrime might be a very cool, melodic and altogether great album, but the concept/plot is very meh. Like, what development is there to be talked about that couldn't be covered in about 20 minutes, seriously?
Mercy Falls by Seventh Wonder is like that too.
Honestly, even Scenes from a Memory, possibly - I mean, really, how many songs are really about the stagnation of the plot?

I'm saying this primarily comparing this stuff with both opera (where, indeed, you get people singing a whole song about how they feel, but also the play ends in a very different way from where it began and you get a lot of development throughout) and musicals (Les Misérables, to name just one, is nearly three hours long, yet it manages to capture the characters, the themes, the main storylines and the general atmosphere of a 1400-page-long novel. Sorry, but the Frenchies win here).

AMOLAD, thankfully, is a concept album but only in the thematic way. So no narrative is needed and the album feels mostly like a caleidoscope of ideas, wonderfully supplementing one another. Also, it's musically much tighter.

TLDR - Maiden and DT are both bands that are with me for almost as long as I remember and I usually set them apart when I name my favourite bands, because I honestly can't judge them on their own, because they've been in my life for such a long time... yet AMOLAD is the best Maiden album I ever knew and I'm probably not going to change this particular opinion anytime soon and TA is one of the worst DT albums overall (though still very cool and enjoyable).
 
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DT plays entire albums live all the time. Scenes from a memory was played live in it's entirety, there's "official" bootlegs of them playing Master of Puppets and Number of the Beast.

As for TA I agree with Judas.
 
Saw them on Saturday in Prague.

Tight, legit, brilliant show.

James sang quite well compared to some recordings I saw on youtube previously. Naturally it was not all perfect, but tonal mistakes were rare and there was power in his voice. Sometimes he changed up melodies a bit - I would prefer if he stuck with the original, but all in all I don't hate.

Myung had some issues with his bass half of one song, he switched them around a few times. The rest was just unbelievably precise and proper.

They surprised me very pleasantly with 2 unexpected songs during first half, and also the encore was my favourite song from the D/T album so I was just oinking there with pleasure.

And what can I say about hearing the SFAM in whole - that is one of the dreams come true. My first DT album, and my favourite (with Awake). Pure bliss. It felt like album is only half as long, compared to when I listen to the record.

5/7 with rice. Go on boys, hoping for many more years of absolute ass kicking.

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Saw them on Saturday in Prague.

Tight, legit, brilliant show.

James sang quite well compared to some recordings I saw on youtube previously. Naturally it was not all perfect, but tonal mistakes were rare and there was power in his voice. Sometimes he changed up melodies a bit - I would prefer if he stuck with the original, but all in all I don't hate.

Myung had some issues with his bass half of one song, he switched them around a few times. The rest was just unbelievably precise and proper.

They surprised me very pleasantly with 2 unexpected songs during first half, and also the encore was my favourite song from the D/T album so I was just oinking there with pleasure.

I took a little video of the final solo in the encore and I can’t stop watching this melodic deliciousness. Did you notice how they played with the rhythms towards the end of Finally Free? They kept the riff going and Mangini went crazy with complex rhythm on top of it, that was really cool.
 
Yeah, Mangini's solo in Finally Free is awesome, but of course people are still gonna complain about it because it's not the same solo as the one Portnoy played on Live Scenes From New York album.
 
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