Dream Theater

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
Hello everyone, I want to ask - I have an opportunity to buy the Breaking the Fourth Wall DVD or the Chaos in Motion DVD. (I already have Luna and Score, can't currently get Budokan nor Live Scenes and am not that interested in the first two videos). Which one should I get? Have to say I (unlike most) really like Systematic Chaos (that's why I'm considering the CIM DVD), but also prefer Mangini to Portnoy (that's why I'm considering the last one). Not yet heard the S/T album in its entirety, though, so I'm not sure. Please help :D
 
Last edited:
Well I must say Breaking the Fourth Wall and Chaos in Motion are not very good live DVD's. They both have the worst live sound out of every other live album, actually Breaking the Fourth Wall has a very bad sound to it, it almost feels like it echoes. However it has a better setlist, so go with that over Chaos in Motion. The other two albums you don't want are very good live, those are the best two other than score.
 
Collin said:
The other two albums you don't want are very good live, those are the best two other than score.
Click to expand...
Well, I was a bit afraid, because of JLB's vocals (I've heard Voices and Take the Time from Once in a LIVEtime and it sounded pretty bad to me) on the 5 Years a Livetime DVD and the Images and Words: Live in Tokyo DVD has a "too early" tracklist, full of songs from the debut and Images, which is a good album, but not quite my favourite.

However, since you say those two are that good and since they're sold in one package on DVD... I might reconsider.
 
Do not listen to Colin. :p Breaking the Fourth Wall is a great dvd with one of their best set lists ever. The video and audio quality is really good and it's an awesome performance. However, if you don't have I&W in Japan/Five Years, those two are essential. Lots of cool documentary footage and great performances. The commentary by the band is a blast too.
 
Mosh is right, Collin is wrong. With all due respect to Collin, everything he said above is completely wrong!

The 2-pack of LIVEtime/Tokyo is not very good at all. There's no actual full concert anywhere; you get a few songs at a time from different shows, including acoustic shows, and a lot of documentary footage. As Judas notes, JLB's voice is horrible on LIVEtime because he was still very close to his accident. Those videos are for fanatic completionists only.

Also, my experience of the early 2-pack had problems - like the DVDs only playing in my DVD player, and not in my computer, a problem with both of those DVDs that I've never had elsewhere. On my DVD player, they skipped and I had to play sections over multiple times to see them. If you want good live early DT, search the web for the Japan show from the Awake tour. (One of those Japanese shows was broadcast on TV, and the broadcast was very well done.)
 
I don't know Mosh but the audio quality on BTFW is pretty bad. Visually on the DVD it's a great concert and looks amazing. I never can get past the audio, it sounds echoed, like it was recorded in a long hallway or something. I must also say that LaBrie didn't have a good night, he's all over the place.
 
SixesAlltheway said:
I'm not a DT geek but from what I've heard from friends, BTFW is one of LaBrie's best performances :D
Click to expand...

It was good. I haven't tried to rate his "best" but it was good. His voice was strong, hit all the notes.

Score is another great one. That's the concert that proved he was fully back from the accident.
 
Yea I like the sound. It sounded like a live performance, which is the most you can ask for with DT really, since they don't really have a live energy the way Maiden does. Much better than LALP which sounded like they were just playing live in some studio. Also had a great drum sound, much better than what we've been hearing on the last couple DT albums.

I don't consider LaBrie a particularly good live singer but he was on that night. Hit all the notes and had some good moments. He was good on that tour in general, his performance was just as good at the show I saw a few weeks earlier.
 
Well, thank you for your input, guys, I really appreciate it, but in the end I’ve decided to buy (order) the Chaos in Motion DVD. It was cheaper of the two, and it was from the time when I began to really take interest in DT… I also already have one Mangini-era DVD… And the playlist seems pretty good to me, full of long songs and pretty much everything from Systematic Chaos (except for Repentance). Yes, I really like that album. :D (Maybe because it was my first DT album, maybe not.)
The next buy will probably be the BTFW DVD, since you have said so many good things about it in your posts, although Live at Budokan seems really cool, too.
:innocent:
 
The annoying keyboard solos also take away from Petrucci's great so!os. To me at least. When I hear those crazy keyboard solos I completely lose interest. Kevin Moore was so much better for the band.
 
And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords...eh, Jordan. I really like his solos. I really like the "unnecessary" instrumental sections. The musical wankery. In fact, one of the reasons I like Systematic Chaos (apart from being my first serious listening experience with DT) is that it's so heavy on the "wanking" side and that the songs are that long. I've also always been a fan of those unfortunate whipping boys EL&P (at least the first 4-5 albums) whom everybody seems to hate, so there you go. Call me masochistic, but I hope the next time Dream Theater visit Czech Republic and I will finally be there (having missed them, like 4 times already, due to unpredictable set of circumstances), Jordan will fire up his keyboards and keytars and continuums and delivers seven minutes of twitching ants in the middle of Wither, nine minutes of fax machines fucking to introduce Metropolis 1 and ten minutes of masturbating space monkeys to finish As I Am. :D

Since I'm probably an unredeemable blasphemer already, let's finish this with my 4 favourite albums, in no particular order: Black Clouds & Silver Linings, Systematic Chaos, Train of Thought and Metropolis 2: Scenes from a Memory. However, as with my Maiden favourite albums, this is bound to change, like, in the next two weeks. :) That being said, one of the things I love about DT is their freaking consistency: they are (so far, up to my knowledge) one of the only three bands without a bad album as such (of course those other two are Maiden and Rush ... one could probably make a solid point about including Motörhead in this list, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree). That means so much of good music to go through! (Yes, even When Dream and Day... sounded quite okay to me, although I've listened to it only twice yet; at least it wasn't that "kill-you-at-first-listen-with-its-decadent-shitiness" abomination everyone's making it out to be). Therefore making any lists for these bands is an exercise in futility.

Bring out the pitchforks! :dancinggeek:
 
I love Rudess (almost as much as Petrucci) and I think his unique style and tone are simply amazing. I'm not a huge fan of the solos that are supposed to resemble an electric guitar. A keyboard just doesn't sound the same, too mechanical. But his clean keyboard wizardry is something out of this world, I especially like his fast descending licks that start up high (like 0:20 in the video below, which is one of my favourite Rudess solos).

 
Yeah, Rudess is absolutely fantastic when he does piano solos. The keyboard solos just don't sound that nice, no matter how well composed they are. Organ solos are cool, though, I love Jon Lord's solos.
 
I agree. In general I like when DT scale back on the synths and use more natural piano sounds. I like synths for texture, as a lead sound not so much. The stuff they did with Derek Sherinian had lots of great piano stuff and I actually liked his lead sounds.
 
In general, I just wish prog keyboardists would ONLY play piano when soloing. Synths and strings and weird crap is fine for textures, but I'd love to hear tons of piano solos instead of some lame buzzsaw garbage.
 
Yep I feel pretty much the same way. I especially hate Pinella from SX's lead sound. Even back when they weren't so heavy.

I think it was fine in the 70s when they were using moogs and stuff but now it just sounds like a shitty guitar.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top