|
|
Band(s): Progressive Nation 2009 Date: 2009-07-31 Venue: The Tower Theater City, State: Upper Darby, PA Reviewer: Nick
Official Dream Theater Website Official Zappa Plays Zappa Website Official Scale the Summit Website There are so few band and venue combinations nowadays that I can honestly say give me a complete package, a full bang for my buck, but when Dream Theater brought their Progressive Nation tour to the Tower Theater I was pretty much given more than I could ask for. At this point I’m so very used to either seeing shows at tiny clubs or huge amphitheaters that a nice midsized theater like the Tower is such a welcome stop. Beautiful lobbies, comfortable lobby furniture, and security that is there to be helpful as opposed to searching up your ass at every opportunity. Combine that with comfy and roomy seating inside the actual theater and you really have a prime set up for an excellent concert experience. So now that I’ve given my official endorsement to the venue, let us go to our nearly dead center seats on the 2nd row of the balcony and enjoy the show. Scale the Summit was the first band up, and even though they only played to a less than half packed house you could tell they would walk away from the show with a lot of new fans. An instrumental quartet out of Houston, Scale the Summit looked as though they should be doing back to school shopping as opposed to being up on stage, but their live performance put any doubts about their young age to rest very early on in the show. While they were pounding out some of the most interesting dual axe instrumental work I’ve ever heard I was already astounded at how good the sound in the theater was. It speaks volumes for the place when the first act on sounds far better than many headliners I’ve seen elsewhere. After receiving their standing ovation, Scale the Summit headed offstage and the setup for Bigelf began. When the band stepped out of the 70’s and onto the stage they too seemed to win over a few fans. A good mix of Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd influences Bigelf offered a nice retro feel. A tight performance had the crowd head banging along at times, and I was very happy to hear one of my favorite tracks off their newest album, Blackball. So after two great performances my woman, my friend and I headed downstairs and got a chance to talk with two of the Bigelf guys and all the Scale the Summit guys and everyone was incredibly friendly, a nice added bonus to an already awesome show. That, combined with bathroom breaks and a few other things led into the beginning of Zappa Plays Zappa’s set, and so we decided to make use of the nice lobby couches for the remainder of their set, something I’d come to regret the following night. After all this we finally come to the main event of the night… progressive metal legends Dream Theater. The show started off with a bang and a laugh as the band tore into “A Nightmare to Remember” as one end of the otherwise dropping curtain got caught up and what was supposed to be a dramatic and epic entrance by John Myung and John Petrucci got delayed for about 15 seconds! As is often the case live, the best parts of the song seemed to be even better live, and certain sections of the song I’m not crazy about worked a lot better with some live energy behind it, however the one part of the song that still did not seemed to be helped live was the lengthy and somewhat choppy instrumental section. Overall though the song had a lot of energy and was a natural and good choice of opener. Also the band seemed to go to a new level with their light show during this song, very intense and always appropriate for the point in the song. After that came “A Rite of Passage”, a song that I think will do a fine job of replacing “The Dark Eternal Night” as a metal head-banging staple of this tour’s set-lists. The crowd seemed really into the song, head-banging and singing along, and I really enjoyed it live. So after a solid twenty-five minutes of new material the band decided to turn back the clock a little bit, and after an extended guitar and keyboard introduction went back to the Falling Into Infinity era and pulled out the demo version of “Hollow Years”. One of my favorite DT ballads, “Hollow Years” is a song I’ve wanted to see live for a long time, and it did not disappoint. The chorus had everyone singing along and John Petrucci’s guitar solo was the first of several for the night that would have my jaw dropping to the floor. A perfect mix of melodic and shred the solo really shows what the man can do. After that the clock was turned back a little more and the thick organ sounds of “Erotomania” were heard. Although his videos could be seen during parts of songs prior, this is where the work of the somewhat new Dream Theater video boy Robert Medina was really effective. Along with a fantastic performance by the guys on stage a beautiful 3D animated video gave the song an added dimension, allowing fans to fully engage their eyes as well as their ears. As one would hope, “Erotomania” went straight into “Voices”, a piece which featured soaring vocals, another perfect guitar solo, and one of the best overall performances on the night. What happened next was a shocker. During what was my eighth time seeing Dream Theater, I was finally able to witness a major screw up by the band. Sure, at my second Dream Theater show I was able to see John Petrucci’s guitar come unplugged for fifteen seconds, but this show would be the first time I saw the guys make a major performance mistake. During the transition into the next song in the set, “Prophets of War”, James LaBrie sang the first song of the line early, had to wait a moment, and then sang it again. And yes, for Dream Theater that is a major fuck up, which really is a compliment to their normal abilities. In any case I was really excited to see “Prophets of War”. I am one of the few who seems to consider it one of the best on Systematic Chaos, and it was the only song off the album I had yet to see live. In addition the chorus, which originally featured fans shouting parts in studio, was an expectedly vibrant live bit. The main set then closed with “The Count of Tuscany”, the longest of several epics from the new album. Not much can be said except it worked as well as a set closer as it did as an album ender, perfect. Fans were into it, it’s a nineteen minute musical orgasm, and the build up at the end proved to be even more haunting live than it was in the studio. Then, after a very short break, an intro began that is known around the world of progressive metal, and “Metropolis Pt. 1” began. A song I will never tire of the performance of it was nothing short of amazing, featuring an extended soloing bit in the instrumental section with Jordan Rudess coming up front on the Zen Riffer to prove his chops aside John Petrucci. What a way to end the night. In the end this was my first show since the release of Black Clouds and Silver Linings, and I came away with many positive things to say about Dream Theater, as always. Robert Medina’s videos added a whole new video aspect of the band, as they were used in a much larger scale than on the previous tour. The light show has been upped a notch since last year, and even though there was a screw up with the curtain, the new intro to the show managed to top the stoplight from the Systematic Chaos tours. John Petrucci, John Myung, Mike Portnoy, and Jordan Rudess range from great to amazing live, and this show was no exception, everyone was playing to the best of their abilities. On the other hand we have the great live variable, James LaBrie. I can say I saw something at this show that I really never noticed at my previous seven shows. Usually, whatever I can say about James at the beginning of a show, I can say about him at the end, however at this show he seemed to start very strong, and by the end of the show was a bit off. Not a major complaint, he really didn’t get that far off, but if I had to put down one complaint about the Dream Theater set it would be his vocals for the latter half of the show or so. All in all an excellent night, fantastic sound for all the acts, especially Dream Theater, a very comfortable atmosphere, great set-lists, and I even got to meet Scale the Summit and half of Bigelf. If you read this prior to Progressive Nation coming to your town, and you haven’t bought tickets yet, I really suggest you pony up the cash and check this bill out.
|
|
