Dream Theater at Axis – The Ultimate Spine Chill

BOSTON – I had listened to Dream Theater's “Images and Words” 26 times before their performance at Axis Dec. 16th.

A question lurked in my mind, “Can they pull it off live?" You'll have to wait for the answer, so in the meanwhile, here's a brief album analysis. "Images and Words" equals a one hour mind explosion that will remind you of early Kansas, Rush, Styx, Genesis, The Dregs, and ELP, but with a Metallica-type edge and an original style. OK, end of analysis, now on with the show.

The club swarmed with anxious listeners wanting the answer just as badly as I did. We were not let down. Dream Theater opened with the epic "Metropolis” and jaws hit the floor. The air soon filled with complex time changes, fired up guitar/keyboard solos, and intensely high vocals supplied by the Canadian James LaBrie. It was amazing to see a band make something sound this good and look so effortless. Bassist John Myung hunched over his six-string and played with the grace of a classical pianist gone mad. John Petrucci mixed Steve Vai with Neal Schon and produced metal-wire masterpieces. His interplay with keyboardist Kevin Moore was reminiscent of Yngwie and Jens dueling in Rising Force, but with a more interesting melodic content. Drummer Mike Portnoy woke the dead and played with the same intensity that Neil Peart had during the Hemispheres/Permanent Waves era.

"Pull Me Under”, the first hit of the album, created a moshed zjugg (a term coined by Joe Hacking), and had the crowd singing along to the refrain. An instrumental segue was introduced halfway into the show for "the people at Berklee” and was unnecessary. Solos are cool, but every tune had massive solo interludes and this segment could have been left out. Otherwise, the bands overall performance was phenomenal.

Dream Theater was formed by Portnoy, Petrucci and Myung while they were studying at the Berklee College of Music. Moore, an old school friend, was drafted into the project. After auditioning over 200 lead vocalists, a last minute tape was sent by James LaBrie, formerly of Coney Hatch. The dream then became a reality. As far as writing songs together, Petrucci states, “There are no boundaries when it comes to writing songs. What ever we want to bring into the music we'll bring in. It's not like we’re a 'hard rock' band that has to stick to a certain formula. What ever happens, happens." On plans for the future he adds, “We're just gonna tour 'till we drop dead."