Dream Theater Stuns Crowd With Super Energy, Expertise

Tuesday was the night for local guitar-slingers to check out the latest bad boys on the metal scene, Dream Theater. Even the air group couldn’t keep up with the virtuoso playing of guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, Kevin Moore on keyboards and drummer Mike Portnoy. The steam-driven vocal chords of James LaBrie soared high and loud over the unrelenting juggernaut.

Torn jeans, high hair and short skirts may have been the dominant fashion statement of the night but fans came to adore not be adored. Like the Grateful Dead, Dream Theater attracts devoted fans who are likely to “go to five, six, and even seven shows in a row!”

During the last seven months, these former Berklee Music School students have thrilled audiences in Europe and the Orient with their technical excellence and immense live energy.

You’ll probably find their latest EastWest Records release, Images And Words, in the progressive section of your local record shop. Ignore the category, this band has all the gut-shaking intensity of a sonic boom.

Portnoy says, “Ours is a metal show, a high energy, contact thing. The communication back and forth is a very important aspect of our show.” Probably the biggest difference between Dream Theater and the progressive bands of the ‘60s and ‘70s like ELP, Pink Floyd and Genesis is their hard edge. All the musicians have jazz player’s chops on top of a pile-driving metal sound that is industrial strength.

During ‘Pull Me Under’, one of the hits from their album, a crutch could be seen moving in unison with hundreds of waving arms and pointing fingers. The support and fanaticism was so high, it seemed as if someone was about to have a religious experience. The band generated that kind of devotion and tent show fervor.

The arena-size show almost overwhelmed an Impaxx crowd that had come to see their favorites. The laser lights were as carefully choreographed as the complicated unison riffs that characterized the band’s music.

Performing against a huge backdrop of the Images And Words album cover, Dream Theater opened with ‘Metropolis Part I’ (there is no Part II) behind a smoke’n’laser curtain. Petrucci’s rollicking guitar phrasing had the intricacy of a jazz lick forged in a cauldron of molten metal. With Portnoy dropping red-hot rivets of rhythm, and bassist John Myung’s fingers flash dancing on his bass, LaBrie seemed to appear in a puff of smoke. He created a heavy underbrush of excitement with his Geddy Lee-influenced singing.

It’s obvious that the many months on the road have sharpened the band’s live playing. They were comfortable enough on stage to invite the opening act, Galactic Cowboys, to join them on the chorus of ‘Take The Time’. Again, Petrucci’s cross-fingered solo was masterful as was his playing on ‘Forever’, a song that found him quoting the opening melody from George Harrison’s ‘Blue Jay Way’.

Portnoy played a drum solo on the same song that was not only as intricate as a computer microchip but just as fast. His section mate, bassist Myung anchored a rhythm section that featured the very tasteful jazz-oriented keyboard playing of Kevin Moore.

By the time the encore of ‘Learning To Live’ and ‘Eve’ ended, most of the local players who had come to check out the band were either shaking their heads in disbelief or wondering is President Clinton’s summer jobs program was taking applicants.

Opening act Galactic Cowboys, introduced a lot of music from their Space In Your Face CD which featured their hard-driving, pedal-to-the-metal speed riffs. Hardly innovative, their tight sound and eagerness to please won over the largely partisan audience.