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By Nikki Brooks

I’ve been waiting for Dream Theater (DT) to come back to the UK and play since their last gig here in early 1995. That’s a long wait and many withdrawal symptoms. Ever since I heard their album “Images & Words” (IW) I’ve been hooked! For some reason, their lyrics are always relevant to my life every time they put out a new album, like a very strange coincidence (or is it?).

First band on were Vanden Plas. I’ve not actually heard of them or heard any of their music before so it is a bit difficult to make a judgement. I would just say that I liked what I heard, but found their songs all rather similar in content. However, that could just be due to the fact that I don’t know the songs and, with some bands, it takes a couple of plays of an album before things start to bite.... That said, they are all fine musicians and I think I shall have to listen to that album.

Vanden Plas setlist: Fire Blossom, We Are Not God, Soul Survives, In You I Believe, Rainmaker, You Fly.

Tonight, however, I am here to see DT. As the time for them to begin got closer I was getting more and more excited as a massive roar went up from the crowd. I was invited to stand by the mixing desk by their sound engineer, Vinnie Kowalski. The intro tape was “Funeral for Queen Mary” (Henry Purcell) as adapted by Walter Carlos for the film Clockwork Orange which, incidentally, is now banned in this country although available everywhere else in Europe!

They launched straight into “Lines in the Sand” from their new album “Falling Into Infinity” (FII) and I was falling into ecstasy. The guitar solo was killer (some of it like the slower melodic side of Alan Holdsworth and Derek Sherinian’s jazz/fusion piano parts especially had me in a spin. With the Hammond organ and his Leslie amp, perhaps DT could cover Purple’s Highway Star sometime? But who upset Mike Portnoy? At the end of the song he threw one of his drumsticks backstage and yelled at someone...

James LaBrie yelled out “Hello London” closely followed by “Burning My Soul” (from FII and their single stateside) with its marauding killer bass lick, while Mike Portnoy tried to kill one of his cymbals. Next we had “Voices” from Awake which is simply brilliant, with James La Brie’s voice alternating between velvety soft and brazenly operatic. I would like to hear him sing “Your Tiny Hand is Frozen” (from La Boheme by Puccini). “Under a Glass Moon” reflected on the band’s IW album, with John Petrucci playing my favourite of his guitars, the pink, black and white abstract one with the “face” on it.

John Myung then switched to a fretless bass for “Hollow Years” (new album again), while John Petrucci played the intro on electric guitar (back to the black and white abstract one). This is a hauntingly beautiful song. Next offering was a medley called Crack/Puppies which segued into part of “Innocence” from “A Change of Seasons” (ACOS).

“Just Let Me Breathe” with its slightly eastern feel finished off the first half of the gig and saw James singing through a megaphone to achieve a slightly different vocal effect. In this song there are some reverse DT lyrics “Just close your mind, you can see what you need with your eyes”, like “Close you eyes you can find all you need in your mind” (from “Take the Time” on IW). There is another song where they do something like this; if you listen you can hear part of the piano line from “Wait for Sleep” played in a slightly different timing in the middle of “Learning to Live”, on IW.

I would say that, standing near the mixing desk, the keyboards sounded a little quiet. However, during Vanden Plas’ set I had been moving around the auditorium and noticed that the sound was different wherever one stood, so perhaps this was the reason. During the support slot, the best sound seemed to be from a little way behind the mixing desk....

The dark lyrics of “Peruvian Skies” began the foray into the second half of the gig, with John Myung again switching to fretless. James La Brie got the audience to sing the chorus of “Pull Me Under” for him, so everyone had a good time.

Then yes, Scarred, from Awake and the lyrics to this one always get me going. I’d recognise that ride cymbal anywhere. Followed by “Winter” from ACOS.

The beginning of Ytse Jam got a rousing response from the crowd and Mike “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” Portnoy went into his “Mega Octopus Mode” drum solo doing his impression of “Thunder on Earth” with added touches of percussion (bell and woodblock sounds). This crazy man could probably play the whole of the “drum chorus” from “Ritual” (Topographic Oceans, Yes) on his own! He really is, in my mind, the best drummer on the planet! All this AND he sings backing vocals live too, so he must have lungs the size of two planets....

I knew there was something different about “New Millenium” (FII) when I first heard it. Now I know why. This is the track on which John Myung plays Chapman Stick which, for the uninitiated, is a monster 10 string thing that looks like a guitar neck with no body and is held on by a sort of saxophone strap which goes around the neck and a hook which has to go into a belt. John Myung plays it mainly with the 8-finger method, using hammer-ons and pull-offs. I would definitely like to hear him play a solo on this instrument some time eg., a version of “Schindleria primaturus/The Fish” (Fragile, Yes) because I heard him play bass harmonics during Lines in the Sand.

The seemingly seamless medley of “Sunset” (ACOS) into a little of Fortune In Lies (from their first album, When Dream & Day Unite) ended up the main set. The crowd didn’t let them rest for long, with their yells and screams for more! Signals from a torch on stage led into the backing tape intro for Metropolis and the floor of the Forum turned into a bouncing sea of heads as the band took over on stage again.

However, what happened next was the most entertaining bit of the evening, I think. Progressive rock is often portrayed as “pretentious rubbish” but this band can stick two fingers up to that comment, take the piss out of themselves and do it well. The last number on set list was “Nightmare Cinema” and so ..... everyone swapped around (except James La Brie). Yes I loved it. Derek Sherinian swapped to a silver sparkly guitar (what a showman), John Myung went on to keyboards (very successfully), Mike Portnoy onto chuggingly rhythmic bass and John Petrucci competently onto the drums! They played .... “Perfect Strangers” by Deep Purple. How they laughed as we laughed with them, although Derek didn’t get to do “guitar face” because he didn’t do a solo (maybe next time Mr. Sherinian?). John Petrucci even dropped one of his drum sticks which he deftly caught again when James la Brie threw it back at him.

Yes they really CAN play as good live as they do on the albums and they do it with gracious ease. They can even swap around and play silly buggers. It’s very refreshing to see this in the midst of so much sweeping musical virtuosity (they have ALL been to Berklee College of Music)!

For any of you who wondered what the tape was which they played while we were waiting for DT, it is called “Liquid Tension Experiment” and features James la Brie, Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess and Tony Levine (King Crimson). Covers include songs from U2, King Crimson, Galactic Cowboys, Fates Warning, Iron Maiden, Rush and Mr Bungle. That should be quite a collectors’ item if it actually gets a commercial release OK, Ytse Jammers, do your stuff!