Michael Senft

Was it because the D-Backs won the World Series?

During a recent interview, drummer and New York sports fan Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater said that on the band’s current tour they would play two sets with an intermission, and play the entire 42 minute title track from the album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.

Unfortunately, neither happened Thursday night at the Web Theatre. The band did deliver a high-octane dose of prog-metal for its rabid fans, however.

Opening the show with the epic “Glass Prison” from Six Degrees, the band was plagued by sound problems. Bassist John Myung’s fretwork quickly drowned everything else happening on stage. Portnoy was obviously frustrated as he shouted to offstage techs. After the third number, “Strange Déja vu,” he angrily threw his sticks at the offending roadie and stormed offstage quickly. Whatever he said did the trick, because the mix improved greatly from that point.

The band avoided its most popular songs throughout the set, concentrating on less often played album tracks like “6:00” and “The Killing Hand.” Surprisingly, Portnoy didn’t take a drum solo, although guitarist John Petrucci did get the spotlight for some ax pyrotechnics.

Perhaps to make up for the disappointing abbreviated set, Dream Theater did throw a couple of surprises into the show. As “Scarred” ended, the band kicked into The Grand Finale from Rush’s “2112.” Rush later resurfaced at the end of the encores with the instrumental section of “By-Tor and the Snow Dog.”

But with the promise of two sets and the centerpiece of the new album, a couple of Rush covers hardly makes up for the disappointment of the fans who were looking forward to an extra special night. Hopefully a return visit later in the year will make up for it.