Dream Theater

Live At Luna Park (Eagle Vision)

Prog metal overlords hit Buenos Aires.

All is bright in the DT camp, the behind-the-scenes documentary here suggests. Jokes are shared over pre-gig wine and steak. They use words like ‘energy’, ‘stronger’ and ‘family’ a lot. Teensy bit of point-proving here (i.e. that they’ll flourish with new lord-of-the-beat Mike Mangini)? Maybe. But if this gig offers any indication, they’re hardly falling to pieces without Mike Portnoy.

Dream Theater are fantastic in their ability to appeal to our meathead side – that craves cock rock posturing, drop-D tuning and face-incinerating shred – and need for intrigue. ‘The Dark Eternal Night’ showcases deadly hooks from John Petrucci, plus off-the-scale scales and far-out eastern mysticism.

James LaBrie, ever the gracious, sincerely sincere host, goes all breathy and bedroom eyes-ish for string-quartet number ‘Beneath The Surface’; contrasting with menacing metal boss man antics elsewhere. Breathtaking virtuosity is a given from everyone, including Mangini who takes on his spaceship of a drum-kit in a ruthlessly amazing, cardiac arrest-inducing solo.

The downside is that the show hinges on a good, but not great record, A Dramatic Turn Of Events. Though at this point they hadn’t released their latest LP – written from scratch by the new line-up. Now when that tours somewhere like Luna Park…

Rating: 7 out of 10 (Good)

—Polly Glass