Dream Theater

Manchester: 02 Apollo

13 February 2014

As much as I’ve gotten to see a few great bands through support slots and Dream Theater’s ‘Progressive Nation’ packages, the return of the band’s lengthy ‘An Evening With...’ format was most welcome last time out. It’s also apparent that their shows have benefitted from less changing around of the set-list, resulting in a better flowing and more visually striking spectacle, not to mention a far superior sound.

The first of the sets starts with a tour through the solar system projected onto a screen in front of the stage, which drops to the floor as the taped ‘False Awakening Suite’ comes to an end, and continues like the latest self-titled album with the band kicking into the high-energy Thrash of ‘The Enemy Inside’. It’s obvious from the outset that this is going to be a special night, with everything perfectly balanced and the band firing on all cylinders as they continue with the equally energetic ‘The Shattered Fortress’. John Petrucci’s riffs and solos are powerful and incisive and the spider fingers of bassist John Myung produce a satisfyingly meaty rumble alongside Mike Mangini’s thundering bass drums, whip-cracking snare and fluid multi-level tom fills, but even with all this going on you can clearly hear every note of Jordan Rudess’ keys, Mangini’s subtle percussion and James LaBrie’s soaring voice. Airing quite a chunk of new material, the catchy riffs of ‘The Looking Glass’, the frantic instrumental ‘Enigma Machine’ (complete with stunning drum solo) and the simple effectiveness of the stirring ‘Along For The Ride’ sit alongside ‘On The Backs Of Angels’ and Falling Into Infinity classic ‘Trial Of Tears’. The first ninety minutes ends with ‘Breaking All Illusions’, the melodic tour-de-force from 2011’s A Dramatic Turn Of Events that’s now established itself as a bona-fide DT classic.

The second set pays homage to two DT albums celebrating anniversaries, the twenty-year old Awake bringing the hard-riffing chunk of ‘The Mirror’ and ‘Lie’ before the more musical ‘Lifting Shadows Off A Dream’ and ‘Scarred’ give some soaring goosebump moments and superb vocals from LaBrie. The rather unexpected ‘Space-Dye Vest’ probably works better than it ever did with a more organic, less Industrial feel and LaBrie’s smooth vocal rather than Kevin Moore’s original, and even though I was unsure when I read that it was in the set-list, it actually turned out to be one of the highlights. The set proper ends with the recent epic ‘Illumination Theory’, a real rollercoaster of moods and tempos that works as well live as I hoped.

It was still quite early so all that was left was a suitably lengthy encore, Dream Theater giving a welcome reminder of the splendour of their 1999 outing Scenes From A Memory, which I hadn’t heard for quite some time but the glorious melodies of ‘Overture 1928/Strange Déjà Vu’, ‘The Dance Of Eternity’s ridiculous instrumental chops and Petrucci’s beautiful Bluesy guitar on the arms-in-the-air anthem ‘Finally Free’ was a suitably memorable end to over three hours of varied, musical excellence.

—Phil Ashcroft