^^^ wrong link (don’t know what correct one is)

Venue: Eventim Apollo, London

Date: 22/02/2020

The only problem with playing an entire album from your celebrated career, especially one as consuming as Dream Theater’s Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From A Memory, is what the hell you leave out the remainder of the set! The US prog metallers have, for years, delivered stellar sets full of great musicianship and a wide variety of material. Most recently however they’ve concentrated more on their current output and specific albums: sandwiched in between 2016’s The Astonishing tour, which saw them play the quizzically received concept piece in full and this year’s trek marrying their recent Distance Over Time with their 2002 magnum opus, was 2017’s Images, Words & Beyond tour which highlighted their 1992 hit-carrying second album with a satisfying career best of.

So for the first half of tonight’s set Dream Theater are understandably concentrating on the new album, which is fair enough given it was such a strong return to form. We get no less than five of the album’s nine tracks, opening the set with Untethered Angel and encoring with At Wit’s End, and throwing in Fall Into The Light, Barstool Warrior and Pale Blue Dot. So far, all well and good. But it only leaves room for two songs from elsewhere: in this instance the epic In The Presence Of Enemies – Part 1 from 2007’s Systematic Chaos, and the even longer A Nightmare To Remember from 2009’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings.

Judging by the bar banter during the interval, while these latter two songs were well-received and somewhat unexpected deeper cuts, the general consensus seems to be that people were expecting more. Quite what, exactly, given the band are well known for the wide variety of material they play on tour, it’s hard to say. And maybe that’s the quandary Dream Theater have set for themselves. Satisfy your fanbase again and again and things go slightly awry when you try something different. But let’s not concentrate on their rock-opera foibles too much.

What hasn’t helped the general air of disgruntlement is that Dream Theater themselves don’t seem to have been at the races for large parts of the first set. The sound isn’t as pristine as one would expect from a DT show, while both James LaBrie and John Petrucci seem, if not distracted, then not exactly firing on all cylinders. Maybe because the Apollo’s a smaller stage than they’re used to in London (although this is the first of two sold-out nights), but it must be said, the normally dependably excellent Dream Theater are neither dependable nor excellent for much of the first half.

In sporting parlance, it could be a long half that Dream Theater are going to endure as they retake the stage. That they depart later to triumphant cheers, however, highlights the remarkable turnaround of events. That said, the roar that goes up as Regression opens the second set is something else as well. It’s almost as if the audience are willing their heroes to haul themselves back into the contest. And haul themselves they do, The Scenes... half of tonight’s show is stunning. Whatever malaise was blighting the band earlier gone, Dream Theater are utterly in their element as they unleash one of prog metal’s greatest albums. Petrucci’s guitar as muscular as the arms that cradle it, LaBrie as charismatic as ever, Rudess’ keyboards adding florid textures, Myung and Mangini rock solid and dependable. It’s an absolute masterclass in studied menace and elegant grace. From a band seemingly teetering on the brink over an hour ago, the transformation to conquering heroes is complete. Funny old game, eh?

Jerry Ewing