LIVE SCENES FROM NEW YORK

At its time of release in 1999, Metropolis Pt2: Scenes From a Memory was not just Dream Theater's Crowning glory but prog metals as well and the subsequent world tour culminated in this, the live performance of the entire concept album, plus the first ever performance of A Change of Seasons in its entirety, at New York's Roseland Ballroom. The Performance is, quite simply, outstanding. I'll get to the point, the set-list is excellent, with Scenes From a Memory, A Mind Besides Itself (Erotomania, Voices and The Silent Man), A Change of Season and Learning to Live all featuring prominently, and taking up most of he album at that. It also offers one of those rare things, a meddly that works with Caught in a Web and New Millennium spliced together to create a single song. I admire the band for the way that they don't always stick to playing the original songs not for note, with many of the pieces extended, most notably Home, Finally Free and Learning to Live whilst some others, particularly The Mirror, have been slightly re-written, some of this to take in Jordan Rudess's very different playing style to either Kevin Moore or Derek Sherinian, and in part to make some parts work better in a live setting. The only real let downs on here are LaBrie's voice, this live album was recorded a few years before he reached his peak and so he tends to overstretch himself sometimes, and more importantly the sound of Myung's bass. Its perfectly audible and very distinct but it has a very dirty sound to it, particularly after they finish performing Scenes... on the second disc, this sound actually only really suits The Mirror from Metropolis Part 1 onwards. I may seem to be making it out that the bass sound is horrible when its not, but it doesn't quite fit into the clean sounds of the others and his bass sounds much better on Live at Budokan. A must have live album none the less.