LIVE SCENES FROM NEW YORK

For their last performance of SCENES FROM A MEMORY album, they decided to record the presentation. Now, this is the first time Dream Theater publish a complete concert without outtakes. This means, you get the complete show, with the flaws, with some sloppy parts but with all the essence of them playing their amazing music live. It's without a doubt, their very best official live album ever.

The complete METROPOLIS Pt_2 is the focus, of course, and they gave it new life here. The capacity of the band with their then brand new keyboard player was impressive. But after the complete piece played, what was next to maintain the level of quality. CD2 have a complete non-stop performance of some back catalogue highlights: METROPOLIS Pt_1, THE MIRROR, the little somekind of meddley JUST LET ME BREATH-ACID RAIN-CAUGHT IN A NEW MILLENNIUM and the ANOTHER DAY, in a wonderful performance.

If it wasn't enough, the band still played A MIND BESIDE ITSELF entirely, then LEARNING TO LIVE and A CHANGE OF SEASON. This is completely their definite material. All this songs played at the best, with an energetic performance that really shows the band at the peak of their game.

One weak point is James Labrie vocals, which sings fine but sometimes is evident he didn't reach the high notes and by the end of the show his voice is completely tired. I don't see any problem with that, the music he's singing is very demanding and he is one of those singers who still get to make something decent out of the tough challenge of singing three hours each night.

While this production lack of the high quality of sound of later releases, this is the essential album for those who want to hear DT live. For new fans, I recommend SCORE, but for anyone else, for hearing a regular show of them with their very best interpretation, this is the album to peak. Impressive is the word I'm searching for. 5 stars.

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