LIVE AT BUDOKAN

I finally found a copy of this in the UK! they hardly sell anything by Dream Theater over here. This DVD is pretty much flawless. Incredible concert, amazing special features. I also have "Live Scenes from New York" on DVD and it's hard to decide which is better. Both are just too good!

Even those "Train of Thought" nay sayers will probably think this is amazing. It has songs from every album, especially the "Instrumedley", which has "Overture 1928", "Erotomania", part of "A Change of Seasons", "Metropolis" and even includes "Paradigm Shift" and "Universal Mind" from Liquid Tension Experiment.

The concert is brilliantly directed, with multi angles. I especially liked the way it concentrated on each persons instrument when it was their time to do a solo. Each member of the band played amazingly. They all manage to keep up the energy and fantastic playing for 242 minutes.

"Beyond This Life" is one of the best tracks on this DVD, lasting an extra long 19 minutes, it has a drum and keyboard battle in the middle. There is even film footage of Frank Zappa in the background for some reason. "As I Am" and "In the Name of God" are truely incredible, opening and closing the concert. The inclusion of "Pull Me Under" goes down well with the Japanese crowd. The version of "New Millenium" is much better on here. During the heavy songs, Labrie is pure evil on the camera, with close ups of him looking like the spawn of Satan.

Jordan Rudess' keyboard solo is extra special to watch. He even talks you through how he programmed his keyboards on disc 2 which i thought was very interesting. John Petrrucci also talks about his guitars and pedal set up.

The movements from the 42 minute suite, "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" are probably easier to digest and get a better spotlight here because they are played individually at various parts of the concert rather than in one big suite. It also great to see Labrie tackling "Only a Matter of Time" from the very first album as i much prefer his vocals to Charlie Dominici's.

The tour documentary on disc 2 is amazing, showing off what the boys do best and you get to grips with their serious sides, their musical knowledge and their sense of humour. There is also an amazing drum solo from a previous concert in Osaka where Mike invites members of the audience to have a drum off with him.

This DVD offers so much and lasts ages with plenty of replay appeal. It is breathtaking all the way through and the band play to their best abilities. I highly recommend this DVD (if you can find it in the shops).