LIVE AT BUDOKAN

I've got the audio CD version right after its release because I had it as a gift from my friend, Krisna, who live in Switzerland and had a holiday in Indonesia during Ramadhan period couple month ago. Thanks a lot Mas Krisna! Then I got the DVD on "loan" basis from my prog mate, David, during his Christmas holiday. Thanks, David - I have already seen it three times and I enjoy it very much! ---++---

Well, What can I say about this DVD? First of all, I like live albums (CD) and secondly I love Dream Theater and the kind of progressive music with power and energy (I was previously more into symphonic and neo prog vein until I heard Dream Theater's "Awake" that blew my mind at first listen - sometime in mid or late 90s). So you know why I give it a full five stars rating. Sorry for being too subjective and probably naïve about it. But this band (forget about music boundary or the discussion about "Is it prog? Or not?" - because the fact this band is featured in this site has proven that some people consider this band "is" prog. Full stop.) is great! Let's consider this as a rock show (without "progressive" word) and focus on how the music is performed by the league of five gentlemen here: John Myung (bass), John Petrucci (guitar), Mike Portnoy (drums), Jordan Rudess (keyboard) and James LaBrie (vox).

It's a great show, indeed. If you are not a prog met fan, I think you still can enjoy this DVD as this is a wonderful live act and it's enjoyable. The band played their best repertoires including those from their latest album "Train of Thoughts". The package contains 2 discs with disc 1 features the whole live set in Budokan while disc 2 features the documentary of the band's Japan's tour. Eighteen wonderful tunes were performed by the band magnificently.

I'm not gonna review on track by track basis as it's a very long show. Overall, the music is performed by the band with a right balance in terms of set list from high power style and it flows with some breaks with slower tempo and it turns back to a faster one, and so on. It's a good mix that provides a variety of emotions. James LaBrie performance is at his best in this live show as I barely observe any mistake or falsetto voice throughout the show. You might compare this with his previous performance under "Once in A Livetime" live set CD where he made some voice flaws. Jordan Rudess? Oh man . I like his style of punching the small box "Kurzweil" that produces unbelievable sounds. With the design of his keyboard stand that can turn 360 degrees - it has made a nice watching pleasure for us as an audience. He plays in relax style with a small digital screen on top of his small box. John Myung is as usual - the quietest and shy guy but has always amazed me with his superb six string bass guitar work. Mike Portnoy plays his drums and percussion with a very energetic style - sometimes he stands up and moves around two drum sets on stage. It makes a fascinating look in a rock show! John Petrucci demonstrates his much mature and technically skillful guitar work. Unfortunately he has a hair cut so he does not seem like "rocking" with this hair style. But, his guitar playing is top notch!

In "Beyond This Life" there is an improvisation part commenced with Myung's dynamic bass line followed with Petrucci's guitar solo augmented with drums / percussion works by Portnoy and keyboard. Petrucci demonstrates his various styles with interesting time signatures; sometimes in staccato and fast paced style. The tempo then moves faster at the end of Petrucci's solo that remarks the beginning of Rudess keyboard solo accompanied with drum solo. This improvisation part is really great. I sometime get this track repeated for the sake of this improvisation part.

"Instrumeddley" - as the name implies consists of excerpts from their album. Spanning from "Scenes From A Memory " - "Awake" - "Images and Words" - "Change of a Season" - some neo classical music in fast tempo - "When Day and Dream unite" - and a project Liquid Tension Experiment ("Paradigm Shift" and "Universal Mind") - "Falling Into Infinity". This long piece has provided enough break for LaBrie.

Despite a wonderful live show featured in disc 1, I also enjoy the documentary section in disc 2. The most memorable part is when Petrucci plays his electric guitar "unplugged" with Jordan Rudess plays his fingers like he plays a real keyboard to accompany Petrucci's guitar. What a wonderful shot this one is! Also, I enjoy when Mike Portnoy describes what he means as "progressive rock" genre. Well, we know it, this genre is the most difficult one to define. There are so many differing views about what "prog" is all about. But, I like the way how Portnoy defines it - of course based on his opinion that may be subjective. That's the beauty of having progressive mind: we tolerate others' opinion.

On audience of the show, I don't think this is the best audience for rock show. I have seen RUSH in Rio's audience or ANGRA's Rebirth live audience or IRON MAIDEN's Rock in Rio audience are much much better and dynamic than the audience of Budokan.. Yes, they do headbanging but most of them have a clean haircut - so it's not interesting to watch, actually. And I think this DVD's director is smart for not shooting much on the audience part. On audio and picture quality - top notch!

Highly recommended! Keep on Progging! GW, Indonesia.