Sorry DT-bashers

they arent very sexciting to watch, petrucci is basically sitting down staring at his strings and like a tiny bit of headbanging once every ten minutes, but the music is more important than the show, imo, and dt are sick.

after seeing the fall of troy live, not much else is impressive

 

I can only go on the DVD's that ive got of them as i havnt had the opertunity to see them live yet but they really seem to try and work up the crowd through their music more than telling anecdotes. And at the end of the day arnt you going their to watch them perform some of the most complex music out their, not to see some bloke stand around on stage talking to you wilst three or four others stand around tuning up instruments.

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+1, my exact thoughts.

If you're going to a Dream Theater concert to listen to the frontman tell stories and talk with the crowd and say "f**k" every other word to be badass, you obviously aren't a DT fan anyways.

I saw them for the first time in Toronto on Gigantour during the summer, and they were absolutlely fantastic. I can't wait until the "Evening With..." shows (apparently they'll be doing a North American tour in February-March :D). James LaBrie in particular sounded fantastic, which was somewhat surprising considering his bad live reputation.

BTW, has anyone else heard the "Eat my ass and balls" edition of Fatal Tragedy? Anyone who thinks they're "stiff" or humourless should listen to that.

MysticDream wrote: Wow, where to start.... Dream Theater ABSOLUTELY interacts with the audience and haves fun during their concerts. Of course their music is pretty complex so they have to be concentrating a lot of the time, but when I saw them on GIGANTOUR, they were anything but stiff. Labrie was all over the stage, Portnoy threw his sticks out during the songs, and was tossing them to Labrie back and forth while playing, Petrucci definetly had some rocking headbanging going on, they sing "To those who understand I extend my hand, to the doubtful I demand EAT MY ASS AND BALLS" instead of "TAKE ME AS I AM".....that doesn't sound too stiff to me.

I can only go on the DVD's that ive got of them as i havnt had the opertunity to see them live yet but they really seem to try and work up the crowd through their music more than telling anecdotes. And at the end of the day arnt you going their to watch them perform some of the most complex music out their, not to see some bloke stand around on stage talking to you wilst three or four others stand around tuning up instruments.

DT rule!

I can't believe that people here are criticising their choice of what type of music they want to play????? less solos and cut out material???? I suppose that you'd like all bands to operate via phone in poll. Don't like it don't buy it. Don't like the shows don't go. I've seen DT 6 times and they are my favourite band live. There are many bands I don't like but I don't feel the need to go and post negative comments about them, I focus on what is good in music and what I like.

DT will always get slated by certain types because of their success. They have enjoyed great success within their genre because people LIKE WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

Nuff said.

Mikael likes to joke and most of Opeth's fans anyways, are nuts!! They are hypnotized by his voice in song and out I swear. A warm, and funny Swedish man though.

The only time I could really see DT not concentrating so much on their instruments, is on the more rockier parts of Metropolis Pt. II and even then it becomes quite concentrated and complex. I enjoy their DVD, fascinating instrumentally.

My friends and I saw Opeth in Cleveland (Damnation tour) and they did way too much "interacting with the audience".  The lead singer just wouldn't shut up between songs.  He'd talk for 5 minute stretches on stuff between every song and it was just so frustrating.  It seemed like such an amateur production.

 

 

Edited by bartok

I agree with you GFoyle. Being in Australia i have not had the opportunity to see Dream Theater live in person so it's really hard to guage them fairly, but i have seen a couple of DVDs and clips and they don't seem to be an interesting live band at all.
I really don't get how people can just say it's because the music is so complex al the time either. I mean come on DT's music isn't THAT complex. Ok the have intricate little runs here and there, but there are PLENTY of moments for the band to get into it or just even move around the stage or something, but i've never seen them do it. It makes their music come across as more of a gimmick to them or a chore rather than something they enjoy. However, as i said, i've never experienced them live, so i can only go off video footage.

Again, being in Australia i haven't had much opportunity to see any decent big name bands, but i have seen Opeth, and while they aren't the most active band in the world either, they still get into it and interact really well with the audience. Hell, they even played along with chants in the audience when they came down here.

Heh, I have seen King Crimson when they were the "warm-up" band for
Tool in San Francisco. Didn't know the band back then and they sounded
interesting but after awhile I started to get sleepy...

To me a good live act can be for example on of the following:

Interacting with the audience
-either during or between songs.
-examples: Opeth did this a LOT, between every song. It was fun and very
entertaining. Robin Williams was very good at this as well, even being a
huge star he felt really close to the audience with his act (no I'm not a
huge fan of his music, just there because of my girlfriend)

Being energetic and "rocking"
-really going for it in their performance.
-examples: Rage Against the Machine back in their second album tour,
Strapping Young Lad (only seen them on tape unfortunantly).

Visual experience
-having a great visual show
-examples: I haven't seen that many of this, but Marily Manson was very
visual in his live act, with all the costumes and weird stuff and that way
very entertaining. Ramstein of course.

Being cool
-This is really a matter of taste, but some bands are just so damn cool on
the stage that you just love the act because of that.
-examples: Tool, Maynard standing almost BEHIND the band for the
whole show as a silhuette and twisting himself like a maniac while
singing!

There are others of course. Sometimes if the music just sound so much
better live than on the albums can do alone (Anekdoten comes to mind
and Opeth, though I like them on albums as well).

Petrucci is a perfectionist. I think it was portnoy who said, He plays about a million notes in a show, but if he doesn't get that one note right, the whole night is ruined (not an exact quote, but near enough). He was refering to the feedback note that starts train of thought.