LIVE AT BUDOKAN

A very good live album. Dream theatre have a good mix of songs hear. The album opens with 2 very heavy songs on which the band is basically a power trio with Labrie singing i can barely hear Rudess on these tracks. The next song beyond this life turns into an uber- jam streatching out to almost 20 minutes the highlight of this album in my opinion is when on this jam Rudess and Portney have a musical "conversation" Rudess playing a riff then Portney doing some crazy rythm deal around it on drums. The next song "Hollow Years" is a somewhat average ballad then tthe first cd closes out with 2 more heavy songs. Te second and 3rd cds are also very good. Jordan Rudess gets a keyboard solo to display his killer technique halfway through the second. "Stream of Consciousness" is amazing. Overall this is a very good set. Jordan Rudess doesnt do all that much on some of these tracks but overall its hard to find any major complaints about this album. Highly recomended.