LIVE AT BUDOKAN

This is probably Dream Theater's best live DVD. The show starts out with As I am from Thain of Thought, which is a good and heavy opener for the DVD. It then goes into this dying soul with mind-boggling heavy instrumental sections and cool lighting effects. In Beyond this Life there is an interesting jam between keys and drums which extends the song 8 minutes. Hollow Years shows James Labrie at his finest. After two from six degrees it goes into endless sacrifice and a nice "Instrumedly" of the songs they didn't get to play.

After two from falling into infinity (trial of tears being very good) Mr.Rudess shows his technical skills with a crazy guitar-like sounding keyboard solo, leading into one from thier first album, a nice symphonic song made better live with James Labrie singing. The show ends after about 3 hours with In the Name of God, not my favorite, but I like it better now.

The 2nd disk features a nice tour documentary, a crazy drum solo from another one of the Japan shows as well as insights on gear with J Petrucci and J Rudess. The audio and escpecially video are much better than the other DT DVDs already out. This is unfortunately the only DVD so far that doesn't have a comentary. Though I don't think this is "an essential piece of progressive music" It is one that is essential is you are a dream theater fan.