LIVE AT THE MARQUEE

I've always been a little confused by the Live at the Marquee release. I'm not certain, but I don't think this has ever been officially released in the US. I believe it's a foreign release, and the only way to buy it in the US is as an import. That's how I got it anyway. I bought it in 2000, mostly to fill out my DT collection. It's a fairly non-descript live album, capturing the band during their Images & Words tour of Europe. The disc was recorded at London's famous Marquee Club, which has been home to numerous live shows which eventually found their way to release.

The disc basically captures some of the better DT songs at the time from both Images & Words and When Dream & Day Unite. You have the obligatory versions of Metropolis and Pull Me Under as well as cool versions of both A Fortune in Lies and Another Hand/The Killing Hand. These two songs are interesting because they're the only official releases with James LaBrie on vocals instead of Charlie Dominici. Not surprisingly, both songs are improved for this fact. Surprisingly, the highlight of the disc is an instrumental called Bombay Vindaloo that doesn't appear on any other official DT release. While the instrumental is typical of early DT in that it's self-indulgent, over-worked and somewhat one-dimensional, it's also very cool. The slow building intro and slow fading closure generate most of the interest. Besides that, the only "surprising" song included is Surrounded from Images & Words. You'd expect the band to include Another Day, the more popular song (and in fact the song is included on the Japanese version).

Nonetheless, Marquee has a lot to offer. The versions of both Metropolis and Pull Me Under are superior to those found on other more recent live DT releases (perhaps because they were newer at the time and benefited from an energy from the band that was missing in later years). Live versions of Surrounded are fairly rare as is A Fortune in Lies. But the real gem is Another Hand/The Killin Hand. This live version is vastly superior to the studio version. The second half of the song, in particular, is better than the original, as LaBrie gives the song more feeling and emotion than Dominici would ever deliver.

I don't know what else to say....I think if I'd been more of a DT fan back in 1993 I would have been a huge fan of Marquee. But since I didn't pick the disc up till 2000, I've never really listened to it that much. Most of the songs are aged now, and don't have the appeal of a contemporary release. Nonetheless, it's still a needed addition to any true DT fan's collection.