LIVE SCENES FROM NEW YORK

The strange tale of the release of Live Scenes From New York must be told. Dream Theater played one of their rather famous "special" shows at the Roseland Ballroom on August 30th, 2000. It was during the final leg of the American tour in support of Scenes From A Memory. By this third leg of the tour the band had quit performing SFaM in its entirety. Instead, they played parts of it chronologically, interspersed with various songs from their substantial catalog. Basically the band was indulging long-time fans by playing entire versions of such epics as A Mind Beside Itself and A Change of Seasons. For the Roseland show, however, the band gave their fans a major treat by playing two sets; the first consisted of SFaM in its entirety, followed by a 2nd set that consisted of fan favorites such as AMBI, ACoS, Metropolis Part I and Learning to Live. In all, the show ran over 3 hours and attracted loyal DTers from across the globe. For many, it was considered the ultimate Dream Theater concert.

The band originally planned to release a DVD of the concert and in the Spring of 2001 did just that. But fan enthusiasm for the show was so strong the band eventually decided to release the concert in its entirety in CD format. The release date was scheduled for September 11th, 2001. Thus I had planned to go to my local music store during my lunch break to pick up this long-awaited release. Because SFNY offered many special treats (most notably the first official live release of ACoS) I'm sure there were many others like me. But alas, other events interefered and I enjoyed no lunch break that day as I joined in nation in watching the tragic events of that day unfold. The release of Dream Theater's live CD no longer carried much importance as I instead shifted my attention to the drama unfolding outside the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It wasn't until the next day that I visited my local music store only to find out that the CD had been pulled from their shelves. The reason? The original cover artwork featured a modified version of the band's famous flaming heart wrapped in barbed-wire; this new version featured an Apple (as in the Big Apple) with the New York City skyline on top....all on fire and wrapped in barbed wire. I think the decision to pull the CD was the right one but I was still a little disappointed. The band quickly announced that SFNY would be released with new artwork, but not for several weeks.

It was October 3rd when I found myself at Tower Records in Chicago. I was there visiting my girlfriend Taylor and to see my current favorite musician Bob Schneider. I checked out the Dream Theater section and happily found a copy of SFNY; amazingly, the cover artwork was the original flaming Big Apple skyline. I'd been disappointed that I hadn't been able to purchase the original cover and greedily snatched up the final copy at that particular Tower. So...even though I didn't purchase the CD the day it was originally released, I was able to stumble across the rather rare original cover.

As for the music, what can be said. The disc contains SFaM in its entirety and a slew of Dream Theater classics such as A Change of Season, Learning to Live, Another Day and A Mind Beside Itself. It's noteworthy that the band was able to release a triple-live CD only 3 years after their (then) career-spanning double CD Once In A LiveTime and repeat only two songs from that release (Voices and Just Let Me Breathe). I prefer SFNY because it reproduces the concert from beginning to end, without any breaks, skips or alterations. I won't go over every song but will highlight notable points. SFaM is played from beginning to end complete with live hypnotherapist, sound effects, Theresa Thomson on vocals and a full gospel choir during The Spirit Carries On. In fact, this song is the highpoint of the entire release. The band builds the song to its climax and is joined by both Thomson and the entire choir in a rousing, uplifting and (dare I say) spiritual rendition of the song. On the DVD version, Portnoy is heard to say that he considers this the ultimate highpoint of the band's career and it's easy to understand why; it really is a beautiful song. It's also notable that the band improvises the conclusion in order to give stage hands time to move set pieces and prepare for the next song. It's noteworthy because the band pulls it off wonderfully. In fact, I wish the band would leave more room for this type of improvisation. I know lots of fans claim DT does a lot of "jamming" or improvisations but nothing could be further from the truth. The band may add changes or additional components to a live rendition of a song but they almost never really improvise; everything is rehearsed, discussed, reworked, etc. This one little section proves the band would do well to allow for some freedom during their live shows.

Other highlights from the SFaM set include Thomson joining Petrucci duing the intro to Through Her Eyes for a Floydian-like background wail. The centerpiece of the concept, Home, lives up to the studio version and frankly all the songs are performed superbly. Dream Theater has long been a tour de force on stage and this night at the Roseland they were definitely on top of their game.

Were SFaM the only part of this release, it would be a good live album. But the addition of the second set is what truly made the night memorable. The band opens with Metropolis Part I (kinda ironic.....I figured Part I would be played BEFORE SFaM but the very cool hypno-intro would have been abandoned so I can understand why they made their choice). Metropolis I is a DT fan favorite so it's surprising that this is the first, full live version on an official release. From there the bands plays about 30 straight minutes without interruption, linking The Mirror, Just Let Me Breath, Acid Rain and Caught in a New Millenium. This section truly rocks and the transitions from one song to the next are smooth and logical. The inclusion of Another Day adds another piece to the live DT puzzle; Another Day is probably the most well-known DT song outside of DT circles. The band had left it out of set lists for quite a while so it was a surprise addition, plus the appearance of band-friend Jay Beckenstein (of Spyro Gyra fame) on sax made a great song even more memorable. Closing disc two is a keyboard solo by Jordan Rudess, the only real drag of the evening (I just don't really enjoy self-indulgent solos and while this one is good, it still lasts WAY too long). So discs one and two would make up a VERY fine live release, yet both discs are surpassed by the magic found on disc three. Here the band plays two of its longer concept pieces in their entirety. The inclusion of both A Mind Beside Itself and A Change of Seasons, both having not been played entirely in years, made a great evening magical. AMBI contains a standard version of Voices (a song played at virtually every DT concert) and the "electric" version of The Silent Man. This is a particular treat as the original acoustic version is pretty dull; the reworked version gives AMBI more completeness and made me reconsider the work as a whole. Another surprise was a full rendition of Learning to Live; long a fan favorite from Images & Words, the song had been left off set lists for years and had never been included (in its entirety) on any previous DT live release. Hearing it again was like welcoming an old friend home.

Still, after nearly 3 hours of music, the highlight of the evening was the final encore, a complete presentation of my all-time favorite DT piece, A Change of Seasons. Like many other works on SFNY, ACOS had never been officially released live and, more notably, had not been played live (entirely) in many years. I know when I saw the Washington DC show a couple weeks before the Roseland show I was absolutely stunned by the 25 minute closer; an utterly brilliant rendition of a perfect song. My only complaint would be the inclusion of some cartoon excerts during The Darkest of Winters. While the excerpts are kinda fun, I don't think they fit the overall mood of the song, which is brooding and dark. A small complaint, however....the song is a tremendous and surprising conclusion to a momentous night of Dream Theater magic. In fact, in going over the three discs yet again for this review I've decided to change my score...SFNY is, in my opinion, the best Dream Theater release ever. I thinkthat about says it all.