DREAM THEATER - SCORE: 20TH ANNIVERSARY WORLD TOUR LIVE WITH THE OCTAVARIUM ORCHESTRA

Yeah! When I wrote the review for SCORE album last Friday, I never had any guest that I would get the DVD version on the next day. And once again, my father became a hero for me. The chronology is simply the same. Same day to search, same day to buy, and mysteriously, it's such a strange déjà vu for me.

Well, I lived in Sukabumi, and the distance with Jakarta is far enough. My father used to spend the weekend to go to Jakarta to meet my sister who worked in one of a giant company in Indonesia. Beside that habit, my father also loved shopping and he always visited some music store around there. So, I never met any trouble to request him to buy me some albums. However, I also often went to Jakarta for about once a month just for cutting my hair (and also, for searching some albums too).

One day, the day when I got the SCORE CD, I was calling some music stores around Jakarta and I found it in a music store but I had to be disappointed and patient because they said that there's only one album and it just sold out a few minutes ago. Fortunately, the man who bought it was my father.

The same story was happened again the week after. I called some music stores to make me sure if I would have to get the SCORE DVD as soon as possible and again, I had to hear that there's only a single DVD (again!!!) and someone has moved faster than me. So I just prayed that I'll gonna get it but suddenly, the magic things happened again when my father brought me the DVD on the evening!!! Finally, it's all over now.

Well, now let's take a look to the DVD. The DVD is divided into two DVDs. The first one captured all scenes from their live show in Radio City Music Hall, New York City in 1st April, 2006. The second one is a bonus material contained with "The Score So Far", the Dream Theater's journey from the first day under the name of Majesty until today with their latest released album, "Octavarium". You also can see "The Octavarium Animation", a 3 minutes length animation which appeared on the video screen during the instrumental part from "Octavarium" on the third part, "Full Circle".

One more bonus material was available. Some live tracks from Portnoy Archives, including "Another Day" live in Tokyo in 1993, "The Great Debate" live in Bucharest in 2002, and "Honor Thy Father" live in Chicago in 2005. Personally, I felt disappointed because nothing of all tracks were become my favorites. I preferred "Overture 1928" as a bonus track ("Overture 1928" intro was appeared in "The Score So Far" but it was cut!!!). Because of that, I thought that the bonus material from their previous DVD, "Live At Budokan" was still a little better than SCORE's bonus material.

Okay, now I'll review the first DVD. The video started with a raising curtain with a radio tape version of "In The Name Of God" outro. After the cool beginning, they instantly played "The Root Of All Evil". The intro of this song reminds me when I watched them live in Singapore in January and for the first time I met my most inspirational guy, Mike Portnoy. That moment always touched my heart. The differences between the two moments were only in his customs and drum kit. He wore a blue New York Knicks kit no. 3 (I didn't see his back but perhaps he wore Stephon Marbury's kit) in Singapore, and he wore the same kit but this time was a blue one with no. 1 and "Portnoy" as the back name. About drum kit, he just used a single drum kit with two bass pedals only in Singapore (it may be caused by an inappropriate venue), but tonight he used a double drum kits with three bass pedals as usual.

"I Walk Beside You" was the next song. This song was also played in Singapore but it didn't touch my heart enough. So I'll better continue with the next song. From now until the last song on the second set ("Octavarium"), we did a journey from their "Majesty" days until 20 years later. Before it all began, there's a countdown from their tour opening video (you can find it in "Live At Budokan") and the screen showed us the "1985" year. It's a "Majesty" years and so the song was "Another Won". This song is a rare collection and fortunately, you still can find it in Dream Theater Official Bootleg "The Majesty Demos" of course with Chris Collins as the vocalist. An important point from this song was John Myung's magnificent bass from the intro until the end.

"Afterlife" came from "When Dream And Day Unite" and I always loved the superb combination between Mike Portnoy's drum and John Petrucci's guitar, and also the vocalist in the album wasn't James LaBrie, but Charlie Dominici (it was their worst studio album so far for me). "Under A Glass Moon" from "Images & Words" showed the typical structural drum from Mike Portnoy because since they released the darker album "Awake" until now, the typical drum from Mike was always changing with his improvisation.

"Innocence Faded", as the next song, came from "Awake" and it hasn't played for about 10 years!!! James LaBrie's vocals was so terrific and John Petrucci's guitar in the end of the song was melodic. "Raise The Knife" continued the journey and it's surprised me a lot. I mean surprise, because it has never appeared in "Falling Into Infinity" album and it was only done during their "Falling Into Infinity" session. I never heard the song before and it's really hard to get the studio version of this song so it's such a new album for me.

"The Spirit Carries On" was taken from their best album until the day, "Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory". The song was inspired by Pink Floyd's "Us And Them" and DT played it with John Petrucci's guitar solo in the intro (basically used for "Through Her Eyes"). Unfortunately, there's no backing vocals like in "Live Scenes From New York" (performed by Theresa Tomasson).

That's the first set of the concert. When the intermission time, some audiences tried to guess what would happen on the second set because DT just used some of the stage and the rest of the area was closed by a black curtain. If you have ever watched their previous DVD, "Live At Budokan" and had strong analysis, you surely ever remembered what was DT's dream which have never fulfilled yet at that moment. Yes, you're right. The second set was begun with the appearance of The Octavarium Orchestra played the first part ("Overture") of the epic, "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence". As we know, this song was DT's longest song so far and now there's no more doubt that DT could play the song not only in the studio but of course they could do that in front of 6.000 audiences in Radio City Music Hall, even to us, who could enjoy the show via DVD.

After the orchestration of "Overture", the band constantly appeared and played "About To Crash" until "Losing Time/Grand Finale". One action that we haven't missed was in the end of "About To Crash (Reprise) where Mike Portnoy hit his drum stick to the drum until the stick was flying in the air and then he caught it again brilliantly. Basically, I loved all the part from "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence", but my most favorite part is "Losing Time/Grand Finale" (luckily, the last three parts of this song were played by DT in Singapore!!!).

"Vacant" from "Train Of Thought" was the next song. This song was such an intermission for some of DT personnel after they did a fantastic epic, "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence". And finally, we reached the latest album, "Octavarium". It started with "The Answer Lies Within". LaBrie's voice was pretty well. Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci as a backing vocal also support James LaBrie with their great sound. It's surely the most melancholic song in this show and it could reflect DT's history since they faced many problems (Mike Portnoy almost left the band in 1997) until they experienced a successful era and celebrated the 20 years of their music.

"Sacrificed Sons" began with the video from the WTC tragedy in 11th September 2001. It reminded us when they released "Live Scenes From New York" the same time when the tragedy happened. Ironically, the album's cover looked like describing the whole tragedy (there's two towers burned on the big apple). The song reflected the tragedy and again, James LaBrie succeeded to sing the song sentimentally. One tune I loved so much was in "06:17" when John Petrucci did a stunning guitar solo combined with John Myung's elegant bass and Mike Portnoy's fantastic drum.

It's time to listen to their recent epic nowadays, "Octavarium". This song became the pinnacle of the show. This is also one of my most favorite song in Progressive World. It's the perfect epic with the nearly perfect musical instrument and vocals. There's many highlights from this song. Jordan Rudess started the song with continuum and lap steel guitar solo. Then, you could hear the flute solo that could blow away your heart in "07:39" (unfortunately, the solo in the studio album is still better). You also could enjoy LaBrie's soft voice in the second part, "Medicate/Awakening".

Was it enough? No, because DT still offered you a more than 3 minutes excellent instrumental part in the end of the third part, "Full Circle" (or you can enjoy it via the "Octavarium Animation" in the second DVD). Don't forget to listen the perfect vocals again (yes, again!!!) from James LaBrie (but now it's truly rocking and metal!!!) in the fourth part "Intervals". This part showed us that James could sing soft vocals as well as metal vocals.

Thus things surely have made you impressed, haven't they? But again, the highlight hasn't over yet because there's still the last part of the song, "Razor's Edge" and crazily, it's the best part of the song (especially for me. It's OK if you had another favorite)!!! "Razor's Edge" reflected the perfect goodbye as the ending when James sang "This story ends where it began". Oh..my heart was blown away!!! And finally, John Petrucci ended the song with the superb solo guitar. How perfect this song was (you can find a better version in studio album)!!!

The show finally ended with the legendary, "Metropolis Pt. 1" as the single encore. Personally, I didn't feel satisfied enough because I thought that DT could play one more song for us (may be the fans' most favorite song, "A Change Of Seasons" that would complete all of DT's epics). There were three highlights on this song. The instrumental part in the middle was so terrific, especially, John Myung's solo bass. The second was when they stopped the song in "07:28" for 10 seconds (may be you wondered why I loved this "useless" action? Well, for me it was DT's classic styles). The last one was the final riff of this song. I liked LaBrie's voices in the end of the song. Well, for overall, I had to give five star (the same rating as the CD version!!!).

The final words, I have some information for you (I hope it really help you). I was really happy to have ever watched them live and I won't miss every chance I have to watch them, even if I need to go abroad for watching them as the sacrifice (by the way, I'd rather watch them not in my country, Indonesia). Unfortunately, I've read the issue that was sent to my home and Mike Portnoy said that they will probably go back to have an opening act around 2007 and 2008 (Please don't do that, Mike!!! Just think about it some time as you've ever asked for to all DT fans around the world!!!). Well, I just hope that they came to Asia as soon as possible. The next information is about the album. I think most of people feel bored with Dream Theater because they have released 3 DVD's around 5-6 years. As a loyal fan, I don't mind even if they release hundreds of DVD's. And, for you who need some advice, you may collect this DVD as one of the best DVD ever in the prog music history (that's why I'm so enthusiastic to search and collect it).

WARNING: If you have any recordings, videos or photos from DT's concert on Octavarium Tour in Singapore or Bangkok, and recordings and videos only in Sao Paulo (I was incorrect when I wrote Rio de Janeiro in the CD's review and now it's my correction) and Buenos Aires where they covered all songs from "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory", and also great interest to sell or to trade it with me, you can find me at [email protected]. May be someone would seriously help me???

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