CHRISTMAS CD 2000 - SCENES FROM A WORLD TOUR

This CD captures the band's performances during tour in the year 2000. Unfortunately the sound quality is somewhat dissapointing and James LaBrie is out of tune here and there. But this CD also delivers some uniqueness that only Dream Theater could afford. Take an example, the cover of Dio's "Heaven And Hell" is quite remarkable. LaBrie proved his voice could be as metal as can be ;-) alo he did a bit of rap on track 3. What a fun show they had there! Proving that this band had a great time during touring also showed by putting 3 instrumental tracks in this CD, one to be an instru-medley which is a very much usual DT **wink** and the rest are Jordan Rudess' keyboards solo and James Petrucci's guitas solo session. The only original full song LaBrie sang was The Spirit Carries On! They did include "Learning To Live" during a medley session, though. Again, this CD shows how much fun they had during the tour and their stage perfomances. This CD would have been a great one if the sound quality were good. For those who are sound-perfectionist, this CD may be a dissapointing due to the sound quality. But for those who would like to capture the emotional bonding in live shows, this CD is an option. **davidewata/Indonesia**

Dream Theater's 2000 Christmas CD marked the final chapter of a generous gift from the band to members of their International Fan Club. Following the best Christmas CD (1999's "Cleaning Out The Closet") I was curious with what the band (more specifically Mike Portnoy) would come up with. The live tapes had already been tapped and most of the studio gems had also been released so what else was there?

Well, it turns out not all that much. I'm not trying to be critical....I'm grateful the band has been kind enough to give their loyal fans five CDs worth of otherwise unreleased material over the years. But I agree with Portnoy's decision to discontinue the tradition based on the material here. The 2001 CD basically serves up a menu of outtakes from the year-long Scenes From a Memory tour. While there are a few interesting moments they're pretty rare and this disc well illustrates why such "takes" are left "out" in the first place.

There really aren't any "songs" to be found here; every track is either a solo, a disjointed cover medley or sheer ridiculousness. The two most notable tracks are the Erotomania/Paradigm Shift/Universal Mind medley and Petrucci's guitar solo. The former gives you just what it promises, 7 minutes of (mostly) Portnoy and Petrucci shredding their instruments. Sometimes it jams, sometimes it wallows in the usual self-indulgent ego-beating these two sometimes succumb to. Still...a pretty good piece, it just goes on too long. The same could be said for "Gladiator Theme" which is basically a 10 minute Petrucci solo. Start off pretty interesting, with some volume effects, then a mellow acoustic-sounding section then a bit of Master of Puppets before devolving into rapid-fire shredding. Is interesting for about the first 4 to 5 minutes.

For sheer enjoyment the best song is the cover of War Pigs; chosen in this case because the band invited anyone who knew the lyrics up to sing and the chosen one was a surprisingly accomplished vocalist. Very fun; very enjoyable. Heaven and Hell is a very short version that's just the band having fun. The Zoo/Whole Lotta Love medley is really just a section of Learning to Live but it's clear the band is just screwing around and this isn't one of their finer efforts.

What Did They Say is kinda fun to listen to - once. A second time is, uh, annoying....REALLY annoying. It's a collection of snippets of songs throughout the tour where the band chose to replace the normal lyrics with "fun" lyrics. Thus we're blessed with such shenanigans as Portnoy singing "Pull My Finger" instead of "Pull Me Under". Ha ha. Ha. The keyboard solo (ugh) is aptly titled and thus I feel no need to say anything more about it. The one "historical" point on the disc is The Spirit Carries On from the infamous Los Angeles show which was oversold and shut down by the Fire Department halfway through the set. The band starts playing TSCO but James fails to show for his lyrical cue; Portnoy takes over vocals for a while before LaBrie returns to announce the show is over. The band responds by (admirably) playing on with the audience now taking over vocals. Eventually the PA is shut off but the band carries on and can only be heard through their monitors. By the time the musical section ends the fans are wild and sing along heartily doing a rather fine rendition of the tune. It's really quite interesting and fun, displaying the loyalty of both the band and the fans to each other and the music.

Anyway, I know I sound kinda critical of this CD cuz most of it is just a bunch of throwaways. I'd have preferred an entire show but then why would the band provide that? Still, the Christmas CD was a great idea and one which I wish more bands would replicate.

On this live "album", LaBrie try to mime the rude Ozzy style to introduce the some tracks ("d'ya wanna hear some more sh.t" ?)... Since it is a "Christmas" present to their fans, one cannot compare this mini-album (almost an hour) with a true live "DT" albums. Well, yes and no.

It features the same and poor self-indulgence already to be noticed on "Once In A Livetime". Never-ending soli : Petrucci (on both acoustic and electric guitar : over ten minutes, and it has been cut. Totally insipid) and Rudess (at times classical). There are lots of short medleys (not as good of course as the one that was available on their previous EP : "Through Her Eyes" and recorded in Brussels).

The worse is of course " What Did They Say, Wipeout, Canadian Rap" : absolutely awful. Very short bits and bites of excerpts from several concerts. Absolutely useless. Since LaBrie sounded like Ozzy in the intro it's about normal that "DT" plays a cover from this band. "War Pigs". One of the "Sabbath" anthems. Poorly rendered here.

To be complete, I would say that the sound is not great (while it was on the live part of "Through Her Eyes") and that LaBrie sounds rather weak for most of the time (just listen to "The Spirit Carries On", the short moment during which it is a song since they will need to stop the show during this song. Ordered by the police).

I also wonder why most of the "songs" are featured when they had already started...

All these great "characterisitcs" make this (non)-release a fully completionist item. One very little star.

Dream Theater's 2000 fan club CD is basically a collection of outtakes from their Metropolis world tour of the same year. Jokingly described on the back cover as "Metropolis 2000 Tour Highlights (and Lowlights)", it's not really something you'd listen to more than once or twice, but it's a fun little collector's item none-the-less.

With that said, there's not really anything to comment on. 'What Did They Say?' is a medley of snippets featuring the band members goofing around during various songs, ad-libbing lyrics and whatnot. 'War Pigs' involves a fan singing with the band, and 'The Spirit Carries On' has drummer Mike Portnoy singing, forgetting the lyrics, and getting the crowd to finish off. Nothing serious, just basically an hour of Dream Theater having fun.

Overall, this is a light-hearted album, good for one or two listens, but seeing as it's a fan club CD, it's definitely nothing more than a novelty item for die-hard fans.