saw Dream Theater saturday night

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i saw DT for the first time saturday night at the congress theater in chicago... what an experience

first of all tickets were sold out so my buddy and i just went to the show looking for a scalper and we found this jolly middle aged man who sold us 2 tickets for 30$ a piece (which is less than face value) so that was cool

it was standing room only so we were maybe 15 feet away from the band.  the show started with a movie of all the DT album covers and the theme for the first half of the show was the heavy tracks from each album.  the second half of the show was the epic tracks from each album.  one major highlight was the drum solo, where Mike invited his friend charlie Benante (the drummer from anthrax) up to play a duel drum solo.  it was the most incredible thing i have ever seen,  at one point they were both ripping the bass drums and i could feel my internal organs violently vbrating.  then they each started playing recognizable drum beats, Charlie played the drum intro to 'rock and roll' (Led Zeppelin), Mike countered with 'when the levee breaks' (Led Zeppelin) then Mike played some metallica song, then Chris played the drum intro to 'run to the hills' (iron maiden) and then ever John Petrucci started playing along and played the intro riff to 'rn to the hills' long with him, hen mike played another song that i cant remember (with john playing along as well) then Chris played the intro to '6:00' (DT) perfectly (again with john playing along) and finally Mike played the end of "Moby Dick' (Zeppelin) with John doing his best Jimmy Page impression as well.   that was nuts i was floored.

there were a few other suprises scattered throughout songs all through the night ('wish you were here' during 'under peruvian skies' and 'wherever i may roam' (metallica)  during 'take the time') 

then the highlight of the show was the intro to 'octavarium', i dont know if any of you have seen the synth that Jordan uses for it but its called the continuum fingerboard  buts its a pretty new analog synth technology and it creates the most dynamic incredible sounds, Jordan really stole the show at this point, i cant even describe how it looked/sounded live

i must addmit i wasn't expecting such a good show, i know Labrie has been known to sound pretty weak at times live, but he was right on and got lots of applause after his huge wails, i was also expecting no talking in between songs, but Labrie told a few stories, and talked to the audience a lot which i really like to see during concerts. i also  didnt expect the show to have such energy,  when i  think of DT playing i usually think of 5 highly technical musical machines, but these guys were really loose, and animated on stage (except Petrucci who everytime the camera was on his face he just looked so uncomfortable and awkward, which he should because he looked like a tool with his hair and beard), Muyng was swaying and looking really fluid and relaxed, Jordan was spinning around on his keyboard, Mike was always standing/spitting while playing ( i dont know how he does that), throwing sticks into the audience (once during his drum solo he threw a stick into the air like Neil Peart, but he threw it too far behind him and dropped in and he started laughing), and making funny faces, Labrie was running around and doing a Robert Plant impression. it was great 

so basically i'm never missing a DT show in the chicago area 

Edited by acheron

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