Dream Theatre / Symphony X - Newport 10 Nov 07
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Live Performance Reviews
Forum Description: Performance Reviews by Members
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=43374
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Topic: Dream Theatre / Symphony X - Newport 10 Nov 07
Posted By: steve j
Subject: Dream Theatre / Symphony X - Newport 10 Nov 07
Date Posted: November 10 2007 at 15:07
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I am not the best at writing reviews, but I went to this concert on the basis of hearing one DT album only. I hear things on this site that DT are overrated. When you are number one, people will want to give you bad press. UK press in particular spend time building up people then take a lot of pleasure trying to knock them down again.
Symphony X - I enjoyed them immensely. They have a huge amount of potential, and I wish them well. They played circa 45min, which is probably not long enough. I had never heard anything by them, so to impress, they had to do something special. The guitarist and charismatic lead singer I thought were very special. They have to polish up a bit, their stage presence isn't quite there at present, but I am sure it will come.
What can you say about DT? I believe it was a very special performance. They took a 10min applause at the end of the gig, and the applause
 only stopped when they reluctantly left the stage. Overrated, I don't think so. I won't go into setlists etc, but they played a good number of tracks from the Systematic Chaos album.Special mention must go to Mike Portney, who when he came back on for the encore, stood wearing a Welsh Rugby shirt with the word Cymru across the centre of the shirt. Some people will call this cheesy, other will say he was getting closer to his fans and audience. Anybody from foreign lands who tries to understand that countries culture, also gets my vote. I hear that MP drums over everything, the guy's got charisma. My daughter came with me, and at the end of the concert asked "where does he get his energy from". He played brilliantly.
They were quite simply awesome. Probably one of the greatest gigs ever. I will probably pursue the remaining albums. I hope someone else saw this amazing gig, and put their view across as a seasoned fan, cos if it impressed someone with only 3/8th of their catalogue goodness what it did for them.
A bit on prices
Gig £24 (a bargain)
Tour programme £15 (a tad expensive)
Tee shirts £22
That's it. Rock on (progressively off course)
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Replies:
Posted By: progmetalsteve
Date Posted: November 10 2007 at 18:12
A friend of mine bought that specially for Portnoy to wear, and he gave it to him last month at the Wembley gig so he could wear it at Newport. I do have a short review but it was written for the UK DT fan club forum so a lot of mentions forum users etc, but if you're interested then I will post it.  |
steve j wrote:Posted By: Snipergoat
Date Posted: November 11 2007 at 11:12
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Was a good gig, but the setlist wasn't too great for me.. Id already seen 5 of the songs they played before at Download. A load of us waited outside to get stuff signed at the end but they slipped onto their bus and drove off ;( |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: November 11 2007 at 11:27
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^^ I was at both the Newport & Wolves gig, and for me, the Newport one shaded it (with an edited version of Octavarium, and full length 'As I Am' as opposed to more 'Scenes From A Memory' and 'Medley' at Wolves)
I have immensely enjoyed both evenings, but its clear they are now tapping into the mainstream, with audiences over 5 times larger than they played to in the UK 10 years ago...
and if you're interested, MP wore an England footie shirt for the encore last night....
 and when JL announced 'last night we played in Wales' the boos and hisses were absolutely deafening....  ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: steve j
Date Posted: November 11 2007 at 17:20
I love the English sense of humour. I get the same reaction when I go to work every day.
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