Dream Theater in Atlanta, 10/19
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Topic: Dream Theater in Atlanta, 10/19
Posted By: TheMasterMofo
Subject: Dream Theater in Atlanta, 10/19
Date Posted: October 23 2011 at 18:07
Set List:
Bridges in the Sky (A Dramatic Turn of Events)
These Walls (Octavarium)
Build Me Up, Break Me Down (A Dramatic Turn of Events)
Endless Sacrifice (Train of Thought)
Mangini Drum Solo
Ytse Jam (When Dream and Day Unite)
The Silent Man (Awake)
Beneath The Surface (A Dramatic Turn of Events)
Outcry (A Dramatic Turn of Events)
On The Backs of Angels (A Dramatic Turn of Events)
Forsaken (Systematic Chaos)
Through My Words (Scenes From a Memory)
Fatal Tragedy (Scenes From a Memory)
Breaking All Illusions (A Dramatic Turn of Events)
Under a Glass Moon (Images & Words)
Before reviewing this show, I'll give a brief history of my Dream Theater fandom and my Dream Theater live experiences...:
I was turned onto Dream Theater by one of my guitar students shortly after Train of Thought was released... He had bought Awake and ToT after hearing that the band was good, and after giving the CD's a listen he immediately burned a copy of each and told me I had to listen to them.
I was hooked.
As I quickly familiarized myself with their entire discography, I was able to see my first DT show live on the 2005 Gigantour with Dream Theater, Nevermore, Megadeth, and a bunch of other bands that weren't really important (Symphony X's friggin' bus broke down and they missed that show!! I was upset).
My next Dream Theater show was one of my life's greatest highlights...The Score show was absolutely amazing. I'm in the final scene of the 2nd DVD where fans are shown going crazy in Radio City Music Hall.
Finally, I was able to see DT again on the Black Clouds Tour in 2009.
Having seen Dream Theater several times, I was apprehensive to see them without Mike Portnoy. Lets face it, Portnoy was a center of cohesion for the group and no matter how good a drummer tries to replace him, he's irreplaceable. Mangini is a talented drummer, but he hasn't had 25 years to play DT's older stuff.
Because of that, you can see that the set list is comprised mostly of the new album stuff, though it's typical to play new stuff on a tour anyway, as you want people to hear the songs live for the first time. I was pretty pleased overall with the set list, but surprised, too. Three albums are omitted completely in the set: Falling Into Infinity, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and Black Clouds and Silver Linings. No album besides the new one had two songs played; technically two Scenes From a Memory songs were played, but they are hard to play separately anyway.
The most important thing that I noticed about the band as a whole was the ENERGY! Never before have I seen Dream Theater so engaged with the music. LaBrie was a great front man, swinging around his custom-made Dream Theater microphone stand. Petrucci had some nice backing vocals and was jamming side-by-side with Myung, Mangini, or Rudess frequently. Rudess was spinning his keyboards around; the usual antics. Mangini was a very energetic and enthusiastic drummer. Myung was the biggest surprise of all, as he was actually moving around and looking excited to be there. Usually he stands in his spot, plays spectacularly, and bobs his head from time to time... This time he was actually a strong presence on stage.
The next important thing that I noticed was James LaBrie. He was spot on EVERY time. The dude sounded better than I've EVER heard him sound live before, which includes all of the live DVD's released and the live shows that I've been to. He blew everyone away... He hit every note; I didn't hear a single flat or sharp out of him the entire night. Not only did he hit the notes, though, he hit them loud and with power. I had chills when he went high for the ending of Beneath the Surface. LaBrie has gotten crap in the past for sometimes having difficulty live, but there's not a person on the planet that would be able to detract from what he did in Atlanta on October the 19th.
What everyone is really interested in hearing about is Mike Mangini, though. How did he do? Was he as good as Portnoy? Did he play the songs differently? Did he screw up? etc. Well, I'll say this: He played a pretty good show. There were times when he was completely insane, his hands a blur of rhythm and awesomeness. He nailed every ADTOE song without any issues at all, sounding just as good as on the album. His drum solo was pretty good, too, though there were a few spots where he seemed to hesitate, which is understandable with improv.
The older songs, though, are another story... Most of the old material he played admirably for a guy who had to go back and learn them. He played in a way that didn't diminish the songs at all, but because it wasn't "just like Mike (Portnoy)", it was tough at times for fans like me that were expecting the drums to sound an exact certain way and then have them come out slightly different. It certainly wasn't bad; it was quite good, in fact. It just wasn't exactly like Portnoy.
Endless Sacrifice was disappointing, though... As my favorite song in the entire DT discography, I was stoked when they started playing it. My friend and I pretty much always jam out to it when we drive anywhere together, and had actually almost gotten into a wreck in Atlanta traffic because I got too into it during the instrumental section. It's a great song, I couldn't help it! Because of that, perhaps we had too high expectations, but regardless of our expectations, Mangini did slightly screw the song up. Besides not playing "Exactly" what Portnoy played in the past, Mangini also sped up the tempo significantly coming out of the instrumental section. Not a huge detriment to the show, but it was very noticeable for anyone familiar with the song.
Other than that one mishap, this show was a complete masterpiece. This is the second best show I've seen in my life, right behind the Radio City Music Hall show for the Score DVD. If you still have a chance to catch DT before the tour is over, I'd highly recommend it, and if not, catch them the next time they play!
P.S. Trivium was pretty bland and generic, but not terrible. It's something I could stand to listen to but would never purposefully try to listen to on my own.
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Replies:
Posted By: igySK
Date Posted: November 08 2011 at 08:06
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Thanks for a great report! I'm comming to the Vienna show in February. However, already saw Mangini in Poland and I was really impressed, I'm sooo much looking forward to the show.
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