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

I was lucky having this DVD just two days (September 1, 2006) after its official release date of August 29, 2006. Thanks to Amazon.com who has always sent the package on time and I never regret to pre-order this DVD 14 days before official release date. Having seen the band on its Octavarium tour in Singapore (January 27, 2006), of course I expected the band would deliver something BIG in their 20th anniversary at radio City Hall. This is because my ultimate satisfaction watching the band live at a very near distant (very close to the stage) where the band played great performance of their music. I still remember how great the nuance when all lights turned off and the ambient music brings the opening of "The Root of All Evil" to the crowd. I scream to death when the show started off ! (even though it was late by one hour - how can a great band like DT tolerates such 60 minutes late in one of their first show in Singapore? I cannot believe it!). It's OK then the dissatisfaction due to late show time was totally cured by wonderful performance these five gentlemen played. I watched the show with other 20 friends of mine from Indonesia who came to Singapore just to watch the band plays live. All of us were wearing the uniform T-shirt with mind provoking words When Dream Theater and Indonesia Unite?" in response to the cancellation of Indonesia's concert (scheduled for January 29, 2006). The crowd who flocked into the stadium were watching us because we came in a uniform and most of them gave high five to us. Oh, what a memorable event!

As LaBrie said at this show that this concert was attended by 6,000 Dream Theater fans at Radio City Hall. With all of HIGH expectation I had in mind considering that this show was accompanied with orchestra, I played this DVD at my laptop because it arrived during office hour. I then continued watching it at my decent sound system at home. As far as first impression concern I was much more impressed with the beginning part of "Live At Budokan" than this "SCORE". Well, it's probably I have been watching many DT videos. Oh yes, the opening part of "The Root of All Evil" is definitely an excellent part and it's very important to cast the tone of the overall show. It reminds me to the day when I watched the band in Singapore. No question, the band members do their best to perform this show excellently - nothing to complain about it! Everything went well and so perfect, I think. When "I Walk Beside You" was played I think it's clear that this band is truly an excellent band with brilliant musicians.

The film rolls on and on, delivering excellently whilst a critical question pondered into my mind: Why am I not so excited about this DVD? This is an important question for me as I have a proposition that music is emotion. So whenever I find a music that does not stir my emotion, I'd consider to drop enjoying the music for such period of time after it's cooling down again. So after I completed all the DVD show time on Disc One plus some scanning of Disc Two, I dropped this DVD to my shelf for future. Once I dropped that I explored further on my central question with following questions: Is the performance so lousy? No, not at all. Is there something wrong with production? No. What about songs selection? It might be, because I'm a bit disappointed that "Stream of Consciousness" was not performed. And also some unfamiliar song like "Another Won" is a bit boring song to me.

Having gone through a long contemplation process, I ended up with this conclusion: First, Dream Theater is too much in producing live albums! Yeah .. I have watched a lot of live videos (officials and official bootlegs) so by this time I'm quite "full" to digest further any performance of Dream Theater. There is no surprise any more. I can project how Portnoy would perform, how Petrucci would play his guitar and Jordan moving his keyboard and monitor in static place and how Myung plays his bass. Everything is so predictable! There is no room for curiosity anymore.

Second, the use of orchestra does not produce something remarkable. It's excellent but it's predictable like what I heard in studio version. It seems to me that the orchestra is just like an "add on" to the Dream Theater music, nothing more. Please compare this with how YES (Yesymphonic) where the orchestration plays much more significant role. Observe how "Close To The Edge" with orchestra was performed differently than the original studio version? You might compare with Metallica S&M where the music had totally changed as compared to studio version. In this Score DVD I cannot feel that the orchestra is remarkable - it's just good, nothing more. Take an example of my favorite track "Sacrificed Sons" where I was ultimately satisfied with this song as it has tight composition and wonderful (memorable) melody. I cannot see significant difference between orchestra and electric equipment. It's probably DT music is too loud?

To summarize my view about Score DVD, let me put it this way: This DVD might serve excellent for the beginners - those who've just fallen in love with DT music and they might consider this as "masterpiece". Unfortunately, this album does not truly stir my emotion even though it's not a bad DVD at all. Just to be fair - as there is no such review is an "objective" review and there is no "true value" of everything in life, I stand my position with just three stars for this album. This should not be treated as I'm no longer a BIG fan of Dream Theater - yes, I AM! But.. good fans must be critical as well to help the band moves forward with their music. Keep on proggin' ..!

We'll meet again my friend, someday soon .!!! - GW