Dream Theater
Wiltern Theater
Hollywood, CA
March 8, 2002
On March 8, the Dream Theater "World Tourbulence 2002" tour rolled into Los Angeles. Through their European trek, the band was already making headlines about what great shows they were presenting, especially when they played Master of Puppets in its entirety in Barcelona. The anticipation was very high for this show despite my lukewarm reception to the new album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (which I have begun to appreciate a lot more now). There was no opening band and the band promised two full sets with an intermission and boy did they deliver!
As soon as the lights went off in the theater and the stage got bright, the first thing that I noticed that was the size of Mike Portnoys drum kit. It basically was two drum sets in one and throughout the show he would alternate from each one. Jordan Rudesss keyboard was set-up to Mikes right and it just seemed that he was a bit far from the rest of the group. John Myung set up in front of him and John Petrucci took up the left of the stage. As each band member entered, the crowd gave them a huge ovation and the familiar riffing of "The Glass Prison" began. This was an absolute monster of a song to start the night off. Its one of Dream Theaters heaviest songs and it really got the crowd going. They then moved into Scenes From A Memory by playing "Strange Deja Vu" , "Through My Words" and "Fatal Tragedy" all in order. This immediately brought memories of seeing them during their last tour and I was very excited to hear these songs again. They took a quick break and then they headed into Images and Words with a great live rendition of "Under A Glass Moon". Immediately following that it was time for Jordan Rudess to captivate us with his keyboard skills with an incredible solo that entered right into "Lines of Sand". I am not the biggest fan of Falling into Infinity so this song was actually the lowest point in the evening for me but it was quickly rejuvenated with "Misunderstood" from the new album and then they finally played a song from Awake (my favorite Dream Theater album) "Lie". They carried the energy with "The Spirit Carries On", where the band encouraged the crowd to sing along which we all happily obliged, and the superb "Take the Time" which was followed with the ending of Rushs "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" which was extremely awesome. I really liked how John Petrucci came up to where Jordan was and they started trading off solos. The energy during this part was just extreme and as soon as it was done the crowd roared in approval.
So the band took their intermission break and it was also time for the crowd to take a breather because Dream Theater was on fire. Mike makes playing the drums as it was a simple task like walking, the Johns were just absolutely killer. Petrucci was just amazing with the guitar and I dont think there is a better bassist out there than John Myung. To me Jordan is the bands best keyboardist to date and he was bringing it on tonight and James LaBrie was phenomenal.
The lights went back off and then coming from the speakers was "Overture" the first part of "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". They set up a really cool light show to go along with it and it allowed people to come back to their seats and when the band finally showed up again and started playing "About to Crash" you just knew they were going to play the whole song in its entirety and would make this night historic since it would be the first night that Dream Theater played the entire song. Everything was perfect about it except a minor problem during "About to Crash". Otherwise it was absolutely breathtaking for the band to take us through the heavy sections like "War Inside My Head" and "The Test that Stumped Them All" to the softer passages like "Goodnight Kiss" and "Solitary Shell" without missing a beat. It actually went by very quickly and the band left the stage one more time but came back and the familiar noises from "Home" started playing. In my opinion this song has to become a live staple on a Dream Theater show because its one of the greatest songs they have ever recorded and seeing it done live is quite an experience. They followed that up with "Hollow Years" (one of the few songs I like from Falling into Infinity) and "Pull Me Under". James let the crowd sing the chorus and it went absolutely loud during these parts.
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and after just over 3 hours, the show finally ended. The band took a bow and said that hopefully they will come around again during the summer. Hopefully, that will happen because this show was one of the best concerts I have ever attended.
Dream Theater Website
Wiltern Theater
Hollywood, CA
March 8, 2002
On March 8, the Dream Theater "World Tourbulence 2002" tour rolled into Los Angeles. Through their European trek, the band was already making headlines about what great shows they were presenting, especially when they played Master of Puppets in its entirety in Barcelona. The anticipation was very high for this show despite my lukewarm reception to the new album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (which I have begun to appreciate a lot more now). There was no opening band and the band promised two full sets with an intermission and boy did they deliver!
As soon as the lights went off in the theater and the stage got bright, the first thing that I noticed that was the size of Mike Portnoys drum kit. It basically was two drum sets in one and throughout the show he would alternate from each one. Jordan Rudesss keyboard was set-up to Mikes right and it just seemed that he was a bit far from the rest of the group. John Myung set up in front of him and John Petrucci took up the left of the stage. As each band member entered, the crowd gave them a huge ovation and the familiar riffing of "The Glass Prison" began. This was an absolute monster of a song to start the night off. Its one of Dream Theaters heaviest songs and it really got the crowd going. They then moved into Scenes From A Memory by playing "Strange Deja Vu" , "Through My Words" and "Fatal Tragedy" all in order. This immediately brought memories of seeing them during their last tour and I was very excited to hear these songs again. They took a quick break and then they headed into Images and Words with a great live rendition of "Under A Glass Moon". Immediately following that it was time for Jordan Rudess to captivate us with his keyboard skills with an incredible solo that entered right into "Lines of Sand". I am not the biggest fan of Falling into Infinity so this song was actually the lowest point in the evening for me but it was quickly rejuvenated with "Misunderstood" from the new album and then they finally played a song from Awake (my favorite Dream Theater album) "Lie". They carried the energy with "The Spirit Carries On", where the band encouraged the crowd to sing along which we all happily obliged, and the superb "Take the Time" which was followed with the ending of Rushs "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" which was extremely awesome. I really liked how John Petrucci came up to where Jordan was and they started trading off solos. The energy during this part was just extreme and as soon as it was done the crowd roared in approval.
So the band took their intermission break and it was also time for the crowd to take a breather because Dream Theater was on fire. Mike makes playing the drums as it was a simple task like walking, the Johns were just absolutely killer. Petrucci was just amazing with the guitar and I dont think there is a better bassist out there than John Myung. To me Jordan is the bands best keyboardist to date and he was bringing it on tonight and James LaBrie was phenomenal.
The lights went back off and then coming from the speakers was "Overture" the first part of "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". They set up a really cool light show to go along with it and it allowed people to come back to their seats and when the band finally showed up again and started playing "About to Crash" you just knew they were going to play the whole song in its entirety and would make this night historic since it would be the first night that Dream Theater played the entire song. Everything was perfect about it except a minor problem during "About to Crash". Otherwise it was absolutely breathtaking for the band to take us through the heavy sections like "War Inside My Head" and "The Test that Stumped Them All" to the softer passages like "Goodnight Kiss" and "Solitary Shell" without missing a beat. It actually went by very quickly and the band left the stage one more time but came back and the familiar noises from "Home" started playing. In my opinion this song has to become a live staple on a Dream Theater show because its one of the greatest songs they have ever recorded and seeing it done live is quite an experience. They followed that up with "Hollow Years" (one of the few songs I like from Falling into Infinity) and "Pull Me Under". James let the crowd sing the chorus and it went absolutely loud during these parts.
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and after just over 3 hours, the show finally ended. The band took a bow and said that hopefully they will come around again during the summer. Hopefully, that will happen because this show was one of the best concerts I have ever attended.
Dream Theater Website
