DREAM THEATER at Jones beach.....

[Milky Licker]

.......First of all the sound for Into Eternity and Redemption was awful and unacceptable AND Ray sounded flat as hell. NOW, Dream Theater had a somewhat better mix but the setlist was an insult to Dream Theater fans. They cut short "Take The Time" and extended "Surrounded" (which was'nt bad). They played a few obscures like "Blind faith",and "Lines In The Sand". Now answer this please, Do DT need to do long intros to their existing chock full of ear candy music????? and cut other songs short??? The encore was a messy melody of what I though was going to be the complete version of "Trial Of Tears" which had me excited then let down, they did NOTHING off Awake or Octavarium. PLUS the biggest disappointment of all........They are starting to sound like a DT cover band themselves, the fire is gone in my ears. I love the new cd and I love the band and always will but they look they are truly sick of doing this......VERY SAD.......Anyone else feel what I mean????

 

[Michael TEOF]

Be thankful you got "Take the Time" instead of "Panic Attack", which is their stock Octavarium song on the setlist. Even if you didn't get "Panic Attack", the medley consisted of "Razor's Edge" (the last 4 minutes of "Octavarum").

That all said, I actually liked the setlist. Granted, in Chicago they played "Scarred" from Awake. I've seen Dream Theater so many times, I just prefer hearing songs they haven't done in awhile.

Call me a fan boy, but Dream Theater are the ONLY band with nine albums of songs where they could play absolutely anything and I'd instantly know what it is and be excited to hear it live.

The Michael

 

[YtseJammer]

I was at the Jones Beach show. There's no excuse for playing Blind Faith and Lines in the Sand (two songs I like) and skipping the Awake album entirely. I was hoping for Images and Words in its entirety, so anything else was going to be a letdown. Moreover, after seeing this band a dozen times, I expect to be blown away completely every time they take the stage. This was merely one of their "good" but not "spectacular" performances. Finally, anything less than a 3 hour set seems like a letdown. They've set the bar that high.

As far as Redemption goes, the tour clearly caught up with Ray. That explains (although doesn't justify?) the fact that he sounded like utter crap. I'm looking forward to a much better performance at Progpower.

I expected Into Eternity to suck live. They've been very poor every other time I've seen them live. Just my opinion.

 

[kellsco]

I too was hoping for all of I & W at Jones Beach. Or any show that I was at.

The 'evening with' shows have spoiled us all to 3 hours of Dream Theater. Two hours is just not enough time to get it all in. And I miss a more rotating set list. I was bummed that we got the same set at CT and NJ. I was much happier with the Jone Beach set.

 

[shaq]

DT fans are so spoiled

 

[MEFlyingV]

I and my new wife Georgina (we got married August 1st) went to Jones Beach. She's been getting me into DT more. She really wanted to go.

I agree the sound for the opening bands was horrible

But the sound for DT was probably the second best live sound mix I have ever heard. At least in the last 10+ years.

Bear in mind we were sitting directly behind the sound board which helps

The only better mix (barely) was for Heaven and Hell at Radio City in the spring. In fact, for an outdoor mix to be nearly as good as an indoor mix is saying something in my opnion. Plus DT has more instruments, so it makes it even a bigger accomplishment.

Every instrument could be heard and easily distinguished

I didn't recognize many of the songs, but because of the mix and the dynamics within the songs, I found them all enjoyable.

I also liked the digital images on the screen behing them. Especially the NADS cartoon (Goooooo______ NADS he he)

I suppose they could have moved around more, etc. But thats fine. The only oddity I really noticed was that they never put the live video cam on the bassist. Everyone else got live screen time. But not him.

 

[kellsco]

I suppose they could have moved around more, etc. But thats fine. The only oddity I really noticed was that they never put the live video cam on the bassist. Everyone else got live screen time. But not him.

It would freak him out too much to have that kind of exposure.

 

[Ascension]

Myung is a ninja...he must remain stealthy.

 

[SyXified]

After seeing DT in Boston, I thought that Lines in the Sand and Blind Faith were both a colossal waste of time. First off you're dealing with the fact that you are used to the Evening With style that involves a longer set - so percentage wise, songs of that length feel like they are eating up a lot of very limited time. I like both those songs, but I don't think they translate very well live into a set list of the duration being played on this current tour. When you are putting on a truly lengthy performance you can weasel in a few of those longer, medium paced, and more mellow tunes to break up the monotony. But when you have a terse (or comparably terse) set list, songs like that kill your momentum.

Considering what songs translate well to a live setting and how a set list flows as a whole given your time table are key to a solid set list, and I think their choices were mediocre at best when viewed on the large scale.

On the flip side, however, I will say that seeing ITPoE I and II was an absolutely amazing experience. It was powerful and moving and perfectly performed. That alone was worth the price of admission.

Anyone else find Jordan's solo to be fairly useless? For a guy who has so much musical knowledge and talent and who can come up with great melodic themes and float between all sorts of genres, sometimes he just gets WAY to caught up in noise and sound effects. Lay off the continuum and the Zen Riffer, and just play the keyboard!

 

[metropolisimages]

They slayed in Houston and the sound for all 3 bands were phenomenal!

 

[Dustro25]

All 3 bands smoked in Milwaukee...sound and set were good...DT fans are REALLY spoiled.