Dream Theater continued their 40th anniversary celebration by expanding the second leg of their North American tour to include performances of both Parasomnia, their latest album, as well as a complete performance of their epic song "A Change of Seasons."
Either of these would have been enough to interest me in seeing this band for a second time this year, but the combination of these was something I just couldn't skip! Additionally, they've rotated most of the rest of their set so fans that previously saw them earlier in the year are getting two very unique experiences.
After years (and several albums) apart, Mike Portney's return to Dream Theater has been wildly celebrated. During his 13-year absence, the band produced several terrific albums and celebrated a few milestones including full live performances of Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory as well as their debut album Images and Words while Mike Mangini stepped into fill Portnoy's shoes (no easy task). With that in mind, it's been great to see them honor his contributions by performing tracks from that era. This show included "The Enemy Inside" from 2013's self-titled album.
Any way you slice it, Dream Theater fans are eating well these last few years. A phenomenal new studio album, a live album on the way and multiple opportunities to see this band perform some rare material!
As is standard for An Evening with Dream Theater tours, the show runs just shy of three hours start to finish, with just a 20-minute break between Act I and Act II.
The show began promptly at 8pm, as the dark stage had an eerie microphone stand in the center, with the sole stage prop behind it consisting of a bed, reminiscent of the imagery throughout 'Parasomnia'. The entire first act of the night was a performance of the album from beginning to end. As with any legacy act, there's always a tendency for fans to lean harder into the older material, but I've really enjoyed this album and there are some incredible highlights on there. "Midnight Messiah" and "Bend the Clock" being just a few. Of course, the epic 19-minute closing performance of "The Shadow Man Incident" is surely to be remembered as a rare gem of this tour, complete with a monstrous blowup statue of said-character in the rear of stage right.
Each song had its own video/animation running on the screens at the rear of the stage, accompanied with the song title as each song began, just to aid those that might not yet be quite as familiar with the new material.
Dream Theater fans are eating well these last few years.
Following a 20-minute intermission, the band returned and dove straight into another hour-long set featuring a fantastic sampling of Dream Theater's career including "Panic Attack," "The Dark Eternal Night" and "Take the Time," among others.
With a catalog as deep and rich as that of Dream Theater, it would be easy to stick to a fairly static "greatest hits" type of setlist, especially when celebrating a huge milestone like 40 years. This makes it all the more impressive that this band has come (reasonably) close to town twice this year and essentially played about five hours of unique selections.
After wrapping up Act II, the band took just a moment before returning to the stage to perform "A Change of Seasons" in full for the encore. While this appears a 7-part song on the setlist, it is truly one single piece of music spanning 23-minutes. I'll note, this particular song is one I've waited a very long time to hear, so I'm thrilled to add this to some of the other epic songs I've seen this band play over the years!
If you were lucky enough to catch Dream Theater during their first leg of the tour earlier this year and think you've seen it all already, think again. This show is a perfect complement to the first leg and I'd have been kicking myself forever if I'd skipped out on this one!
