On the 9th of October it was time for me to finally witness Dream Theater live on stage. To be honest: I have seen one and a half songs live before at the Dutch Fields Of Rock festival this year, but after those songs I left to see Hatebreed. At Fields of Rock they played a very heavy set, because they were on a metal festival. Tonight they played everything, from heavy to very slow and beautiful. Normally they do shows without a support, but this time Mike Portnoy personally invited Symphony X to join their tour through Europe.
Due to handing out flyers at the entrance for the Roadrunner Records Streetteam I missed the whole show of Symphony X, except for their last song; 'The Odyssey'. The only thing that I can say about it is that the singer was sounding very good. After the show of Symphony X, I met some guys from my hometown. We had a drink and we waited for what was coming. The music that was played during the brake between the two bands was a string tribute to Dream Theater. After half an hour the lights went out, people started to scream and a beamer projected some nice images of Dream Theater with fragments of many songs from the band.
When the intro ended, Dream Theater kicked in with the song 'Constant Motion'. The whole crowd was singing and clapping along. After three songs from older albums the band went back to their newest album, Systematic Chaos. 'The Dark Eternal Night' was played and during this song, some funny animations of the band fighting monsters were being projected on a big screen behind the band. Every member had his own weapon. Jordan Rudess (keyboards) did have a hand like a scissor and Mike Portnoy (drums) for example, spit at his enemies. In this video they called themselves the N.A.D.S., the North American Dream Squad.
After that, it was time for the beautiful song 'The Ministry of Lost Souls'. I really like this song on CD, but when I heard it live... Goosebumps! How they performed this song; really impressive! When they finished the song I thought that nothing would be able to exceed this. Just when I was thinking that, they started with 'In The Presence Of Enemies Part 1' followed by 'In The Presence Of Enemies Part 2'. On Systematic Chaos these songs are being played at the beginning and the end, but tonight they where played after each other. This was the finale everybody had been dreaming of.
After a short period off stage, the band returned for an encore. The encore was a medley consisting of five different songs from the band. During the first part ('Trial of Tears'), James LaBrie added the lyrics from "It's raining on the streets of New York City" to "It's raining on the streets of Rotterdam". It almost seemed like James could control the weather, because it was indeed raining afterwards. After the other four parts of the medley the show was over and everybody went back home really satisfied.
Constant Motion
Strange Deja Vu
Blind Faith
Surrounded
The Dark Eternal Night
Jordan Rudess Keyboard Solo
Lines in the Sand
The Ministry of Lost Souls
In The Presence of Enemies
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Medley:
I Trial of Tears
II Finally Free
III Learning to Live
IV In The Name of God
V Octavarium (Razor's Edge)