DREAM THEATER
VENUE THE WILTERN, LOS ANGELES
DATE 22/03/2019
It’s impossible to overstate the impact of Dream Theater’s 1999 concept album, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory, on both the band’s career trajectory and progressive metal as a whole. When the album was recorded after the completion of the touring cycle in support of the compromised 1997 album Falling Into Infinity, the group were on shaky ground, but against all odds, they bounced back with a stunning tour de force that firmly cemented their status as the genre’s most important act.
After the band’s divisive 2016 double album The Astonishing, however, some wondered whether that description still rang true. Perhaps that’s one reason why they’ve since embarked on back-to-back anniversary tours celebrating their most revered albums – first in 2017 on the Images, Words & Beyond tour, and now on the initial legs of their tour in support of new album Distance Over Time, in which they’re performing Scenes… in its
entirety for the first times in the, ahem, new millennium.
Whatever their motivations, the new tour is just an exciting opportunity for longtime fans to relive the album’s twist-filled plot of love, murder and reincarnation as it is for newer devotees to experience a masterclass in ambitious metallic prog. Its only downside is that it completely overshadows material from Distance…, hailed by many as a return to form. Case in point: the band play four new songs tonight during their 55-minute opening set, including the classic-in-training Barstool Warrior and the world premiere of Fall Into
The Light, but they all seem like window dressing for the main event ahead. Even the welcome return of 2009’s 16-minute heavyweight A Nightmare To Remember feels less eventful than it rightfully should.
Act II, though, delivers the goods. During the original Scenes… tour, the production value was decidedly modest, with small video screens projecting live-action footage depicting the album’s story line. Two decades later, the band have upped the ante considerably, with a giant video backdrop displaying new comic book-like illustrations of characters from the album like Victoria and Julian.
It’s still not the full-scale cinematic adaptation the album deserves, but it’s an improvement nonetheless.
Musically, diehards will surely dissect even the most microscopic differences between the album’s 2019 performances and its original airings with Mike Portnoy. The most obvious is the newly demonstrated backing vocal prowess of John Petrucci, who – in addition to his usual display of jaw-dropping guitar dexterity – nails pitchperfect harmonies throughout, including some unexpected near-falsetto highs on Strange Déjà Vu and Through Her Eyes.
Petrucci isn’t the only singer on stage who impresses tonight, as the often-overlooked James LaBrie delivers a stunning performance that proves he’s a better live vocalist now than he was two decades ago. When the inevitable 40th anniversary tour rolls around, here’s hoping we’ll still be able to say the same.
“JAMES LABRIE DELIVERS A STUNNING PERFORMANCE THAT PROVES HE’S A BETTER LIVE VOCALIST NOW THAN HE WAS TWO DECADES AGO.”