LeBrie doesn’t envelope the stage like other larger than life front men. Maybe that’s because it’s a new album and the only album played this evening but it just didn’t seem right to rock out. Meanwhile, the mostly male audience watched intently some head bobbing but no air drums, air guitar or even help with chorus singing. And on cue, LaBrie returned when it was his time. Singer James LaBrie singing his parts and often, if not always, leaving the stage as the supporting cast played their lines. The band? Merely the actors in this stage performance. In fact, the supporting video streamed during most of the concert felt more like a graphic novel on screen as it illustrated the plot of The Astonishing which Dream Theater carried forward in song. It even included rolling credits to end the show.
But it was also very much a musical, or a play. Lots of lights, some strobes and a video played on a carefully crafted screen behind the stage just as you’d expect at most concerts. They opened with the first track “Descent of the NOMACS” which was pre-recorded then the band plugged in with “Dystopian Overture” and they cranked off the entire album, in order, all the way through to the final song, “Astonishing.” They took one break, a 20 minute intermission, after playing 90 minutes then returned for the second set, another 45 minutes, and then the final song for the encore which really was unnecessary as wrapping up the show to conclude the second set would have proved just as effective.
Dream Theater Concert Reviewĭream Theater played no other songs from any other album. The casual fan, the mildly interested fan, even the old school fan still cranking out Images and Words and Awake on their way to work might have come away a bit less than inspired but the true fan – The Astonishing Live was for them. That’s exactly what Dream Theater did with their latest release The Astonishing and they brought it live to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, OR on Tuesday to the faithful. “It’s been such a great ride, but we’re not going to stop.If you’re going to write and record a concept album you might as well play the whole thing, front to back and center the accompanying tour around it. “We approach every album like it’s our first,” adds LaBrie. Whenever we get together, we know we can’t disappoint ourselves or our fans, so we manage to try even harder.” We’ve been able to do this for a long time, and we don’t take it for granted. I love to be creative, write, and exercise that part of my mind. “We just love to play our instruments,” observes Petrucci. The album ultimately threaded together lean and uncompromising hooks with tried-and-true technical proficiency. In March 2021, he flew down to New York, quarantined, and recorded his vocals face-to-face with Petrucci. With LaBrie in Canada, he initially wrote with the band via ZOOM on a monitor in DTHQ. As fate would have it, they’d just finished construction on DTHQ (Dream Theater Headquarters) -a combination live recording studio, rehearsal space, control room, equipment storage, and creative hive. The musicians found themselves at home with LaBrie in Canada and the rest of the group in the States. Dream Theater – comprised of James LaBrie, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess, John Myung and Mike Mangini - was in the middle of a sold-out world tour in support of their last release Distance Over Time and the 20th anniversary of Scenes From A Memory when a Global Pandemic brought the world to a stop.
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