Dream Theater Concert Video on Disc 1
On disc 1 of the two-disc set, drummer Mike Portnoy takes his past experience directing Metropolis 2000: Live Scenes from New York and Live at Budokan and does an excellent job crafting a recording that takes the multitude of camera angles into a fairly comprehensive video that gives equal time to all five members and gives a good feel of what it felt like to be there that night. The audio and video quality are excellent – I had the unexpected pleasure of hearing a few new things from the music and lyrics as I watched – and with the option of 5.1 surround sound you’ll really be able to rock the house.There were some problems, though: I would have appreciated a little more crowd noise in the audio mix – there were times the crowd was singing along that I wasn’t able to catch on the recording – and including a few more of the overhead visuals into the video feed would have been a nice touch. There are also some problems with the mixing: some of the background vocals jump out more than they should and even more importantly, the orchestra on “Metropolis Part One” is so loud that it overwhelms the rest of the music, but these glaring errors are the exception rather than the rule with this film. On the whole, you should have no problems enjoying the concert in its entirety.
Cool Extras on Disc 2
Disc 2 is home to some great extras for any hardcore fan: first, an hour-long documentary with all five Dream Theater members, plus former singer Charlie Dominici and former keyboardist Derek Sherinian, telling the 20-year story of the band, spiced with rare footage and photos. Although this documentary is clearly a band-controlled experience, the control comes across as an attempt to tell what the band sees as the true story of Dream Theater’s career, rather than some sort of sanitization or spin, something in keeping with past releases: the commentary track of Metropolis 2000: Live Scenes from New York had the same intentions with the story of Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory. This time around, the underlying point is another communication to fans: despite celebrating the 20-year milestone, Dream Theater is not disbanding anytime soon.Along with the documentary, disc 2 has three video recordings “from the Portnoy Archives” and the Mike Tyyskä cartoon that accompanied the end of “Octavarium.” Although both bits are fun inclusions, some explanation, especially for why Portnoy choose those three particular records as representative material, would be a nice addition. Even though the cartoon gets some split-screen time in the show, people who didn’t see the concert live might be confused about why the band included the cartoon on the second disc. However, these are minor gripes – the documentary is an especially nice inclusion and disc 2 as a whole is well worth exploring.
