I got to see one of my favorite bands live Saturday. Dream Theater is one of the more successful progressive metal bands you're never heard of. I don't know anything about music to explain what "progressive" means, but if you're into metal, you may enjoy prog without even knowing it. Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime is one of the most commercially popular prog albums, and Iron Maiden's recent albums have been on the progressive side.
Dream Theater doesn't get much radio play, but they're masters of their craft. Technical and complicated, I like to call it "metal for musicians" because so many musicians tend to love their music since they can appreciate what it takes to produce it. But they also have enough songs accessible to an average metal fan. While they don't have many high-energy arena anthems, they specialize in beauty and uniqueness in their catalog that ranges from crunching to catchy to inspirational to depressing. They mostly stuck to their heavier stuff, ones with a lot of vocal-less stretches, and a lot of solos- including a lengthy duelling solo between guitarist John Petrucci and keyboardist Jordan Rudess. The set list (if I recall correctly): A Nightmare to Remember, Constant Motion, A Rite of Passage, Home, Wither, Hollow Years, As I Am, Panic Attack, The Mirror, Lie, Pull Me Under (with a bit of a medley of other Images and Words songs), and the encore (much to my satisfaction) was The Count of Tuscany. They have a tendency to throw in some unexpected deviations, and in this case, Mike Portnoy sang a few lines of "C" is for Cookie during the opening number. I think the only albums they left out were Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and When Dream and Day Unite.
Their songs can be challenging, even just to toe-tap along with. The challenge is increased when you're watching them live with not much previous listening, because rock concerts are so loud lately that the music is drowned out by its own noise. That's what my wife graciously put up with for the 2+ hours. If I didn't already know all the songs they performed, I wouldn't have known what I was hearing.
Is it just me? Does anybody else think loud rock shows lack musical clarity? It seems like nobody else cares that the sound breaks up into indiscernible racket. It's ruining my enthusiasm to go see my faves perform live.
As for the Palladium itself, what a dump. It's described as a club, but other than a club-like bar area, it's a concert hall. The balcony has auditorium seating with good sight-lines. What it doesn't have is air-conditioning, or even a friggin FAN, and in July that's bad. It wasn't the hottest show I'd ever been at. Iron Maiden at the Orpheum in Boston in August claims that record (it had no climate control as well). But it was plenty uncomfortable. My wife and I agreed it's times like those that we're glad we're both thin and not rubbin up against everyone around us.
In addition to the temperature, the band literally brought the house down (in little bits). I got a light shower of what I assume was disintegrated plaster throughout the show, The ceiling was literally falling- not life threatening, but yikes.
So the Palladium is decent as a smallish, intimate venue, but not on a hot summer night... not up on the balcony at least.
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