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Dream Theater, April 15th 1997
Noorderlicht, Tilburg,
The Netherlands
By Wilco Barg
The band:
James LaBrie - Vocals
John Myung - Bass Guitar
John Petrucci - Guitar
Mike Portnoy - Drums/Percussion
Derek Sherinian - Keyboards
The ticket said 8:30 pm. But when we arrived at the venue, we just catched the last minutes of support-act Enchant. It was
a pity, bacause I had looked forward to see this band again, specially with the great second album they just released some
weeks ago.
Just after nine the lights dimmed and the intro tape of "A Change Of Seasons" was played. Shortly after the band got up on
stage and took over from the tape.
In the opening of the concert the sound wasn't that balanced. The bass of John Myung was to loud, which kept on for most
of the concert, and Derek Sherinian's keyboards were hard to hear. Most positive point of the whole concert was the
vocal part of James LaBrie. During all songs he sounded brilliant. I have to admit, in the past he has had some problems
with the high notes. But this time he was in great shape.
"Burning My Soul" was the first new song the band played followed by an instrumental song, which contained some
samples of "Metropolis Part I". Maybe this was the announced "Part II", of which no vocal lines were available yet.
"Burning My Soul" and the later played "Take Away The Pain" were the best of the new songs during the concert. Both
show some links with the stuff from "Images and Words". "Burning My Soul" is a bit heavier, "Take Away The Pain", a
homage to John Petrucci's father, has a bit of a "Surrounded" style. "Caught In A Web" was played at half a speed
comparing to the original version.
As said at first hearing "Lines In The Sand" didn't impress me that much. The song sounded to monotonous. "Peruvian
skies" on the other hand was a bit chaotic, to get a good first impression. But you know "first impressions often lie". So
hopefully the album versions of the songs will give a better impression later this year.
Overall the concert was very good. Great to see a band with that status playing a small venue like the Noorderligt (capacity
about 1,000). The people went very enthousiastic, although James LaBrie and Mike Portney had to work on it for awhile.
Specially Mike Portney tried a lot to get the public enthousiastic. And in the end "Metropolis Part I" showed out to be the
best encore.
With a promise to return at the end of this year, after releasing the new album, the band left the stage after playing over two
hours and was shortly afterwards followed by the outtro tape "Eve".
Setlist:
A Change Of Seasons (first ten minutes)
The Mirror
Lie
Burning My Soul
Instrumental (Metropolis Part II ??)
The Killing Hand
Just Let Me Breathe
Caught In A Web
Peruvian Skies
Pull Me Under
Lines In The Sand
Take Away The Pain
Take The Time (instrumental)
Ytsejam
Learning To Live
A Change Of Seasons (closing section)
Metropolis
Outtro: Eve
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