A historic night for Dream Theater at London’s biggest arena. The first night of their 40th anniversary world tour, their first headline show at The O2 Arena, and their first live show with returning original drummer and Dream Theater founding member, Mike Portnoy, in over 14 years.
A show with this significance was going to need a very special setlist. Dream Theater delivered on this, in spades. With a very loud audience in attendance who had come from all over the world to see this show, how do you kick off that show? With arguably your second biggest song. Within a few bars of Metropolis Pt 1, the place is on its feet and its like Portnoy had never left.
As is so often the case, how Dream Theater live shows fare usually comes down to frontman James Labrie; he’s on fine form this evening, a little high in a few places, but that’s nit-picking from someone who has been going to Dream Theater shows for 20 years. Going straight from Metropolis Pt 1 to the first two songs of Metropolis Pt 2 – Overture 1928 into Strange Deja Vu – is a power move and a very popular one at that. The setlist unsurprisingly takes us all over the Dream Theater back catalogue. The Mirror sounds great – one of James’ best performances of the night. The thumping chug of Panic Attack allows the legendary reunited rhythm section of Portnoy and John Myung to remind everyone what a pairing they are, while Hollow Years showcases the softer side of the band equally well following a very pleasant solo from John Petrucci and the resident wizard Jordan Rudess.
One question was whether Dream Theater would incorporate anything from the Mike Mangini years into the setlist. That was answered fairly early by the inclusion of Barstool Warrior, with This Is The Life also getting an airing. A thumping rendition of As I Am sent the roughly 15,000 in attendance off to intermission happy, and the second half was given a turbo charged start by the first ever live rendition of the new single, Night Terror, which sounded great.
The second half featured a few deeper cuts from the Dream Theater archives versus the single heavy first half, but both were equally well received. In particular, the combination of Vacant and Stream Of Consciousness from 2002’s Train Of Thought went down a storm. The latter instrumental in particular showing that Dream Theater when in sync like this are the greatest collection of heavy musicians on the platform. It’s just a pleasure to witness that in full flow.
As impressive as everything was that had come before this, it wasn’t going to be a Dream Theater anniversary show without the band busting out one of their 20 minute plus long epics. As the opening strains of Octavarium kick in and the video screens reveal the cat’s cradle that adorns the Octavarium album artwork in motion, the next 24 minutes fly by in an astounding display of prog metal at its finest. The final refrains of “Trapped Inside This, Octavarium” being delivered with such force from Labrie that it pull the cherry on the icing on the cake. And they still weren’t done!
After a short breather, a video clip from The Wizard Of Oz aired on the screens, with a specific point, telling us there’s no place like home. Transitioning seamlessly into Home from Metropolis Pt 2, this was probably the highlight of the night, watching the entire O2 Arena belting out one of the key songs from Dream Theater’s unarguable best album. There was 15 minutes left before curfew at this point, how were they going to fill it? To throw out The Spirit Carries On and Pull Me Under back-to-back. It’s the perfect way to bring down the curtain on a three hour long celebration that is almost impossible to find fault with. Something from the always epic Black Clouds & Silver Linings would’ve been nice, but this was an absolute triumph of an evening. If this tour is coming near you and you love Dream Theater, or you want a single evening crash course as to what they’re about, do not miss this as it was absolutely fantastic!
9 / 10
Dream Theater – O2 Arena 40th Anniversary Setlist
Act I:
Metropolis pt 1
Overture 1928
Strange Deja Vu
The Mirror
Panic Attack
Barstool Warrior
Jordan / John solo
Hollow Years
Constant Motion
As I Am
Intermission
Act II:
Night Terror
This Is The Life
Under A Glass Moon
Vacant
Stream Of Consciousness
Octavarium
Encore:
Home
The Spirit Carries On
Pull Me Under
I’ve been to the same concert and to say James LaBrie was on fine form, is not just a stretch but a bit of lie.
He couldn’t sing any of the notes, he had difficulty pitching the alternative melody lines he prepared to avoid the highest notes, and even on more melodic and low moments like Hollow Years and the first part of Octavarium the pitching and delivery was awful.
The rest of the band was impressive as always