Dream Theater: Masterful birthday in Paris

The progressive metal group Dream Theater went through Paris to celebrate its 40th career and the return of drummer Mike Portnoy. Back on a memorable performance.

The love story between Dream Theater And France extends over several decades. If the group's members are regular and several pages in its history have been written there, notably the recording of the album Once in Livetime In Bataclan in 1998, the concert at Adidas Arena has something exceptional. This concert is also the subject of a recording for a future DVD immortalizing this tour rich in great moments.

Indeed, the American group put the small dishes in the big ones to dignly celebrate the 40th anniversary of its training. The public can thus attend the comeback of Mike Portnoy, drummer and founding member, who had left the ship in 2010. The “brother of another mother” is thus back, with his XXL drums and his expansive stage game, to chain his descents of Toms on a selection of songs covering the illustrious career of training as widely possible.

Thus, the classics are there, starting with “Metropolis pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper” to start the festivities, which conclude with “Pull Me Under”, a real standard from images & words. Others essential are dispersed through the three hours of concert, such as “AS I AM,” from the Dark Train of Thought, or the Diptych of Bravoure “Home” and “The Spirit Carries on,” from the reputed Metropolis PT. 2: Scenes from A Memory.

Dream Theater Also takes pleasure in diving into the depths of its catalog to bring out a demo version of 1996 of the ballad “Hollow Years,” does not forget its period with Mike Mangini on drums with “Barstool Warrior” and “This is the life. The Americans also delight assistance with epic surprises such as the instrumental “Stream of Conciousness” and the piece of bravery “Octavarium” and its introspective journey of almost half an hour. We also note the presence of “Night Terror,” the only extract revealed to date Parasomniatheir next album.

For such a performance, the group is settled in the line and the performances of each musician are applied, apart from a clumsiness of John Petrucci at the beginning of the solo of “Hollow Years. On the song side, if James Labrie shows some difficulties on the flights of “Metropolis pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper” and “Under a Glass Moon,” he shows on the ballads such as “vacant” that he has not lost his sense of nuanced interpretation and also manages to lift the crowd on “Octavarium. »»

The three hours of concert thus switch to the speed of light, as the career of Dream Theater is rich and the concert orchestrated to perfection. In fully sitting configuration, Adidas Arena was thus the dream theater for an immortalized concert for a DVD, with an audience as attentive as it is enthusiastic.

Masterful.

Setlist:

1. Metropolis pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper
2. Overture 1928
3. Strange already seen
4. The Mirror
5. Panic Attack
6. Barstool warrior
7. Hollow Years
8. Constant motion
9. AS I AM
10. Night Terror
11. Under A Glass Moon
12. This is the life
13. Vacant
14. Stream of consumptionness
15. Octavarium
16. Home
17. The Spirit Carries We
18. Sweater me under