| INTRO
I left for Stockholm around 3 pm and traffic was fine, until the actual city traffic came along. A normal day it takes about an hour to drive to Stockholm, but at 4:45 I was still in the car getting more and more stressed out. I was going to meet with Petra from Warner Music at 5 o'clock and I absolutely hate being late.
At 5:10 I met Petra (thankfully she was a little late as well). She was nice enough to provide me with a
photo-pass so that I was allowed to take pictures at the concert, for which I am thankful :-)
At 5:50 my interview with Jordan Rudess started. He struck me as a warm, calm individual. Very nice and easy to talk to. I also met Mike Portnoy for a minute, but since he had bronkitis (an illness in the lungs) he didn't give interviews to anyone. But what does it matter? I was there to talk to Jordan and that I did. As a fan, I'm glad just to have seen the members of the band walk by me :-)
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| After the interview I met with a friend of some hot coffee in the cold, snowy Stockholm. That's when I realised my tape-recorder hadn't recorded anything of the interview. Panic was imminent. But with the interview still fresh in my mind I managed to take down notes of my questions and Jordans answers, so I was basically able to reconstruct the entire interview. Of course, some information was lost, but at least I learned never to fully trust technology.
At 7:10 I met with Petra again to be taken inside, to the photo pit.
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DREAM THEATER
dream
theater
review
The show was a little late, but all was forgiven when the intro started up and the videoscreens came on, showing a summary of the band's history from 1986 up to date. When the screens said "2004" the intro to
"As I am" came on and the show really started up. As a photographer I was only allowed to shoot for 15 minutes (usually they give you the first three songs, but that would've taken an hour...). I only needed 5 minutes before I had used up all the film in my camera.
After "As I am", which was followed by "This Dying Soul", James Labrie greeted us welcome to an evening with Dream Theater and the song that came on next was "Under a Glass
Moon" which was followed by a beautiful piano solo. I found it hard to understand that the guy I had talked to just a little while ago was now on stage and on the videoscreens, being cheered on by thousands of fans.
After some time I managed to find my friend again and I went up to the bleachers to keep him company. I didn't mind. I had talked to two of the members and taken all the photos I needed. You actually got to see the show better from the bleachers, because it gave you a better overview of the stage.
After a little while longer (almost an hour) there was a 15 minute intermission. During that time I went to buy a t-shirt for an alarmingly high price. No matter.
This event called for memorabilia. Actually, Jordan gave me a bottle of water during the interview and I still have the bottle, although it's empty.
The second set started with "The Mirror", and was the perfect way of
bringing the attention back to the stage.
If anything negative is to be said, I would have enjoyed it if James Labrie had spoken a little more between the songs. But anyway. The second set continued with a mix of old and new songs. For the song "Another
Day" it would've been fun if they had used an actual saxophone for the solo.
But that was played by Jordan Rudess with much skill indeed and a very realistic sax-sound.
The second set ended with "Finally free" and I was thrilled to see that they used the video material from "Live Scenes from New York" on the videoscreens. All the characters such as Julian, Nicholas and Victoria were all in the footage exactly as on the dvd.
As first encore they played "In the name of God" which is my favourite heavy song off the new album. And of course, as expected, they played it flawlessly.
Second encore was an oldie, but goodie, called "Metropolis".
I am simply amazed that in spite of his illness, Mike Portnoy managed to both sing backing vocals and beat the crap out of his drumset.
I guess you must never underestimate the power of the mind. Unfortunately two parts had been cut from the second set. The song "Caught in a web" and Mikes drumsolo was left out, and I believe this was due to Mikes illness.
Still, the show was definately one of the best I have ever been
to, and also it was filled with experiences for me personally that I
will always remember.
Christian Bengtsson
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