Disco de Dream Theater: “Live Scenes from New York”

I have every Dream Theater live album, and I continue to hunt down bootlegs from past tours. It's all quite unnecessary, even wasteful, but such is the pursuit of the Dream Theater fan. Why do I do it? Because I want to have a recording that captures the true greatness of a Dream Theater concert, something that you can't really understand with DT's official live albums. Live at the Marquee was too short and too polished by overdubs. James LaBrie was having some ugly vocal problems on Once in a LIVEtime. Therefore, I am purely ecstatic over Live Scenes from New York - an official album with such fervor and energy that every song sounds new, even if I've memorized every guitar lick and every lyric. These are the qualities for which I search when hunting bootlegs, so to have it in a live release makes me very happy.

Live Scenes from New York is not only the best of Dream Theater's live catalogue, but it is the best live (progressive) metal album in 15 years. I do not make this statement lightly; it's tough to contend with this album's three discs, characterized by rugged, furious, and emotionally charged music. This music is everything a live album should be.

The highlight is the astonishing performance of Scenes from a Memory in its entirety. LaBrie, who is at his best vocally with this show, shines with his heart-rending emotional power, and he actually augments many passages over the original. The Miracle's malevolent soliloquy on "Home" is filled with more hunger, more viciousness. "The Spirit Carries On" makes my vision get blurry as he and Theresa Thomason sing one of the most moving songs I've ever heard. The entire band sounds full of more energy, although it's only understood on an ineffable level. The ears hear what the words can't quite describe. Then there's the instrumental tag at the end of "Finally Free," where Petrucci's soaring guitar lines never fail to give me chills.

After Scenes from a Memory comes to an end, two more hours of Dream Theater's intense music fills out the rest of the package. Of course, the Metropolis saga wouldn't be complete without "Metropolis Pt.1," and the version here is the best live iteration of the song to date (even better than some of the awesome ones from I&W tour bootlegs). "The Mirror," "Learning to Live," and the devastating 7-string medley ("Just Let Me Breathe/Acid Rain/Caught in a New Millennium") are captured aggressively. Saxophonist Jay Beckenstein stops by to contribute soprano sax on "Another Day," one of the band's best ballads. Here, the beautiful guitar solo lifts me three feet off the ground, and LaBrie's performance is again breathtaking. Jordan Rudess takes the spotlight for a 7-minute keyboard solo, which is enough to justify the purchase of this set on its own. The man is a true prodigy. It's nearly impossible to fathom that he's only playing with two hands.

"A Mind Beside Itself" is played in its entirety, and the delivery blazes all the way to the calm finale of "The Silent Man." "The Silent Man" is actually spiced up with ludic piano and guitar solos, and a soaring electric chorus. John Petrucci's surprisingly awesome background vocals add a great deal to the tune. The band finishes off their massive set with "A Change of Seasons." Added solos, Rudess' quirky "funhouse" piano, and a quote from "The Simpsons Theme," all season (whoa, a pun) one of the band's best-loved epics. LaBrie understandably sounds tired by the time the final movement rolls around, but he still performs with energy and conviction.

In twenty years, after I've collected an uncountable number of great live albums, I'll probably still regard this as one of the best live rock shows ever. For Dream Theater fans, this will become one of your most prized possessions.

I own four Dream Theater studio albums - IMAGES & WORDS (1992), AWAKE (1994), A CHANGE OF SEASONS (1995), and SCENES FROM A MEMORY (1999) - and each one of them blew me away, showing an extremely talented band just outdoing themselves on every release. Two weeks ago this coming Saturday, I purchased DT's triple live album LIVE SCENES FROM NEW YORK, and I haven't been able to listen to the studio recordings since. The live versions of their songs sound so much richer and intense when performed in concert. As an added bonus, the band includes new extended sections and snippets from other songs into their set list, which makes for an awesome experience. Besides the flawless song selection, the sound quality and musicianship are the best I've heard on a live recording, let only one that spans three discs. John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy prove to be great producers as well as great musicians. There's so much energy on this, I don't know where to begin. It is truly the best live album I've ever heard, period. Everybody should own a copy, but get the studio CDs first to become familiar with the songs. The band barnstorms their way through their now-legendary concept album SCENES FROM A MEMORY (played in its entirety, like TOMMY and THE WALL before it), classics from I&W and AWAKE, and a couple from FALLING INTO INFINITY. To close out this review, here is a list of highlights that you will expect to hear on each of the three discs. Enjoy!

Highlights on Disc 1:

"Strange Deja Vu" (track 3)--Filled with 100 times more energy than the original. When the band tears into that instrumental section...whew!

"Fatal Tragedy" (track 5)--Just as heavy, but more delicate and melodic than the studio counterpart...that is, until the extraordinary jam at the end smacks you across the face!

"Beyond This Life" (track 6)--The reviewer at metal-reviews.com said DT doesn't rock out enough. All he has to do is listen to this and be shown that this is not true.

"John & Teresa Solo Spot" (track 7)--Gospel singer Teresa Thompson makes her first appearance, performing a vocal/guitar duet with Petrucci. Petrucci's solo is fantastic. It's like Alex Lifeson-meets-Stevie Ray Vaughan.

"Through Her Eyes" (track 8)--This simple and slow ballad is turned into an emotional rollercoaster with an extended, powerful ending. Better than the original.

"The Dance of Eternity" (track 10)--Amazing how they pulled this complex instrumental off live. Proves DT are the most talented musicians to ever exist.

Highlights of Disc 2:

"The Spirit Carries On" (track 2)--Starts out normally, but soon Teresa comes back to sing Victoria's part and the gospel choir comes out to lend support. When James LaBrie hits that final note at the end and Teresa and the choir sing in unison with him, it made my hair stand up! Unbelievable!

"Metropolis, Part 1" (track 4)--DT's classic epic is further indication of DT's virtuosity and talent in the live setting. I like James's speech to the crowd in the middle of the song. Very nice guy.

"The Mirror" (track 5)--Lots of energy on this one, and it manages to sound heavier than the original, but very listenable. John Myung's thunderous bassline at the end has to be heard to believed.

"Caught in a New Millennium" (track 8)--A back-and-forth medley of "New Millennium" and "Caught in a Web." It's cool how to managed to play the latter slowly. Love that infectious groove on "Millennium."

"Jordan Rudess Keyboard Solo" (track 10)--An astounding 6-minute keyboard solo by Rudess, who is an unqualified genius on the instrument. He starts out with classical touches, then leads right into Victorian-era stuff, and ends with a techno beat and flashy keys work.

Highlights of Disc 3:

"A Mind Beside Itself" (track 1-3)--DT's epic AWAKE suite played to the fullest. "Erotomania" kicks major tail live; "Voices" sounds even more haunting and emotional in concert; and "The Silent Man" is completely changed, with electric guitar, a funky piano solo, and an ultra-melodic ending.

"A Change of Seasons" (track 5)--The band's 23-minute opus is the encore. They have balls to play a 20+ minute song as tired as they probably were.

My hat goes off the audience throughout the concert. Handclaps, screams, and singing along to the lyrics--almost everywhere!

Wow, this may be Dream Theater's best live album. From the opening D chord of Regression (gets me every time) to LaBrie's comment on the length, this concert does not once let you go.

First of all, the performance of Metropolis, Pt. 2 may be the best one, maybe even better than the studio album because of things like the choir in The Spirit Carries On and the changed ending to Finally Free. The energy in this version seems so much stronger than in the studio album, and is just amazing overall.

Every member of the band is at their strongest here. Everybody seems to hate LaBrie's voice, but I can tolerate it, and I've heard him do much worse live on songs like The Mirror and Voices.

The second disc starts off (not literally, but it should be considered the beginning) with a flawless, beautiful performance of Metropolis, Pt. 1. LaBrie's 'banter' is not forgettable, I think it actually gives the whole thing a sense of pace, something rarely found on live albums. Plus, Jordan Rudess's keyboard improv in the background is worth it, even if LaBrie started talking about something entirely different.

The Mirror is one of my favorite Dream Theater songs, and here, the band did not disappoint. Though they didn't segue into Lie, they did include a part of it at the end which I really enjoyed.

Just Let Me Breathe is a song I hadn't heard until buying this album, and from this performance it sounds pretty cool, and gave the concert a lot of energy. The song then segues into Acid Rain, another song I hadn't heard before, an amazing instrumental that makes me want to go get Liquid Tension Experiment right now.

Caught in a New Millennium is a mix-up of two songs (Caught in a Web and New Millennium), and it was carried out very well, even though it goes a little slow in the beginning. Caught in a Web is another of my favorite songs, and this was a great performance of the song.

What needs to be said about Another Day? It's an amazing song, with an equally amazing live performance. Jordan Rudess's keyboard solo that follows is great, but it only seems good for a transition to disc 3, the best of all the discs.

The final hour of the concert begins with the opening organ intro to A Mind Beside Itself, one of Dream Theater's best songs. Each song is carried out flawlessly, and the improvisation on The Silent Man from each member of the band is nothing short of astounding. One of the best moments on the whole set.

Now, probably the climax of it all, Learning to Live, one of Dream Theater's best songs. Not only is the performance of this song perfect, but the improvisation on this one is especially amazing. Now, if only I had the DVD so I could actually watch it.

For the encore, probably yet another of their best songs ever, A Change of Seasons is performed to finish out this grand finale of a third disc. I'm very glad this song was included in it's entirety instead of split apart and put into different parts of the concert. From beginning to end, this performance is almost as hard-hitting as the perfect studio version, and provides for a very nice ending.

Overall, this is an unforgettable set. One thing that makes it so memorable is it's longevity, and the fact that it never once gets boring over the three discs that this set spans. If you are a fan of Dream Theater, buy this right now if you do not own it already. This isn't a good start for people just finding out about the band, and it's advised that you go listen to Scenes from a Memory and some of their other albums first.

Dream Theater`s new live album, is just the best i`ve ever heard, it`s just amazing and incredible, when i first listen that this album was coming out, and read the tracks that were include, i just ask mysel, whta can i expect form this album, and the answer is pretty obvious, you`re gonna get the best from the best.

That`s what you get with this live album, you have the chance to listen Scenes from a memory in its enterity, change of season and a mind behid itself, too, so you get a a complete lave album, entire epic songs, incredible solo by Jordan Rudess, and as usual outstanding performances from the five members of DT, but i`ve to say that James LaBrie`s performance was simply the best i`ve ever heard from him, i mean he sang for almost 3 hours, and his voice even though it sound a little bit tired at the end (understandable), still have the power to reach new levels, with this performance by LaBrie, you have to undertsatnd why his the best vocalist out there.

during the entire 3cd live album you can listen to all dream theater`s albums, except the when dream and daya unite, but you go from the images an word album, to the SCFM album, inlcuding Acid rain from the LTE2, so you got everythin you want and more

But if all this things are not enough, i have to say that for me listen for the first time Another Day, played with saxophone by Jay Beckenstein, was just breath taking, `cause this song was the one who makes me listen Dream Theater`s music, and having the chance to listen just the way it has to be played, was simply overwhelming. so if you want the best live album ever, i can say Scenes from new york, just fit that concept.

These guys are simply the torchbearers for those of us who still believe in excellence in musicianship, writing, and performing! I just saw them in Atlanta and they were beyond all expectations. After a sad concert in Nashville watching my favorite band for 25 years(Rush) struggle to play their own songs, these guys(DT) were absolutely amazing. For the last 10 years they have filled a musical void for me and the show in Atlanta was as good as any band that I have ever heard anywhere. Their playng is flawless. I am a drummer and was amazed at Mike's playing but I was not expecting James LaBrie's vocals to be so great. Sure he is my favorite singer on tape -but can he do it live? I am here to tell you that this guy's vocals were the most amazing exhibiton of singing that I have ever heard-on key and soaring through all of the instruments. I normally don't listen to vocals much-but I do with this band! His first Mullmuzzler is great-better than the second one-try the first one. Anyway-you must buy this album to hear just how great this band is. Thanks guys for staying together. Any of these guys could go play for anyone-but they have the wisdom to realize that they are very special --just as they are. You must buy this!