Dream Theater - Live at Budokan

Rating:
Summary: *** DT PURE JOY ***
Review: ...uh, I think I blew my speakers on day one... specifically, the right speaker tweeter...oh, that is were JP is...IS ... OH MAN ... BUY THIS DVD!!!

By the way, I appreciate those of you who want to try to compromise DT for their musicianship, too many notes....blah blah blah... BUT ... BUT ... BUT, you and ... oh forget it... if you have to ask ... you will never understand... you just want something different out of life and out of your bands...

I DO NOT THINK THESE DUDES HEAR YOU :)

The only thing that would warrant less than five stars is:
1. Bonham or Peart NOT on Drums
2. Hendrix NOT on guitar
3. Geddy Lee NOT on Bass
4. Rick Wakeman NOT on keys

Yes, Mr. LaBrie IS the X-factor...the GLUE and the SPECIAL SAUCE that binds this band together....what a JOY!!!!!!!

DT PURE JOY
Garbo

Rating:
Summary: Great introduction to Dream Theater
Review: 4.5 stars. I am writing this review from the point of view of someone totally new to Dream Theater (and a musician). Much of the new hard rock/metal coming out lately is terrible. They all sound the same, have the growling cookie monster vocals, and no guitar solos. Boy I hope that trend fades fast. So I find myself checking out bands that I missed on the first run. Dream Theater is one of them. Based on the reviews, I figured this DVD would be a great start, and that is was. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The sound is good (for a concert DVD), the camera work is perferct, and the performance is awesome. I will add to the comments on James Labrie. He is a GOOD vocalist, not a great vocalist. When you are only good, and you are fronting a band of GREAT players, your flaws will stand out. His flaw is that he is pushing his register 85% of the time, which makes annunciation of words difficult. You will need the subtitles to understand what he is singing. But he works as part of the whole package. The only other flaw with this DVD is the bass mix. It is totally buried in the mix. Enough of the negative. This is one of the best concert DVDs that I own, and I have many. Buy this one, you will not regret it. Warning to Guitarists and keyboardist, you may want to hang it up after viewing this.

Rating:
Summary: Above Perfection.
Review: Back In the Era of Images and Words, Dream Theater were singing that "...A Picture worth a Thousand Words...", and now those crazy guys offer their Live Experience on this DVD, just to prove it. Believe me, I've seen 4 times Dream Theater live, but this time I felt like being there for real. Probably that's because the Train of Thought did not stop in Athens this year, but I feel like I've experienced Dream Theater Live for the 5th time. A must for the musicians, a challenge for the listeners. "Take the blue pill and see how far the rabbit hole goes"...

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: Bought the DVD last night, and its nothing short of brilliant. Sound and picture quality match the abilities of the band. There seems to be a glitch in the mixing 1 hour 30 somthing minutes into the concert, but that hardly warrants removing any stars from the rating.

Some extravagant solos, some tasteful, but others lacking character. Jordan Rudess is amazing though.

Special features are pretty good. All in all, I would recommend this DVD to anyone who likes DT, heavy metal and or prog.

Rating:
Summary: The band that keeps metal & progressive music on top
Review: Dream Theater performance in Tokyo is one of those that you say: This is unreal. That is the result of the arrengements on the studio after the show, or they're able to do this completely live? I think DT and Rush are the only ones that are able to do this. Live!! This is, by far the best concert of DT, almost in the category of its prerunners, Rush, with Rush in Rio. If you are a truly fan of progressive music, not necessarilly of DT, this is a must for you. You see Staind, System of a Down, Velvet Revolver and then you see DT, you went like, what's all this new rock shi$%# about? Think about a minute. Why do you think that almost all of the '80's groups are in stage and in the industry again? Because Alternative and New Rock could not make it better. DT is one of those groups without era and they need to be praised for that, for the outstanding and melodic music, and for make all rock fans really happy. Thanks J LaBrie, J Petrucci, M Portnoy, J Myung, Jordan Rudess, K Moore and Derek Sherinian.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: Dream Theater's latest DVD release "Live At Budokan" is there definitely their best yet. Filmed at their show at the legenday Budokan in Japan from the Train of Thought world tour this is just more proof of why they are some of the best musicians in the world.

The video is perfectly clear and the sound is very sharp.The DVD starts off with "As I Am" which is one of the best off "Train of Thought" and is played flawlessly and outdoes the album version. They play more tracks off of that album which are all done almost perfectly. "Beyond This Life" from the "Scenes..." album has an unbelievable solo that needs to be seen to be understood of the greatness. Another stand out is the "Instrumedley" which combines many of their instrumentals combined in one song and just shows you how amazing they really are. The classic "Pull Me Under" is also performed here amazingly and "In The Name of God" is played as an encore.

The second disc of this set contains a documentary of the Japanese Tour called Riding The Train Of Thought which is very interesting to watch to see what they do to prepare for shows etc.. Also John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess give you a mini tour of their equipment which is nice to see. Mike Portnoy's drum solo is also excellent and its nice to see how he gets fans involved with it. The Opening Video to the show gives you a brief history of the band and there is a multiangle version or the Instrumedley.

Overall if you are a Dream Theater fan or into progressive hard rock or metal than you should definitely look into this. Also highly recommended to guitar players.

Rating:
Summary: Their Best Live Performance Yet
Review: It is amazing to see Dream Theater live for the first time. What's awesome about this DVD is that the camera focuses in on Petrucci during his solos so the viewer can see just how incredible his solos are, and also how he can make them look so easy. One thing about this performance that is both good and bad is that the songs aren't that much different than the studio version. This is bad because what seperates live albums from studio albums is the energetic performance and the extended solos from the musicians, but with DT you get that all in a studio album. This is also good, depending how you look at it, because it attests to how talented each of the members are. For example, the harmonized guitar parts are still done live, which I have never seen before. Every other guitarist that I have seen just plays one of the guitar parts, but Petrucci plays both parts to create the same harmony heard in the studio version. The biggest problem with this album is the track selection. It was a smart idea to only include their newer songs since the older ones can be found on one of their other live DVD's. I just think that their new albums could have been represented better. They should have included "Fatal Tragedy" and "Blind Faith." It also would have been incredible to see "The Glass Prison" live, I am furious that they did not include that. But that is just a small complaint because the majority of the songs are good, especially "Instrumedley" which combines all of their instrumentals along with two from their Liquid Tension Experiment albums. Also, musicians will love the extras where Petrucci and Rudesss show off all of their gear. A must have for any DT fan or musician, (I'm not a musician and I loved this) especially since it is such a low price.

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: It makes me really sad that Dream Theater is one of the most underrated bands in the world. Despite its enormous talent, Dream Theater rarely attract large audiences and this is a paradox.

This is irrefutably the best live performance I have ever seen. I have seen many live performances but this is my favorite one. All performances by Dream Theater have so far been excellent but this one exceeds all expectations. The reason for this is the impeccable audio quality on this DVD. As always, John Petrucci, John Myung, Mike Pertnoy and Jordan Rudess perform extremely well. You may have noticed that I did not include James LaBrie in this list. I risk making some people angry but I feel the following has to be said. James LaBrie is simply not that good a singer. Given that the other members mentioned above are all extremely gifted musicians, one would expect that the singer be equally or at least almost as good. Unfortunately, this is not the case, LaBrie does not even come close.
I guess what I am trying to say is that Dream Theater would have been much more popular if they had a more competent singer.

Aside from this minor point, this DVD is worth every penny. It is progressive rock at its best! To sum up, this is without a doubt the most impressive live performance to date. In point of fact, words are not enough to describe this unprecedented concert. Add this masterpiece to your DVD collection, trust me you will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a Must-Have Live DVD
Review: The king of all bands, Dream Theater, managed to record on April 26th, at the Budokan, their best live show ever. There are some key aspects that make this DVD so special.
1) The most important point, John Myung can be heard. Dream Theater has never released material in which you can clearly listen to Myung's mad bass playing. I don't know why, but they are the only progressive band I know who does that. Other similar (but never as great as DT) bands like Symphony X and Spiral Architect DO give various opportunities to their bass players to show what they can really do. If I am not mistaken, Dream Theater has only given two solos in their studio albums which is an irrespect to such a musician.
2) LaBrie's singing is flawless. He has always been criticized because he can not hit some high-pitch notes in their live presentations. Well, in Budokan, he proves all of those people wrong.
3) Instrumedly. Definitively a highlight. It is a fusion of all of the instrumentals Dream Theater has ever done, plus Paradigm Shift and Universal Mind from Liquid Tension Experiment. Majestic.
4) A down-side. The Japanese crowd is cheerful enough. Don't expect a Rush In Rio type of audience. This one is disciplined, attentive, and respectful, which reflects the culture of Japan.
In conclusion, I would have changed the repertoire a little bit. I mean, why play New Millenium over Fatal Tragedy, and other specific cases. The John's, Mike, and Jordan are impeccable. So is LaBrie. The second DVD is full of enterating material. The camara job is superb. The direction, done by drummer Mike Portnoy, is as good as it gets.
The bottom line, Live At Budokan is "one hell of a show" (James LaBire).

Rating:
Summary: If you will only buy 1 Dream Theater DVD, GET THIS ONE!
Review: this DVD show Dream Theater (DT) live at the historical japanese avenue, the Budokan, at their finest. i think DT have taken their music at another highest after having Rudess on keys, he is much more than just a keyboardist, combining speed, technique, musicality, together with Petrucci, Portnoy and Myung, they expanded their musical level to somewhere that no one had done before. and this DVD show what the best the fivesome can probably do (not the last one, Metropolis 2000, though that feature Rudess as well but the whole DVD is badly produced).

the concert footage consist of 18 songs, 5 from the lastest ablum "Train of Thought" (As I Am, This Dying Soul, Endless Sacrifice, Stream of Consciousness and In the Name of God), and some old stuff, also a new "Instrumedley", a combination of some their highly technically instrumental medley from their old songs, neck-breaking solo, breathe-taking unison, head-turning drum works, what else can i say about this... i really can't find one second from the performance that's not satisfying, their performance is no doubt at their finest.

and on disc 2, you'll be amazed that they are much more that a player/musician, they have so much knowledge on their instrument, Rudess's "turnable" keyboard setup is mind blowing, he even considered about the emergency power supply, and Petrucci's guitar setup is just as stunning, he take care of his instrument to a very subtle detail, not to mention Portnoy monster drumkit and his drum solo......

DT is no doubt one of the most influential band nowadays, not only because their superb music and musicianship, but also on their devotion on their instruments, fans and the business as well... this DVD will become one of the classic live DVD of all time, don't miss it!!