(Report by Julia, DEU)
Boring school had passed pretty fast on that first of October. I was so excited to see DREAM THEATER that day that I didn't gave a shit to what the teachers were telling me. I met up with a friend at 4:00 pm in front of the AWD Hall in Hannover where the concert was moved to ( instead of The Capitol ) to save our places in the front rows. Only a few guys were already there, but they were pretty many in face to the horrible weather: it was raining like hell and in a few minutes we were totally wet already. But we were all in a geat mood, looking forward to the DREAM THEATER concert. Standing there in the rain we were having some beers, talking about the new DREAM THEATER album - Systematic Chaos - and just havin a good time.
Around 7:00 pm the doors opened and were let in. My friend and I managed it to the second row, standing right in front of the bass player's place. After having a couple of more beers, the support act SYMPHONY X entered the stage. Some of the guys around me were totally amazed but those who were waiting for DREAM THEATER weren't...The music was nothing but drums and guitars, though the guys were definetely able to play. After a while my ears started aching...and this really means something if my ears can't stand the loud sound of Rock' n 'Roll. I guess I wasn't the only one who was happy when SYMPHONY X left the stage! Anyway, the band wasn't too bad, just not my kind of music. I was really looking forward to see DREAM THEATER! In a break some stagehands were working on stage, putting on DREAM THEATER's equipment and some decorative stuff like giant ants and a traffic light. It looked absolutely great!
During this break the traffic light showed a red light. Then the first tones of DREAM THEATER started and the light switched into yellow, the audience was screaming, yelling, totally crazy...When the light turned green the DREAM THEATER guys entered the stage. The fans around me gave those guys a great welcome. The AWD Hall was brewing, noone was standing still, we were all screaming, just carried away by DT's opener Constant Motion. The mood was really great, the guys were playin' like hell broke loose and presented an amazing show. Though the AWD Hall wasn't full anyway (something around 3,000 people) and the sound ain't been that good as well, frontman James LaBrie showed up as an excellent singer, John Myung was a little less static than in the videos and performed an amazing show on his bass guitar (just the way he always used to do), Mike Portnoy kept on beating his drums at the limit of possibilities, John Petrucci was playing his guitar like it was the most human thing on earth to move his fingers like they were dancing on it and Jordan Rudess let his fingers do the job as a keyboardplayer in an absolutely fascinating way.
The absolute highlights were a 2001 Kubrick tribute in the intro of Constant Motion, the guitar/keyboards duel in Surrounded, when Jordan came to the middle of the stage with a small portable keyboard, the video at the instrumental part of The Dark Eternal Night and the complete In The Presence Of Enemies take.
Alltogehter, there are only two points I didn't like at this concert: some older and more calm songs would've been great and James LaBrie could've been on stage a little more often and sung some more shorter songs, like Peruvian Skies. His voice wasn't heard too often that night...unfortunately...I really have to admit that this was my first DREAM THEATER concert, but after this I'm absoluetely sure that it wasn't my last...
SYMPHONY X setlist:
1.Intro
2.Set The World
3.Domination
4.Serpents
5.Paradise Lost
6.Inferno
7.BAB
8.Sins And Shadows
9.Sea
DREAM THEATER setlist:
1. Constant Motion
2. Panic Attack
3. Blind Faith
4. Surrounded (extended)
5. The Dark Eternal Night
6. Home
7. Scarred
8. In The Presence Of Enemies
9. Shmedley Wilcox (encore):
- I.Trial Of Tears
- II. Finally Free
- III. Learning To Live
- IV. In The Name Of God
- V. Octavarium (Razor's Edge)
