Dream Theater
Tuesday, October 29, 2024, 7:30 PM to 10:45 PM
Zagreb / Arena Zagreb / Croatia
(for an English version, please scroll down the bar)
Dream Theater are that institution of five rigorously trained music professors who have turned the music world upside down in more ways than one. In metal, definitely, but their music has also drawn in plenty of music lovers who wouldn’t even sniff metal in their everyday lives. More than an incredible body of work, it’s the jaw-dropping reinterpretation of it that gets you every time the quintet hits the stage. Two and a half years after they “smashed” the Small Hall of Dom Sportova (Devin Townsend was the opener), they came back to the Croatian capital for the fourth time as part of their 40th-anniversary celebrations, and? They blew us away all over again!
So what was so groundbreaking that the band jumped, in just two and a half years, from venues that hold a few thousand people to ones where you can cram in more than 20,000? Musically, nothing. But the original founding member Mike Portnoy is back in the lineup. Which makes it pretty reasonable to guess, among other things, that the band’s finances weren’t looking particularly rosy and a radical move was needed. The superb Mike Mangini, who more than lived up to his role as Dream Theater’s drummer, had to say goodbye after thirteen flawless years of service. In his place returned (with, among other things, no fewer than three bass drums lined up in his fortress) a face we all know very well, the guy who in 2010 shocked the music world like few others by deciding to leave the band he had co-founded.
The band thus planned the biggest world tour of its career so far. With a breathtaking new setlist, too: the honor of picking the repertoire went to none other than the returnee, their “lost and found son” Mike Portnoy. Three hours of playing, three hours and fifteen minutes including the break, and we’re there! Being there was a must. Luckily, Dream Theater are so big that you don’t have to travel especially far to catch them. Either they play Slovenia, where they’ve performed six times so far (including the Tolmin shows in 2015 and 2019), or they play Croatia. An unforgettable spectacle was on the cards. We knew it would be. It can’t be any other way when the talk turns to these great figures who are, in many respects, true musical pioneers.
That night everything fell into place. It all clicked together. Like a key in a lock! It was even one of those rare days this year with a clear, deep blue sky. Astonishingly sunny and dry. Only one thing was mildly surprising: attendance was more modest than expected. Tickets in every category, including “front of the stage,” were still available on the day of the show. But that didn’t dampen the huge excitement or the catapult-like salvos of ecstatic reactions from the crowd, ruled by very loud and fervent fans who have sworn their loyalty to the band to the grave! Zagreb hosted a colorful bunch that day, with people who had traveled from Italy’s Friuli corner, Austrian Carinthia and Styria, whole battalions of fans from Slovenia, you could hear Hungarian too, and of course a whole string of license plates from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina turned up at the venue.
So, on to the show! Right on the announced time the curtain drops. The curtain, symbolizing all 15 of the band’s studio albums released from 1989 to 2021, came crashing down, and the band took us back to 1992 and their second studio album “Images And Words,” which to this day remains the most beloved Dream Theater record among most fans. The opening “warm-up” was one of that album’s peaks, Metropolis – pt. 1: “The Miracle And The Sleeper.” In the front rows the most diehard fans went into full-on euphoria, their reactions almost giving off a sense of obsession that had swallowed all common sense. But that’s the kind of “fandom” that only shines at this scale at concerts. And that mass packed into the front carried the band on its wings, with obsessive relentlessness, through their concert marathon, or let’s say rather a progressive-metal march through Zagreb. When the missing fifth piece of the puzzle, vocalist James LaBrie, appeared on stage, the crowd literally merged with him into one in the verses.
The band put together an excellent setlist, where really the only thing missing was a track or two from the debut “When Dream And Day Unite” (1989). Two sets and then a half-hour encore! Flawless. How on earth do they remember all of it? Stormy, devastating note-showers at every turn that give you goosebumps, an atmosphere shot through with leg-and-knee-breaking rhythms, a breathtaking “coexistence” of endless solo escapades that all four of them (Portnoy, Rudess, Petrucci and Myung) jumped into together, at furious, hard-to-describe speed, in sync and with stunning control over what they were doing. And with his return, Portnoy brought back to the band the missing, fun touch of glam, which he’d polished further during his short stint with Twisted Sister while away from Dream Theater (sporty outfit, headband, and stagey crowd-pumping). Until he came back, the flash was handled by Rudess’s keyboards, which, set up at the back of the stage, once again stole the attention with their rotating rig and quirky-shaped keyboards (the famous “Continuum Fingerboard” was on stage too). One more thing. Mike Portnoy’s movable mic was handled by the same tech as at The Winery Dogs show, heh, no way, exactly a year ago, when Mike with Richie Kotzen and Billy Sheehan fired up Ljubljana’s CUK Kino Šiška on October 29, 2023!
The sprawling stage with three giant projection screens wasn’t fundamentally different from the ones the band has been using on tours for years. The band surprised with some career cuts they hadn’t played in a long time. They cast their spell right from the start, staying in the nineties for quite a while. After a detour to “Awake” with The Mirror, they nailed it with the “Falling Into Infinity” classic Hollow Years. Constant Motion, a new solo merry-go-round, was a welcome reminder of the band’s first visit to Zagreb on June 7, 2007, when they brought along the then-current album “Systematic Chaos,” where the track comes from. In a way, the title of both the album and the song explains the whole point of Dream Theater in four words. The band wrapped up the first half with a wound-up, vampiric “Train Of Thought” shrapnel, plus the popular As I Am. The break came almost out of nowhere, because the hypnotic effect of the parallel world we found ourselves in thanks to the band’s unique magic was incredibly strong. LaBrie announces a twenty-minute intermission! Just like that!
Some refreshment for parched throats and an intro film for the second half of the show lead us back into the Arena floor! This half flew by even faster than the first. The band opened by announcing the release of their sixteenth studio album “Parasomnia” (coming in February 2025) and played the dark, souped-up march Night Terror. In this part they fired up the crowd especially with the nearly mandatory Under A Glass Moon and two more “Train Of Thought” shrapnels in a row (Vacant, Stream Of Conciousness). Everything was ready for the peak. Octavarium! A 24-minute epic symphony. A progressive-metal serpent, where the band once again fully lived up to the saying that has always stuck to them when you come to their shows: “The impossible is possible”! At their gigs absolutely everything becomes possible. And yes, you have to hear (and see) it, because humanity simply hasn’t invented the words to properly capture everything that happens in this “systematically ordered chaos.” Nor do we need them. The vibe does its job! Plainly put: insane, and ripped to shreds!
For the mandatory encore, which ran a full half hour, the band kicked off with the missed pieces of one of the career-favorite albums, “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory” (1999). Anyone remember their first visit to Ljubljana on July 18, 2000, when they played that whole album at Križanke? And the lead-in to that famous Petrucci wah-wah riff in Home? Insane. All the passions came alive again! And then came that moment. LaBrie shocked the crowd by announcing that the next Dream Theater song was dedicated to Portnoy’s sister Samantha Leone Cattaneo, who had passed away just a few hours before the band’s show in Zagreb. The fantastic The Spirit Carries On followed, one of the most beautiful compositions of Dream Theater’s entire career. People lit up their phones (the analog days of lighters and matches are long gone). The atmosphere was boiling over with emotion and passion. Petrucci, who stepped up onto the drum riser next to Portnoy during this song, even shed a few tears together with Mike (Mike held up remarkably well through the whole show, keeping his composure and strict professionalism). Only the cherry on top was missing. Not hard to guess. The classic of all Dream Theater classics. Pull Me Under. A metal cannonade for the grand finale with a synth intro, recalling the author of this cult Dream Theater tune, Kevin Moore. The crowd went absolutely wild. After three hours and fifteen minutes the lights in the venue finally came on, and we had to admit it was time to go home, and that it was over.
Where did these incredible guys start and how far have they come? They never stop impressing with their elusive uniqueness and unbelievable stunts, which more than once make you think they’re not from this world. And where do they go from here? The first 40 years are behind them. Next year a new album is due, and the band is already booking summer shows for next year. We’ll surely get a chance to catch the guys on stage again soon, since a tour promoting the upcoming new album “Parasomnia” is coming. The countdown has begun, but hand on heart: anyone who missed this magnificent Dream Theater spectacle missed a sure-fire party with a band whose upcoming tours, for at least the next ten years, won’t be anything like this one. A show that will go down in the records and memories as “unforgettable and unrepeatable.” At the Zagreb concert Dream Theater proved they remain an impenetrable, unconquerable fortress on the map of world rock and metal, and that’s how it’ll stay! The status of great icons of the genre they helped get on its feet remains unshaken, and in the years to come the band will only strengthen it!
Author: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
English version:
Dream Theater is an institution of five rigorously trained music professors that has turned the music world upside down in many ways. In the metal genre, for sure, while their music has for many years also attracted many music enthusiasts who don’t even get a sniff of metal in their everyday lives. Rather than an incredible body of music, it’s the stunning reinterpretation of it that is always amazing when the quintet takes to the stage. Two and a half years after they ‘smashed’ the Small Hall of the Sportova home (Devin Townsend was the ‘opening act’), they made their fourth appearance in the Croatian capital as part of the celebration of the first forty years of their activity and they stunned again!
What was so ground-breaking that the band after only two and a half years jumped from venues that hold a few thousand people to those that can accommodate well over 20,000? In musical terms, nothing. But the original and founding member of the band Mike Portnoy is back. In this respect it becomes quite reasonable to conclude that the financial situation of the band did not reflect a particularly rosy picture thus a radical move had to be made. The superb Mike Mangini who had more than justified his role as Dream Theater’s drummer had to say goodbye after thirteen years of immaculate service. In his place returned (with, among other things, no less than three bass drums installed in his fortress) a very well known face to all of us who in 2010 shocked the music world like few others with his decision to leave the band he had co-founded.
The band has thus embarked on the biggest world tour of its career. With a breathtaking new setlist – the honour of choosing the repertoire goes to the band’s returning ‘lost and rediscovered son’ Mike Portnoy. Three hours of full play with a break of fifteen minutes and there we are! It was a must to be there. Luckily Dream Theater is so big that you don’t have to drive very far to see them. Either in Slovenia where they have played six times so far (including the Tolmin concerts in 2015 and 2019) or in Croatia. It promised to be an unforgettable show. We knew it would be. It cannot be otherwise when it comes to these in many ways great artists even when it comes to musical pioneering.
That evening all pieces fell into place. They fit together into one. Like a key in a lock! It was even one of those rare days this year that radiated a clear celestial blue. It was surprisingly sunny and dry. Only one thing was mildly surprising. The concert attendance was more modest than expected. Tickets in all categories including ‘front of the stage’ remained available on the day of the concert. However, this did not diminish the great enthusiasm and catapulting salvos of enthusiastic feedback from the audience, which was dominated by very vocal and passionate fans of the band who had sworn their allegiance to the grave!
Zagreb hosted a large crowd that day, travelling from the Friuli end of Italy, Austrian Carinthia and Styria, whole battalions of supporters from Slovenia, Hungarian was also spoken, and of course there were many cars from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
So let’s go to the concert! At the appointed time the curtain that symbolised all 15 of the band’s studio albums released from 1989 to 2021 has fallen, and the band took us back to 1992 to the second studio album “Images And Words”, which to this day remains their most popular album among most of its followers. So let’s ‘warm up’ with one of the highlights of that album – Metropolis – pt. 1: “The Miracle And The Sleeper”. In the front rows the most ardent were creating a real euphoria and almost evoked a sense of obsession with their reactions that took all common sense. But this is a ‘phenomenon’ that only shines on such a scale at concerts. And this mass crammed in the front kept the band on the wings with obsessive relentlessness through its concert marathon, or rather, let’s say, a progressive-metal march through Zagreb. When the missing fifth piece of the puzzle, vocalist James LaBrie, appeared on stage, the audience literally became one with him in the verses.
The band provided a great setlist from which only one song from the debut album “When Dream And Day Unite” (1989) was actually missing. Two parts and then a half-hour add-on! No mistake. Where do they manage to remember all this? The stormy and devastating shaking of the notes at every turn that makes your skin crawl, the shooting of the atmosphere with rhythmics that break your legs and knees, the breathless ‘coexistence’ of endless solo escapades into which all four of them entered with a humongous and hardly describable speed, in harmony and with a stunning control of what they were doing together (Portnoy, Rudess, Petrucci and Myung) with Portnoy’s return bringing back to the group the missing and fun moment of glam that he had perfected in his brief association with Twisted Sister during his time away from the Dream Theater (sporting an outfit, a headband around his head, and a performance-style of audience incitement). Until his return the glamour was provided by Rudess’s keyboards, which, in their position on stage in the background once again stole the limelight thanks to their swivelling layout and oddly shaped keyboards (the famous ‘Continuum Fingerboard’ was not missing from the stage). More of this. Mike Portnoy’s moving microphone was handled by the same technician,, as during The Winery Dogs’ concert, heh – isn’t it true, exactly a year ago, when Mike, with Richie Kotzen and Billy Sheehan, rocked Ljubljana’s CUK Kino Šiška on 29/10/2023!
The spacious stage with three giant projection screens was not much different from the ones the band has been using for many years. The band surprised us by performing some career highlights they hadn’t performed for quite some time. In doing so it cast a spell right from the start having not moved on from the 90s era for quite some time during which it was the Hollow Years classic “Falling Into Infinity” that nailed the nail on the head after the outing on the “Awake” album with The Mirror. Constant Motion, a new solo carousel that gratefully recalled the band’s first visit to Zagreb on 7.6.2007, when the band brought there the then-current album “Systematic Chaos” from which the track, actually in a way after the title of both the album and the track explains the poem about Dream Theater in four words. The band closed the first part with the windingly vamped “Train Of Thought” shrapnel the otherwise popular As I Am. The pause came almost unexpectedly because the hypnotic effect of the parallel world we found ourselves in with the band’s unique magic was incredibly powerful. LaBrie suddenly announced a twenty-minute break!
A refreshment for parched throats and an introductory film to the second part of the concert takes us back to the Arena stalls! This one went even faster than the first. The band opened by announcing the release of their 16th studio album “Parasomnia” (to be released in February 2025) and performed the dark and charged chorus of Night Terror in phrasing. In this part the band fired up the crowd especially with the almost obligatory Under A Glass Moon and two more “Train Of Thought” shrapnels (Vacant and Stream Of Conciousness). Everything was ready for the climax. Octavarium! 24th minute epic symphony. A progressive-metal snake, where the band actually justified the saying that always sticks when you come to their gig: “The impossible is possible”! Everything becomes possible at their concerts. And yes. This is something that needs to be heard and seen because the words to correctly approximate everything that happens in this ‘system-regulated chaos’ have simply not been invented by mankind yet. Nor are they needed. The vibration does its job! To put it bluntly – ‘painfully and utterly exhausted’!
In the obligatory half-hour-long encore, the band started with the missing points of one of the album favourites of their career “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory” (1999). Does anyone else remember their first visit to Ljubljana on 18th July 2000 when they played this album in its entirety at Križanke? And the entrance to that famous Petrucci wah wah riff in Home? Crazy. All the passions were alive again! And then there was that moment. LaBrie shocked the audience by announcing that they were dedicating the next Dream Theater track to Portnoy’s sister Samantha Leone Cattaneo, who had passed away just hours before the Zagreb show. The fantastic The Spirit Carries On followed – one of the most beautiful compositions of Dream Theater’s entire career. People switched on their mobiles (the analogue days of lighters are long gone). The atmosphere was bubbling with emotion and passion. Petrucci, who came up to Portnoy on the drum podium during the performance of this piece, even shed a few tears with Mike (Mike held himself fascinatingly throughout the concert – he kept all the upright posture of strict professionalism). The only thing missing was the icing on the cake. It’s not hard to guess. A classic of all Dream Theater classics. Pull Me Under. A metal cannonade for the grand finale with a synthesizer introduction, evoking the memory of the author of this iconic Dream Theater song, Kevin Moore. The crowd was literally in tears. After three hours and fifteen minutes, the lights in the venue came up and we had to admit that we had to go home and that it was over.
Where did they start and how far have they come, these incredible guys who never cease to amaze with their irresistible uniqueness and incredible antics that often make you think they are not of this world? And where do they go from here? The first 40 years are behind them. So a new album is due next year, and the band is already buzzing with summer shows for next year. We’ll certainly have a chance to catch the boys on stage again somewhere soon, as they’ll be touring to promote their upcoming new album “Parasomnia”. The countdown to get there has begun, but hand on heart. Anyone who missed the spectacle of the Dream Theater this time missed a sure-fire party with a band that no upcoming tour of the band will be like for at least the next ten years. A concert that will go down in the records and memories as ‘unforgettable and unrepeatable’. Dream Theater proved at the Zagreb concert that they remain an impenetrable and unassailable fortress on the map of world rock and metal and they will remain so! The status of great icons of the genre they have set on its feet remains unshaken and the band will only strengthen it in the years to come!
Authors: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
Act I
1. Prelude (orig. Bernard Herrmann) (Psycho Main Title)
2. Metropolis Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper
3. Act I: Scene Two: I. Overture 1928
4. Act I: Scene Two: II. Strange Déjà Vu
5. The Mirror (with ‘Lie’ solo outro)
6. Panic Attack
7. Barstool Warrior
8. Hollow Years (’96 demo version)
9. Constant Motion
10. As I Am
—20 min. break—
Act II
11. Orchestral Overture (Containing excerpts from every Dream Theater album)
12. Night Terror
13. This Is the Life
14. Under a Glass Moon
15. Vacant
16. Stream of Consciousness
17. Octavarium
—encore—
18. There’s No Place Like Home (Movie clip from ‘The Wizard of Oz’)
19. Act II: Scene Six: Home
20. Act II: Scene Eight: The Spirit Carries On (Dedicated to Mike’s sister Samantha)
21. Pull Me Under
22. Singin’ in the Rain (taped outro, orig. Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown)
