Performers: Devin Townsend, Dream Theater
Venue: Zagreb / Mala dvorana Doma sportova / Croatia
Date: Friday, 27 May 2022
The concert pulse finally surged back to life through this May. Bands are rushing. Everyone’s on the road. Across the entire world. Behind on promoting new albums — or rather, albums that came out while the planet was ‘under lockdown’. That fate also caught up with the American progressive metal legends and, in many ways, architects of the genre, Dream Theater. Fresh album »A View From The Top of the World« in tow, at the southeastern edge of Europe, with a stop in the Croatian capital that marked one of the final dates on a winding-down tour.
This concert visit wasn’t just a must-attend because Dream Theater were playing. The event was special because the opening slot of the spectacle belonged to none other than Canadian musical genius Devin Townsend. Devy trimmed his backing band down a bit this time around. He went back to the ‘project’ format, even though he’s performing under the Devin Townsend banner. He geared the crew for full-throttle firepower. A quartet is enough. Mala dvorana Doma sportova showed no mercy to Townsend this time. The acoustics bared their teeth and everything — vocals, pre-recorded keyboards, massive riffage — felt scattershot and diffuse across a set that ran just under an hour. In short: the sound, or rather the PA, was bad. The crowd couldn’t have cared less, though. The floor was absolutely packed and breathing wasn’t exactly easy. Devin himself noted during one of the breaks that the combination of perfume and sweat was more of an unpleasant ‘bodily fragrance’ situation than something worth worshipping. Devin stays Devin. He never runs out of jokes. The opening Failure, followed by Kingdom, instantly confirmed that a proper army of his devoted fans was waiting for him in the pit. During By Your Command he had the entire crowd wrapped around his finger — every pair of hands in the air. He also delivered for all the Strapping Young Lad faithful when the quartet ripped through Aftermath. March of the Poozers announced that the end of the set was drawing near. The theatrically sharp rhythmic march paired with a predatory riff, followed by More! — which brought the crowd roaring back through the chorus — and then the show was somehow over too soon. We’re used to seeing Devin as the headline act, festival slots aside. Genuinely too short, and with the added drag of the poor PA, the man — with his crew of Stephen Flatt (guitar), James Leach (bass guitar) and Darby Todd (drums), and the most basic lighting imaginable — still managed to completely fire up his devoted fans in every way. Darby Todd? Yes. The very same drummer who recently joined the legendary Swedes Kaipa, and who in mid-October 2019 performed as part of the backing band for former Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre in our Goriška Brda.
After Devin Townsend’s set, the pit reshuffled noticeably — which made it clear that many people that evening had come to Zagreb primarily for Devin Townsend, and that the other part of the crowd didn’t necessarily know him, or need to. Any real music connoisseur can’t resist either Dream Theater or Devin Townsend, but the stylistic gulf between the ever-restless and exploratory Canadian musician — who shows no sign of running dry on ideas at fifty — and Dream Theater is more than just tangible. So pronounced, in fact, that Devin Townsend remains, even after the Zagreb show, firmly on the list of artists who demand to be seen in at least a two-hour headline set.
Dream Theater are a machine that needs no preamble, no lengthy philosophizing. When you go to their show, you generally know what you’re going to get, what to expect. The band radiates solidity and staggering popularity — they are the biggest of the big in their genre. Let me just mention that after the concert, virtually every piece of official merch had sold out. People literally snapped up every shirt and other official tchotchke on offer. The setlist this time was particularly interesting, especially for those fans who don’t shy away from the later, post-millennium albums. The band brought back quite a bit of material that hadn’t appeared in their live shows for a good while — so the only small gripe with this concert is really its indifference toward the first five studio albums, with the performance of 6:00 in the first half serving as a pretty inadequate band-aid for fans who live and breathe the classic era.
Either way, disappointment is impossible. This time was no different. Vocalist James LaBrie showed up in excellent vocal shape and delivered the entire performance at a high level. There’s no point wasting words on the rest of the players in this ‘super titanium’ quintet. John Petrucci stood out once again, showcasing his extensive range of Ernie Ball signature guitar models throughout the show, while keyboardist Jordan Rudess gave nothing away on the theatrical front — especially after grabbing a keytar around the midpoint of the set and stepping up alongside Petrucci, giving you a fleeting sense that KK Downing and Glenn Tipton were standing right in front of you. Jokes aside, though. And if you thought it would be a regular keytar — well, that’d be far too basic for Rudess. No. Every single key on his keytar was completely black, not just the sharps and flats like on a normal keyboard. Theater has to be theater. Dream Theater, after all.
Dream Theater shows have, over the years, become a spectacle unto themselves. A scorching spectacle. The interplay of stage lighting, spotlights, and backdrops — combined with the performance itself, which doesn’t actually need any extra bells and whistles — simply takes your breath away. Before a Dream Theater show, someone always tells you that things happen there that words can’t quite capture. Language isn’t enough to properly contain everything this band offers live. And even though plenty of younger-generation progressive metal bands around the world have matched them in speed and precision — pushing the extremes of technical complexity even further — Dream Theater remain a name. A massive name. A pioneering name. And that is the core of the spectacle: with Dream Theater, the ‘impossible’ keeps becoming possible, again and again. In recent years the band has also upgraded the dynamics of their stage presence. In particular, the usually reserved and quiet bassist John Myung found himself in the spotlight multiple times — especially when he moved toward Petrucci’s position on stage right (from the audience’s perspective) and the two of them stormed through hurricanes of notes while holding center stage. The band dialed in their sound within the first twenty minutes, and the well-packed Mala dvorana Doma sportova was able to soak in the magic of this dream five-piece without limit. It did depend on where you were standing, of course. If you were closer to Petrucci’s side, Myung was a bit harder to hear. The mixing desk position remains golden in that regard.
For the grand finale in the obligatory encore, the band delivered one of the definitive highlights of the entire evening by ambitiously tackling one of the longest compositions of their career — The Count of Tuscany from their tenth album »Black Clouds & Silver Linings« (2009). Dream Theater are growing into legend. They maintain their power and carry on as if nothing in the world can stop them. An excellent concert in every respect — and, as mentioned, a particular joy for many, especially the band’s most fervent devotees, thanks to a setlist that genuinely surprised more than a few people.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Devin Townsend setlist:
1. Failure
2. Kingdom
3. By Your Command
4. Aftermath
5. Regulator
6. Deadhead
7. Deep Peace
8. March of the Poozers
9. More!
Dream Theater setlist:
1. The Alien
2. 6:00
3. Awaken the Master
4. Endless Sacrifice
5. Bridges in the Sky
6. Invisible Monster
7. About to Crash
8. The Ministry of Lost Souls
9. A View From the Top of the World
—encore—
10. The Count of Tuscany
