YTSEJAM Digest 592
Today's Topics:
1) Re: YTSEJAM digest 589
by William Wright <wwright@galaxy.galstar.com>
2) 12/1 SF ticket available
by Ralph.Torres@Corp.Sun.COM (Ralph Torres)
3) Re: YTSEJAM digest 589
by TIM LODGE SGA/PRE-LAW/MICRO/MAC LABS <LODGE_TIM@CSUSYS.CTSTATEU.EDU>
4) Accesibility of Metropolis
by ACW1066@aol.com
5) Possible answer to Dom vs LaB
by ACW1066@aol.com
6) MP of DT and MZ of FW in MD
by "L. Jason Hartman" <lhartm1@gl.umbc.edu>
7) Re: DT/FW's Drummers
by drkhoe@netcom.com (Dr. Mosh)
8) Re: Accesibility of Metropolis
by William Wright <wwright@galaxy.galstar.com>
9) Re: c-man kicks
by "Brad E. Kessler" <bekessle@mailbox.syr.edu>
10) Re: Possible answer to Dom vs LaB
by William T Bajzek <impaler+@CMU.EDU>
11) To Live Forever lyrics
by Timo Haanp{{ UPR <thaanpaa@ra.abo.fi>
12) Re: This is for the dude who wanted it..and anyone else interested!
by Jonathan Larkowski <larkows3@nes.nersc.gov>
13) Saigon Kick!!
by "GENE (FILL IN THE BLANK) SZUCS" <SZUCSEUE@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu>
14) Re: c-man kicks
by William Wright <wwright@galaxy.galstar.com>
15) DT article
by "George Bast (CS)" <bast@suntan.eng.usf.edu>
16) Houston concert review, Part 1 *** SPOILERS contained within :) ***
by Ken McWatters <KRM3611@ACS.TAMU.EDU>
17) Houston concert review, Part 2 - No spoilage, don't worry :)
by Ken McWatters <KRM3611@ACS.TAMU.EDU>
18) Re: This is for the dude who wanted it..and anyone else interested!
by Eric Moegling <emoeglin@bigcat.missouri.edu>
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Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 20:05:22 -0600 (CST)
From: William Wright <wwright@galaxy.galstar.com>
To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com
Subject: Re: YTSEJAM digest 589
Message-ID: <199411190205.UAA18800@galaxy.galstar.com>
> Might as well get "Inside Out" by Fates Warning as well, another
> excellent album.....
Heh... I already have it.
On another note... has anyone recieved their DT kit from C man yet? I got
it today and I just want to say THANKS C man... you're great!
The kit included:
A Dream Theater Postcard/Sticker
Live at the Marquee (Japanese version, the one with Another Day)
Caught in a Web single (with radio edit and album version)
and the coolest thing, Live in Toyko (which I didn't have)
I can't wait to go in and watch it. The only thing they didn't include
was the Lie single which would complete my Awake collection. But hell,
beggars can't be choosers. Thanks again Cman, the kits are great.
Now I have a question about LatM....
Why did they make two versions and does anyone know how the original line
up for that show went? At the end of Bombay on the German (I think)
release James say something like This is another one off our new album,
Images and Words, this is Surrounded and then goes into surrounded. They
play the song, appluase and then it goes into Another Hand. On the
Japenese version he doesn't say anthing after Bombay and it goes directly
to Another Day and from it to Another Hand. Since Another Day, Another
Hand, and the Killing Hand are all linked I'm guessing this is how they
did it at the show, but does anyone know for sure? And how do they edit
stuff like this? And finally, where did Surrounded fall in if the
Japanese version is the correct one (no editing.) Hope I've made myself
clear. :) See ya all later.
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Date: Thu, 17 Nov 1994 19:50:47 -0800
From: Ralph.Torres@Corp.Sun.COM (Ralph Torres)
To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com
Subject: 12/1 SF ticket available
Message-ID: <9411180350.AA11388@carpedm.Corp.Sun.COM>
Seems I've got an extra ticket for the 12/1 show in San Francisco.
The one person who I had "converted" is flaking out on me...
The law of supply and demand says that since this concert is not sold
out, I'm not going to recoup my costs. So, I figure $10 or a trade of
some "live" material would be fair.
If all else fails, I might try to bribe the local station into playing
something off Awake and offering the ticket to the first person to call
in and identify the song.... Hey, anything to get these bozos to play
DT.
Ralph
torres@Corp.Sun.COM
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 0:43:44 -0500 (EST)
From: TIM LODGE SGA/PRE-LAW/MICRO/MAC LABS <LODGE_TIM@CSUSYS.CTSTATEU.EDU>
To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com
Subject: Re: YTSEJAM digest 589
Message-ID: <941119004344.208220df@CSUSYS.CTSTATEU.EDU>
Actually, speaking of Live at the MArquee Japanese vs. European,
I've heard RUMORS of a possible KOREAN release of LatM which included
The normal 6 tunes plus another day, take the time, and learning to
live..i dont know if there is any truth to this though...
Tim
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 01:32:33 -0500
From: ACW1066@aol.com
To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com
Subject: Accesibility of Metropolis
Message-ID: <941119013153_2754191@aol.com>
Yes, anyone not interested in music as music would probably go nuts at the
polyrythms in Metropolis I. Any band that deviates from 4/4 time I can
respect, even if I might not like them. This was one of the reasons I got
into Rush at first - as a previous marching band member and drum major,
polyrythms are a fetish of mine. But to the average radio listener, it sounds
like the band is confused and is f%^&ing up trying to get back together.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 01:32:34 -0500
From: ACW1066@aol.com
To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com
Subject: Possible answer to Dom vs LaB
Message-ID: <941119013156_2754210@aol.com>
I was thiking about this "debate." Without talkig about which is betterm it
may be valuable to consider the level of "accesibility" the two voices. I
have nver seen DT live, so I am basing this solely on album production, But
with that in mind.....
Dominici's voice seems to have more of an edge to it. LaBrie's is, though
still a definite harder rock voice, smoother. My first DT experience was I&W
- Pull Me Under, and from the first line of the song, I felt that the voceals
were smooth and easy to get into.
When I got WDADU, the vocals were harder to get into. After lots of listens,
I could "accept" the vocals, and listen to them without thinking about them.
Charlie's voice just seemed edgier to me.
Now, I would hypothesize that a voice like LaBrie's woudl appeal to more
people, while Dominici's woudl depend on your tastes. Example - I love Robert
Plant, and feel he can scream like no one else - but many can't get past that
scremaing part to allow him to grow on them. This doesn't take away from him
as a vocalist.
This may be what'g going on with the debate here. A lot of people seem to be
saying "give Dominici more credit." I think those who say he is a "bad"
vocalist, just don't like his voice. Those who don't like LaBrie's voice can
get over it easier because his is smoother and less abrasive to someone who
doesn;t find it appealing.
Is this all hot air? Did I waste space with this? Does it make any sense at
all?
PEACE
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 03:52:57 -0500 (EST)
From: "L. Jason Hartman" <lhartm1@gl.umbc.edu>
To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com
Subject: MP of DT and MZ of FW in MD
Message-ID: <199411190852.DAA15194@umbc9.umbc.edu>
Pretty cool subject line up there! hehe
Anyway, I just got the latest issue of Modern Drummer and it has a
round-table discussion with metal drummers which includes Mike P. and
Mark Z. from Fates. It's about 4 in the morning here so I went spend too
much time on it but the most important part was when they were talking about
instructional videos. Someone asked Mike about it and he said he didn't like
that idea too much but he may do it someday. Then he said that John P. is
doing an instructional video!!!!!! YES!!!!!!
I don't even play guitar but I would watch that shit 24 hours a day!!!!!!!!
Anyone else here of this or have any idea when its supposed to be out?
Anyone here anything about the DT EP that is supposed to come out in
the summer and have ACOS and a "couple other songs"?
**************************************************************************
* Jason Hartman "I am the Killing Hand!" lhartm1@gl.umbc.edu *
* *
* You're fighting the weight of the world, *
* and no one can save you this time. *
* Close your eyes - you can find all you need in your mind. *
* *
* "Take the Time" - Dream Theater *
**************************************************************************
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 03:50:55 PST
From: drkhoe@netcom.com (Dr. Mosh)
To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com
Subject: Re: DT/FW's Drummers
Message-ID: <199411191150.DAA24296@netcom13.netcom.com>
>After seeing the DT/FW twice here in Texas (FW for the first time), I was
>blown away by Mark Zonder. The man is incredible! I realized that I enjoy
>his playing much more than Mike P's. Mike is definitely good and I'm not
>complaining, but his vocabulary is much more limited than Zonder's. When I
>watch Pornoy, I see somebody who is all ARMS. His fills are all "power"
>fills where he bashes everything as hard as he can-not too much finesse. Not
>that he doesn't do neat stuff, because he does, but it's a limitation I've
>noticed. Zonder, on the other hand, is all WRIST. He isn't as flashy and in
>your face like Portnoy, but his vocabulary is immense and he really uses his
>whole kit more effectively than Portnoy. And he is absolute master of the
>Hi-Hat (and his other cymbals, for that matter). Zonder's fills and
>rhythms are like what a Jazz drummer would do. Portnoy plays straight-ahead,
>in-your-face, flashy, and loud rock drumming.
>
>Oh well-just some differences I've noticed. They are both excellent.
>----------------
>Wolfman
This has been discussed before... Zonders is a technical wizard, he seems
to have a feel for doing insane stuff in-between beats. He's more in a
class like Weckl and Calutta...
Portnoy is more metal style... but alas, do not be fooled, he has some
hard core jazz riffs too...
-The Doc
-- #$%*#$*@ REAL: drkhoe@netcom.com + VIRTUAL: drkhoe@gnu.ai.mit.edu *@#$*@#$ *$%&%#$* The Dream Theater Archives: ftp.netcom.com: /pub/drkhoe/dt &*@#$*@$ **%^$#$% WWW: "ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/drkhoe/www/dthome.html" #$**@#*$ *$*$*$*# Reality Enhancement Software - Engineering Reality *$&#*#@$------------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 08:41:27 -0600 (CST) From: William Wright <wwright@galaxy.galstar.com> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Subject: Re: Accesibility of Metropolis Message-ID: <199411191441.IAA22001@galaxy.galstar.com>
> Yes, anyone not interested in music as music would probably go nuts at the > polyrythms in Metropolis I. Any band that deviates from 4/4 time I can > respect, even if I might not like them. This was one of the reasons I got > into Rush at first - as a previous marching band member and drum major, > polyrythms are a fetish of mine. But to the average radio listener, it sounds > like the band is confused and is f%^&ing up trying to get back together.
yeah... my mom heard it and she said it sounds like just a bunch of notes played randomly... like they were messed up and just kept on playing. she also said she thought it had a really bad 'tone' as she put it. I explained that they wrote it that way in the beginning because that fit the feel of the song, minor chord structures, etc... because they were talking about death and deciet... and then at the end its about love and its major and its progressing chords right up until then end and after all that minor stuff the major chords really give you a good feeling. She still didn't understand I don't think but I told her many classical composers do things like this and she said, "Oh." :) uhhhg.
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 10:22:25 -0500 (EST) From: "Brad E. Kessler" <bekessle@mailbox.syr.edu> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Cc: Multiple recipients of list <ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com> Subject: Re: c-man kicks Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9411191022.A1659-0100000@gamera.syr.edu>
I was wondering how you got that dream theater kit, it sounds amazing. I was just wondering if you could write me back at my following adress and tell me how to order something like it. It would be greatly appreciated.
My friend has the live in tokyo video, and what we did with it was connect it to his controller for his keyboard connection, and demo-ed it onto a cassette. We got all the songs on it. Straight from the video. It kicks ass.
Please write at: Bekessle@mailbox.syr.edu
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 10:35:33 -0500 (EST) From: William T Bajzek <impaler+@CMU.EDU> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Subject: Re: Possible answer to Dom vs LaB Message-ID: <4inVh5u00WB7MYJ2NB@andrew.cmu.edu>
sounds like you havent heard him sing metropolis, either
slash wrists, scarlet fever -----------william bajzek-impaler@cmu.edu crawl under your bathroom door----------http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu pumping arteries ooze their problems---------------.edu/usr/wb2a/home through the gap the razor tore---------deal-with-it-----------derrick
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 18:01:50 +0200 (EET) From: Timo Haanp{{ UPR <thaanpaa@ra.abo.fi> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Subject: To Live Forever lyrics Message-ID: <199411191601.SAA19906@aton.abo.fi>
Someone asked about the lyrics to To Live Forever. These are probably totally wrong, but perhaps someone else can now try to correct all my mistakes. :)
Dream Theater: (To Live) Forever ================================
If I'd started from the top, And worked my way down, There'd be no reason to live forever, To live forever.
The starvation has turned me outside in, And the wind has blown Me halfway across the world, Across the world.
Why was I born in an age of distrust? I'd offer some chance for a world of grief. It'll always stay the same, Always be the same.
Until I show desire for revenge My heart never wants to mislead As long as I'll have to die under your tempt Then there is no reason to live forever.
Until I show desire for revenge As long as I'll have to die under your tempt If I have to die under your tempt Then there is no reason to live forever.
=================
I have at least 10 different versions of the song, and they are all different. I tried to compromise a bit. Most of this comes from the Lost in the Sky version, but there's also a bit of vocalist auditions, DoE, LiT and DOL thrown in. :)
-- ( Timo Haanpaa ) For more information about me, try ( ) thaanpaa@aton.abo.fi ( http://www.abo.fi/~thaanpaa )
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 94 9:19:07 PST From: Jonathan Larkowski <larkows3@nes.nersc.gov> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Subject: Re: This is for the dude who wanted it..and anyone else interested! Message-ID: <9411191719.AA35242@nes.nersc.gov>
Not to be hypercritical, but has anyone ever told you that you tab upsidedown, Mr. Moegling?
Lark
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 16:27:14 -0400 (EDT) From: "GENE (FILL IN THE BLANK) SZUCS" <SZUCSEUE@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Subject: Saigon Kick!! Message-ID: <01HJO4KC4F12006TFD@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu>
Saigon Kick is a VERY intense band, with a crunch that will make your teeth rattle. The real experience is seeing them live!! They are real crowd pleasers (saw them twice, last time was about three weeks ago). I HIGHLY recommend listening to these guys. Their newest release WATER is a real alternative for their traditional style of hard rock, and in my eyes, a real step foreward
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` Eugene E. Szucs | "It is a new age. It requires a new evil. And I am that University of Dayton | new evil. I am the vampire for these times." -Lestat---- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Everything's blue in this world. . . The deepest shade of mushroom blue. . . All fuzzy. . . spilling out of my head" -Nine Inch Nails "The Downward Spiral" +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+===+=+==== Gene's subliminals for the week: Go see "Interview With The Vampire" Buy Dream Theater's Awake Eat Your Mother Twilight Rain returns next sig :)
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 16:17:28 -0600 (CST) From: William Wright <wwright@galaxy.galstar.com> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Subject: Re: c-man kicks Message-ID: <199411192217.QAA24553@galaxy.galstar.com>
> I was wondering how you got that dream theater kit, it sounds amazing. I > was just wondering if you could write me back at my following adress and > tell me how to order something like it. It would be greatly appreciated. > > My friend has the live in tokyo video, and what we did with it was > connect it to his controller for his keyboard connection, and demo-ed it > onto a cassette. We got all the songs on it. Straight from the video. > It kicks ass.
well... it's not available... it was for a contest c man held here a while back. sorry...
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Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 22:12:34 -0500 (EST) From: "George Bast (CS)" <bast@suntan.eng.usf.edu> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Subject: DT article Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.941119221102.17140A-100000@suntan>
This is the DT article I mentioned a few days back. Hope you enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Top of article has a cool picture of the four guys standing in the tunnel that was in the Lie video.]
"Dream Theater - Bucks The Trend" by Peter Atkinson. [Taken without permission from JAM ENTERTAINMENT NEWS - November 11, 1994.]
Seems kind of ironic that at a time when so many alternative bands are scoring big hits playing music rooted in a minimalist philosophy a band like Dream Theater would be poised to join them in the ranks of stardom.
Dream Theater's progressive metal is the very antithesis of much of what is so popular these days - the pop flavored punk of Green Day and Offspring, the mopey thunder of Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, or the understated dynamics of Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins. Where simplicity and directness are the order of the day, Dream Theater offers a throwback to the '70s when bands like Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Yes were scripting 20-minute epics and dazzling all with their awesome displays of instrumental prowess.
Some consider the mega-successful Queensryche "progressive," but its richly-orchestrated mood pieces are kid stuff when compared to the dizzying likes of Dream Theater's wildly complex, rollercoaster opuses. Still, Dream Theater scored a modest hit with its last album, IMAGES & WORDS, and has gained a rabid fan base through ceaseless touring that grows exponentially with its much-anticipated third album, AWAKE.
"Definitely the timing for the last record and this record is great because America is going through this trend of the whole Seattle scene, and everything is starting to sound alike," opines Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy from his home in the meadowlands of Hackensack, N.J. "Anything that doesn't sound like that - as untrendy as it may seem, it's actually a breathe of fresh air for people out there."
"All the trends, they come and go," he continues. "It's apparent that it's already happening with the Seattle scene, with Nirvana falling apart and Alice in Chains look like they might be breaking up and Pearl Jam just lost their drummer. It looks like that whole period is now sort of passing. Hopefully we'll never be part of a trend; that's what will hopefully help us last. I think if anything it will just bring back some musicianship and a little bit of thought."
Thought and musicianship; ingredients that are Dream Theater's great strengths. While the band's music is firmly rooted in spectacular instrumentation and epic scale, it's also evenly balanced with inviting melody, moments of somber simplicity and good old straight-ahead crunch. The songs are also tightly scripted to incorporate all of these ingredients - especially on AWAKE - to bedazzle and entertain at the same time.
Musical masterbation it certainly is not, though with seven tracks clocking in at over 6:30 and the inclusion of a 20-minute long trilogy "A Mind Beside Itself" made up of "Erotomania," "Voices" and "The Silent Man," it might seem tempting to dismiss AWAKE as such. But with the record's incredibly smooth flow and variety of moods, the pomposity and indulgence factor is all but negated.
"We all have our formal training grounds, we all know our theory and all that stuff, but we're not like robots, like machines that just write stuff on paper," Portnoy explains. "It's important to us to be able to write from the heart and let emotion dictate where the song is going to go. So we try and balance the two. We don't want to be robots - we want to have a lot of heart. We want a balance of music from the heart and music from the mind."
"The fact that we collaborate and write everything together means that you've got all these different aspects coming in and different influences and inspirations, so in order to satisfy everybody's input, sometimes it takes a while to get the expressions out," he laughs. "But I think why we have so many different styles is because we work together. It's not just one-dimensional - one writer's sound or style. We don't like to pigeonhole ourselves and say 'well, we can only do this.'"
"We definitely strive to have diversity and variety in the music only because that's what we listen to. I'm sitting in my house right now where my CD collection varies from The Beatles and Pink Floyd to the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy to Pantera and Sepultura to U2. Obviously there are open minded people out there that listen to all these different kinds of music and they want to hear it as well."
It has taken some time for these people to become aware of Dream Theater, and it's largely through its own efforts that the band has gotten itself to where it is right now. The band's first album, WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE, released on the MCA subsidiary Mechanic, never went anywhere for lack of promotion and tour support and is now out of print. This left the band to sit around cooling its heels for a couple years before signing with EastWest for IMAGES & WORDS.
With better backing, Dream Theater hit the road hard, headlining its own small club shows across America. It quickly paid dividends as the shows got word of mouth going about the band, and that soon translated to better sales for IMAGES & WORDS. Months after the album's release, MTV and radio inexplicably picked up on "Pull Me Under," easily the band's heaviest track, and gave Dream Theater its first mainstream exposure.
By the time it was all over, IMAGES & WORDS had sold some 450,000 copies in the U.S. and the band had played nearly 200 shows in 17 countries over its 14-month tour. A mighty nice foundation had been built for AWAKE.
"Everything that we did from the last record was a dream come true," says Portnoy. "It was really great, way beyond our expectations, so we couldn't be any more satisfied with that. You need to tour extensively to promote a record and let people know you're out there. But the MTV exposure didn't hurt and I think radio played a big factor in helping the band. It's all shocking to us because we always figured we were going to have to do it on our own. We didn't count on any other forms of media except for us and our music. When it come around it was just like an added bonus."
Despite the MTV and radio exposure of last time, Portnoy knows Dream Theater can't bank on it this time. The band, though successful by most standards, has nowhere near the draw of, say, Aerosmith or Metallica, which can generate airplay for anything they release. Instead, the band is putting more faith in the loyalty of its audience and its own hard work to support Awake. The band was set to begin its first round of headline dates in the U.S. Oct. 20 with I Mother Earth in tow.
"We're just going to go out there on tour and we know that there are 450,000 kids in America that bought the last record, so that's a good start," the drummer notes. "The audience that we have is so fanatical, it's like the most gratifying audience that a band could want. I know that they're all gonna love the record. If MTV and radio kicks in, just like last time, it's going to be a bonus."
In the interim between the IMAGES & WORDS tour and the release of AWAKE, a number of Dream Theater fans have been keeping tabs on the band via cyberspace. The band, it seems, is quite popular on the various on-line services with its own bulletin board on the Internet and a lot of attention on progressive music bulletin boards on the others.
It was with this in mind that EastWest christened its new bulletin board on the Internet's WorldWideWeb by offering 30-second downloadable sound bites from AWAKE's first single, "Lie," two months before the record came out. It issued more sound bites from the record regularly until its Oct. 4 release.
"That was their idea, they seem to be up on all that kind of stuff whereas we aren't up because we don't have the time at home to be fiddling with the computer," observes Portnoy. "It's definitely a great idea because it's obvious with all of the bulletin boards that are out there, the fans just trading bootlegs and discussing rumors. It's a real good medium for reaching our fans."
As computer illiterate as he professes to be, Portnoy has still been able to take advantage of the information superhighway to settle several Dream Theater matters.
"Actually my grandmother has Prodigy and she was telling me about all of these bootleg tradings that were going on and somebody had a tape of a show I didn't have so I had her go in under a different name and trade a tape for me," he laughs.
And after keyboardist Kevin Moore left, the scuttlebutt on-line was that he was being replaced by ex-Yngwie Malmsteen/Dio keyboardist Jens Johannsen. The drummer found out about this and issued a statement on Prodigy with a friend's computer to set the record straight.
"We actually auditioned him but we passed on him," he says. "Basically, we're going with Jordan Rudess. We found him because he actually won all the KEYBOARD magazine polls last year - he beat Kev out in all those. He was filling in with the Dixie Dregs, but he's going to do Foundations Forum with us and if that works out he'll do the tour with us. And he may or may not be the man - we'll see - but we'll have time to feel that situation out."
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Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 0:13:39 -0600 (CST) From: Ken McWatters <KRM3611@ACS.TAMU.EDU> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Subject: Houston concert review, Part 1 *** SPOILERS contained within :) *** Message-ID: <941120001339.4062a374@ACS.TAMU.EDU>
Howdy all!
Ok, here's the first part of my concert review of the Dream Theater show in Houston. Part 1 will be concert details, so it's spoiler material I guess... so I'll put in some appropriate buffer space. :)
That should be enough, I believe. :) Alright.. as you probably know, the show was at the Tower Theater, a few miles from downtown Houston. By the way, kinda interesting... you couldn't tell in the LiT video shots, but if you stand under the marquee and look in the doors of the theater, you're facing south. I thought you'd be looking north for some reason. :) The ticket said doors open at 7 p.m., and a band did apparently start playing around 7:15 or 7:30.. but it was a band from Austin called Push Monkey (they appeared at the Foundations Forum, as I mentioned in a post a couple months ago). I got there at about 7:45 (busy with crap at school, or I would've been there earlier that afternoon.. I'm a 2 hour drive away from Houston anyway), so I only saw the last couple of Push Monkey songs. Nothing too impressive. :) They finished playing at about 8. Fates Warning came on around 8:45 or 9, and played around 45 minutes as has been the case at other shows reported on here. What can I say.. they really impressed me. :) I had only heard a few songs from an early album before... guys in a band I was in a few years ago were thinking about working up a song or two from it.. but I didn't care for it too much. I enjoyed several songs they played at the show though.. the stuff the singer said was from Inside Out impressed almost as much as anything they played too! :) I'll be adding to my CD collection soon, I'm quite sure. :)
The lights went off around 10:15 or 10:30, and the sound system was starting up some sort of sound effects and stuff, and I think a voice spoke a short narration of something I couldn't make out, right before the prerecorded intro to Pull Me Under started. By the way, this was my first DT concert, so I was pretty estatic by this point, and didn't come down until the end of the show. :) I was on the floor by the way, maybe 30 or 40 feet from the stage (I could see better than I would have up closer anyway, since the floor sloped up in terraced platforms toward the back). People immediately started crowd diving... luckily things didn't get too wild (and I was far enough back to not have to deal with it. Very little moshing either.. so I escaped without injury. :) PMU kicked ass of course.. then after it ended James welcomed everyone, and said that he wanted to thank Houston for "sellin' this fuckin' place out!" So apparently ticket sales didn't turn out to be poor... it was pretty full (I had elbow room to air drum and stuff, so it wasn't just packed or anything :) They went into 6:00, which was really awesome.. by this point I got to see the first solo playing by Derrick Sheridan (I hope that last name's right).. he's good, definitely.. he's not just duplicating Kevin's solos though, unless they're doubled with Petrucci, it seemed to me. Kinda weird how he looks like your average joe. :) Next was Take the Time... excellent as always, with a little Houston twist. Guess who came out to sing backups in the chorus? You guessed it.. the Galactic Cowboys! :) They were hamming it up a little and you could tell they and the DT guys were all having a lot of fun with it. By the way, I only know a couple of GC songs.. the only way I was sure it was them was that James thanked them after the song had finished.. :) One cool moment was during one of John Petrucci's solos.. one of the GC guys (I'm assuming the guitarist.. sorry for being so unenlightened!) came out and stood right next to him, bending over JP's shoulder to watch him solo.. and he shook his head in awe as he walked back offstage. :)
JL then identified Caught in a Web as the new single.. and of course the drum solo was in the middle of it (I think it started at a point 12 measures before the end of the instrumental middle section, and picked back up right there after the solo). Mike was verrrrrrrrry impressive, as I expected. :) Not too much changed from the LiT video.. actually it was maybe a little shorter than that one. Still excellent though! Next was The Mirror/Lie.. very cool, probably one of the best of the night. The only time that I think that samples weren't triggered as they appeared on the album was during Mirror.. both the male and female voices saying "What are you doing?" weren't triggered, I don't think. All the rest were, and there weren't any unintentional triggers either. :) I know that they had some instrumental jams, including solos by Petrucci and Derrick S., and a short one by Myung that went into an instrumental jam, but I don't really remember where they were (other than the one that extended the end of TTT).
I think they went into Another Day at this point.. not exactly sure on the song order of these last three before the epic. :) Good as expected here, then they did Lifting Shadows Off a Dream.. good too, but they got the least crowd response from this one. Finally of course came A Mind Beside Itself.. Just chilling! Erotomania was fantastic.. Voices just haunting.. Silent Man was cool, but I had hoped the crowd would be singing along more to it.. it's destined to be their biggest sing-along, I think. :) They mainly had spotlights on James, Mike and John P., with Myung and Derrick off in the background, with very little stage lights on. Kind of a funny moment.. right after James sings "...it'd be better if I swim" and Mike sweeps a hand or stick across the wind chimes, on stage he just swept a hand in mid- air, while the wind chimes were triggered by somebody else. :) James said goodnight and they went offstage, and came back on in like 2 minutes :) to do Metropolis. Just awesome... just about perfect, including that some additional pauses have been put in, differing from the studio version.
That was it.. Mike tossed out a drum head to the audience, the band hi-fived people in the front rows briefly, then they went offstage. Overall impressions: No Innocence Faded or TOWHTSTS. :( Still an excellent show though! Everyone played very, very well... the band was extremely tight. JL's vocals were just about perfect too! I don't think I heard his voice crack once.. great stage presence. Mike and JM were great as well, and DS held his own, as far as I could tell. Petrucci was fabulous! The crowd noticeably craned their necks to get a look at his fingers during the solos in Lie, Voices, TTT, etc... he played the faces guitar most of the time, and a white 7 string during The Mirror/Lie and maybe another one.
This is already long enough (I apologize for that), so since I think I've covered everything, I'll end this here. Part 2 of the review will be about what I heard out by the tour bus after the show (no show spoilers).
Ken
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Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 0:14:31 -0600 (CST) From: Ken McWatters <KRM3611@ACS.TAMU.EDU> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Subject: Houston concert review, Part 2 - No spoilage, don't worry :) Message-ID: <941120001431.4062a374@ACS.TAMU.EDU>
Ok,
This is part 2 of my Houston concert review.. it's just miscellaneous stuff, and stuff about what I heard out by the tour bus after the show, so this isn't a spoiler. First off, two notable metal/prog Houston bands' members were in attendance at the show.. the Galactic Cowboys and Kings X! As I mentioned in the concert review, GC came out and sang backup in the chorus of a certain song... :) no Kings X appearances on stage though. I saw Doug Pinnick back by the tour buses for a while.. I'm not familiar enough with them to be able to recognize either of the other two guys in person, so I can't confirm if they were all there (they probably were, though :)
I went to move my car from where it had been parked to where I could see it .. also so I could put away the shirt I'd bought and get my Awake CD cover to get signed. :) By the time I got to the buses though, there was a group of 30 or 40 people jamming up this small space between the back of one of the two buses there and a chain link fence, so I couldn't get near the front to get anything signed immediately. :/ It was ok.. I got the only signature that I desperately wanted anyway... hehe The group of people waited about a half hour, then (about 12:30) John Petrucci came out for autographs. I don't believe I _ever_ saw Derrick.. maybe he was up near the front of the buses. There was a group of maybe 20-25 people waiting up in that area, but I figured they were waiting for autographs from Fates Warning members. :) Anyway, JP signed stuff for about 10 minutes, including two guitars that people brought, which was pretty cool. A few minutes before JP left, James had come out to start signing. He stayed out signing stuff for probably about 15 minutes, which was cool of him.. he didn't seem stand-offish or anything, which was kinda what I expected from things I had heard on here. I managed to work my way up close enough to hear what James was saying a few minutes before he left.. didn't get close enough for an autograph before he took off though. :/ The only thing I caught most of was when someone asked about him coming into the band. He said that he had actually started looking into getting a solo recording deal just before he joined DT... kinda interesting.
John Myung came out briefly, for maybe 5 minutes, about midway through James' appearance.. he stood next to the back of the tour bus signing stuff, again not close enough for me to reach my CD liner notes to him. Mike came out just before James left to start signing stuff. I heard most of what he said in response to questions, etc. He said that at some point during the show, a bass drum pedal had broken... hell, I sure didn't notice if he did break one! :) Let's see.. only remember a few of the things he said in detail. Somebody asked what Space-Dye Vest was about, and I thought, great, another clueless heathen without internet access.. :) I did learn something new though, which was cool.. he said that Kevin had fallen in love with the picture of the girl wearing the space-dye vest, of course, but he said that Kevin had "taped the picture of the girl into his briefcase that he took with him all through the last tour." So if anybody got backstage last tour, maybe you could've seen the picture and didn't know you were witnessing the inspiration of a great song in the making! :) A person then asked about Kevin leaving, and Mike didn't seem too reserved about talking about it, or upset or anything. He just said that Kevin was starting to go in a different direction, into more "alternative" stuff. Kevin "just wasn't interested in playing progressive music anymore at all." He said something like, "All he was ever writing anymore was stuff like Space- Dye Vest, or Tori Amos, or Nine Inch Nails..." I think he may have mentioned Counting Crows too, but I'm not sure... he did mention a couple of other alternative bands. I think this is significant though, because it kind of contradicts what I've heard on here from recent interviews (given by James, maybe?) where it was said that Kevin wanted to go into just industrial music. Mike definitely said "alternative music" though, which is not such a narrow genre of music. Another brief conversation I remember.. someone apparently asked him about bootlegs, and Mike said that Lost in the Sky was probably his favorite, for its combination of a good recording and good double-cd packaging. I'd say he's into bootlegs! hehe One other thing I also remember.. he said something about how he had had pneumonia or something right before this tour started.. I think. I'm pretty sure he meant this tour, but I'm not positive. He did say that they almost had to cancel the tour that he was referring to because of his illness.
I was lucky that Mike waited around to sign everyone's stuff... that was very cool of him, and I wouldn't have gotten his autograph otherwise. As the crowd was thinning, a guy in front of me who was getting stuff signed said that he was "the one in your home video" I assume this is from the LiT stuff... it's been a while since I've seen it though, so I'll have to go back and see if I recognize him. But anyway, Mike said, yeah, yeah, I remember that! And this woman who had been standing nearby, who I assume is Mike's new wife, said Yeah, I remember that.. can I have _your_ autograph? :) Speaking of home videos, around this time, Fates Warnings' lead singer (again, sorry about not knowing names here) was hanging around and brought out a video camera and was filming on and off.. I was right up front at this point, so I'm probably on there if anyone ever happens to see it out there.. I was wearing a Counterparts tour shirt. :) At one point, he asked Mike if they were hitting the road that night, and he said "oh of course, we've got a 14 hour drive ahead of us." Then the singer said, "oh yeah, so do we... funny coincidence, huh?" or something like that. :) By the way, I guess that means they were heading to El Paso, not Lubbock, in response to someone who had posted asking about a possible Lubbock show.
Ok, finally, my big moment.. :) Mike said, "did I get everybody?" ...very cool of him to make sure everyone got an autograph. I said, "no, I guess I'm the last one.." though another guy next to me was kinda waving something to get signed too, so I guess I wasn't the absolute last one. :) I gave him my CD booklet, and he opened it up to sign on the in-studio shot.. the guy next to me had asked something right as I handed him my booklet (which I don't remember because I wasn't paying too much attention, eh :) ... lucky I only had one question I had wanted to ask, so I wasn't holding him up. His wife had said that the Galactic Cowboys were wanting him to get in the bus soon so they could hang out for a while. Anyway, after he answered the other guy, I asked, "so are your bass drum pedals more on the tight side or the loose side?" Lucky it wasn't a complicated question, so I didn't have trouble remembering it. :) He said his pedals are pretty loose... cool, that's my preference too! :) He then said that "well, tonight, they were on the pretty broken side, too.." :) I then left, thus ending my brush with greatness. :) I kinda wish I could've gotten across my true respect for him.. unfortunately I was too busy trying to be calm and collected though.. hehe..
That's it guys! Hope you haven't minded the length of all this... or at least I hope it wasn't too boring. :) Rock on!
Ken
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Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 00:31:23 -0600 (CST) From: Eric Moegling <emoeglin@bigcat.missouri.edu> To: ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com Cc: Multiple recipients of list <ytsejam@anthor.arastar.com> Subject: Re: This is for the dude who wanted it..and anyone else interested! Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9411200021.A13905-0100000@bigcat>
I'm a total moron!!! I was really freakin' tired when I did all that TAB that I posted...so all of it is totally wrong (yes...even the Motley Crue crap was wrong for whoever it was I sent it to!)...it's all upside down. It's been a long time since I looked at some TAB (Pull Me Under in GW last year)...and I don't do it very often! So just pretend the top line is the low E string...and the bottom line is the high E string...and that's how to play it!!! If this confuses anyone, I'll go change it and post it again...but would rather not...so please try it this once! Take care...and sorry for anyone who tried to impress their friends by playing that stuff upside down! Later!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- According to the circle of fifths, and the pattern of sharps and flats: If the alphabet continued as notes progressed (Using Major Key Sig's) (i.e A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, etc.) eventually the key of Z Major would have 4 sharps.
ERIC MOEGLING: emoeglin@freenet.scri.fsu.edu as297@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu
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On Sat, 19 Nov 1994, Jonathan Larkowski wrote:
> Not to be hypercritical, but has anyone ever told you that you tab upsidedown, > Mr. Moegling? > > > Lark > >
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End of YTSEJAM Digest 592 *************************
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