PROGRESSIVE NATION 2008 (Dream Theatre, Opeth, Between the Buried & Me & 3): Vancouver, Orpheum Theatre, 05/06/08
This show sold out a few weeks ago but “drops” occurred on Friday evening and I just happened to be logged onto ticketmaster at the right time because I got a pair of 8th row centre tix (on the aisle). Disco Girl and I got to the autograph session line-up at Tom Lee Music just after 4pm. The line was very long, extending to Granville & Nelson. We struck up a conversation with a fan named Patrick. He didn’t have tix because of the fast sell out. So I told him about how I usually deal scalpers down below face value right before the show and that I’ve saved about $400 in the past two years doing this. He was surprised and said that he’d have to go to the closest ATM machine and get some money after the signing. We waited in line for about an hour and the line moved VERY slowly. The session was supposed to be over at 5pm but we met and got pics with Mike about 5:30pm. So I’m assuming the session lasted until probably 6pm? Anyways, I overheard Mike talking to a fan in front of us in line that they were going to do the full 2 hour set instead of the 90 minute set they’d been doing so far on this tour. And as soon as I heard that I inadvertently let out a “Yessssssss!” Mike immediately looked in my direction… LOL! When we met Mike I told him that I know DT can gross more back east (Montreal, Toronto & Quebec City), since they didn't play there this year...and that we were very thankful that they played here instead. Mike said, "No problem...we're looking forward to it." There was some stupid policy where the store wouldn’t allow you to take the pic yourself, so the employee that did, I later found out, didn’t do a very good job and consequently my pic didn’t come out that well, but her pic did.
From the opening lines of
Constant Motion, I’ve never experienced a crowd go more apeshit for a band than on this night! The setlist was fucking phenomenal. EVERY member was ON last night, it was insane! Even though there were no songs from
SDOIT or
WD&DU, I loved it! The sound mix was near perfect - there were only a few times where I couldn’t quite make Jordan’s piano accompaniment and John’s arpeggios. James’ vocal mix was so perfect, that I just couldn’t believe it. I noticed Mike playfully throwing his stick to his tech on stage left and then a few seconds later, his tech throwing the same one (?) back. This happened a few times and Mike was actually playing one-handed during parts of the first few tunes! The highlight for me was definitely JR & JP’s unison line run in
Panic Attack & of course since
Awake is my favourite album,
Erotomania &
Voices - absolutely perfect! The only mistake I heard was when JM played one of the harmonic notes in the intro of As I Am, wrong. But no big deal. It was awesome to see DT stretch out a bit and improvise when JP and JR (can you say Zen Riffer?!) came out towards the front of the stage and dueled during
Take The Time. On the screen, in the encore break, “The Dark Nintendo Night” was probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in awhile. Super Mario has apparently had a make-over and is now Mike Portnoy! Since this was DT’s first Vancouver appearance, Mike said at the end of the show that, “…it won’t take as long to come back here!” And judging by the turnout and the fan reaction, they definitely will. In fact, they’ll be able to fill about 75% of the Orpheum (2,800) by themselves, if they play this venue again next time, instead of 2/3, like last night.
We were very impressed with 3, especially the singer/acoustic guitarist. Jesus Christ, did they kill! Between the Buried & Me didn’t impress - too much cookie monster vocals and not enough melody. Opeth didn’t impress us that much even though I thought they would (I own the Roundhouse Tapes), for some of the same reasons why we didn’t get into BTB&M…not enough melody. The balance of their setlist wasn’t right IMO. But most fans wanted these two bands to play longer and expressed their disappointment that they didn’t. It was very funny when the aisles in the first ten rows filled up and became a major cluster during Opeth’s set. It took security a long time to even notice this and several minutes to clear the aisles. And even then, some fans came back down! LOL!
The demographic last night was quite diverse. I even saw one fan with a Motley Crue t-shirt! But this is prog after all, which obviously demands open-mindedness. I ran into several fans from local record stores and the local metal community. It felt like a family gathering or something.
I'd like to say to the fan a few rows in front of us on the aisle, who jumped up and caught Mike's stick...that I believe Mike was aiming for my girl, not you.
She's less than five feet tall, so it would be hard for her to jump up and grab it.
At the merch booth, I bought a
Systematic Chaos shirt ($35), the official bio (paperback), "Lifting Shadows" ($20) and the
When Dream & Day Reunite DVD ($25).
I hope Patrick got in alright…
What a fantastic night!
SETLIST (115 minutes):
(Intro Video / 2008: An Ant Odyssey)
CONSTANT MOTION
PANIC ATTACK
STRANGE DEJA VU
THROUGH MY WORDS
FATAL TRAGEDY
EROTOMANIA
VOICES
FORSAKEN
AS I AM
THE MINISTRY OF LOST SOULS
TAKE THE TIME
Encore:
MEDLEY
I. TRIAL OF TEARS
II. FINALLY FREE
III. LEARNING TO LIVE
IV. IN THE NAME OF GOD
V. OCTAVARIUM
_________________
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, but anyone else sure can, if they are in the neighbourhood!
