Dream Theater began their latest, belated tour of Australia last night in Adelaide at Hindley Street Music Hall.
Aside from shows played in Australia limited to Sydney and Melbourne in 2014 and 2017, and with the cancellation of shows planned for 2020, this is the first time Dream Theater has played other Australian states in over 15 years, during which founding drummer Mike Portnoy was absent from the line-up.
His return, a new album and a tour are what we have been waiting for. A recording of Bernard Herrmann's 'Prelude' (from the 'Psycho' soundtrack) is played before a curtain decorated with a stylised 'XXXX', indicating the 40th anniversary of the band [Ed's note: 40 in Roman numerals is XL], that had been occluding the view of the stage drops to reveal the band who commence their set with a track from their second album 'Images And Words', 'Metropolis Pt. 1: The Miracle And The Sleeper'.
On either side of the stage are the the two members of the band that have weathered through all the various line-ups to date, guitar wizard John Petrucci (emphasis on wizard) on stage left and steadfast bassist John Myung on stage right. Mike Portnoy is firmly embedded in a mammoth central drum setup with Jordan Rudess on keys to his right.
Frontman James LaBrie pounces onstage to give an introductory vocal, but then withdraws backstage giving the instrumentalists time to establish their virtuosity.
Throughout the evening (10 February) LaBrie continuously leaves then returns, energised, jumping around the stage like a kid, lording over the audience as he sings into a microphone attached to a branded stand for the first half of this evening.
Given the multitude of instrumental passages within the band's convoluted songs, it makes me wonder if this is LaBrie's modus operandi during the recording process.
Any rift between LaBrie and Portnoy is long forgotten, LaBrie calling the show a celebration of the band's 40 years and the return of Portnoy, who left in 2009, needing a break but was subsequently replaced for the next 13 years only reuniting with the band late in 2023.
The band play through the first third of concept album 'Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory', culminating in the sinister workout of 'Scene Three: II. Fatal Tragedy', initially with just LaBrie and Rudess alone before the rest of the band joined in, before Rudess took the spotlight with some cartoonish vamps on a keyboard that is able to be turned 360 degrees and tilted down toward the audience.
The song built to a climax with Rudess competing with Petrucci's showy, virtuosic shredding. The remainder of this first retrospective set is given over to individual album tracks, starting with 'The Mirror'(including a section of 'Lie') then 'The Enemy Inside', before the influence of Pink Floyd is clearly acknowledge during 'Peruvian Skies' when 'Wish You Were Here' is seamlessly weaved into the performance.
"Are you ready for this?" calls LaBrie in the opening to the straight-ahead metal workout 'As I Am', and he was accompanied by Portnoy on backing Cookie Monster vocals to bring this first set to an end.
After a short intermission, the second set opens with the volume turned up to 11 and a bombastic performance of the instrumental opener 'In The Arms Of Morpheus' from their latest, 16th studio album 'Parasomnia'. LaBrie announces: "We're going to play a big chunk of it," and they continue with a near run-through by performing six of the eight songs.
The respite of the instrumental interlude 'Are We Dreaming?' leads into 'Bend The Clock' during which LaBrie head-bangs, riding a ghoul-headed mic stand like a pony while Petrucci shreds, his fingers spidering across the fretboard as he solos.
After the opening bombast of 'The Shadow Man Incident', there is what sounds like an excerpt of Holst's 'Mars, The Bringer Of War', and as the song progresses in the extended instrumental passages perhaps a hint of Dick Dale's 'Misirlou'.
For the opening of the expansive multi-part 'Octavarium', Rudess is left alone onstage, like the Phantom of the Opera at his organ, the song initially sounding like Pink Floyd's 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', before he switches to pedal-steel slide guitar as the rest of the band rejoin him.
The pieces become progressively heavier, dramatically intensifying as the song comes to a close.
The encore begins with lighting supplied only from audience phones as the crowd join LaBrie on vocals for a song for the dearly departed, a call-back to the earlier opening sequence of songs from 'Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory', the penultimate 'Scene Eight: The Spirit Carries On', an uplifting, true moment of camaraderie between band and audience alike.
There is a return to form with the finale, their admitted 'greatest hit', the even more uniting 'Pull Me Under', another song from 'Images And Words' to bookend the set, LaBrie remaining onstage to contribute some interpretive dance moves while the audience en masse sing-along to every line.
This was a rare opportunity to see a band of the stature of Dream Theater, in a relatively intimate setting compared to where they may usually play elsewhere; and to end on a high after three hours (excluding a short intermission) was what this audience wanted.
This is not a band slowing down or mellowing in their later years, so let's hope that LaBrie keeps to his parting promise to "see you in the next round".
