Pashmina encounters Dream Theater

good god, what the hell, though? I guess as a statement of just how
far you can take "technique" in the context of heavy metal, it's worthwhile, but God, I really can't imagine actually managing to make it through an entire concert. Highlights:

a/ 2 numbers in, I'm like why do they even have a keyboard player? I
can't play for shit and I could probably hold down this gig. Later in
the set I ate my words haha.

b/ wtf is it w/the keyboard player's rotating kurzweil stand? that's
pretty fucked isn't it?

c/ why does the drummer have 4(FOUR) kick drums?

d/ most of the keyboard player's lead breaks are phrased like lead
guitar breaks, and use a similar tone. Would this band actually be
better off w/2 guitarists?

e/ if you were to ask the question "who is the best rock (x) player"
the answer would undoubtedly be "the (x) player in dream theater".
This could probably be scientifically proven.

BUT...

f/ do they EVER lay off? the drummer, who is AWESOME, and and who
additionally has the best heavy rock groove/feel I've heard - how can
I put this? Imagine a drummer who's really fiddly on the hi-hats,
like he never lets up w/the tikka-tikka-tickler-tickler-tikka-tikka
all the time he's playing. The drummer from dream theater is like
that except on the kick drum. It's a bit much.

g/ the singer looks kind of like some ultra well-groomed windham hill
type, like yanni or something.

h/ in addition, he has this weird stage lighting setup, like he has an
upward-pointing light at the front of the stage, and when he sings, he
steps into it, so his face is lit from below. I guess it would be
really effective on small stages, but at the Budokan? WTF?

i/ I liked the band best when they sounded most like Metallica. The
mettalica-ish bits of dream theater would basically blow the real
metallica into the weeds!

j/ I had this funny thought part way through, and I started laughing.
The guitarist asked "what are you laughing at?" and I said "I'm trying
to imagine what this band would sound like with mo tucker on drums"
and he sort of frowned and said "who is mo tucker?" I couldn't really
explain.

k/ and amusing alternative take on this is to imagine what other
records would sound like if the drummer from dream theater played on
them - it works best with, say, edgar froese's "epsylon in malasian
pale" or Brian Eno's "Apollo" or Popol Vuh's "Brothers of
Darkness/Sons of Light".

l/ The guitarist plays so fast his lead breaks sometime sound like
what Sinclair Spectrum or Commodore C64 game tapes would sound like if
you played them on yr hi-fi. He basically seems to know of no other
speed except "faster than you could possibly ever play in your whole
entire life, loser haha" leading to...

m/ there's this bit where he's playing a flamenco guitar break over
synthesiser orchestra. It would have been great, except he plays so
fast, it sounds like a bee.

...and...

n/ at one point our guitarist was like "LISTEN TO HIS AWESOME FUCKING
TONE" and I'm like "how?" none of his notes ever sing out or decay. I
mean, he could have the best tone in the world or the worst, and you'd
never be able to tell.

...and...

o/ his signature model music man guitar has the most ridiculous lower
cutaway imaginable. I mean, there's enough room that you could get
your leg through it & play guitar w/your foot if you wanted to.

p/ the bass player. Jesus fucking christ. Hello carpal tunnel syndrome

q/ on the whole, for all they're really fucking mightily impressive,
they're kind of athletically impressive, rather than musically
impressive. If I wanted to see a technoflashy rock concert, I'd much
prefer to see Rush or Utopia. Dream Theater can play faster than any
musician in Rush or Utopia, but it seems to me that grandstanding
their awesome technique is the nr1 aim of this band, which is valid, I
guess, but Rush and Utopia have tunes that are 10000000x better.
Which is not to say that DT have no tunes, I can remember one or two
of them, but there's nothing anywhere near as good as "Last of the New
Wave Riders" or "Subdivisions" or "Communion with the Sun" or "
Xanadu".

There you go. It's probably worth seeing this even if you're not into
this band, or their whole aesthetic, just for the sheer ludicrous
spectacle of it.