Review of Dream Theater: Live At The Budokan

Introduction

I have to admit I have absolutely no idea who Dream Theater are, and nobody I`ve talked to - including my metal-head friends - knows who they are so I`m off to a bad start with this one. Mind you, this is the luck of the draw. I wouldn`t have chosen a Dream Theater DVD to review and they sure as hell wouldn`t have chosen a J Mark Oates to review their DVD. It all depends what falls out of the padded envelope once a fortnight.

Ah, you might say, the packaging should give you a decent starting point of reference. Nope, the review discs turned up in two cd jewel cases with a PR company label on one side and a property-of-DVD-Reviewer label on t`other.

So to write this review I`ve had to do a crash course in Dream Theater. Here goes. Dream Theater is a progressive metal rock band who have enjoyed some fame and fortune through the auspices of MTV. Vocalist James LaBrie is backed up by John Myung on Bass, John Petrucci on Guitars, Mike Portnoy on Drums and Jordan Rudess on Keyboards. Their hit "Pull Me Under" in 1992 brought them to prominence and earned them a dedicated fan base that remains with them to this day. Fans are especially keen on their live shows, of which their Budokan, Japan gig in 2004 is reproduced on this two-disc set. Dream Theater is also credited with producing one of the most influential progressive rock albums "Scenes From A Memory" in 1999. The group are embarking on a North American Summer Tour with fellow rockers Yes having just finished a European Tour.

Dream Theater: Live at the Budokan is the band`s live gig on their tour of Japan. The first disc contains 170 minutes of the concert performance, featuring sixteen tracks, while the second disc contains the twenty-five minute Japanese tour documentary "Riding The Train Of Thought", a ten-minute band history-biography shown at the start of the show, the "Instrumedley" track as a multiangle version, and individual interview pieces on John Petrucci (Guitar World), Jordan Rudess (Keyboard World) and Mike Portnoy (Drum Solo).

The gig programme consists of As I Am; This Dying Soul; Beyond This Life; Hollow Years; War Inside My Head/The Test That Stumped Them All; Endless Sacrifice; Instrumedley; Trial Of Tears; New Millennium; Jordan Rudess Keyboard solo; Only A Matter Of Time; Goodnight Kiss/Solitary Shell; Stream of Consciousness; Disappear; Pull Me Under; In The Name Of God.

Video

The concert is transferred to DVD in anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1. The stage lighting is harsh and brightly coloured which doesn`t make for the best filming conditions, but the image is sharp and lacks the usual stage-video fuzziness that plagues this kind of presentation usually. The extras disc is in 4:3, with some sections in letterboxed 16:9.

Audio

A generally encompassing Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has been used to approximate the ambience of a live gig. The sound can also be optioned as a plain vanilla Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix.

Features

You could call everything on disc two extras. There are subtitles in English as well as multilingual subtitles.

Conclusion

Progressive rockers Dream Theater wow their dedicated Japanese fans at their Budokan gig. Fans will probably get a lot out of this two-disc set, but I`m not an in-concert video enthusiast at the best of times. Especially if I`m not familiar with the group or their music in the first place. All I can give this set is a purely subjective technical review, and I was quite impressed by the technical side of the production. From a video standpoint, the performance was well-filmed, although the penchant for dodgy handheld shots is something professional cameramen should be talked out of. From an audio standpoint, DVD offers the next-best option to being there.