Dream Theater in Italy - 2016/03/ 17, 18, 19 (Milan) and 20 (Trieste)

[Awake77]

On Friday I was also sitting above (Prima Platea) and not in the rows below, to me the sound was OK except for the vocals which, at least in the first part, were not on par with the rest, and sounded very muddy especially on softer parts. But in terms of instrument balance and sound I was happy, it was better than the last two times I had seen them (Milan 2012 and Padua 2014). Maybe the acoustics were actually different in the different parts of the theater. I didn't hear complaints on sound from the people close to me. My wife is not a metal fan and she doesn't enjoy loud music, but she listened all time without ear plugs and she was fine.
JLB's vocals volume was very inconsistent, but I think it was more due to the different vocal approaches for each character than to voice problems. But maybe he was already a bit sick. But besides being slightly flat at times, his performance was fine on Friday.

[carloc80]

My opinion on saturday's show:

I sat on the 9th row, center, reading all the opinions about the clear sound and everyone saying you could disinguish every instrument and that the sound was breathy and that the sound wasnt as turned up as a normal concert i thought i was in for a treat, im not the biggest fan of the album but i respect and appreciate it and really like some parts on some songs and i thought that live it would be great to hear it with a nice and crisp/clear sound....

It seems i was wrong. The sound was as loud and muddy as the last time i saw them. The vocals were buried too much and i wouldnt be able to distinguish 80% of the words if i didnt know the lyrics. My girlfriend is not a DT fan and she said she couldnt understand anything ( and she's an english teacher in spain). I thought they would prioritise this, seeing all the effort to make it like a theatre musical i think they went middle of the road on a lot of aspects between a normal metal concert and a musical and it is very clear in the loudness and muddy sound. The first 20 minutes were even worse because everything sounded so metalic and compressed. It improved later but the sound remained very compressed and hollow sounding, i could really hear this on mellow parts with piano, vocals and acoustic guitars. I dont know exactly how to describe what i heard, but, the piano sounded so compressed and hollow, the same for the acoustic guitar, the sound wasnt breathing, the vocals suffered from this too. Well, the whole sound was like this, on the metal parts you cant tell what is wrong, just that its loud and muddy and the cause is probably the loudness and the compression/preset/eq/whatever its called.

Also, i think the acoustics on this theatre arent the best for this kind of music. I could hear the sound resonating on the walls and echoing, this was very clear on some vocals only moments and i'm pretty sure this contributed a lot to make the sound so muddy.

The sound is the thing im most critic about on every metal concert (although im no expert), but when a concert sound good it is a great pleasure. Some examples are the last steven wilson tour (although it was loud, it was also clear and dynamic) and some of the last Opeth concerts.

Apart from the sound. The lighning was superb. Only diminished by the damn LEDs behind the band ( i had to close my eyes for half a minute a couple of times to not suffer some kind of eye seizure).

The band was great. James and petrucci had a couple of hiccups but overall were excellent. Although they do seem to miss normal metal concert behaviours (it was clear the fans do too).

PS. Anyone also thought the seats seemed to be designed for tiny people? Too little space for the legs and feet to have a comfortable position and not have a back ache after the concert...

I quote every word you said about the muddy and almost-bad sound. i was behind you( fila 10 posto 30) and the sound was just ok(like 2 years ago in Forum Assago) and i m a little disappointed because my expectations on the sound were very high, Arcimboldi is renowned as one of the best theatre in Europe for sound. I attended 2 days before and was sitting in 5th row on the extreme right and the sound was less confused, Petrucci tone was stellar but drums were maybe even worse,the other instruments were a little better,the voice also(James sang better the first night).
Friday I saw Uriah Heep concert @ Fabrique in Milan and was the best concert I have ever attended regarding sound, all instruments were clear as on a official DVD! I wonder how it's possible that a stellar band as DT in one of the sound-wise best theatre, sounds just ok and not perfect, maybe DT's sound engineer is not so good (DT shows are never very good in sound, except in open venues (I have seen them 13 times)?

[CoT67]

I was at the last show, left rear seats in the "platea alta", slightly to the centre.

Soundwise it was quite muddy as other people have mentioned, especially rhythm guitar and voice being not as clear as I would have expected, and often Rudess, Myung and the backing tracks were very difficult to hear. Drums were clear and powerful, the best sound Mangini's had in the three times I've seen DT with him, every hit on the floor toms sounded like something out of an Hans Zimmer track.

Performance wise, I think they were really on top of their game, especially Petrucci who was constantly pointing, grinning, raising his hand in the air and generally rocking out more than usual. Only exception being Labrie, which towards the end of act I suffered a couple of choked notes and bad screams that left him quite upset and forced him to keep on the low octave for Moment of Betrayal and having trouble with the fast part in The Path That Divides (though that wasn't so bad after all)... he then sort of recovered towards the end around Hymn of A Thousand Voices and I think everyone appreciated the effort he went through to make the ending as engaging and majestic as possible for the crowd, regardless of him having a bad night. He really made the most of Our New World and Astonishing.

I might say that I didn't enjoy as much being in a theatre, having to sit down for most of it felt like not being able to enjoy the gig as much and I think I managed to annoy most of the people next to me by singing along several times during the show. It was fun, but it felt a bit forced to just stay there, sit and watch, sometimes cheering, sometimes clapping after a song, but generally staying silent and still. When Labrie made everyone stand up near the end for Our New World, that's when everything felt right, with most of the people singing along with the music, cheering to the solo and generally having a great time. I ended up having to chase my brother who was going down the stairs at the beginning of Astonishing and we stopped and stayed there for the rest, standing up and singing while most of the people were sitting down again.

 All in all, the ending made up for every issue there was that day, and I think they managed to pull off an amazing show after all, especially for it being the third night in a row.