JR "Explorations": Absolutely mind-blowing

[Rafael Guerra]

Hey guys,

Just returned from the Explorations concert and I wanted to create this topic to share some experiences. I must start by saying that this concert was absolutely mind-blowing and I think most of you would love it! The young musicians in the orchestra were passionate and very talented; Eren (the maestro) is also very young and plays piano really well (as you guys will read later on). Jordan played on an Yamaha Piano and the iPad. The drummer was Venezuelan, he was also brilliant, even though he got a little nervous on "The Test That Stumped Them All". Alright, here it goes...

-Show starts-
In the beginning Jordan comes in, sits down and "tests" the sound of the piano by playing a beautiful piano solo. Then, after everyone applauded, he says that he has BAD news. Unfortunately, he could not reveal the identity of the new Dream Theater drummer (thank God that was the bad news!). Then, he was very kind to declare his love for the Caracas crowd, saying that we were awesome 

01. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
The first piece was SDOIT and in my opinion, it was better than the Score version. The musicians were perhaps equally talented to the Score ones, but there is one major difference: This time, the strings and woodwinds also played the VOCAL melodies; I could literally hear LaBrie in my ears, but in form of strings! The drummer was excellent for most of the piece, but during TTSTA (which was string-wise amazing!) he messed up couple of times. Goodnight kiss was also very strong and the ending was as epic as the one in Score. Those were definably 42 minutes that went by really fast!

02. Spirit Carries On
After SDOIT, Jordan states that during one of the practice sessions, the cello player and Eren started to jam and ended up playing Octavarium from end to end, flawlessly. Jordan said it inspired him a lot, so he decided to play a PIANO-CELLO version of Spirit Carries On. It sounded beautiful, and I was very impressed to see how high some of the notes were played on the Cello. It was a very chilled and unique version for sure!

03. JAM: Drums & Piano
Then, Jordan officially introduces the drummer and they jam (Jordan with organ/distorted lead sound). The jam was very groovy and extremely proggy, and the drummer certainly redeemed himself with this jam. It was powerful, flawless and again...very PROGGY. It was like hearing Portnoy + Zappa + Latin Music.

04. Hourglass
This was one of the big surprises of the night. When Jordan called Eren back to stage, Eren actually went towards the piano while Jordan got his iPad. They played LTE's Hourglass and it was AMAZING! The sound was very good and I was blown away by Eren's skills on the piano. It sounded JUST LIKE JORDAN! After they finished, Jordan actually confessed that they decided to play Hourglass one hour before the concert started, so pretty much Eren learned the whole song on piano in less than one hour!

05. JAM: Cuatro & Jordan
When DT came in March to Venezuela, they went to a restaurant and saw the C4 Trio. They basically play small acoustic guitars called Cuatro. Well, to everyone's surprise, one of the members actually came to stage and he shredded like CRAZY! Even the members of the orchestra had a huge grin on their faces. I have never seen Jordan go that fast on Piano (Yes, you heard it...) They played in a really fast tempo, going up and down in unison for a while, and it was just very inspiring!

06. Explorations
WOW! I really hope this one ends up as a bonus track on the next CD or at least get its own DVD, because it was EPIC. The 20ish minutes song had three movements, one building up on the other. It sounded a lot like a movie score and in certain parts, there were riffs that were probably based on the Star Wars Theme and Indiana Jones (or maybe it's just me...). Explorations used all the instruments in the orchestra, some crazy drum fills, Morphwiz, piano sounds, organ sounds, lead sounds and much more. It was just very unique and probably the closest Jordan ever got to writing another SDOIT.

So yeah...in the end, I went really close and took a picture really close to him. I also realized that there were 2 HD CAMERAS the whole time, and many mics. They didn't say anything about recording a DVD, but I think it might come    I will post pictures later, i'm really tired right now, but I hope you guys read this and find it cool.

Regards,
Rafael Guerra, one of the few Latin Americans in this forum.

[blackngold29]

Fantastic stuff. Awesome recap. Really hope you're right about the DVD!

[lithium112]

Hey, man thanks for sharing. I actually had no idea that the concert would consist of so much other material besides Explorations. Sounds like an awesome time and based on the snippets Jordan posted on Youtube and your review, I really hope you're right about that DVD! Well either that, or if he plays in North America, which would be even better!

[The Letter M]

I want a 2CD/DVD set of this NOW... also, was anyone there to bootleg this? I'm not sure what Jordan's thoughts are on audience recordings, but unless he says "we'll release it", I wouldn't mind it if a good audience boot made it's way around the intertubes.

Sounds like you had a great time, and I'm glad they pulled off the entire SDOIT. I was wondering if they would considering that very same orchestra performed it before (which is, I believe, how JR came in contact with them - found their videos on YouTube). Awesome to hear "The Spirit Carries On" and "Hourglass" were part of the set as well. I can only imagine how AMAZING they sounded.

-Marc.

[JayOctavarium]

Jealous

[skydivingninja]

That sounds really really really cool.  I'd buy it.

[RoeDent]

Thanks for the review. I was wondering if anyone from DTF would be at the concert. 

[Metropolis Pt. II]

WOW! That is absolutely stellar to hear how amazing that concert was, and I really hope they put out a DVD for it!

[atmyne]

06. Explorations
WOW! I really hope this one ends up as a bonus track on the next CD or at least get its own DVD, because it was EPIC.

I said this in another post.
I didn't see/haven't heard explorations. From the snippets I heard from him practicing, I instantly wondered whether his songwriting is neglected within the DT team. Sure he picks the patches/sounds, and maybe comes up with a little diddy here and there to go what petrucci/portnoy have written etc. But I have not heard any music at the tremendous quality of what is demonstrated in explorations. It's godlike. It makes me very hopeful for the next album, in that he will/should be obliged to contribute much more.

edit: some grammatical/spelling errors... its been a long day at work for me...

[Bertielee]

That sounds really awesome! What a great night it must have been! I also hope it will be released on DVD, I'll buy it in the blink of an eye.

B.Lee

[hefdaddy42]

Sounds fantastic.  Hopefully there will be a recording of this.

[nikostheater]

Sounds a great evening!You are so lucky...
Now all of us we are praying for a live CD/DVD!

[Rafael Guerra]

Thanks you guys! About the whole BOOTLEG recording, I think it would be very unlikely. Venezuela is kind of a socialist country and they made it very clear in the beginning of the concert that anyone caught with any video/audio recording device would be warned and could have even been kicked out if they insisted. However, as I said, there were many mics next to the stage and 2 HD cameras, so maybe Jordan himself was making a bootleg.

Also, this would have been PERFECT for a bootleg because we were also advised to not applaud between the sections in SDOIT or explorations, so that the "flow" wouldn't be broken. In other words, the sound was very clear with no interruptions. I am uploading some pictures now (did I mention I was 1.5 meters away from him?) :O

[dethklok09]

wow thats awesome bro. perfect set list, perfect spot in the crowd. cant wait for the dvd (if it comes out.). wouldve been cool to add ITPoE to the setlist but its perfect right now anyway so i aint complaining.

[Rafael Guerra]

Here are some picts.

[wasp2020]

That really sounds incredible. Jams must have been interesting, wasn't expecting this to be a big "music night" sort of thing. Very nice bringing that guest guy in. Feeling excited about all things DT lately.

I think Rudess is the kind of guy to definitely release this, as he records everything anyways. Explorations sounds like everything he loves about music and technology in one song, I don't think he'd just let that go. I ain't worried bout dat.

I guess I'll tide myself over for a bit with the original rudess-less basbug orchestral version of SDOIT, until it comes out for good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwLJ8RAxLTg

[Perpetual Change]

06. Explorations
WOW! I really hope this one ends up as a bonus track on the next CD or at least get its own DVD, because it was EPIC.

I said this in another post.
I didn't see/haven't heard explorations. From the snippets I heard from him practicing, I instantly wondered whether his songwriting is neglected within the DT team. Sure he picks the patches/sounds, and maybe comes up with a little diddy here and there to go what petrucci/portnoy have written etc. But I have not heard any music at the tremendous quality of what is demonstrated in explorations. It's godlike. It makes me very hopeful for the next album, in that he will/should be obliged to contribute much more.

edit: some grammatical/spelling errors... its been a long day at work for me...

That's the complete opposite of what happens. Jordan and John write about equally, I'd say. In fact, the 2nd disc of 6 Degrees was almost entirely based on melodies Jordan came up with. Basically, John would tell Jordan "play something sad" and Jordan would come up with, say, Goodnight Kiss. Then John would say, "okay, now come up with something really uplifting," and Jordan would do About to Crash. Honestly, I'd be more surprised if I learned that the big, grand melodies of most DT songs AREN'T JR creations. 

[blackngold29]

I guess I'll tide myself over for a bit with the original rudess-less basbug orchestral version of SDOIT, until it comes out for good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwLJ8RAxLTg

I've listened to most of those, and I would say that they're better than the Score versions.

[Global Laziness]

I'd love to see some more pictures if you have them, Rafael.

[Rafael Guerra]

I didn't take many pictures, those were the best. But here are two other ones.

[ytserush]

That must of been awesome to personally witness that.

Thanks for sharing.

I hope there is a CD/DVD package of that somewhere down the road.

[blackngold29]

Was recording of the concert prohibited? Because there may be a recording available online, but I wouldn't want to link such a thing if it was illegal. I definitely wouldn't post anything if we knew a DVD was going to be available, but there has been no word on that either.

[Rafael Guerra]

Was recording of the concert prohibited? Because there may be a recording available online, but I wouldn't want to link such a thing if it was illegal. I definitely wouldn't post anything if we knew a DVD was going to be available, but there has been no word on that either.

Recording was strictly prohibited

[Rafael Guerra]

With that said, I just looked up on YouTube and saw that some people recorded the audio (which was also strictly prohibited). Anyways, if you guys are curious, you can check it out on YouTube, its decent quality, but obviously not the BEST quality.

[Rafael Guerra]

Sorry for the triple post, I don't wanna bump up the topic or anything, but I was talking to a friend that lives in Puerto La Cruz today.
He told me that Jordan played a FREE concert in there and that he played songs from Steven Wilson, DT, King Crimson, Floyd and Rush.
There are some YouTube videos available, but not great quality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlY_AZM7G38

P.S - I don't think it was illegal to film because it was a free concert. Let me know if I have to take the YouTube link out.

[blackngold29]

The plan is to make some sort of documentary of the shows. I will keep everyone informed as things develop! - JR


YYYEEESS! At least we know we're getting something now.

[Eren]

Great personal review, Rafael! Hope you all enjoy this and future possibilities! 


Remember this, all? https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=12623.0;topicseen

[juice]

Sounds amazing!  I hopeful for a CD/DVD release.

[wasp2020]

Listening to the DT Norway interview with the conductor. he has a lot more DT peices written for orceshtra (Change of seasons, COT, etc) and says he thinks Jordan'll do more concerts.

[Global Laziness]

Listening to the DT Norway interview with the conductor. he has a lot more DT peices written for orceshtra (Change of seasons, COT, etc) and says he thinks Jordan'll do more concerts.

[Rafael Guerra]

Great personal review, Rafael! Hope you all enjoy this and future possibilities! 


Remember this, all? https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=12623.0;topicseen

Wow Eren, is that really you? LOL, you were great at the concert!
I am extremely happy about the release!