LaBrie on Chaos in Motion - thoughts?

[Aniland]

What do you think of James' performance on this record? I was thinking of doing a poll but eh, just tell.

[In The Name Of Rudess]

Pretty horrible. His singing is off-pitch, he uses way too much vibrato, his articulation is poor. At least he redeemed himself on the BCSL tour/album.

[Dublagent66]

Well, it's not like all the performances were at the same venue.  So, it's a mixed bag.  Some were good and some not so good.

[?]

Well, it's not like all the performances were at the same venue.  So, it's a mixed bag.  Some were good and some not so good.

This. Most of his high notes weren't very good, though.

[Jarlaxle]

The quality of the DVD isn't good either so that may have contributed.

[MuumiPeikko]

I saw some bootlegs of this tour and at all of them James' vocal was much better that at Chaos in Motion. Seems like DVD combine all the worst performances  Honestly, I don't like this DVD. Set list is good, but the quality of video and sound just terrible  I prefer they make BC&SL tour DVD and didn't make Chaos in Motion.

[Jarlaxle]

Every good singer has some troubles performing at a level of James on a nightly basis. That combined with equipment that is lackluster for touring, it isn't his best effort.

[Mladen]

Some songs are really good (Take the time, Panic attack, ITPOE, Lines in the sand), and some are pretty much unlistenable (Surrounded, Scarred). It's not his best DVD, he sounds tired on some of the songs, he lacks some energy, but at least most of the tones he hits are fine. Unlike Live at Budokan, where he's off-pitch in quite a bunch of tracks.

But we all have to agree that he rules on Score, he's just perfect. 

[erik16]

I think that Take the Time (was it from Buenos Aires?) and the Orpheum performance in May 2008 (TMOLS, Forsaken, Schmedley Wilcox) are very good performances.

Well, it's not like all the performances were at the same venue.  So, it's a mixed bag.  Some were good and some not so good.

This

The quality of the DVD isn't good either so that may have contributed.

and this

One must also consider that the DVD shows were picked by their video quality, then sound quality and after that performance, while keeping variety.

The Orpheum songs are the best ones on the DVD, awesome video and sound quality, worthy of being on one-off show on DVD.

[Jarlaxle]

Yes, Score could very well be the greatest vocal performances recorded of all time. It could also be a big reason why the rest of the band decided on keeping James with his degrading performances, and if they ever did think about ditching him for that, it was a good decision they didn't cause he kicks serious ass on BC&SL and on the tour.

[MykeHavoc]

Well, the picture and sound are quite cheap from this tour. Its as if they took no money to master any of the elements, leaving it with camcorder quality. I mean Blind Faith is actually laughable. All the sound is horribly condensed and compressed, leaving him sounding terribly nasally. He didn't sound half that bad before or after, so my guess is the lack of quality contributed to the mess.

[El Barto]

Pretty horrible. His singing is off-pitch, he uses way too much vibrato, his articulation is poor. At least he redeemed himself on the BCSL tour/album.

I can't even watch the thing, save for ItPoE and Shmedley Wilcox.  Blind Faith actually comes off sounding more like Ethel Merman than JLB. 

[IdoSC]

Meh, as far as I understood, biggest cause of the nasal sounding voice was something with the techs, not LaBrie himself. In fact, if you heard the Download Festival 2009 concert, he sounds as bad there, but he sounded great on any other concert before and after it on BCSL tour. Could be the same case.

Either way, it is kinda bad. His voice had a drastic uplift during 2004-2006, I guess some of it had to be reworked after the few months between their last concert at 2006 and CiM tour, and I guess some of it had gotten better too. It was just a mixed bag of everything, especially the poorly recorded performances, so you can't judge him. The expectations mostly were he'll get better at the next tour, and they were correct.

[skydivingninja]

What's silly is that Blind Faith and Surrounded sound better on the CD than on the DVD.  I remember being REALLY disappointed with this DVD.  Watching bootleg vids from the same tour, I KNEW he could do better!  Like Adami said though, he really redeemed himself on the BC&SL tour.

[ariich]

Not terrible, but definitely below par.

[DeanTheater]

I still feel some fault goes to the mix.  His voice sounded "Tinny", in the high treble range and a weird reverb also.  I think the effects played a part in alot of it.  That being said, Labries performance on Surrounded and Scarred, was a nightmare to remember.  *pun*

[fadetoblackdude7]

As amazing as Surrounded '07 is musically, JLB's performance on that song is 1 giant cringe.

[Mindflux]

I haven't found time to watch my CiM DVD's. If it's as bad as people say I wonder why they didn't work on getting a better set videoed.

[Mindflux]

What's silly is that Blind Faith and Surrounded sound better on the CD than on the DVD.

On the studio CD or the CiM CD?  I'd hope a studio track would sound better than a live rendition.

[Jarlaxle]

They didn't have the best equipment because to take that on the road for the multiple shows the footage was taken from would have been very difficult/too expensive. They had a vision of a collaboration of shows to put together on one DVD and it didn't go over as well as they might have thought. Hopefully they recognise their mistake and.

Also, I wonder if we would be having this discussion if we weren't gifted with such gems as LAB and Score before CiM

[Mindflux]

Also, I wonder if we would be having this discussion if we weren't gifted with such gems as LAB and Score before CiM

Probably not, everyone would be wanking at the 'rawsome licks' performed by 'The Bear'.

[Jarlaxle]

[JayOctavarium]

I think that Take the Time (was it from Buenos Aires?)

Bangkok 

[ScioPath]

Yeah, I often can't stand the CIM recordings. JR's 'pig sounds' are way too loud in most of the mixes, JP is making tiny mistakes all over the place (usually in the super fast parts), and JLB sounds terrible. But I forgive them. Because they are Dream Theater.

[wolfking]

Besides the terrible DVD production I thought Labrie was okay.  He just sounded different, really different, some songs better, some songs not.

[Ben_Jamin]

Surrounded sounds bad probably because of the sound quality. It's not just james. JR in his intro sounds compressed and thick. I like the way james sings "but i will hold."

[Dimitrius]

Bad, but not worse than it was on OiaL

[Ħ]

I actually really like Chaos in Motion.  I think that James was definitely off.  He was worse than he was in Score, but better than he was in LaB.  It is a shame that a masterpiece like Surrounded was tainted by a couple vocal hiccups.

You know, sometimes James goes into this live tone which is really not good.  You never hear it on a studio album.  He does it whenever he's singing a high part.  I really don't know why he does it -- maybe it's less damaging to his voice?  I dunno, but it's not pleasant.  For example, the "not intending to end" verse of Innoncence Faded in Score.  He's spot on pitch-wise, but his tone is like that of an old woman.

[PixelDream]

Wow, epic ending note in Surrounded. Not in an entirely good way though. Though I've seen them live on that tour, and I recall JLB in much better shape.

[PintoZ]

[hefdaddy42]

NECRO

WHY

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

nice thread 7/10 would read again

[nattmorker]

Yeah, I often can't stand the CIM recordings. JR's 'pig sounds' are way too loud in most of the mixes, JP is making tiny mistakes all over the place (usually in the super fast parts), and JLB sounds terrible. But I forgive them. Because they are Dream Theater.

Actually that's one reason why I actually like CiM, I can clearly hear what JR is playing, besides you can hear him almost isolated in one of the channels in the 5.1 mix. I love that.

PS: I know we are (or were) talking about JLB's performance, but I wanted to say that.

[BlobVanDam]

NECRO

WHY

You have the power to end this.

[TAC]

Yes, Score could very well be the greatest vocal performances recorded of all time. It could also be a big reason why the rest of the band decided on keeping James with his degrading performances, and if they ever did think about ditching him for that, it was a good decision they didn't cause he kicks serious ass on BC&SL and on the tour.

Score saved James???

James was great on both the ToT and 8V tours. He shouldn't have been in danger. Have you heard otherwise?