Best Dream Theater live CD...

[kolahola]

... Is Live at Marquee, just because Labrie is amazing. He was on his best moment, nevar sang this way after that.
Also, scenes form New York is awesome. Labrie is OK, but that chorus in A Fortune In Lies is incredible (LaM). I really like ACOS from Scenes From NY.
The rest of the band is always perfect, thats why i always compare Labrie.

[Sycsa]

You should know that the vocals aren't live, they were re-recorded in the studio.

[SeRoX]

You should know that the vocals aren't live, they were re-recorded in the studio.

[jakepriest]

Chaos in Motion.

[Sycsa]

You should know that the vocals aren't live, they were re-recorded in the studio.

To be honest, James ended up re-doing his vocals for that," Mike confesses. "So I always wondered if we should have named it 'Dream Theater Live At The Marquee But With James LaBrie Live At Bear Tracks'!

[Rodni Demental]

I assume you're talking about Marquee, all I know is it sounds very raw and very similar other performances at the time. The New York City 3/4/93 Bootleg is at least as good performance and vocal performance wise. Weren't there Live at the Marquee outtakes? What's the true story about the so called overdubs on that album?

Anyway, one of favourite performances is Budokan but mainly due to the setlist. Really, best performances goes to Live at Luna Park and then Score imo which I think remains as one of the generally favoured opinions around here. If you ask me though there are some bootleg gems (official and unofficial) that capture some songs essence and energy more than any of the live recordings. I do think Chaos and Motion has great songs too but that one's considered to have some messy production.

[kolahola]

Chaos in Motion.

I havent seen the DVD, i'm waiting to find a good prize to buy it...


About Labrie vocals, I don't know if they are really live, recorded on the studio or whatever. But i can say which one sounds better to me. (In A Fortune in Lies, Labrie sings Dominici better than Dominici )


I like the medley at Once in a LIVEtime... But the mix doesnt sound good, and Labrie vocals on The Crimson Sunset are a bit disapointing

[jakepriest]

You are better off never seeing the abomination that Chaos in Motion is. Trust me.

And I think vocals in Marquee are overdubbed since LaBrie was sick on the day the CD was recorded.

[OsMosis2259]

Score
Yeah yeah yeah... the vocals were overdubbed... but I don't care. Still rocks even though I prefer watching the DVD 

[SeRoX]

You should know that the vocals aren't live, they were re-recorded in the studio.

To be honest, James ended up re-doing his vocals for that," Mike confesses. "So I always wondered if we should have named it 'Dream Theater Live At The Marquee But With James LaBrie Live At Bear Tracks'!

Sorry couldn't resist but when I see such a thread like this and some one says "live at marquee" than one comes and says "hey it's re-recorded, it doesn't represent James' live performance...ect"

As a matter of fact, re-recorded or not there are tons of videos from that era prove that Live At Marquee represent James' voice pretty justice.

[Sycsa]

The problem is I didn't even imply that it doesn't represent James' live performance at the time, I just pointed out that the vocals were overdubbed, because based on the OP's comment and post count, he probably wasn't aware of it. Kind of a deal breaker when we're talking "best live CD" in my book. Please spare me of your baseless assumptions and pointless facepalms next time.

[SeRoX]

Sorry man, didn't mean to but no need to be that rude next time. 

In fact, it's natural to have assumptions (true or not) by looking post count  and when it comes to mine it becomes pointless and baseless. Ok then. 

[jakepriest]

Sorry man, didn't mean to but no need to be that rude next time. 

I found the  pretty rude.

[Nearmyth]

Live In Budokan would be my best, for some reason. Can't really put a finger on it. The camera work and editing is my favorite there I guess. I like the mix too, and the Beyond This Life extended solo is

Score would be second just because they play friggen SDOIT and Octavarium in the same night + enjoyable atmosphere. Maybe because of the orchestra?

[jakepriest]

Live In Budokan would be my best, for some reason. Can't really put a finger on it. The camera work and editing is my favorite there I guess. I like the mix too, and the Beyond This Life extended solo is
Score would be second just because they play friggen SDOIT and Octavarium in the same night + enjoyable atmosphere. Maybe because of the orchestra?

If Budokan had a better perfomance from James I don't think any live release would ever top it. When Rudess is loud in the mix = 

[SeRoX]

Sorry man, didn't mean to but no need to be that rude next time. 

I found the  pretty rude.

To be honest, at first I thought why he didn't write it in green because it's a pretty common discussion here. So while I facepalm'd I didn't mean to be rude but think, "hey there are people still think like that?". Sorry for the assumption in the first place though.

[Rodni Demental]

Score
Yeah yeah yeah... the vocals were overdubbed... but I don't care. Still rocks even though I prefer watching the DVD 

Score wasn't overdubbed. It might have had nice fancy production and subtle correction (like Luna park to a greater extent and Chaos in Motion to a much lesser extent, which could possibly be an example of a horrible accident in unsubtle live post production. Although let's be honest, 99% of music has this sort of work done on studio and live versions of any performance), but Score is still the same performance of that night.

[SeRoX]

Yep, it has some touches here and there but if I'm not mistaken James said that vocals were not overdubbed but some touches in his offical website.

[Sycsa]

In fact, it's natural to have assumptions (true or not) by looking post count  and when it comes to mine it becomes pointless and baseless. Ok then. 

To be honest, at first I thought why he didn't write it in green because it's a pretty common discussion here. So while I facepalm'd I didn't mean to be rude but think, "hey there are people still think like that?". Sorry for the assumption in the first place though.

I have a hard time deciphering either of these comments. Anyway, moving on.

If Budokan had a better perfomance from James I don't think any live release would ever top it. When Rudess is loud in the mix = 

Agreed. Every instrument sounds crisp (probably my favorite JP tone ever) and the footage is gorgeous, by far the best looking live release I ever saw. It was the very first DT album I ever heard (and the only one for quite a while), and I remember seeing JLB as DT's Achilles heel at the time. Digging deeper into their discography and discovering his true greatness was an incredibly rewarding experience.

[Laughingplace56]

Score- their best live DVD. They all sound amazing, MP's work throughout the whole show is some of his finest work to date, and it features the best version of every song in the setlist. This album makes the most meh song on Awake (Innocence Faded) sound incredible. The prechorus is really the only part of the song I love on either version, but on Score it just sounds so much better. The energy in TSCO is palpable and is absolutely amazing.

LaLP- I know a lot of people discredit JP's tone/volume and say it's too loud, but that tone is fucking RAW and is  . I LOVE heavy, raw sounding guitars. I wish they played The Glass Prison with that tone. His tone sounds excellent this tour too, so I can settle for seeing it in person if they decide to bring it in on the second round of US tour dates 

But anyway, the band sounds excellent on this one. James' best DVD since Marquee. I'm not completely fond on the way MM plays some of the pre-ADToE material so close to the original, and his use of the hats/rides instead of crashes/hats in certain places. It takes away from the energy. I credit that to him still being sorta new and wanting to pay tribute to the material as close as possible, because on this tour he's doing some wicked shit on the older songs.

Those are my two favorites. LSFNY is amazing and having a live version of the entire SFAM album and ACOS is great. LAB has some excellent renditions of some songs, including the only version of ToT I really listen to and the BTL instrumental. James wasn't amazing, but he wasn't bad. LatM I've yet to listen to fully. OIAL has some high energy performance but isn't the greatest of sound quality.

Then CiM. I really don't get why they would put that out. The mix is terrible. MP's drums sound trashy, JP sounds incredibly harsh, JM is basically inaudible, and JR is really the only decent sounding one in the mix. And James is awful in almost every song. He seriously sounds bad on this DVD. And I think that's in part due to the crap mixing.

[Phoenix87x]

My knee jerk reaction was gonna be score, but I totally forgot about Live at Marquee

Re-recorded or not, there is some incredible singing by JLB on that album. God do I miss how he used to sing.

[theGonz]

Best live CD on terms of...

JLB: Marque

Setlist: It's a battle between LSFNY and LaB

Length: LSFNY, duh.

Sound quality: Score. But if the guitar wasn't so loud on LaLP that one might take the win. Why in the fuck did they let that guitar mix onto the final release?! Seriously?!

[Dirty30]

1 Score... after nine years it still holds up. For me, it's magic. Especially Six Degrees and Octavarium.

2 Live Scenes for New York...   The first live DT that I fell in love with.

3 Budokan...   JP's solo during Hallowed Years still brings goosebumps.

No coincidence that all 3 were produced within 5 years of first hearing DT.

[son_ov_hades]

I rank the live albums like this:

Live At The Marquee
Live Scenes From New York(this one desperately needs a vinyl pressing)
Score
Live At Luna Park
Live At Budokan
Once In A LIVEtime
Chaos In Motion

[nightmare_cinema]

Score is my favourite live DT CD (going purely by audio here, trying to separate it from my ranking of the live DVDs). I love the tracklist and the sound just sounds so.... thick and full. Sacrificed Sons live on Score, the instrumental section, is probably my favourite live DT instrumental section. It's perfect.

[Enalya]

Score is the first live performance I saw and my mouth hung open during the full length of it (yes, that is charming). As said before, it's magic to me and from another world. It's still the best to me (although I dislike the appearance of JP and JLB in it, but that's of no importance ).

[mikeyd23]

Ranking them as CD's going purely off the audio and not taking into account video aspects, Score is my favorite as well.  As many have said, the mix, production and performance from each band member is fantastic.  The set-list was killer and the vibes in the room clearly were magical which was conveyed masterfully through the recording.

From there, it gets kinda blurry for me, LaB has such great visuals and is probably my favorite looking DT live concert but based purely off the audio James' performance detracts from the overall quality slightly. LaLP sounds pretty good, its a little guitar heavy, LSFNY has a good mix in my opinion but once again James' performance on several songs detracts from my overall enjoyment.  LatM is pretty great, whether he overdubbed his vocals or not, at that point in his career he was just a beast. 

So I guess I would rank them based off audio only:

Score

LaLP
LaB
LSFNY
LatM
OINLT


CiM

[Onno]

Score for me, hands down.

[FsF]

Something like:

New York City 3/4/93 (Official Bootleg)


Score
LaB
LatM

LSFNY

LaLP
OIALT
CiM

The top 3 official releases can change about, depending on what i'm in the mood for really, but the New York show stands head and shoulders above anything in terms of band performance. LaBrie absolutely kills it, at the very top of his game. Plus it has freakin' Eve!

[dparrott]

LSFNY based on what songs were played.

Anyone else have a poor quality of Score CD1?  Mine sounds weird.  The other CD's sound fine.

[BMcP_2112]

SCORE is my #1 DT live album. Every song is incredible. I need to refresh my memory with Marquee, but I've never heard Labrie sing any live recordings better. 

Six Degrees, Raise the Knife, and Octavarium are definite highlights

[krands85]

Probably something like:

Score
LSFNY

LaB
LATM - mainly because it's so short

LALP
OIALT




CiM

[ytserush]

Score or Live At Luna Park.

[Plasmastrike]

You should know that the vocals aren't live, they were re-recorded in the studio.

To be honest, James ended up re-doing his vocals for that," Mike confesses. "So I always wondered if we should have named it 'Dream Theater Live At The Marquee But With James LaBrie Live At Bear Tracks'!

Sorry couldn't resist but when I see such a thread like this and some one says "live at marquee" than one comes and says "hey it's re-recorded, it doesn't represent James' live performance...ect"

As a matter of fact, re-recorded or not there are tons of videos from that era prove that Live At Marquee represent James' voice pretty justice.

I don't see what the problem is. Sycsa was just stating the simple truth. No one was mentioning anything about it not representing James' voice from that era. No need to be all defensive for no reason, boy.

[jakepriest]

^

Why do you revive an old "arguement"?