your favourite live show dvd

[Zydar]

Oh, and believe it or not, with Portnoy gone, the band was actually not aware of how much we LOVE commentaries.  But they are now. 

Excellent

[mikeyd23]

I went with Live at Budoken for several reasons, set list, visuals, audio, etc... The total package is pretty great.  Score is close though... Today its LaB, tomorrow it might be Score!

[hefdaddy42]

Oh, and believe it or not, with Portnoy gone, the band was actually not aware of how much we LOVE commentaries.  But they are now. 

I love you so much.

[bosk1]

I know. 

[hefdaddy42]

*swoons*

[OpenYourEyes311]

If it's not already part of the new DVD... do you think they'd have time to add a commentary prior to the release of Breaking the Fourth Wall, now that they are aware of how AWESOME they are??

[JPX]

Oh, and believe it or not, with Portnoy gone, the band was actually not aware of how much we LOVE commentaries.  But they are now. 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE them. So much cool insight.

[TAC]

Oh, and believe it or not, with Portnoy gone, the band was actually not aware of how much we LOVE commentaries.  But they are now. 

Bosk, OUR VOICE!!

That's good to know. We also love Ytsejam Releases. maybe you could pass that on as well!

[Chino]

LAB hands down. It has so energy, powa!

[The Holy Tune]

Live at Budokan was magnificent. But the new DVD has the one of the greatest setlists ever and features a brand new JLB with a really strong voice! So I expect that one being a fan-favourite quickly.

[Madman Shepherd]

Oh, and believe it or not, with Portnoy gone, the band was actually not aware of how much we LOVE commentaries.  But they are now. 

So is that a hint that one of the bonus features on the Boston show DVD might be...ya know...?

[Mosh]

I just Mangini'd

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Oh, and believe it or not, with Portnoy gone, the band was actually not aware of how much we LOVE commentaries.  But they are now. 

*fapfapfapd!!!!11*

[Madman Shepherd]

So I noticed that Bosk has not confirmed nor denied my suspicion.   

[bosk1]

Denied.  But I would not rule it out in the future.

[Madman Shepherd]

FUCK!

[cramx3]

Budokan - best overall DVD in terms of audio and visual quality, editing and look/feel, performance, and setlist.

[son_ov_hades]

Metropolis 2000 easily. Scenes From A Memory is the band's peak and playing it entirely is just wonderful.

[Chino]

FUCK!

[Dublagent66]

Score.

[changing_seasons]

LSFNY for me. It was my introduction to the band, it is by far their best album, and MP's drum set is really cool
Plus, Learning to Live and ACOS! 

[haceeb]

Live at Budokan.

[Nearmyth]

Live At Budokan - I just thought the performances were above and beyond and top notch. Closely followed by Score because of dat setlist.

[El Barto]

Bucharest. Weak night for JLB, but that's been the case with most of the DVDs, IMO. Score is the obvious exception, but nostalgia aside Bucharest surpasses in the ways that matter.

[TAC]

Bucharest. Weak night for JLB, but that's been the case with most of the DVDs, IMO. Score is the obvious exception, but nostalgia aside Bucharest surpasses in the ways that matter.

I wish they'd start again with the Ytsejam releases.

I personally love the Santiago '05 Ytsejam DVD. I love the small rig. Makes it feel Zepplinesque.

[adamack]

Score.

Six Degrees, Octavarium, Spirit, Sacrificed Sons and Metropolis were all amazing to me. Sacrificed Sons gave me goosebumps with the orchestra!

I absolutely loved the live orchestra, and James sounded amazing. The mix sounded great IMO, and everything looked so awesome at Radio City Music Hall.

A close second would have to be Budoken. Hollow Years and In The Name Of God were 2 personal favs. I am also a big fan of Train of Thought, so the set list was great.

Luna Park disappointed me (for reasons most of us are aware of), mainly because it was the tour for ADToE, which is my second favorite DT album. I can only wish that Score had the Luna Park set list. It would be incredible.

Live Scenes had my favorite overall set list though, seeing as how SFaM is my favorite album and they played it in its entirety. I liked the DVD, but it was just a bit too raw for me. I am very OCD about sour notes and mess-ups. I wish that didn't bother me as much

Boston has the set list and credentials (from what I've heard thus far) to be among the best. I can't wait!!!

[Grizz]

If LSfNY was better produced it would trump all.
Unfortunately, most of the time the band appears to be playing on a soundstage, plus the effects, picture quality, and hair show their age and the missing songs are a bit glaring. Plus the projection filmmakers had Julian gasp when there's a female gasp sound effect and that's just distracting.

[lucky7]

I voted LSFNY for it's raw quality, and overall the fact it was the album from start to finish....but Live at Budokan is perfect I love the instrumedley (first time I heard Hell's Kitchen), the commentary and the behind the scenes stuff especially the guy asking JP if he is playing Dream Theater. Score was excellent as well.  We really have been spoilt with some great releases!!!!

[LTE3]

When for the love of God will we get a blu-ray of SCORE?

[Grizz]

I would fucking love that given how much the DVD format kills the picture quality of Score.

[JiM-Xtreme]

Budokan, partly down to nostalgia as it was my first visual experience of DT, but also because I genuinely love the setlist, production style and atmosphere. ToT is one of my favourite albums, and easily one of the best DT songs (anyone see what I did there?), the instrumedley is amazing and ITNOG is an absolutely epic closer, possibly the greatest ending to any of their shows ever in my opinion.

From a quality standpoint, you could easily argue that Score is so superior - LAB certainly has it's imperfections, but it's really hard to find any fault with Score whatsoever from a technical point of view. For me, though, it's just one or two strange (IMO) setlist choices that I don't really understand that keep it away from the top spot in my mind.

[sylvinception]

"Live at the Marquee" available on dvd ??

Of course...

[Grizz]

But not Images & Words live in Tokyo.

[mrrct]

1. LSFNY:  They played my favorite album in its entirety.  It has an almost amateurish quality (not as slick as some of their later DVDs) to it that I liked, especially with the videos and effects.  The performance and the crowd was top notch.  Theresa Thompson was great.  The full-band The Silent Man kicked ass, especially LaBrie's high singing at the end.  It only sagged a little with Acid Rain and Jordan's keyboard solo, both of which seemed completely out of place.

2. Score:  DT was arguably in their prime here.  The setlist was a nice survey of their career up to that point, although I didn't need Raise the Knife or Another Won.  The orchestra added greatly to the experience, especially with Six Degrees.  And the career-spanning documentary included in the bonus section was a welcome addition.

3. LAB:  Probably the heaviest of their DVDs, because of the TOT-centric setlist.  The band just played like beasts on this one.

4. Live in Tokyo:  I was probably most excited for this one because my friends and I had just become fans of the band and were playing I&W nonstop.  None of us had WD&DU yet, so the non-I&W songs were brand new to us.  We actually thought the individuals in the band were cool (except for maybe  the overbearing Portnoy) in the offstage footage, which if you remember, the grunge frontmen of the time were total douches.   I actually bought this on VHS and upgraded to DVD years later with the two-pack.

5. LALP:  The only thing holding this back is the ADTOE-centric playlist.  I know I'm in the minority, but it's one of my least favorite DT albums.  The performance was great, LaBrie was the best maybe he's ever been on a live recording.  I was thrilled that James sang (on Metropolis) "without sorrow" the same as he did on I&W, which he never did any of the times I saw them live or on any of their other live recordings.

6. CIM:  The biggest problem with this release was that James screamed his way through the whole concert, which was a shame because it would have ranked higher thanks to the good setlist.  I was also not a fan of the never-ending Surrounded on this one.

7. 5 Years:  I really only liked the band commentary on this one (and the fact that it came with Live in Tokyo).  This was the darkest period in the band's history, even from an outsider's point of view. The FIF songs sucked, for the most part, though not as much as the songs that didn't make the album but were still played on the fanclub shows (Rotterdam and Paris).  Portnoy even said that the record company made him cut a ton out, and we were left with snippets of better things (the performances with the other musicians, Nightmare Cinema, etc.) than were actually left in their entirety.

I can't rate BT4W because I don't have the visual component yet, only the iTunes tracks, which I think are excellent.  I did see the truncated hour version on Palladia, but it's not enough to fairly rank the whole thing among the others.  I'm guessing it would fall somewhere between Score and CIM.