What is your favorite DT live album?

[hockeydude25]

Mine would have to be Live at the Marquee.

[ChuckSteak]

Mine would have to be Live at the Marquee.

But that's not live! 

Mine is Live Scenes.

[MirrorMask]

Live Scenes. Majestic setlist, excellent vibe in the band (Jordan just arrived, the whole enthusiasm for SFAM, etc) and a very unique and tasteful tone from James, he wasn't yet back at his full range but he worked around the difficulties very well. His vocalizing at the end of Though Her Eyes are wonderful, especially the final long note he holds.

[Evai]

Mine would have to be Live at the Marquee.

But that's not live! 

Mine is Live Scenes.

I think we can count Marquee as live. Otherwise we'd have to disallow all the other ones with overdubs

[Dave_Manchester]

Budokan, closely followed by Live Scenes from New York.

[TAC]

Definitely Live Scenes.

[AngelBack]

Budokan, closely followed by Live Scenes from New York.

Either of these, depending on what songs I'm in the mood for.

[Ninjabait]

Breaking the Fourth Wall, then Luna Park, then Budokan, then Score. Haven't really paid much attention to the rest of them.

[pg1067]

LSFNY for sure (although this is more of an endorsement of the DVD than the album by itself).

[OpenYourEyes311]

#1 for sentimental reasons is Score
#1 for Best looking DVD is Live at Budokan
#1 for setlist is probably Live at Luna Park
#1 for performance is Live Scenes From New York

There are so many good thing about each Live album/DVD... BTFW is great, LATM is great. I'd say the only ones I'm not wild about are the FII-era ones and Chaos in Motion

[Pettor]

I really love Breaking the Forth Wall. It was a huge step in the right direction after Luna Park and really gave me confidence that they can do this without Portnoy. I listen to it very often. Fantastic setlist, perfect execution and great sound. Several songs sounds better here than their CD counterpart imo, specially Illumination Theory which is god damn 11/10 world class 

Score is a close second basically based on the same criteria. I don't understand why they keep adding Spirit Carries On to live DVDs after Score, it was basically as perfect as it can ever be here. Also, this one has 6DOIT and 8V in the same setlist. That is just insane when you think about it!

Live at Budokan is maybe the most entertaining one to watch. Looks fantastic and instrumentally everyone is on fire, but several songs have better versions on other live DVDs imo.

Luna Park is nice but sadly the audio makes it unlistenable for me. Maybe should give it a try again.

Live Scenes. Hrmmm I love Scenes From a Memory but somehow this live DVD doesn't do it for me. I tried several times but no song sounds better here than on CD for me and the DVD is a bit messy.

The rest is basically just some songs here and there.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Score is pretty much the perfect live release. It has an amazing setlist, a high energy crowd, the band was on point, and James sounded better here than on any other live release besides LatM/LaT. The only downside is that the orchestra is a little off, but everything else is more than enough to make up for it.

[Mladen]

Yep, Score is easily my favorite as well. I'm only divided on the emphasis on Octavarium songs, since I don't like Sacrificed sons at all, and MAYBE there were several tracks on that album that could have been better choices instead of The Answer lies within. But regardless, it's a terrific release.

[Architeuthis]

 The Astonishing live at the Royal Albert Hall ! 
   hey, it doesn't hurt to dream.. 

[DTA]

Once In A Livetime is my favorite. It was actually the first album of theirs I ever heard, and I played it obsessively until SFAM came out which sent me into a full-blown DT addiction.

[Adami]

I actually like most of their live stuff. The only ones I don't like are the ADTOE tour one, and the SC tour one (forgot their names).

But if I had to pick one and only one, I'd go with Score. Despite the meh performance of 6DOIT.

[The Walrus]

1. Score (nearly perfect)
2. Breaking the Fourth Wall (very good)
3. Live at Budokan (very good)
4. Live Scenes From New York (great)
5. Live at Luna Park (good, not great)
6. Once In A LIVEtime (not bad)
7. any other major release I've forgotten that isn't beneath this spot
8. Live at the Marquee (once I found out it was overdubbed, pretty much at the bottom)
9. Chaos In Motion (scratch that, this is just bad)

[Evai]

For me, the Chaos In Motion CD is a lot better than the DVD. I really love how they extend songs like Surrounded to be really long, and do loads of cool stuff like change the intro of that song a lot. Dark Eternal Night has a ton of live energy, thanks to James and Mike competing for who can scream the lyrics the loudest. And of course the awesome shmedly at the end. None of that you could get on the standard albums... I'm tempted to call it my favourite live cd of theirs actually.

[CodyWanKenobi]

I'm hoping they do another holiday live release of a show from The Astonishing Live/I&W25 since they didn't do a DVD this time around. As far as my favorite goes, I'd say BTFW. If that doesn't count (since it was technically only the DVD/Blu Ray that was released, and not an official live album), I'd say probably Score. It's just too damn good.

[ReaperKK]

Budokan, closely followed by Live Scenes from New York.

Exactly how I feel.

[Guitarjon]

Good question, coincidentally I just made a similar poll on the fan facebook group.

My number one must be live at Budokan since the TOT period was special for me. I really loved that album and I got the chance to see them live in 2004 for the first time which made a huge impact on me at the time.
This show gives a good representation of that tour.
The video and sound quality is great and I enjoyed the extra features too.
I just decided to also buy the bluray yesterday so I'm excited to see and hear how much of a difference that will make.

Score is also pretty amazing.
Very cool setlist, sound quality and stellar performance.
I do agree that the orchestra is a little out of tune here and there but I can see why it happened and it doesn't bother me that much.

I also remember enjoying Life Scenes from New York quite a lot when that came out.
Must have watched it many times...
Too bad not the entire setlist is on that DVD though.

Chaos in motion isn't too bad, I remember enjoying it quite a bit when it came out.
The setlist is great for me too and I was at the show in Rotterdam from which some of the footage was taken.

Recently I picked up both the Luna Park and Breaking the fourth wall Blu-ray's and I really enjoyed those too.
The soundtrack of BTFW did bother me a little bit though.
Not sure why the mix isn't good....
I wonder if the mix engineer simply had badly recorded tracks to deal with, or perhaps made some choices I just don't gell with.

Anyway, it's hard not to enjoy any DT live release and I hope they do another one soon!

[theshatteredfortress]

My favorite Live album from Dream Theater is Chaos In Motion!!!  I've waited a long time to find the deluxe edition and now I have it since a few months.  So the wait made it worthy for me   And I really like the fact that this is kind of a RARE live album from them (3 CD'S).

Since it's also their last live album with Mike Portnoy, this one has a special meaning for me.

I also feel fortunate to have the 15th anniversary performance CD of Images & Words (from the beginning of the Chaos In Motion Tour)....but that's another story

Tx

[sneakyblueberry]

Once in a LIVEtime

[gzarruk]

From the MP era, Score.

From the MM era, BTFW.

[cramx3]

Budokan

Awesome setlist and it includes some cool versions of songs plus the instrumedley

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Budokan. The whole thing is gorgeous.

[DT2003]

Score for me. I rarely listen to live albums more than once, but I have listened to Score a lot and many songs (Another Won, Raise the Knofe, 6DoIT, and Octavarium) I still listen to very often as I love this recording of them.

[Zydar]

Budokan, although it relies a bit too much on Train Of Thought for my taste (understandable though, since it's from that supporting tour).

[jammindude]

Score is my favorite....but I have to say that I've been spinning LSFNY for the first time in probably 10 years. What an especially special show that is.

I feel like rewatching the video. I don't think I've watched it since it was new.

[DT1138]

Budokan, hands down.

[gzarruk]

Score is my favorite....but I have to say that I've been spinning LSFNY for the first time in probably 10 years. What an especially special show that is.

I feel like rewatching the video. I don't think I've watched it since it was new.

I wish they had released the full show on the video version

[ReaperKK]

Score is my favorite....but I have to say that I've been spinning LSFNY for the first time in probably 10 years. What an especially special show that is.

I feel like rewatching the video. I don't think I've watched it since it was new.

I wish they had released the full show on the video version

I agree, it's almost the entire thing but I was pretty disappointed when I got home and popped in the DVD only to realize it's not the full release.

[pg1067]

I've been listening to Budokan over the past few days (first time in several years) and am very underwhelmed.  The set list is ok, but not great, and it's very sterile not very "live" sounding.  Note that I don't have the DVD, which I suppose could change my opinion.

[El Barto]

As always I'm the guy to rep Bucharest. Great setlist and performance. After that Budokan and Live Scenes.

[|KirK|]

I like Score in particular for JLB performance, but my favourite is Scenes From NY.
ACOS live version is something gorgeous...