August 4, 2000 - The Electric Factory, Philadelphia
My brother and I were (and still are) prog guys, and went there to see Spock's Beard, and we were going to leave after their set. My brother ran into a friend of his from high school, who was there with his teenage son, an aspiring guitarist. He convinced us that "we had to stay and see this band! They are amazing!" We figured, we're here, why not. Now I had heard of Dream Theater at that time, seeing their name on a few bootleg video lists I had come across, but had not heard note one of their material.
When they hit the stage and broke into 'Metropolis', our jaws just dropped! The power, the musicianship, the spitting (WTF!), the notes (sooooo many notes), we we're immediately hooked. They were really loud that night, so loud in fact that we left before the encore, ACOS. (I know, rookie mistake.) We talked all the way home about what we had just witnessed. Just an incredible band! I went out the next day to buy their latest release, only to buy Falling Into Infinity by mistake. I picked up SFAM the next day, and proceeded to listen to it both at home or in the car almost exclusively for the next six weeks. After seeing DT over 20 times now, and buying essentially everything they have available since then, SFAM is still my favorite DT album, and in my personal desert island top 10.
Having never seen SFAM live in its entirety, I'm looking forward to the experience.
DanLore