I did a search on this and didn't find anything, so here goes....
There are several of us who have seen DT more than once with opening acts. Which one of those acts would you consider to be "the best" of them?
For me it was Spocks Beard in 2000 at Maritime Hall in San Francisco. I hadn't heard anything about them and was totally blown away by their set. :hefdaddy
Zappa plays Zappa and 3.
Galactic Cowboys FTW :metal (never seen them, but they were pretty cool)
Opeth, closely followed by Symphony X and Frost*.
Zappa Plays Zappa was utterly incredible and really stole the night, imo.
Now If Pain of Salvation could have made it, I think my head would have exploded.
Opeth
BTBAM
Zappa Plays Zappa blew my mind.
Dixie Dregs
If Gigantour counts, then Symphony X and Nevermore.
If not, then... I guess Fates Warning?
3.
They were incredible!
REDEMPTION!
Redemption.
But DT is the best opening band I've ever seen. When they opened for Maiden!
Into eternity
3. I have never been a Zappa fan and I do not like Opeth. I liked 3 pretty well. Where are they now? Lol....
Well I've only seen DT once, but it was Prog Nation so there were 3 'opening bands' - Opeth were easily the best.
Big Wreck, Falling Into Infinity Tour. Great band. I think Ian the frontman/songwriter went to Berklee.
Redemption.
But 3, Symphony X (if they count for Gigantour), Scale the Summit and Bigelf were all amazing openers.
Definitely Zappa Plays Zappa.
Spock's Beard with Neal Morse at the helm.
rumborak
Zappa Plays Zappa blew my fucking mind.
Quote from: MarlaHooch on October 14, 2011, 08:45:01 PM
Big Wreck, Falling Into Infinity Tour. Great band. I think Ian the frontman/songwriter went to Berklee.
That tour was the first time i saw DT!
Bigelf. The only opening act I've seen for DT.
We had PoS for the second show I saw, but I didn't actually watch them, so that doesn't really count.
Van Den Plas. FII tour.
B.Lee
Easily Spocks Beard on the SFAM tour, bought all their albums from the merchandise stand straight after
Opeth
Spock's Beard, Opeth, Pain of Salvation, Symphony X, Porcupine Tree.
Rudess Morgenstein Project too. ;D
Gosh they've all been so awful as far as the shows I've been to...I'll go with Nevermore.
Bigelf and Opeth.
King's X!!!
Fates Warning :metal
I'm a big Symphony X fan...that being said, Zappa Plays Zappa was by far the best. :hat
It would be between Spock's Beard and Symphony X for me. I'd rather have An Evening With show though.
Charred Walls of the Damned
Redemption
Big Elf
Opeth
Quote from: vulcandj on October 14, 2011, 04:03:17 PMFor me it was Spocks Beard in 2000 at Maritime Hall in San Francisco. I hadn't heard anything about them and was totally blown away by their set. :hefdaddy
Same here (well, except for the city)!! Had a new favorite band since then.
3 as the first band for the Prog Nation 2008 tour. I don't think anyone had heard of them based on their initial reaction and they had the place rocking by the end of their set. Pretty damned amazed by them myself.
BTBAM. They played Colors in its entirety.
Unexpect !
Quote from: Scooterfruit on October 14, 2011, 06:26:43 PM
3.
They were incredible!
THAT! If I could have seen Symphony x open for them, that might be the best. 3 was awesome though on PN tour!!
Its a toss up between '3' when I saw them in Orlando or Frost* when I saw them in Leeds. I think Frost* just edge it though. The worst was easily Between the buried and me, just totally rubbish... My wife literally fell asleep watching them. Sorry to any BTBAM fans.
in 2002 I saw Queensryche open up for Dream Theater, so I choose them
probably opeth and unexpect. but i only started listening to unexpect after i saw them and now i love them :(
Zappa Plays Zappa + DT was amazing!
Technically, Queensryche, but I was more entertained and intrigued by Bigelf.
Quote from: MarlaHooch on October 14, 2011, 08:45:01 PM
Big Wreck, Falling Into Infinity Tour. Great band. I think Ian the frontman/songwriter went to Berklee.
Yes he did. Big Wreck's "in loving memory of" is top 5 all time for me
Opeth.
Unless festivals count?
Personally...
The Dream Theater shows made me a fan of Into Eternity, they have great energy, and honestly I thought they made Redemption look bad. To me Redemption looked stale and lacked stage presence.
3 is also an incredible band, very talented/unique.
1. Bigelf
2. Opeth
3. Anathema
4. Neal Morse
5. Unexpect
6. Riverside
7. Symphony X
This means their performance live not my likes in general.
Quote from: Vegvisir on October 16, 2011, 10:57:47 AM
Personally...
The Dream Theater shows made me a fan of Into Eternity, they have great energy, and honestly I thought they made Redemption look bad. To me Redemption looked stale and lacked stage presence.
3 is also an incredible band, very talented/unique.
I totally agree :tup I think this is the first time I see somebody else thinking the same about Into Eternity / Redemption either here or in MP.com
That's exactly what I thought after I saw the progressive nation 2007 in Toronto. :metal
Fates Warning
Not really an opening act per se but I remember before the show during the Train of Thought tour, they played Pipo & Elo's acoustic covers of DT songs and that got me more pumped than any opening act ever could have. I sat there with my friends going "I hope they play this one or that one!". It was real fun actually. I usually don't care for opening bands.
Bigelf. Awesome band. ZPZ headlined with DT, so I can't say them. Not a fan of trivium or scale the summit.
Spocks Beard
Zappa Plays Zappa
Scale The Summit
Queensryche (co-headlined, but they went on first when I saw them)
Kings X
Quote from: Pinga on October 15, 2011, 09:38:27 AM
BTBAM. They played Colors in its entirety.
So jealous. I've seen BTBAM live but never when they played Colors in full.
Fates Warning and Opeth
and I guess, since we're splitting hairs, Queensryche :P
Dixie Dregs. :metal
I do have to say in 2002 when I saw Queensryche play before Dream theater at PNC in NJ, this one guy was standing up singing the entire time and dancing during queensryche. Guy was probably in his late 40s. Now when Dream theater went on and I believe they were playing the glass prison, he turned around to me and my girlfriend and was like I don't know what is going on. It was pretty amusing.
I'm discounting QR, since they were a co-headliner, not an "opening act".
Full on the Mouth
Dixie Dregs
Fates Warning
Spocks Beard
Opeth for me.
opening acts most of times are boring, I prefer when there's no opening acts.
Fates Warning and Porcupine Tree.
no opening act will ever come close to Spock's. :hefdaddy
Symphony X absolutely blew me away and I ended up enjoying them more than DT that night.
I also remember being quite impressed with Rudess Morgenstein Project back on the FII tour.
For me it's either Symphony X or Frost*...both were amazing.
I think Frost* wins by a small margin though, and it was especially cool to see them live as now they have sadly disbanded
REDEMPTION! This was the EASIEST question I've EVER been asked!
My favorite DT openers throughout the years that I have seen have been:
1. Redemption
2. BigElf
3. Scale The Summit
4. 3
5. Dixie Dregs
6. Fates Warning
7. Kings X
These I did NOT like:
Trivium
Opeth
Zappa Plays Zappa
Into Eternity
These I don't count as "openers":
Symphony X (Gigantour)
Joe Satriani & Queensryche (co-headliners)
Easily Anathema.
Redemption
Symphony X and Opeth