Actual performance or setlist wise?
A bit of both. I agree with sentiment that the orchestra was not used in an effective manner. Keeping the setlist in the same structure as the rest of the 8V tour only served to emphasize that point. There are many tunes from SFAM and before that could have benefited from the presence of the orchestra.
I actually quite enjoyed the first set of the RCMH performance, with the inclusion of some rarities (Raising the Knife and IF, for example). But the whole second set dragged for me. It was my third time seeing SDOIT in its entirety (saw it twice on that tour) and I was never too hot on the song to begin with, depsite liking some of its individual parts (WIMH/TTTSTA, SS). Sacrficed Sons was a complete concert buzz kill, and the title track to Octavarium is another song that simply does not appeal to me. Taking into account my thoughts on SDOIT, SacSons, and 8V, that is more than a third of the concert I was getting no real enjoyment out of.
Performance-wise, I don't know if I would call this the apex of the band firing on all cylinders. There had been steady improvement up from SFAM through the ToT tour and I think they simply maintained it through the 8V tour. Nothing on this particular show stood out as being anything superior to what I had heard in previous concerts I atteneded or boots that I have collected.
I know part of my feelings on this show can be traced back to my general dissatisfaction with the band's output post-SFAM, but I do have an aprpeciation of how well the stuff on SDOIT and ToT translated to the live setting. Of the boots I have collected, when I am looking for DT live, 90 percent of the time I reach for ToT shows. I think they were at their best on that tour and as where I won't listen to the studio version of ToT, the songs really translated well live and it makes those shows in particular a real treat to listen to. I just never got that same feeling with any material on 8V, SC or even BC&SL.
I just walked out of RCMH feeling it just didn't live up to the hype. In contrast, I though the show at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on the ToT tour was a lot better and one of the most memorable DT concerts I have attended. The Score recording at RCMH and the subsequent shows that I have attended (CiM tour in Baltimore MD and Wantagh NY and the Prog Nation '09 show in Columbia MD) has really put into focus just how much I have lost that connection with the band's music...