JLB's Performance On Chaos In Motion

[Lolzeez]

I just watched CIN for the first time. Lines in the sand was great and so was Take The Time. But wtf was wrong with James when he was singing the Blind Faith chorus? Whenever he hits a high note his voice shakes. Is that a style of singing like how Dominici does it or is it a mistake?

[GasparXR]

It was probably an off day for James. Much of the performance on his part is great, but overshadowed by odd the production on his voice. As you said, LITS and TTT were great (although a part of TTT was cut), and so was ITPOE.

[IdoSC]

For some reason he decided to add LOTS of vibration to his voice so he could (again, I don't get why) sustain the last note in each sentence longer. Maybe he forgot he didn't hold these notes for so long in the studio version and got it mixed up when he practiced. Maybe he had an off night and he tried to overcompensate by holding notes (which he couldn't handle without vibrating?).

Overall though, this DVD is just not so good for many reasons, and James is the highlight of it. I'm not saying he was bad in these shows, but in relation to a few other shows he was just weaker; and overall, the sound effects on his voice are just bad throughout the whole tour.

There are some versions of Lines in the Sand from the same tour where he sounds so much more intact and even nails a few high notes. IAW's 15th anniversary fanclub release features miles better versions of both TTT and Surrounded, not considering the fact that in said performance they played the complete version of Take the Time, not the abridged one. The Dark Eternal Night was not just annoying to listen to, but also it's probably one of the worst versions of it in the entire tour, and I'm so glad that we get a new version of it in Live at Luna Park. And I'm even happier that he sang it so beautifully in Luna that it'd take some absolutely horrible editing skills to ruin that version.

James was extremely good in that tour, maybe better than the 20th anniversary "Evening With" tour sometimes. But this specific package of material presented to us as the "Chaos in Motion DVD" gives clueless Youtube users a legitimate reason to come up with theories about another vocal rupture. He was great in that tour and he was even okay in the shows on the DVD but the actual product shows otherwise, for all the wrong reasons, it's absolutely not his fault. And as a huge fan of vocals, and JLB's in particular, it really ticks me off.

It shouldn't have happened right after Score, where even his haters began to appreciate him.

[nikatapi]

Overall though, this DVD is just not so good for many reasons, and James is the highlight of it. I'm not saying he was bad in these shows, but in relation to a few other shows he was just weaker; and overall, the sound effects on his voice are just bad throughout the whole tour.

James was extremely good in that tour, maybe better than the 20th anniversary "Evening With" tour sometimes. But this specific package of material presented to us as the "Chaos in Motion DVD" gives clueless Youtube users a legitimate reason to come up with theories about another vocal rupture. He was great in that tour and he was even okay in the shows on the DVD but the actual product shows otherwise, for all the wrong reasons, it's absolutely not his fault. And as a huge fans of vocals, and JLB's in particular, it really ticks me off.

It shouldn't have happened right after Score, where even his haters began to appreciate him.

I agree with your post IdoSC, i was lucky to see DT during a festival in Greece, and most of the crowd was very impressed with James' performance, he was spot on.
The most strange thing to me about CiM is the heavy use of effects on his voice, to the point it becomes unrecognizable.

Overall, i'm not afraid to admit that CiM is the only DT related purchace i've regretted, i was expecting so much after the previous live works, and i was let down. Probably i haven't listened-watched it since i bought it.

[SeRoX]

I remember many performances from this world tour. James was absolutely fantastic. Still can't figure out why the band's especially chosen the worst and off performances of him.

[Onno]

Yeah, the Blind Faith and Surrounded performances by James were pretty bad. But I think this also has to do with the production of the DVD; in Lines and the Sand and Scarred, he sings very well, but some effect makes his voice sound very thin. This production combined with a bad night created the horrible versions of Blind Faith and Surrounded IMO.

[wolfking]

Besides those couple of songs, I think on a whole James sounds pretty good on this DVD.  I'd take the performance on this over Budokan.

[ZirconBlue]

The most strange thing to me about CiM is the heavy use of effects on his voice, to the point it becomes unrecognizable.

I don't know if it's pitch correction, or what, but just about any part that he goes into the higher register sounds almost inhuman.

[Tomislav95]

Scarred is one of my favorite songs but I don't like CiM version at all. It sounds strange to me. Surrounded, LITS and Blind Faith chorus are also quite bad.

[Rattlehead]

I still haven't seen the entire DVD but I must say JLB sounds pretty amusing in the chorus of Blind Faith  It's a shame though because it sounded so perfect until the chorus...

[The Letter M]

I only ever listen to the CDs so I don't really have any complaints about the CD versions of "Blind Faith" and "Surrounded", which are from different shows than the ones on the DVD.

-Marc.

[ZirconBlue]

I only ever listen to the CDs so I don't really have any complaints about the CD versions of "Blind Faith" and "Surrounded", which are from different shows than the ones on the DVD.

-Marc.

Really?  They sound pretty bad to me. 

[The Letter M]

I only ever listen to the CDs so I don't really have any complaints about the CD versions of "Blind Faith" and "Surrounded", which are from different shows than the ones on the DVD.

-Marc.

Really?  They sound pretty bad to me.

Well, to be fair, I haven't listened to CIM in months, so I may be remembering it more fondly than I actually do

I think I just remember being less disappointed with the CD versions of those songs than I was with the DVD versions.

-Marc.

[Scorpion]

I only ever listen to the CDs so I don't really have any complaints about the CD versions of "Blind Faith" and "Surrounded", which are from different shows than the ones on the DVD.

-Marc.

Really?  They sound pretty bad to me.

Well, to be fair, I haven't listened to CIM in months, so I may be remembering it more fondly than I actually do

I think I just remember being less disappointed with the CD versions of those songs than I was with the DVD versions.

-Marc.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel. The CD versions aren't great, but listenable.

The same can't be said for the DVD.

[MirzekDT]

I only ever listen to the CDs so I don't really have any complaints about the CD versions of "Blind Faith" and "Surrounded", which are from different shows than the ones on the DVD.

-Marc.

Really?  They sound pretty bad to me.

Well, to be fair, I haven't listened to CIM in months, so I may be remembering it more fondly than I actually do

I think I just remember being less disappointed with the CD versions of those songs than I was with the DVD versions.

-Marc.

The CD versions are much better there's no question here. Of course that doesn't automatically mean they are not bad, but in my opinion they are pretty good.

[AMindBesideItself]

James' performance on CiM is absolutely dreadful. I'm glad he's sounding better nowadays.

[The Clairvoyant]

We may say that labrie's performance on this tour was almost good but I didn't like sonogs like constant motion and the dark eternal night where portnoy was the second singer with his growl backing vocals and this has ruined these songs and the same thing when he performed "panick attack", and these songs (constant motion and the dark eternal night) are not part of dream theater's style according to me so I think portnoy wanted to do something different singing with labrie on these two songs and alive honestly I didn't like the performance of labrie / portnoy together because this ruined the performance of labrie.

[Perpetual Change]

I don't think Portnoy's singing made LaBrie sound bad. But, yeah, their voices do not really mesh well at all.

[The Clairvoyant]

I don't want say that Portnoy doesn't know sing, but he was forced to sing in these songs because according to him the only voice of labrie was not good in a couple of songs. As I said labrie's performance was good but they could do a better album, better than systematic chaos (even if in these albums there are a coupls of good songs like the ministry of last souls) in that period even if I don't like so much this album, during that period, during the recording process of systematic chaos I think portnoy was changing, he wanted do something different and systematic chaos has been the result and subsequent tour (for example progressive nation, song's cut like metropolis, take the time, voices, the same happened during black & clouds tour).
Anyway Portnoy is a big drummer and he will come back one day I'd be happy but he must change!!

[Brand X]

From memory, I recall being thoroughly disappointed with the mix, editing, lack of overdubs where quite obviously needed etc........wasn't MP the producer of this DVD? It's pretty poor......and (this is just my take) that around this time he was so 'controlling' of James both in the studio, in interviews and (to my ears) in the mixdown of the CD and DVD...........he really should just stick to drumming and learn to control his (self-diagnosed) OCD and ego.

Would have been great to see how CIM would have come out had someone who knew what they were doing was in control.

[MoraWintersoul]

Edit: nevermind.

[Perpetual Change]

CiM isn't really MP's fault. Roadrunner begged DT for a DVD, even when they knew they didn't have one.

[MoraWintersoul]

CiM isn't really MP's fault. Roadrunner begged DT for a DVD, even when they knew they didn't have one.

Why would they though? Score was out just a couple of years before that.

I wasn't a real fan back then, and I didn't really do a lot of reading about that era, so I'd like to know whether that's true or not.

[SeRoX]

CiM isn't really MP's fault. Roadrunner begged DT for a DVD, even when they knew they didn't have one.

Still it doesn't answer to the question why the band (considering MP is in charge of selecting performances) decided to take James' off performances into the DVD.

[BlobVanDam]

From memory, I recall being thoroughly disappointed with the mix, editing, lack of overdubs where quite obviously needed etc........wasn't MP the producer of this DVD? It's pretty poor......and (this is just my take) that around this time he was so 'controlling' of James both in the studio, in interviews and (to my ears) in the mixdown of the CD and DVD...........he really should just stick to drumming and learn to control his (self-diagnosed) OCD and ego.

Would have been great to see how CIM would have come out had someone who knew what they were doing was in control.

CiM wouldn't have turned out better with someone else editing it. The quality of the original video and audio was poor to begin with, and it wasn't a big budgeted DVD, so it wouldn't have ended up any better no matter who was in charge, and it was never going to be a Score or Budokan.
There still wouldn't have been overdubs, the video still would have been bootleg quality, the audio still would have been average soundboard quality etc.

A DVD wasn't even going to happen for that tour, and I think this DVD was a fairly late decision to release something rather than nothing, and I think that only happened because they did it on the cheap. Without MP, the DVD probably wouldn't have happened at all, which most people probably would preferred, so that's admittedly not really an argument.

CiM isn't really MP's fault. Roadrunner begged DT for a DVD, even when they knew they didn't have one.

Still it doesn't answer to the question why the band (considering MP is in charge of selecting performances) decided to take James' off performances into the DVD.

THEY DIDN'T. They had limited material, and they chose the best they had. Is it MP's fault JLB sang poorly on those shows? Of course not.

[Mladen]

CiM isn't really MP's fault. Roadrunner begged DT for a DVD, even when they knew they didn't have one.

Why would they though? Score was out just a couple of years before that.

Probably because that one didn't come out on Roadrunner.

[SeRoX]

Yes! It's band's fault, maybe even including James. Many performances out there from that era where James absolutely nailed Scarred, Lines In The Sand, Blind Faith and some of them were shot.

This is two side coin then. James is guilty because he performed so bad the nights that were recorded. Or the band is guilty because you prepared a live DVD with limited materials, poor production, considering you are one of the world-wide known band.

[BlobVanDam]

Yes! It's band's fault, maybe even including James. Many performances out there from that era where James absolutely nailed Scarred, Lines In The Sand, Blind Faith and some of them were shot.

This is two side coin then. James is guilty because he performed so bad the nights that were recorded. Or the band is guilty because you prepared a live DVD with limited materials, poor production, considering you are one of the world-wide known band.

They obviously had limited money to make this. I'm not sure whether that is the label's fault for signing DT on for a DVD without the necessary resources, or DT's fault if they had the choice to agree to a DVD knowing in advance it wasn't going to have a big enough budget to turn out well. I don't know the business side of it. But it can't have been very high budget, because they only had a few cameras for each show, and it wasn't even shot HD.

By the time they were filming the shows, they were probably obligated to the DVD though, so by that point they had a finite amount of footage to work with in editing. If JLB sang below his usual standard on those particular nights, it's because of JLB. I don't think it's fair to blame anyone for this, because they can't know going in when JLB is going to have an off night, and JLB always gives it his all. And I don't recall the couple of alternate versions of songs from the CD version really being any better than what was on the DVD, so I don't blame MP for his choice of which versions to use from the few shows recorded either.

It is what it is, and unfortunately it's not particularly good.

[MoraWintersoul]

CiM isn't really MP's fault. Roadrunner begged DT for a DVD, even when they knew they didn't have one.

Why would they though? Score was out just a couple of years before that.

Probably because that one didn't come out on Roadrunner.

Knew it would be something stupid like that thanks.

[Architeuthis]

CIM dvd was just bootleg quality. the vocal production sounds awful. sounds like he's singing into a tin can and I would never show that dvd to my friends. just listen to Surrounded, and you'll know what I'm saying. they did such a cool version of that song on that tour and it's a bloody shame it got ruined for the dvd vocalwise. I was at the Seattle show that year and James sounded fantastic all night!

[wolfandwolfandwolf]

I thought this was going to be about how awful Forsaken sounds.

"WHHHYYYYYYIII HAVE COME FOR YYEWW TOONIIIITE"

[Shattered Glass]

I've read here somewhere that the recording for this was taken from the sound desk.  So, I'm imagining that that explains the dead sound of James' voice on CiM - because, when you watch any youtube video, you get his voice bouncing and reverberating off the walls - even from this tour.  When you listen to this, it sounds like all the overtones in his voice have been cut off - like, if you were listening to a recording of a singer from  20s - 30s.  So, I think that his vocal performance might not have been wholly the problem, and given the recording qualiy, I like some of his performances on this a lot- e.g. Forsaken, ITPOE, and LITS - but, probably the Blind Faith performance is not his finest moment ..

I like CiM - I watch it as much as what others are calling their "official" dvds ..

[Dublagent66]

It is unfortunate they didn't have a better selection of performances.  Oh well, there's still a lot of good stuff in there.  Lines in the Sand JP solo...