Author Topic: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)  (Read 21023 times)

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Offline Logain Ablar

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #105 on: February 24, 2016, 01:43:44 PM »
BTW, he's "James LaBriest" in the tour program :rollin
^ That's hilarious!

Great first post, and perfect English. Better than mine!  :tup

Offline ErHaO

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #106 on: February 24, 2016, 05:11:01 PM »
I saw them monday and today in Carre! I got another ticket for today as a present  ;D Some impressions (in rough English):

Monday, gold vip, seated somewhere near the front:
-Sound was unacceptibly loud for a theater concert the first half. Hearing fatigue settled in halfway The Gift of Tinnitus and forced me to use earbuds. I heard many others complain as well. Act 2 was a large improvement. This unfortunately hampered my experience quite a bit. Also, talking about earbuds, vip's were graced with those cheap yellow things put in a small box with the majesty logo  :lol In a theater show in such a classy venue that really seems amateurish to me.
-Still, loud as it was, the mix was actually pretty good from the get go, vastly superiour to the two previous times I saw DT. Too bad I couldn't really enjoy it as the loudness was too much of a burden on my ears.
-Labrie was struggling indeed. There were times were he did well, but there were a few songs where he was off-key for longer durations and his prononounciation was barely there. Yet he sang other parts with similar notes quite good, so I thought he was very inconsistent within the same show. Especially during the early/mid part of act 1 he sounded off frequently. That is not to say there were no moments I enjoyed his vocals though, there were definately moments he did the studio counterpart justice.
-The band was thight. Especially the drums and guitar sounded awesome. Mangini is a joy to look at. I can't see people who saw this show saying his drums on TA are boring, seriously. And all the instruments sounded great. Not those muddy/crappy tones of Along for the Ride tour, but a clear and melodic sound and pounding drums.
-DT was very static on stage and the interactions were absolutely minor (much moreso than the previous two shows I attended). As I sat fairly close and all the focus was on the musicians, they felt a bit too tame at times.
-Visuals were ace, but sitting so up front brought more focus to the band members individually than to the production as a whole (see next list of impressions).
-Overall, good concert hampered by the loudness and some really off moments for Labrie. It was great seeing this band so close, astonishing musicians indeed. It being in such a beautiful (and around here, iconic) theater really gave a different vibe.

Wednesday, seated somewhere near the middle near the stairs (so still almost ground level and pretty close).
-Mix was great from the get go and the sound wasn't loud to a bothering level. Still loud for a theater show, but I took my good earplugs with me and decided it sounded great with those so didn't even bother taking them out anymore after putting them in.
-Visual experience was very different. It was cool to see the guys playing close up, but I think the visuals are more impressive a bit more towards the back. The seperate screens seemed more like a whole a bit further in the back. And now I didn't mind the lack of movements of the band at all. I could appreciate the musical interactions more as I could see the whole band and stage production without looking around all the time (for example, seeing Petrucci and Myung playing same/similar parts together was now easier to percieve). Also, the lights at the top front of the stage, which shone through Carre, made quite a difference for me.
-Labrie was much, much better. While some songs weren't quite up to par, I wouldn't call it bad either. But there were quite a few moments that he impressed me quite a bit, both the softer melodic parts and some of the louder vocals. I do believe people are in for a treat in future shows if he manages to maintain this and iron out some of his lesser parts. I could understand what he was saying much more too. He also looked a lot more confident on stage and I felt he moved a bit more.
-Fantastic concert. Labrie's performance being much better enhanced the show greatly for me and I enjoyed the stage production a lot. Also, I no sound problems for me this time around. Crowd seemed more involved too (and kept standing after Our New World).

Some general remarks:
-That is a sexy tourbook. Both acts are summarised and all characters are featured (same as the website I think) and then there is also the regular content of their tourbooks, with some interesting behind the scenes pictures of making the show (showing actors in front of a green screen, for example). And yes, LaBriest is there  :lol
-Though not really of use, I like the small touch of having a small official programme to pick up.
-Carre is such a beautiful theater.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2016, 05:18:49 PM by ErHaO »

Offline JRuless

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #107 on: February 25, 2016, 01:25:30 AM »
I saw them monday and today in Carre!......
.......
-Carre is such a beautiful theater.


Sounds as I definitly chose the wrong evening (monday)..
Don't get me wrong, it was a great performance.  I don't even complain about LaBriest in the first way but....
 it WAS way too loud without any nuance IMHO. I dont understand why it had to be so loud, with such loudness there is in no way any need to perform in a hall with such a great acoustic specifics.
The soundtech decided to blow every single frequency litterly through the walls and roof of the beautiful theater:
So I had to wear earplugs in a theater FGS...dissapointing.





Offline CharlesPL

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #108 on: February 25, 2016, 01:33:16 AM »
Carre Amsterdam 23-2-2016 - Moment Of Betrayal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPlKesh8gYk

Offline Cyclopssss

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #109 on: February 25, 2016, 01:38:56 AM »
It was loud. I remember being on the verge of thinking 'Is this TOO loud?' But the show was so good, I decided to let it go. Might turn it down just a little for better enjoyment though.
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Online ariich

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #110 on: February 25, 2016, 02:24:38 AM »
It was loud. I remember being on the verge of thinking 'Is this TOO loud?' But the show was so good, I decided to let it go. Might turn it down just a little for better enjoyment though.
I had that kind of feeling at the second Palladium night. It was definitely on the loud side, as gigs very often are which is why I always (if I remember) have earplugs on me. But on this occasion, it wasn't THAT bad, and the actual sound quality was so great, with exactly the right balance and everything being so clear and crisp, I decided not to use the plugs and just immerse myself in the sound quality.

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Offline thedrumanimal

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #111 on: February 25, 2016, 03:57:08 AM »
I would like to describe some of my impressions from last evening as well.

It was my 22th DT concert and I love the new album very very much, so this comes from a huge fanboy.

The bad things - and for me, there were quite a few... I really want to be honest:

I was sitting up on the balcony, which was nearly the height of the lights on the stage. And this was too high. The sound up there was muddy, way too much treble. Nearly no bass drum at all, at least no defined bass drum. The major problem for me and my friend was, that JLB was high up in the mix, and again with way too much high frequencies. And according to our perception, he had a real bad evening, being off pitch in the higher range really really often. More often than on the last couple of concerts I have seen him. Dont get me wrong, I love James, but yesterday his performance made the overall impression suffer really bad for us.

Another point: The band tried to connect with the audience quite often - James tried to make us sing along, JP was doing his fist up thing... but somehow the audience didnt feel it yesterday. The band made a conscious decision to tour seated places - and that is the result of this decision. It was my first seated DT concert and it was just not working for me.

They made quite a few mistakes, more then I have ever seen during one DT concert. I think this will improve as the tour keeps going. In MoB there was one moment where I think James started singing too early and they nearly had to stop because everybody was confused. However Mangini saved them.

Some of the images are a bit ... odd. The characters can only twinkle with their eyes, thats the only movement they do...   

It was odd for me seeing them leaving the stage so often. Normally it is just James leaving for an instrumental section. But this time? On - off - on - off... Myung was off stage nearly half the concert.......

And the last point: For me too many sections and instruments were played playback. For instance the dialogue singing in Ravenskill: James is singing Faythes part, the men that answers is playback... Also JR could have also played more parts live for my taste...

The positive things:

The show is the best they have ever put on stage. It was great to see the Astonishing live with this huge show. The lights and the video show for most parts were amazing!

Mangini is incredible to see live. Whoever says he is a robot and all this stuff knows nothing about drumming. I am a drummer myself, and now I can really appreciate his work on this CD. There are so many things going on you dont notice on the record... The roll part in the final song Astonishing is - for me - the most complex drum thing I have ever seen in DT. Two different rolls on two snare drums at the same time. You just cannot learn to do this...

I am sure some of you will disagree on some of my points - but hey - thats fine...

However, I was happy that we took the trip from Hamburg to Amsterdam!

Offline ErHaO

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #112 on: February 25, 2016, 04:44:56 AM »
Here is a Dutch review of monday, which has some professional photos:https://www.metalfan.nl/concertreviews.php?id=934
And here is the facebook link with more pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153570206419302.1073741869.206916209301&type=3

I would like to describe some of my impressions from last evening as well.

It was my 22th DT concert and I love the new album very very much, so this comes from a huge fanboy.

The bad things - and for me, there were quite a few... I really want to be honest:

I was sitting up on the balcony, which was nearly the height of the lights on the stage. And this was too high. The sound up there was muddy, way too much treble. Nearly no bass drum at all, at least no defined bass drum. The major problem for me and my friend was, that JLB was high up in the mix, and again with way too much high frequencies. And according to our perception, he had a real bad evening, being off pitch in the higher range really really often. More often than on the last couple of concerts I have seen him. Dont get me wrong, I love James, but yesterday his performance made the overall impression suffer really bad for us.

Another point: The band tried to connect with the audience quite often - James tried to make us sing along, JP was doing his fist up thing... but somehow the audience didnt feel it yesterday. The band made a conscious decision to tour seated places - and that is the result of this decision. It was my first seated DT concert and it was just not working for me.

They made quite a few mistakes, more then I have ever seen during one DT concert. I think this will improve as the tour keeps going. In MoB there was one moment where I think James started singing too early and they nearly had to stop because everybody was confused. However Mangini saved them.

Some of the images are a bit ... odd. The characters can only twinkle with their eyes, thats the only movement they do...   

It was odd for me seeing them leaving the stage so often. Normally it is just James leaving for an instrumental section. But this time? On - off - on - off... Myung was off stage nearly half the concert.......

And the last point: For me too many sections and instruments were played playback. For instance the dialogue singing in Ravenskill: James is singing Faythes part, the men that answers is playback... Also JR could have also played more parts live for my taste...

The positive things:

The show is the best they have ever put on stage. It was great to see the Astonishing live with this huge show. The lights and the video show for most parts were amazing!

Mangini is incredible to see live. Whoever says he is a robot and all this stuff knows nothing about drumming. I am a drummer myself, and now I can really appreciate his work on this CD. There are so many things going on you dont notice on the record... The roll part in the final song Astonishing is - for me - the most complex drum thing I have ever seen in DT. Two different rolls on two snare drums at the same time. You just cannot learn to do this...

I am sure some of you will disagree on some of my points - but hey - thats fine...

However, I was happy that we took the trip from Hamburg to Amsterdam!

I agree on a lot of parts, but not all of them bother me to the same extent.

I can see that if Labrie is very high in the mix and mostly only the higher frequencies are audible, that can be really detrimental to the show. Like I said, I thought he was great last night, with some clear lesser moments here and there. But overall I could really enjoy the vocal melodies, whereas on monday he was off track in a lot of parts, no matter the range. And he sounded less convincing overall. But yeah, I noticed he had some timing issues as well and he was off pitch in some (mainly higher) parts, but overall I think his voice itself sounded great. But maybe the overall mix mainly allowing for higher frequencies made the tone of his voice more unpleasant for you as well (I know my laptop microphone makes my singing voice less pleasant by stripping away it's warmth, for example). 

The band was too static and the crowd interactions were not convincing. Like seriously, they make no sense in terms of timing. It is not that the crowd wasn't into it, it was more that I didn't even know what or when to do something if he talked. But more towards the back I found the stage very immersive, so it was less apparent than on monday. But it really was a "theater" crowd, who to me seemed really pleased and involved with the show in that respect. But as someone who goes to theatershows every now and then and treated this show as such, I wasn't expecting an active crowd anyways. The band didn't do much to interact so some of James' interactions feel like an afterthought.

The band leaving the stage didn't bother me at all, as the whole show surrounding it was greatly produced. I do agree that some parts feature a bit too much playback though. Some vocal harmonies could've had more Petrucci (like the acoustic set I saw in 2011) and less studio Labriest. And they definitely could've altered the timing/ tempo of a few parts to just have James singing the whole thing instead of switching between studio and live. The evangeline part of A Better Life, for example, could be altered imo (as I often sing that part on my own just fine, be it with slightly different timing than the album).

I fully agree on Mangini in particular. I am not a drummer on anything, but that guy is a joy to look at and boy does he do some weird and complex stuff that initially seem straightforward on the studio recording. Probably the best drum performance I ever saw. So many little details and variations and the way he moves just looks like he is having the time of his life. Monday I often found myself focusing on him (and actually being annoyed at a point that Petrucci was performing a solo in front of my line of vision  :lol).
« Last Edit: February 25, 2016, 04:52:04 AM by ErHaO »

Offline keys76

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #113 on: February 25, 2016, 10:53:32 AM »
BTW, he's "James LaBriest" in the tour program :rollin
^ That's hilarious!

Great first post, and perfect English. Better than mine!  :tup

About the tourbook:
When you bought the tour program in London or Amsterdam you're having a collector's item, since they are reprinting the tour program because of some spelling errors and they will change the production rehearsal pics with live pics of the first couple shows.
Source: JR



Offline CB

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #116 on: February 25, 2016, 05:50:46 PM »
Wow, reading these posts about the bad sound I'm even more glad that I took the ear protection with me - I almost didn't because I thought the sound would be ok in Carre. It was very good last year at the Theater Equation in a theater of similar size, though it was loud there too. I hope whoever is responsible for the sound realizes the problem and solves it soon.

It's fascinating to see how different the impressions of the show (JLB in particular) are. I spent the evening listening to a recording of the monday show I saw. I hear only few vocal mistakes in a long and challenging live show. James singing style is very particular, his sliding to the notes especially, but what he does seems intentional to me, based on his interpretation of the song. I still think he gave a fantastic performance, some parts I like even more than on the very polished sounding CD. There's more edge and bite in the harder parts live and so much feeling and warmth in the softer ones.

Listening to the bootleg I realized I like the drums much more than on the professional recording.

I agree with the comment about the characters on the screens. To me they look rather cold, they don't touch me emotionally, but the landscapes and the movements are stunning. I also think that the effect of the visuals gets lost if you sit too near to the stage or too far on the side. The semi-circular hall of Carre wasn't the best choice in that regard imo. And if the visual effects don't work the static behaviour of the band makes no sense...

Offline barho

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #117 on: February 26, 2016, 02:02:09 AM »
So...After letting it sink in for a day or so, here's my 2 cents (I was at the show on the 24th):

Let me just start off by saying the show was INCREDIBLE! by far the best concert I've been to in terms of the overall show.
My seat was pretty close to the stage (row 11), but unfortunately, in the seat in front of me sat a tall guy, which meant I had to keep moving my head left (if in a particular moment i wanted to watch JR and JM) and right (If I wanted to see JLB, MM and JP rockin'). It didn't take away from my overall experience, but it was just one of those time when I wish i was a bit taller  :-\
The sound was amazing from where I was sitting. All the people saying that the sound was bad, must have gone to different show, or sat a different place. I enjoyed the sound very very much.
The video show was very immersive, it really seems like they put a lot of thought in to it, and it made the show very engaging and entertaining.
I also really liked that JP seemed to be a bit nervous (but not too much), as if it was one of his first concerts ever, I think it shows how important this tour is for him, and I loved that I was able to witness that.
On to the Performance itself:
MM is a BEAST! drums have always been the less attractive part in DT for me (not because they're not great, I just don't care THAT much if they played that fill or that fill), but for some reason I couldn't take my eyes off of him for a long portion of the show. Even though that's not the first time I saw him play, I was struck at how amazing he played.
JM and JR have been solid as always, although I do feel (as someone already pointed out in this thread or the London one) that JR could've relied less on playback, and play more live.
And that leads me to the most (possibly only) disappointing part of the evening - JLB.
being a singer myself, it makes sense that i would pay more attention to the vocals. before I get into that, I want to clarify that I love JLB, and that the thing i loved the most about TA is that finally, for the first time since IAW, JLB is again the star of the show.
Unfortunately, on this particular night (and all the previous ones, apparently) he was really struggling. At times it seemed like there must be something wrong with his monitors, since he was completely off key in many spots, and even whole passages. He did nail a couple of the really tough notes in Act 2 (nice surprise, maybe he saved his strength?), but overall his performance was a bit underwhelming, and it kinda detracted from my experience.
The crowd was a bit reserved, to say the least. There was a moment in ONW where JLB literally begged the crowd to stand up and start moving, but it was very awkward because nobody really knew what is "right" to do in that situation. I wanted to stand up at that moment so bad, but nobody seemed to share my urge so I stayed put  :lol
Overall it was an amazing show, and I am sad that I won't be able to watch it again towards the end of the tour.
Hopefully a DVD will come out and I'll be able to watch it in all its glory.

Oh and one funny/weird thing about the videos - In Ravenskill, when Faythe asks "Where can I find this man?", on the screen appeared the picture of Gabriel.
that was hilarious to me, since even on the track description website it says that she was looking for Arhys, not Gabriel. I have no idea how JP didn't spot that before they approved the videos.
Really makes you wonder how was the approval process like for these videos.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2016, 02:42:20 AM by barho »

Offline CharlesPL

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Re: Dream Theater at the legendary Carré Theater in Amsterdam (Holland)
« Reply #119 on: February 26, 2016, 01:11:26 PM »
Oh and one funny/weird thing about the videos - In Ravenskill, when Faythe asks "Where can I find this man?", on the screen appeared the picture of Gabriel.
that was hilarious to me, since even on the track description website it says that she was looking for Arhys, not Gabriel. I have no idea how JP didn't spot that before they approved the videos.
Really makes you wonder how was the approval process like for these videos.

Nice catch! There are a few other bits of video about which we have been talking about. And so cool you enjoyed the show!