Well, it was my first Dream Theater show. First real concert for that matter. Overall, it was fantastic. Seeing the whole album live was an absolutely incredible experience and made me love the album even more. The music really does work better as performance experience, I think.
Most of my complaints are about the venue and are fairly nit-picky. Painfully overpriced concessions, seats super tiny and uncomfortable, things like that.
Other than that, the crowd didn't feel super...into it. People barely stood. There was cheering between songs, and a little bit of singing along. Primarily during some of the more anthemic songs, such as Brother Can You Hear Me? and Our New World. Other than that, it seemed kinda flat. On one hand, I feel like it wasn't a traditional concert and it wasn't super out of place. But on there other hand, DT didn't seem to play to the crowd as much as I've seen them do on some live DVDs.
For the most part, they sounded fantastic. James had a really on night. However the mix wasn't great. The bass drums were very loud and boomy, instead of tight and punchy. It made the individual hits hard to hear, especially during fast sections, such as the end of Three Days. The cymbals also seemed to be mixed too loud, at times making the whole thing feel washed out and overpowering everything else. Myung was also very hard to hear a lot of the time, due largely to the bass drums. But even in quieter parts where there wasn't much going on besides bass and maybe guitar or keys, he was still very quiet. Ruddess and Petrucci were fantastic though.
Overall, It was a great experience and I cannot wait for them to come back through. I wish I could see The Astonishing Live again, and I'll see whatever they do on the next leg of the tour if I can.
On an unrelated note, my Uber driver that picked us up to take us home was drunk. Added an extra fun experience to the night.