Was there tonight with my wife.
Agree with LordOfTheStrings- really solid show, great performances overall. I was especially impressed by James- have no idea how he can sing that long, that late, night after night, through so many ridiculous passages. And I constantly marvel at how JP (and MM and JM) can play so many complex things bang on note-for-note without any sheet music, charts, cheats, or guides. Hundreds of thousands of notes, and they just go through it as if it's someone humming "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain". And I'm a professional musician (composer), so I'm not even saying that as a layperson.
Loved Barstool Warrior, loved beautiful agony section of Nightmare, and loved every bit of SFAM. Highlight moment of the night for me was probably Dance of Eternity with JR on keytar, and both JR and JP ascended up the stairs to the top level of the on-stage set. All 4 guys just going crazy, in perfect synchronization. Stuff that's amazing to behold, and just so tightly done together. That moment is why I love DT- I don't really see other bands do that (a few noteworthy exceptions aside). A unified expression of technical wizardry- each part equally as strong as the others, no one person leading or putting themselves above their bandmates.
However, the night was partly spoiled (or at least certainly kept from its full potential of awesomeness) by just a RIDICULOUS volume level. I think I'm now deaf. Was pain-inducing almost the entire time, and totally unnecessarily so. In fact, it ruined the sonic quality/beauty of what they were doing. Jordan's piano patches sounded completely distorted and fuzzy rather than elegant and sweeping (picture all those SFAM moments without a nice-sounding piano...), like a piano recording being cranked to 11 through blown speakers. And anything his high registers/octaves (piano or any other patch) was just too searing/piercing to enjoy. MM's octoban hits were crushing- to an artificial extent. In fact, his cymbals were his quietest bit of kit by far. But worst of all, anything JP did was just earth-shattering- his low crunch drowned out everything (including vocals, which were way too loud on their own too, which really says something), and his beautiful soaring melodic solos were indeed amazingly performed, but also completely ear-splitting. So much so I had to constantly plug ears and turn sideways lessen the pressure and overall noise floor. FWIW- I was seated in loge (balcony) row 2 (BB), dead center on the aisle.
Seriously, the whole thing needed to be dialed WAY down. I've seen many shows louder than Dream Theater before, and I've seen Dream Theater several times (including at the Wiltern before). I've NEVER heard ANY concert anywhere near as loud as this. And like Strings said... levels were changing all night long in weird ways. Most obvious in James' vocals (also needed some more compression on him, to even out different singing voices/styles and high/low dynamics- which is usually NOT ideal, but necessary when the whole thing is SO freaking loud there's no detail to be enjoyed in the first place). But everyone was constantly being pushed up, and up, and UP to come through over/above the din everyone else was already making... until the NEXT featured part by someone, when THEY were pushed to the top, and so on and so on until there's no headroom anywhere and we're just swimming in constant hammering sonic air pressure waves. Ugh, I'm sonically exhausted all over again just thinking about it. And now, 2 hours later, I literally feel like my head is wrapped in cotton. Just hoping I don't have long-term damage, as my career literally depends on good hearing. I do have some decent ear plugs, but (stupidly) forgot them. Not sure they'd have saved me anyway- they're "only" a 20 dB reduction.
I have no idea if the volume issue was more on DT's team, or on the Wiltern. But let others attending stops on this tour be forewarned... if this wasn't a one-off, you may really need to protect yourself and be prepared for some insane sound levels.
All that said, the performance was fantastic, and production (lights, projection, MTC/SMPTE timing/programming, etc.) was all top notch and fun to experience. Crowd was really into it. Saw some really old guys/girls, also had a couple kids behind me experiencing their first concert. Awesome how multi-generational DT is, and how many different types of people it attracts. The only real non-diversity I saw was in clothing choice... which of course was 98% black!
Topic: 3/21/19 + 3/22/19 - Wiltern Theater - Los Angeles (Read 4107 times)
