LIVE SCENES FROM NEW YORK

I was not looking forward to taking the time to spin over 3 hours of live DREAM THEATER. Yet I did it four times. I am that guy who lives for consistent albums, and the longer they seem to be the harder that feat seems to be to accomplish. Plus I've never been "all in" on this band despite having a huge appreciation for much of what they do. I remember hearing "Pull Me Under" at some point and really enjoying it back in the day.

But it was picking up that Ep "A Change Of Seasons" that made me a fan. It, in all honesty was the first thing I bought after discovering the hidden world of Prog. And I still remember the joy I felt driving that Trans Am through the winding roads listening to it for the first time. Realizing I just discovered what I had been searching for the previous 15 years or so. It was a big deal.

My first spin of this triple album sort of confirmed my fears as I felt it was pretty inconsistent. But something happened towards the end of that second spin as I realized that this indeed is fairly consistent despite it's length. The key also being LaBrie's voice being in fine form. That first spin for me seemed to be all about LaBrie, as his voice seemed to dominate. And he does, but this recording is such a marathon. This is the final concert of the "Metropolis Part 2- Scenes From A Memory" tour. I can't believe this concert was over 3 hours long!

I read that Portnoy collapsed after the show from exhaustion. I'm not surprised when I've read the stuff Neil Peart has said about doing RUSH shows and what a demanding, marathon- like challenge it was for him. They pulled out all of the stops for this one. If your a fanboy this is a must. The highlights for me on disc one are the first really long track in "Beyond This Live" plus the other long one "Home". Disc two is smashing. It's the longest but so many highlights during the mid-way point like the three in a row of "Finally Free", Metropolis Part 1" and "The Mirror" and then add "Caught In The New Millennium".

The final disc is where we get the mammoth tracks as we get just three worth over the 60 plus minutes, including "A Change Of Seasons", "A Mind Besides Itself" and "Learning To Live". What are the odds they released this on 9/11? And with the original cover art shown here with the New York City skyline on fire including the Twin Towers. They would go to the trouble of changing that art work but again the timing was crazy.

So a solid 4 stars for this beast. I do prefer the triple live "Live At Budokan" but that's mainly because of the abundance of material that comes from the "Train Of Thought" record which is my favourite from them.

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