LIVE IN ATHENS

The DVD has been with me for a month and I really enjoy it. Since I purchased it I have watched it at least three times in its entirety. From "live performance" point of view it's actually not really stand out because only vocalist Ray Adler and bassist Joey Vera that make the stage lively. The rest of the band are quiet players on stage. The mastermind Jim Matheos is pretty busy with his guitar has practically no movemaent at all on stage. But the crowd has made the show so lively. (Intermezzo - while I'm writing this review my cell phone beeps with a message from a colleague prog: "I'm starting the day with Steve Hackett - To Watch The Storm!" Oh ... what a proggy day today man ...).

Fates Warning is one of the pioneering bands with its flagship of progressive metal genre but it's different with Dream Theater. This DVD was recorded in a club in Greece with enthusiastic crowd which made an intimate setting and powerful performance. The band has been around for 20 years with many albums already released - so obviously they can't cover all their tracks. The band did a good job playing songs from different eras of their history.

What I do enjoy is the appearance of Spock's Beard drummer Nick d'Virgilio. Even though I enjoy Mark Zonder's acrobatic drumming, I got no trouble at all having Nick sitting at drum stools replacing Zonder. Great job, Nick!

As far as the crowd concern, I'm sure there are all Fates Warning's fans and they have been familiar with almost all songs presented here. My favorite is of course the track coming from concept album "A Pleasant Shade of Gray". I even imagined that the band should plan to make a video of this album performed in its entirety. They did with the audio CD live album "Still Life" (Disc 1) but not the DVD. If the band plans to release the DVD version, I will be the first one to pre-order.

The DVD comes with extras that feature the performance of Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater on drum set. It's cool.

Overall, I highly recommend you to purchase this DVD. Especially if you claim yourself as progressive metal freaks. C'mon, get it man! Keep on proggin' ..!

Progressively yours, GW

There are also some pretty good extras, including a couple of songs with Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy.

Being familiar with a coiuple Fates Warning albums I looked forward to this DVD. It had a good set list and seemed like it had the makings for an excellent experience, which I'm sad to say I did not have.

The band took several songs to start playing at the quality level I expected. Sometimes it takes a song or two to get into the gig and settle down, but there were more problems than this. Initially the band seemed a bit off timing with a poor mix. These things settled down and the playing was much better 15 minutes into the gig, but the sound was not all that great and after awhile I got tired of Ray Alder exorting the crowd to get into it. All things considered the band couldn't have asked for a much better crowd.

I like Nick D'Virgilio but didn't feel he brought anything into the band. He is ordinarily a great drummer, but he seemed lost - a lot. I can appreciate that as his main gig is Spock's Beard. But his style didn't lend itself well IMO.

The concert was enjoyable from about 30 minutes in but I didn't think it was all that great a gig. It seems Fates Warning puts out a lot of DVDs - perhaps too many? They're a fine band that didn't do much for me, a short time fan. I watched this DVD many times before reviewing. Sometimes things grow on you and your initial opinions moderate, but not this time.

The guitar work of Jim Matheos and Frank Aresti was very good. I'd rather see the guys play their parts well than jumping around on stage. Joey Vera's bass was often lost in the mix. I tried this on a home video and recording studio monitoring setup and the mix was ill defined on both.

For fans, otherwise I'd stay away.

Not the place to start...

I have a feeling this wasn't the best way to introduce myself to this well respected band. I actually like the fact that the production is really low rent, looking like it was shot by some of their friends in the audience on portables. That, and the lack of obnoxious "visual art" tricks actually gains them points in my book. But the performance was slow out of the gate (didn't they warm up?) to the point where I can say I've seen better performance by some local metal bands at the clubs nearby. It did get better as they started to absorb some of the relentless energy from a super psyched crowd. Alder's vocals grate on me which is another problem hindering my enjoyment. The band wasn't too bad with drummer Nick laying down some pretty amazing fills. The sound quality was adequate but not spectacular. I'm pretty sure that I could like this band's studio albums much better than this and I intend to check them out at some point. But I can only recommend this live DVD to fans. 2 ½ stars rounding up for a healthy dose of attitude.