LIVE AT THE MARQUEE

"Live at the Marquee" is a live album by US progressive metal act Dream Theater. The album was released through ATCO Records in september 1993. "Live at the Marquee" bridges the gap between the band´s second and third full-length studio albums "Images and Words (1992)" and "Awake (1994)". It´s Dream Theater´s first live album and it was recorded at London's Marquee Club in April 1993 during the tour supporting "Images and Words (1992)". The full concert set featured 12 tracks and a short tape outro, but only 6 tracks from the setlist made it unto the album. The European/US edition features "Surrounded", while the Japanese version replaces "Surrounded" with "Another Day" (both versions still only feature 6 tracks).

The tracklist features 3 tracks from "Images and Words (1992)", 2 tracks from the band´s debut album "When Dream and Day Unite (1989)" ("The Killing Hand" is featured in an extended format with a short intro song titled "Another Hand" attached to it), and the instrumental improvisation piece "Bombay Vindaloo". The latter is exclusive to "Live at the Marquee". It´s a bit of a shame that the band didn´t opt to release the full concert, because they leave out some pretty brillant tracks like "Under A Glass Moon", "Take The Time", and "Learning To Live", and as the tracks they do opt to include on the tracklist, come from different moments during the concert, you don´t really get a live concert experience when listening to "Live at the Marquee". Some of the pauses between tracks just don´t sound natural.

Tracks like "Metropolis Part I" and "Pull Me Under" were already mandatory songs on Dream Theater´s setlists this early on, and they are performed here to near perfection (as are ""Surrounded""/"Another Day"), but to my ears it´s the tracks from "When Dream and Day Unite (1989)", which are the most interesting feature on "Live at the Marquee". Especially "A Fortune in Lies" stands out as a real treat with the then new lead vocalist James LaBrie singing. "Another Hand / The Killing Hand" is a slightly less well composed/interesting track, but it´s still a real joy listening to this version with LaBrie singing. The instrumental improvisation piece "Bombay Vindaloo" is decent enough, but nothing out of the ordinary for Dream Theater, and I would much have prefered the band include one of the left off tracks from the full concert setlist instead.

"Live at the Marquee" features a slightly thin sounding production job, and a little more bottom end heaviness would have made the album a little more pleasing on the ears. Rumour has it that LaBrie´s original live vocal tracks were cut from the mix, and that he re-recorded his vocal parts live in the studio. That´s not audible though, and LaBrie´s performance here pretty much sounds like the real deal...warts and all. While his performance is professional and his voice generally is strong, he has a nasty tendency to scream some parts, which really didn´t need a scream. Those parts are pretty grating on the ears, but it´s unfortunately a trend LaBrie would continue on subsequent tours and live albums. It´s fair enough you want to alter the original vocal melody lines a little bit during a live performance...but please don´t purposedly make them worse than the original.

So if I´d have to describe "Live at the Marquee" with one word, it would be inconsistent. Inconsistent in the quality of the material and inconsistent in the vocal performance. As the sound production isn´t saving anything either, "Live at the Marquee" is upon conclusion a bit of a mixed bag. I´d still say there are more positive features than negative ones here though, and a 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)