LIVE SCENES FROM NEW YORK

Not too many bands have had quite the effect on progressive music that Dream Theater has, and definately not in the last 20 years has any progressive band been so important to the genre. This album is more or less a greatest hits of sorts of all of the DT music up to Scenes From A Memory. The music is great, and the songs of course are as well, but James Labrie isn't up to par. The vocals on these CDs are very forced, and you can really hear him reaching for those high notes he seemed to hit so effortlessly on the original albums. The highlight is definately hearing DT play all of Scenes From A Memory Part 2, and the CD goes downhill from there, even though there are many great songs later in the set. It was kind of a let down, but maybe I was expecting too much.