I think Santa is having amnesia. Despite all of the available laptop computers he has forgotten what time of year to deliver the goods. This time he passed along when the Easter bunnies had already left. Talk about quick and efficient deliveries! Now don’t tell me Santa has been fired from the UPS lately! No seriously, Dream Theater are one of the few bands really creating an army of fans in the best Kiss tradition and giving those fans a full fanclub CD each year as a token of their appreciation. Sadly the liner notes inform us that this, the fifth fanclub CD, will also be the last. Not sure what the future will bring, we do caress this little gem, which kind of forms the bridge in between official releases also. The love for Ozzy and Black Sabbath is apparent by means of the opening track “Heaven And Hell” recorded in Madrid and “War Pigs” recorded in Glasgow. The latter even sees an unknown individual climb on stage singing the song, backed by DT. What a treat! This album comes close to the Beatles flexis in the sixties because it also consists of bits and pieces -- leftovers, live outtakes, and sound checks, sometimes resulting in absurd situations such as “pull my finger, pull my finger I’ve got to fart!” sung on top of the “Pull Me Under” melody. The quality varies from mixing desk quality to bad bootleg quality. One of the most outstanding pieces on this disc to me has to be Jordan’s superb keyboard solo that is simply stunning. In fact, the same could be said of John Petrucci’s solo performance ending with the Gladiator theme. Dream Theater have been around so long and have studied so many different styles and "classics" throughout their impressive career that they can switch from one song to another in a mere nanosecond. A nice example comes in the medley where they combine the Scorpions and Led Zeppelin by means of “The Zoo”, “Learning To Live” and “Whole Lotta Love." DT also likes to include some solo material in their set, whether it is pure solo or a solo project, hence the inclusion of the Liquid Tension Experiment track “Paradigm Shift”. There’s also a video section taped before the band’s final concert of the Scenes From A Memory Tour as performed in the legendary Hammersmith Odeon in London. Our host is the Oscar nominated Mike Portnoy who tries to have a friendly, X-mas flavoured word from every single DT member. As always John Myung is hidden in the dark so who knows it might be a clone on stage each time around. Who will tell? Reviewed by: John 'Bo Bo' Bollenberg |
