Dream Theater
torek, 29. 10. 2024, od 19.30 h do 22. 45 min
Zagreb / Arena Zagreb / Hrvaška
(for an English version, please scroll down the bar)
Dream Theater so tista inštitucija petih strogo urjenih glasbenih profesorjev, ki je svet glasbe v marsičem postavila na glavo. V žanru metala zagotovo, medtem ko njihova glasba privlači že vrsto let tudi mnogo glasbenih navdušencev, ki metala v vsakdanu niti povohajo ne. Prej kot neverjeten glasbeni opus, je osupljiva reinterpretacija le tega vselej, ko krene kvintet na oder. Po dveh letih in pol, odkar so ‘razbili’ Malo dvorano doma Sportova (‘predvozač’ je bil Devin Townsend), so se v sklopu praznovanja prvih 40 let delovanja, oglasili skupno še četrtič v hrvaški prestolnici in? Znova osupnili!
Kaj se je zgodilo tako prelomnega, da je skupina, po vsega dveh letih in pol preskočila iz prizorišč, ki sprejmejo nekaj tisoč ljudi na prizorišča v katere se lahko nagnete tudi preko 20. 000 obiskovalcev? V glasbenem oziru nič. Se je pa v ekipo vrnil originalni in ustanovni član skupine, to je Mike Portnoy. V tem oziru postane tako mdr. povsem umestno sklepanje, da finančno stanje skupine ni odsevalo posebne rožnatosti, pa je bilo treba poseči po radikalni potezi. Vrhunski Mike Mangini, ki je več kot opravičil svojo vlogo Dream Theater bobnarja, se je po trinajstih letih brezmadežnega službovanja moral posloviti, na njegovo mesto pa se je vrnil (mdr. s kar tremi bas bobni umeščenimi v svojo utrdbo) torej vsem nam zelo dobro znani obraz, ki je leta 2010 z odločitvijo da zapušča skupino, ki jo je soustanovil, kot le redkokdo šokiral glasbeni svet.
Bend je torej splaniral največjo svetovno turnejo v dosedanji karieri. Z novo dihjemajočo setlisto – čast izbire repertoarja je pripadla prav povratniku v skupino, njenemu ‘izgubljenemu in znova najdenemu sinu’ Mike Portnoyu. Tri ure polne igre, s premorom vred tri ure in petnajst minut, in tam smo! Obvezno je bilo treba biti tam. K sreči so Dream Theater tako veliki, da se za njihov koncert ni treba posebej daleč peljati. Ali nastopijo v Sloveniji, kjer so doslej zaigrali šestkrat (všteta sta tudi Tolminska koncerta leta 2015 in 2019), ali pa na Hrvaškem. Obetal se je nepozabni spektakel. Vedeli smo da bo tako. Drugače ne more biti, ko nanese debata na te v marsičem velike odličnike tudi kar se glasbenega pionirstva tiče.
Tega večera so se zložile vse stvari na prava mesta. Legla skupaj v eno. Kot ključ v ključavnico! Bil je celo eden tistih redkih letošnjih dni, ki je seval jasno nebeško modrino. V vsem začudujoče sončen in suh. Le ena reč je bila blago presenetljiva. Obisk koncerta je bil skromnejši od pričakovanj. Vstopnice v vseh kategorijah, tudi ‘front of the stage’ so ostale na razpolago tudi na dan koncerta. Vendar pa to ni zmanjševalo velikega navdušenja in katapultnih salv vzhičenih povratnih reakcij s strani publike, v kateri so kraljevali zelo glasni in gorečni ljubitelji skupine, ki so ji svojo zvestobo prisegli do groba! Zagreb je tega dne gostil pestro druščino zbranih, ki so pripotovali s Furlanskega konca Italije, Avstrijske Koroške in Štajerske, celimi bataljoni privrženci iz Slovenije, slišati je bilo tudi Madžarščino, seveda pa se znašla na prizorišču serija registrskih tablic tudi iz Srbije in Bosne in Hercegovine.
Gremo torej na koncert! Točno ob napovedani uri pade zastor – zavesa, ki je simbolizirala vseh 15. studijskih albumov skupine izdanih od leta 1989 pa do 2021, se je zrušila, bend pa nas je popeljal v leto 1992 in njegov drugi studijski album “Images And Words”, ki ostaja še danes med večino privržencev najbolj priljubljen Dream Theater. Uvodno ‘ogrevanje’ torej z enim vrhuncev tega albuma – Metropolis – pt. 1: “The Miracle And The Sleeper”. V prvih vrstah so najbolj goreči zganjali pravo evforijo in z reakcijami skoraj vzbujali občutek obsesije, ki je vzela ves zdrav razum. A to je ‘fenovstvo’, ki v takšnem obsegu zasije le na koncertih. In ta masa nagnetena v ospredju je z obsesivno nepopustljivostjo držala na krilih skupino skozi njen koncertni maraton, raje recimo progresivnometalski marš skozi Zagreb. Ko se je pojavil na odru še manjkajoči peti člen sestavljanke, vokalist James LaBrie, se je publika v verzih dobesedno zlila z njim v eno.
Bend je poskrbel za odlično setlisto iz katere je bil pravzaprav pogrešan le kak komad s prvenca “When Dream And Day Unite” (1989). Dva dela in potem polurni dodatek! Brez napake. Kje neki se jim uspe vse to zapomnit? Nevihtno in pogubno stresanje not na vsakem koraku ob katerem se ježi koža, prestrelitev atmosfere z ritmiko, ki lomi noge in kolena, dihjemajoče ‘sožitje’ neskončnih solističnih eskapad v katerega so s huronsko in težko opisljivo hitrostjo, skladno in z osupljivo kontrolo svojega početja družno vstopali vsi štirje (Portnoy, Rudess, Petrucci in Myung), pri čemer je Portnoy s svojo vrnitvijo vrnil v skupino pogrešani in zabavni moment glama, ki ga je v kratkem druženju s Twisted Sister, v času izven Dream Theater, še izpopolnil (športna oprava, trak okrog glave in nastopaško podžiganje publike). Do njegove vrnitve so za blišč skrbele Rudessove klaviature, ki so na odrski poziciji v ozadju, znova kradle pozornost zavoljo svoje vrtljive postavitve ter čudaško oblikovanim tastaturami (na odru ni manjkal niti znameniti ‘Continuum Fingerboard’). Še to. Za premični mikrofon Mikea Portnoya je skrbel isti tehnik, kot med koncertom The Winery Dogs, heh – saj ni res, pred natanko letom dni, ko je Mike z Richie Kotzenom in Billyjem Sheehanom 29. 10. 2023, razvnemal ljubljanski CUK Kino Šiška!
Prostrani oder s tremi orjaškimi projekcijskimi platni v osnovi ni bil mnogo drugačen od tistih, ki jih skupina uporablja že vrsto let na turnejah. Bend je presenetil z izvedbo nekaterih točk kariere, ki jih že lep čas ni izvajal. Pri tem je začaral že uvodoma, ko se lep čas ni premaknil iz obdobja devetdesetih med katerimi je glavico na žebljico po izletu na album “Awake” z The Mirror pribila “Falling Into Infinity” klasika Hollow Years. Constant Motion, nov solistični vrtiljak, ki je hvaležno opomnil na prvi obisk skupine v Zagrebu 7. 6. 2007, ko je skupina prinesla tja takrat aktualni album “Systematic Chaos” s katere izvira skladba, dejansko na nek način po naslovu tako albuma kot komada, razloži poanto o Dream Theater v štirih besedah. Bend je sklenil prvi del z navito povampirjenim “Train Of Thought” šrapnelom, sicer priljubljeno As I Am. Pavza je napočila takorekoč nepričakovano, kajti hipnotični učinek paralelnega sveta, v katerem smo se znašli z edinstveno magijo skupine, je bil neverjetno močan. LaBrie napove premor dvajsetih minut! Nenadoma!
Osvežitev presahlih grl in uvodni film v drugi del koncerta nas popelje znova v parter Arene! Ta je minil še hitreje od prvega. Bend je uvodoma napovedal izid šestnajstega studijskega albuma “Parasomnia” (izšel bo februarja 2025) ter izvedel v fraziranju mračno in nabrito koračnico Night Terror. V tem delu je bend podžgal publiko zlasti z skorajda nadobvezno Under A Glass Moon ter še dvema zapovrstnima “Train Of Thought” šrapneloma (Vacant, Stream Of Conciousness). Vse je bilo pripravljeno na vrhunec. Octavarium! 24. minutna epska simfonija. Progresivnometalska kača, kjer je bend dejansko znova v vsem opravičil tisti rek, ki se ga od nekdaj drži, ko prideš na njihov koncert: “Nemogoče je mogoče”! Na njihovih koncertih postane prav vse mogoče. In da. To je treba slišati (in videti), ker besed, ki bi korektno približale vse tisto kar se zgodi v tem ‘sistemsko urejenem kaosu’, človeštvo preprosto še ni izumilo. Niti niso potrebne. Vibracija stori svoje! Naravnost povedano – ‘bolAAAAno in do konca utrgano’!
V obvezni dodatek, ki je meril kar pol ure, je bend krenil s pogrešanimi točkami enega albumskih favoritov kariere “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory” (1999). Se še kdo spominja njihovega prvega obiska Ljubljane 18. 7. 2000, ko so v Križankah odigrali ta album kar v celoti? In vhod v tisti znameniti Petruccijev vah vah riff v Home? Noro. Vse strasti so znova oživele! Potem pa je sledil tisti trenutek. LaBrie je šokiral publiko z naznanilom, da posvečajo naslednjo skladbo Dream Theater Portnoyevi sestri Samanthi Leone Cattaneo, ki je preminila le nekaj ur pred nastopom skupine v Zagrebu. Fantastična The Spirit Carries On je sledila – ena najlepših kompozicij celotne Dream Theater kariere. Ljudje so prižgali mobilce (analogni časi vžigalnikov in šibic so že davno tega postali preteklost). Vzdušje je kipelo v emocijah in strasteh. Petrucci, ki je med izvedbo te skladbe pristopil na bobnarski podest do Portnoya, je skupaj z Mikeom potočil celo nekaj solz (Mike se je fascinantno držal skozi koncert – zadržal je vso pokončno držo stroge profesionalnosti). Manjkala je le še pika na ‘i’. Ni težko uganiti. Klasika vseh Dream Theater klasik. Pull Me Under. Metal kanonada za veliki finale z uvodom na sintetizatorju, kar je obujalo spomin na avtorja tega kultnega Dream Theater komada Kevina Moorea. Publiki se je na polno trgalo. Po treh urah in petnajstih minutah so se luči na prizorišču vendarle prižgale in morali smo si priznati, da bo treba domov in da je konec.
Kje so začeli in do kam so prišli ti neverjetni fantje, ki ne prenehajo navduševati s svojo neulovljivo posebnostjo in neverjetnimi vragolijami, za katere pomisliš večkrat, da ne prihajajo iz tega sveta? In kam gredo od tu naprej? Prvih 40. let je za njimi. Drugo leto je torej napovedan nov album, skupina pa že bukira poletne nastope za prihodnje leto. Gotovo bomo fante kmalu kje imeli možnost znova ujeti na odru, saj sledi turneja posvečena promociji prihajajočega novega albuma “Parasomnia”. Odštevanje do tja se je začelo a roko na srce. Kdor je tokratni veličastni spektakel z Dream Theater zamudil, je zamudil gotovo zabavo s skupino, ki ji vsaj naslednjih deset let ne bo podobna prav nobena prihajajoča turneja skupine. Koncert torej, ki bo šel v zapise in spomine pod oznako ‘nepozabno in neponovljivo’. Dream Theater so na koncertu v Zagrebu dokazali, da ostajajo neprebojna in neosvojljiva trdnjava na zemljevidu svetovnega rocka in metala in tako bo ostalo! Status velikih ikon žanra, ki so ga postavili na noge ostaja neomajen in bend bo ta status v prihajajočih letih kvečjemu okrepil!
Avtor: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Fotografije: Aleš Podbrežnik
English version:
Dream Theater is an institution of five rigorously trained music professors that has turned the music world upside down in many ways. In the metal genre, for sure, while their music has for many years also attracted many music enthusiasts who don’t even get a sniff of metal in their everyday lives. Rather than an incredible body of music, it’s the stunning reinterpretation of it that is always amazing when the quintet takes to the stage. Two and a half years after they ‘smashed’ the Small Hall of the Sportova home (Devin Townsend was the ‘opening act’), they made their fourth appearance in the Croatian capital as part of the celebration of the first forty years of their activity and they stunned again!
What was so ground-breaking that the band after only two and a half years jumped from venues that hold a few thousand people to those that can accommodate well over 20,000? In musical terms, nothing. But the original and founding member of the band Mike Portnoy is back. In this respect it becomes quite reasonable to conclude that the financial situation of the band did not reflect a particularly rosy picture thus a radical move had to be made. The superb Mike Mangini who had more than justified his role as Dream Theater’s drummer had to say goodbye after thirteen years of immaculate service. In his place returned (with, among other things, no less than three bass drums installed in his fortress) a very well known face to all of us who in 2010 shocked the music world like few others with his decision to leave the band he had co-founded.
The band has thus embarked on the biggest world tour of its career. With a breathtaking new setlist – the honour of choosing the repertoire goes to the band’s returning ‘lost and rediscovered son’ Mike Portnoy. Three hours of full play with a break of fifteen minutes and there we are! It was a must to be there. Luckily Dream Theater is so big that you don’t have to drive very far to see them. Either in Slovenia where they have played six times so far (including the Tolmin concerts in 2015 and 2019) or in Croatia. It promised to be an unforgettable show. We knew it would be. It cannot be otherwise when it comes to these in many ways great artists even when it comes to musical pioneering.
That evening all pieces fell into place. They fit together into one. Like a key in a lock! It was even one of those rare days this year that radiated a clear celestial blue. It was surprisingly sunny and dry. Only one thing was mildly surprising. The concert attendance was more modest than expected. Tickets in all categories including ‘front of the stage’ remained available on the day of the concert. However, this did not diminish the great enthusiasm and catapulting salvos of enthusiastic feedback from the audience, which was dominated by very vocal and passionate fans of the band who had sworn their allegiance to the grave!
Zagreb hosted a large crowd that day, travelling from the Friuli end of Italy, Austrian Carinthia and Styria, whole battalions of supporters from Slovenia, Hungarian was also spoken, and of course there were many cars from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
So let’s go to the concert! At the appointed time the curtain that symbolised all 15 of the band’s studio albums released from 1989 to 2021 has fallen, and the band took us back to 1992 to the second studio album “Images And Words”, which to this day remains their most popular album among most of its followers. So let’s ‘warm up’ with one of the highlights of that album – Metropolis – pt. 1: “The Miracle And The Sleeper”. In the front rows the most ardent were creating a real euphoria and almost evoked a sense of obsession with their reactions that took all common sense. But this is a ‘phenomenon’ that only shines on such a scale at concerts. And this mass crammed in the front kept the band on the wings with obsessive relentlessness through its concert marathon, or rather, let’s say, a progressive-metal march through Zagreb. When the missing fifth piece of the puzzle, vocalist James LaBrie, appeared on stage, the audience literally became one with him in the verses.
The band provided a great setlist from which only one song from the debut album “When Dream And Day Unite” (1989) was actually missing. Two parts and then a half-hour add-on! No mistake. Where do they manage to remember all this? The stormy and devastating shaking of the notes at every turn that makes your skin crawl, the shooting of the atmosphere with rhythmics that break your legs and knees, the breathless ‘coexistence’ of endless solo escapades into which all four of them entered with a humongous and hardly describable speed, in harmony and with a stunning control of what they were doing together (Portnoy, Rudess, Petrucci and Myung) with Portnoy’s return bringing back to the group the missing and fun moment of glam that he had perfected in his brief association with Twisted Sister during his time away from the Dream Theater (sporting an outfit, a headband around his head, and a performance-style of audience incitement). Until his return the glamour was provided by Rudess’s keyboards, which, in their position on stage in the background once again stole the limelight thanks to their swivelling layout and oddly shaped keyboards (the famous ‘Continuum Fingerboard’ was not missing from the stage). More of this. Mike Portnoy’s moving microphone was handled by the same technician,, as during The Winery Dogs’ concert, heh – isn’t it true, exactly a year ago, when Mike, with Richie Kotzen and Billy Sheehan, rocked Ljubljana’s CUK Kino Šiška on 29/10/2023!
The spacious stage with three giant projection screens was not much different from the ones the band has been using for many years. The band surprised us by performing some career highlights they hadn’t performed for quite some time. In doing so it cast a spell right from the start having not moved on from the 90s era for quite some time during which it was the Hollow Years classic “Falling Into Infinity” that nailed the nail on the head after the outing on the “Awake” album with The Mirror. Constant Motion, a new solo carousel that gratefully recalled the band’s first visit to Zagreb on 7.6.2007, when the band brought there the then-current album “Systematic Chaos” from which the track, actually in a way after the title of both the album and the track explains the poem about Dream Theater in four words. The band closed the first part with the windingly vamped “Train Of Thought” shrapnel the otherwise popular As I Am. The pause came almost unexpectedly because the hypnotic effect of the parallel world we found ourselves in with the band’s unique magic was incredibly powerful. LaBrie suddenly announced a twenty-minute break!
A refreshment for parched throats and an introductory film to the second part of the concert takes us back to the Arena stalls! This one went even faster than the first. The band opened by announcing the release of their 16th studio album “Parasomnia” (to be released in February 2025) and performed the dark and charged chorus of Night Terror in phrasing. In this part the band fired up the crowd especially with the almost obligatory Under A Glass Moon and two more “Train Of Thought” shrapnels (Vacant and Stream Of Conciousness). Everything was ready for the climax. Octavarium! 24th minute epic symphony. A progressive-metal snake, where the band actually justified the saying that always sticks when you come to their gig: “The impossible is possible”! Everything becomes possible at their concerts. And yes. This is something that needs to be heard and seen because the words to correctly approximate everything that happens in this ‘system-regulated chaos’ have simply not been invented by mankind yet. Nor are they needed. The vibration does its job! To put it bluntly – ‘painfully and utterly exhausted’!
In the obligatory half-hour-long encore, the band started with the missing points of one of the album favourites of their career “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory” (1999). Does anyone else remember their first visit to Ljubljana on 18th July 2000 when they played this album in its entirety at Križanke? And the entrance to that famous Petrucci wah wah riff in Home? Crazy. All the passions were alive again! And then there was that moment. LaBrie shocked the audience by announcing that they were dedicating the next Dream Theater track to Portnoy’s sister Samantha Leone Cattaneo, who had passed away just hours before the Zagreb show. The fantastic The Spirit Carries On followed – one of the most beautiful compositions of Dream Theater’s entire career. People switched on their mobiles (the analogue days of lighters are long gone). The atmosphere was bubbling with emotion and passion. Petrucci, who came up to Portnoy on the drum podium during the performance of this piece, even shed a few tears with Mike (Mike held himself fascinatingly throughout the concert – he kept all the upright posture of strict professionalism). The only thing missing was the icing on the cake. It’s not hard to guess. A classic of all Dream Theater classics. Pull Me Under. A metal cannonade for the grand finale with a synthesizer introduction, evoking the memory of the author of this iconic Dream Theater song, Kevin Moore. The crowd was literally in tears. After three hours and fifteen minutes, the lights in the venue came up and we had to admit that we had to go home and that it was over.
Where did they start and how far have they come, these incredible guys who never cease to amaze with their irresistible uniqueness and incredible antics that often make you think they are not of this world? And where do they go from here? The first 40 years are behind them. So a new album is due next year, and the band is already buzzing with summer shows for next year. We’ll certainly have a chance to catch the boys on stage again somewhere soon, as they’ll be touring to promote their upcoming new album “Parasomnia”. The countdown to get there has begun, but hand on heart. Anyone who missed the spectacle of the Dream Theater this time missed a sure-fire party with a band that no upcoming tour of the band will be like for at least the next ten years. A concert that will go down in the records and memories as ‘unforgettable and unrepeatable’. Dream Theater proved at the Zagreb concert that they remain an impenetrable and unassailable fortress on the map of world rock and metal and they will remain so! The status of great icons of the genre they have set on its feet remains unshaken and the band will only strengthen it in the years to come!
Authors: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
Act I
1. Prelude (orig. Bernard Herrmann) (Psycho Main Title)
2. Metropolis Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper
3. Act I: Scene Two: I. Overture 1928
4. Act I: Scene Two: II. Strange Déjà Vu
5. The Mirror (with ‘Lie’ solo outro)
6. Panic Attack
7. Barstool Warrior
8. Hollow Years (96′ demo verzija)
9. Constant Motion
10. As I Am
—20 min. premor—
Act II
11. Orchestral Overture (Containing excerpts from every Dream Theater album)
12. Night Terror
13. This Is the Life
14. Under a Glass Moon
15. Vacant
16. Stream of Consciousness
17. Octavarium
—dodatek—
18. There’s No Place Like Home (Movie clip from ‘The Wizard of Oz’)
19. Act II: Scene Six: Home
20. Act II: Scene Eight: The Spirit Carries On (Dedicated to Mike’s sister Samantha)
21. Pull Me Under
22. Singin’ in the Rain (taped outro, orig. Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown)
