Dream Theater

Promowest Pavilion, Columbus, Ohio

Being on the same bill with Queensrÿche put Dream Theater on stage less than an hour after the doors opened, which was about the same amount of time before the sun set on the outdoor arena. Typical of a band whose audience included guys in Pink Floyd and Iced Earth shirts co-mingling, they wasted little time in belting out majestic power-prog that went nowhere slow and everywhere fast. Typical of a band whose audience is almost exclusively male, there was no clever banter between songs. There was practically no between songs – actually, there were no songs; the performance was a run-on statement that was less rock concert and more concerto, less about emotions than about technical precision.

A nearby DT aficionado made a poignant observation: he could barely recall the songs or even which albums they originated from, even though he owned them all. Because, not unlike a post-Dead jam band, Dream Theater brought out a unique interpretation of the material – different from the records, different from past tours, maybe even different from the previous evening.

Most progressive rockers cannot aspire to such improvisational interludes, and prefer to recreate instead of innovate. Which is why those bands play almost exclusively for the long-sleeved black T-shirt crowd, whereas Dream Theater can be big in the Midwest US and not just the Far East.