DREAM THEATER. HOLY FUCK DREAM THEATER.
JOHN MYUNG AND JOHN PETRUCCI EXIST AND ARE THEMSELVES PLAYING INSTRUMENTS HOLY FUCK THEY ARE GOOD.
Mike Portnoy in an amazing effort to upstage his last Concert in Brisbane decided that playing double kicks while standing up and not even batting an eyelid was entirely unimpressive and proceeded to stand up and walk around his entire drumkit (which is on a raised platform) and continue to play his symbols without missing a single beat. He also decided that it would be cool to play the piping that is the frame for his drumkit and it matches perfectly with the song. He of course continues to just decide to stand up and play double kicks whenever the fuck he wants to because the drum kit is his bitch.
Jordan Rudess also decides that while Keytars are AWESOME AND COOL WIN that not only will he play one of those, he will also play his iPhone, he has what appeared to be a custom built application running with his iPhone hooked up via USB and audio out to his Synthesizer and uses it touch based to generate specific tones and pitches and holy what the fuck this is also note perfect for what is on Black Clouds and Silver Linings song they were playing at the time.
All of the above happened in a single song.
And as much as I actually like Sames Labrie? Portnoy fucking OWNED that stage. Labrie can egg the crowd into doing things by waving around and gesturing egging people on constantly. Portnoy stands up and claps his drumsticks together and at least half again as many people start clapping straight away and for longer than when Labrie is getting them to do stuff. He decides it is fun to play catch with drum sticks throwing them into the crowd and getting them thrown back, again never missing the beat. He is a complete and total smart arse, swapping hands on rolls for no reason at all. One handed rolls on snare and ride symbol at the same time because why the fuck not?
Amazing concert, just absolutely amazing. If you are into the technical side of music at all you owe it to yourself to see these guys in concert if you can. I cannot stress how amazing Petrucci and Myung are at what they do. Not the best lead Guitarist (fucking CLOSE though) or bassist alive, but goddamn to watch them in the one place? It is amazing. And then you have Portnoy who again, not the greatest alive, but holy fuck is he good and a really fun guy to watch. Jordan Rudess is all over the place with his keyboard (has it mounted so it can rotate and just... the guy is wow and the number of songs he plays precisely in time with the insanity that is Petrucci guitar solos is mind boggling). Just wow. I like to talk and this shit leaves me almost speechless to describe just how good the two concerts I have seen with them have been. Easilly the best I have seen (and I have seen some really good ones by some really upstanding performers).
Oh yeah and James Labrie CAN sing and all that, but fuck, just so completely dominated by the amazing instrumentation around him.
Dream Theater, it may be Prog which just may be guitar masturbation, but there is a reason these people can get away with public masturbation and that is because they are that fucking good at it.
