LTE review

just gotta say this was the absolute most amazing musical experience I've ever had.. I cannot begin to convey the overwhelming emotions I experienced.... needless to say, my socks have been officially knocked off. It wasn't just the experience of hearing songs I've loved and cherished over the last 10 years live for the first time, but also all those extra little DT moments :) (like the extended ending of Kindred Spirits).

First off, they covered a lot of the LTE 1 and 2 material.
Here is a rough breakdown (not in order) of what they played (best I can remember):

Acid Rain
Kindred Spirits
Biaxident
Freedom of Speech
Hourglass
Universal Mind
When the Water Breaks (you better believe this was amazing)
Another Dimension
Osmosis
Paradigm shift

And all of it was note for note perfect. Including the improvised solos, they covered them perfectly (I really expected them to be a bit more loose on some, but nope). There were only a few very minor rythmic parts that were off (and taht is from somebody who has memorized those albums note for not).

They had a couple of improvised songs that brought in elements of 3 minute warning and chewbacca, but still very improvised and abstract. They were okay, but these were my least favorite part.

Halfway through the jam part of universal mind, Petrucci's rig died. Especially after what happened in Chicago, tensions were high. The timing wasn't that bad, because it was right before Rudess began his piano solo. It was obvious it was going to take some time to fix Petrucci's rig, and Portnoy slipped a note to Rudess which obviously said "keep going".

This was amazing... Rudess just kept going... what an awsome time of improve. Its a bit ironic for albums that were recorded at the speed of improv that they've been forced into long improv sessions on two shows :)

They had a 5+ camera video shoot going on, so I'm really hoping they are going to make a DVD. From the camera's point of view, you never would have known that there were technical difficulties, Jordan just kept the show going. After about 5 minutes, they fixed the guitar rig, and the rest of the band transitioned naturally into the rest of the song.

I think the highlight of the night, and definitely worth the cost of admission, was a version of Rhapsody in Blues LTE style. I really hope there is a DVD, or they jump into the studio for this song. I wasn't too familar with it, but after hearing they were playing it on this tour I listened to the original all afternoon. What a great song, and they definitely owned it. There were just some classic LTE moments with this newer material.

So all in all, no question about it, this was the absolute BEST musical experience I've ever had. The bar of my expectation for musical performance has been raised a lot higher than I care to admit. Part of me is uncontrollably drive to play my guitar, another part is terrified to ever pick it up again.