Wow. Wow. Those were the words of new Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini as he gazed at the standing ovation from the sold out crowd as he and his band mates took their final bows after a two hour show on December 4, 2011 at the Ikeda Theater at the Mesa Arts Center. Those words could have also been spoken when watching Mangini during his drum solo or when guitarist John Petrucci effortlessly played amazing riff after riff throughout the night. The words could have also applied to bass player John Myung whose fingers run up and down his fret board as quickly as many lead guitarists. A few wows would have been appropriate when watching keyboardist Jordan Rudess either behind his rotating and slanting keyboard or when he took front stage with his portable keyboard alongside Petrucci and Myung for a jam during “Endless Sacrifice.”
The final night of Dream Theater’s initial United States run of their A Dramatic Turn of Events Tour began with Hans Zimmer’s “Dream is Collapsing” playing while three cubes floating above the stage, (inventively used as projection screens with videos shown on all faces of the cube in a continuous manner) showed a cartoon that featured all the band members in their caricatures ultimately arriving back stage. From there, Petrucci walked out playing the intro to “Bridges in the Sky,” the first of five numbers played that evening off of Dream Theater’s new album A Dramatic Turn of Events and the night of virtuoso musical performances began.
For many in the audience the big question was how do you replace co-founding Dream Theater member and drummer extraordinaire, Mike Portnoy. The easy answer is, you don’t, but Dream Theater wisely chose to focus early in the show on compositions that featured Mangini, “Bridges in the Sky” and “Build Me Up, Break Me Down,” and then turn him loose on his own creative drum solo. After watching the title holder of five world fastest drummer records show how he earned those records, the new Mike was easily accepted. When singer James LaBrie turned to Mangini and said “welcome to the family,” he could have spoken for the those in attendance as well.
Maybe it’s the inventiveness and complexity of Dream Theater’s music, but unlike many bands that tour in support of a new album only to find the audience reception to new material lukewarm, the crowd embraced the new music, knowledgably singing along to “Build Me Up, Break Me Down,” and never sitting down or leaving for songs such as “Outcry” (complete with videos from this year’s Arab Spring demonstrations) for which LaBrie's voice was at his most passionate.
As a nice break for probably both the audience and the band, things were slowed down with “The Silent Man” and “Beneath The Surface” with LaBrie sounding his best accompanied by Petrucci on acoustic guitar and Rudess’ keyboards. But with Dream Theater, quiet doesn’t last for long as the band burst into the Grammy nominated “On the Backs of Angels, another strong selection from the new album.
The performances and songs of the evening built up to the grand finale, “Breaking All Illusions,” which took the best of what each band member had to offer and yet the whole still ended up being greater than the parts. This was Dream Theater at its peak, each individual doing what they do best and a great song in which to showcase their talents. It was breathtaking. It was stupendous. It was wow. Wow.
Set List: Bridges In The Sky | These Walls | Build Me Up, Break Me Down | Endless Sacrifice | Drum Solo |The Yste Jam | Outcry | The Silent Man | Beneath The Surface | On the Back of Angels | Forsaken | Keyboard Solo | Through My Words | Fatal Tragedy | Breaking All Illusions | Encore: Under A Glass Moon
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