Question So who's seen Dream Theater/Iron Maiden so far?

[That Guy]

I just got back a while ago and was wondering how many forum members have seen them so far. I kinda got screwed because I was really attending to see Dream Theater, and the box office lady was LITERALLY the slowest moving human being since the beginning of mankind. It was 110 degrees and humid, and I arrived a half hour early to (try to) make sure I got in early enough to see the whole DT set. When I FINALLY get to the front I go through all the procedures blah blah blah, and hear "I'm sorry, we can't find your tickets." Either way I missed half the set, but the bright side of it was the other half was awesome and I got to meet Jordan, James, and John Petrucci, and got autographs from the three. Mike and John Myung were apparently not feeling to great, so I'll have to track them down another day. I guess they were right when they said everything has a silver lining.

So what was your experience?

 

[azazael]

Did you ask JP for his email address??

 

[That Guy]

Did you ask JP for his email address??

No, Raybies is out of luck.

 

[azazael]

Can't believe you only went to see Dream Theater...

*slap*

 

[knguro]

Post pics please!

 

[mesavox]

I saw them in Denver. DT was basically flawless. Maiden was awesome too, but their sound man had them sounding muddy... Great show indeed.

 

[sparvin]

I feel bad saying, but not worth the price of admission.

I felt bad even thinking this as I walked to my car post-show on Saturday... considering that DT puts a lot of energy into creating amazing live shows and making sure the fans get there $$$ worth.

At the show in LA, DT played a 4-song set of shorter songs: The Root o All Evil, Rite of Passage, Dark Eternal Night, and Pull Me Under.

We then waited 45-minutes (maybe longer) for IM to hit the stage...

Let me just say that I have seen DT live on every tour since the 2nd I&W tour... seen them more than 12-times, and this is only the 2nd time they have played an outdoor venue in Southern California-- the SOUND WAS AMAZING!!! RoP sounded like I was listening to the album.. solos were crystal clear... the boys were in top form; I could have listened to them play all night... and sadly they came and left the stage in the blink of an eye (less than 1-hour)!

Aside from the short show, the song selection didn't make sense to me... even if they were trying to win over IM fans, I thought they would pull out something from WDaDU, like Afterlife... that sounds more IM... or that they would try to go metal, but different and open with "A Night to Remember"... (with the they had... ANtR would have been apoclyptic!).

IM on the other hand... their sound must have been high... sound was phasing in/out. Guitars were muddy and vocal were floating way above the mix for the first half of the show. When they finally got the sound together, I was impressed by the dynamics (several songs with quiet areas), but I was so upset that DT was kicked off the stage for this... I just felt robbed... so we left our good seats and relocated to the grass, so that we could hang out and talk... we weren't missing anything... the usual IM sets and cool light shows were limited to regular lighting and background changes.

After an hour, we got bored and left. As I was leaving we ran into three other groups of people who were furious and wanted to kick the crap out of the tour manager for creating such a lop-sided agenda-- I thought I was upset.

Really wish DT would have played at least one of the crazy long songs and had done another 30-minutes, instead... I left really dissapointed for the first DT show ever (not even DT/Queensryche was this bad...even though the venue was crap for that show).

 

[ProtoChicken]

the usual IM sets and cool light shows were limited to regular lighting and background changes.

That seems like an odd remark given that Maiden has a completely new stage set and a whole new light show as well.

At the show in LA, DT played a 4-song set of shorter songs: The Root o All Evil, Rite of Passage, Dark Eternal Night, and Pull Me Under.

Did you miss 2 of DT's songs since they are playing a 6 song set (which fills up the time slot that is usually afforded to an opener which is exactly what DT is on this tour) not 4 as you stated or did they play an abbreviated set at that particular show?

Edit: The San Bernardino DT set on Saturday night consisted of the same 6 songs, not 4, that they have played every night this tour (and according to Portnoy will continue to play). So it was 6 songs, and Root Of All Evil and Dark Eternal Night were not in the setlist as you as you stated they were. Did you actually go to this show, because it certainly doesn't sound like you did? How does such a "huge" Dream Theater fan incorrectly identify 2 out of 6 songs let alone forget about 2 of them?

The actual setlist for that particular show was:

1. As I Am
2. A Rite Of Passage
3. Home
4. Constant Motion
5. Panic Attack
6. Pull Me Under

 

[StormRider]

That seems like an odd remark given that Maiden has a completely new stage set and a whole new light show as well.




Did you miss 2 of DT's songs since they are playing a 6 song set (which fills up the time slot that is usually afforded to an opener which is exactly what DT is on this tour) not 4 as you stated or did they play an abbreviated set at that particular show?

Edit: The San Bernardino DT set on Saturday night consisted of the same 6 songs, not 4, that they have played every night this tour (and according to Portnoy will continue to play). So it was 6 songs, and Root Of All Evil and Dark Eternal Night were not in the setlist as you as you stated they were. Did you actually go to this show, because it certainly doesn't sound like you did? How does such a "huge" Dream Theater fan incorrectly identify 2 out of 6 songs let alone forget about 2 of them?

The actual setlist for that particular show was:

1. As I Am
2. A Rite Of Passage
3. Home
4. Constant Motion
5. Panic Attack
6. Pull Me Under

He also incorrectly referenced "A NightMARE to Remember" ('A night to remember') and I don't know about that being only their second outdoor show in So. Cal because I saw them at the Greek last summer and that was outdoors. I'm sure over the last 10+ years or so they've done more than just those outdoors.

Overall, a very weird first post for this person.

Glad to hear I'm not missing much on this tour. I couldn't care less about Maiden.

 

[sparvin]

re: Storm & Proto,

Storm & Proto,
both right... wrote my comments in a rush blotched the songs...

The actual setlist for that particular show was:

1. As I Am
2. A Rite Of Passage
3. Home
4. Constant Motion
5. Panic Attack
6. Pull Me Under

The 6-song list you posted was right, but as I mentioned, all shorter songs. Even Home was abbreviated (same intro as the radio edit, but without edit to the unisen part at the end).

Bottom line is that the 1-hour set was dissapointing and finances being tight, I probably would have thought twice if I had known that DT was being treated like an opener.

Thanks for the corrections.

 

[jptortor]

I got tickets to see them off of the maiden tour at a small club in Buffalo. I'm pretty psyched. I haven't seen them live since Falling into Infinity.

 

[Lou]

Proto - you going to the Worcester show?

 

[ProtoChicken]

Proto - you going to the Worcester show?

I have tickets, but it does not look like I will be able to make it. It depends on if we decide to head to my folks place in Manhattan for the NJ/NY shows on Friday night or Saturday morning. There are all sort of complications actually. I assume you will be there?

I do have 4th row center for the NJ Maiden/DT show which is one of the few shows on the tour with seats instead of a GA pit, and I have great MSG seats as well thanks to a buddy with connections. My 60 year old dad asked if he could come to the MSG show so we got him a ticket too. After 28 years of me being a Maiden freak I guess he figured he should check it out. He's a huge opera fan so I think he'll appreciate the theatrics of Maiden.

I've probably seen Maiden and DT over 100 times combined so I'm psyched to see them together.

 

[Lou]

Yup going.

 

[ProtoChicken]

Yup going.

I'm willing to bet you will hear some rarities at that show.

 

[mesavox]

Storm & Proto,
both right... wrote my comments in a rush blotched the songs...




The 6-song list you posted was right, but as I mentioned, all shorter songs. Even Home was abbreviated (same intro as the radio edit, but without edit to the unisen part at the end).

Bottom line is that the 1-hour set was dissapointing and finances being tight, I probably would have thought twice if I had known that DT was being treated like an opener.

Thanks for the corrections.

If you had known? It's been made very clear that it is a Maiden tour with opening act DT. It was in DT's press release, on Mike and JP's pages, and on the Maiden page. Everything is clearly labeled in the press as Iron Maiden with very special guest Dream Theater.

I'm just point all this out because you make it sound like you were misled in some way.

As for the shortened intro to Home... really dude.. it's like 40 seconds of a D minor chord and a funky sample.. they did all of the arpeggiated stuff once the sitar comes in. That's the real meat of that intro anyway. They might have shortened that at any show... bands do stuff like that all the time.

I think your best bet is to read closer next time there is a double bill... it's not very often that bands who's bread and butter is touring big shows are co headlining. It wasn't exactly billed like a Journey/Def Leppard double bill, and Maiden is still considerably more well known than Dream Theater. For every guy I ran into that came mainly to see DT, I heard countless others trying to figure out who this Dream Theater band was. Even then, most people only seemed to know Pull Me Under as we were walking in the door. When you have 12000 people at a show, and DT tends to only draw a couple thousand.. you know the majority of the folks there aren't going to know much about DT. Hense why DT JUMPED on the opportunity to do the tour. It has been fantastic exposure for them. Their sound man certainly showed up Maiden's sound man... but the bands are so different in mission, it's almost apples to oranges so I couldn't compare bands specifically. DT sounded better than I've ever heard them (and that is saying a lot folks), but Maiden put on a clinic. As a fan of both bands... I'm still very thrilled to have gotten to go to that show. Chances like that don't fly around every day.

 

[beej]

sparvin ... your first two posts on this forum are to complain about the IM/DT show? Not off to a good start.

 

[Astrofreq]

I saw Maiden at the Garden last year, but DT wasn't with them. Great show though.

 

[ProtoChicken]

I saw Maiden at the Garden last year, but DT wasn't with them. Great show though.

The power going out during Powerslave, and the ensuing soccer game were hysterical. They handled that whole situation really well.

 

[paranoid70]

Well I have a completely different review than Sparvin. The show on Saturday kicked ass! The only issue I have was that they didn't open the doors until 6:30pm. The venue in San Bernadino holds at least 25,000 people, and the place was packed! We got in line at 6:30 when it started moving and barely got in just as Dream Theater was starting.

I took my family and we had lawn seats (4 lawn tickets for $80!), so I couldn't tell what guitars JP was playing... but I could hear them fine and they sounded great. BP - Thanks for converting John Myung to Music Man... I can now hear the bass at their shows!

Yes, Dream Theater's set was short (6 songs and ~50 minutes), but that's rather typical for an opening band. The choice for the songs were really good - I loved Panic Attack (last time I saw them do that one, JP played a Silhouette Bass, I am sure he played a JP Baritone though). I have seen them in concert plenty of times too - I think this was the 11th time, and they were as good as ever. Such a talented group of musicians.

Iron Maiden came on about 9:30 - they delayed the start for about 30 minutes because the line to get in was soooo long. SPOILER ALERT.
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They played for about 2 hours and featured songs mainly from their last three albums (Brave New World, Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death). It actually was very much NOT a typical Iron Maiden set list... they did NOT play many standards like the Trooper, Phantom of the Opera, Heaven Can Wait, Evil That Men Do.... even Run to the Hills was not played! Since this was my 8th time seeing Iron Maiden, I really didn't mind. There are some very strong tracks on their newer albums and they sound MUCH BETTER live than on record. Bruce is still an awesome frontman with an incredible voice - he hasn't diminished at all over time. Now that Dio has sadly left us, Bruce will carry the torch as the strongest heavy metal singer! Nicko McBrain was solid as always, The guitar players (especially Adrian Smith) are great, and Steve Harris is the f***in man.

The one negative thing was all the impromptu fires in the lawn section. I 'warned' my wife about it on the way to the show (I know if I told her ahead of time she would have backed out). The fires itself don't really bother me that much - it adds a little bit of excitement and danger , but the smell of burning plastic is something I can really do without.

Anyway, all in all it was a great evening. It was cool to take my kids (11 and 15) too - yeah I am a great influence. Up the irons. /m\