adminDream Theater @Newcastle Utilita Arena, April 21 2022
It’s been a long time since Dream Theater were last in Newcastle…
…but coming out and opening with Grammy Award winner The Alien was a good indication that the band meant business!
The out-of-this-world opener set the tone for a truly spectacular show as Tyneside was treated to some of the best technical metal on the planet.
In fact, it seems the only thing alien to Dream Theater is rank mediocrity.
The stage was stark and stripped of the usual arena rock show trappings (amps, cabinets etc).
Instead the band was enveloped by huge screens projecting images and storylines to accompany each song.
A canny tactic to create an even tighter atmosphere only served to amplify the sense of occasion.
In fact, this felt like an incredibly intimate gig — a full arena production nevertheless bringing the crowd closer to the must-see action.
6:00 Of The Best
6:00 might be the oldest song here but such is Dream Theater’s enduring class and consistency that there’s still plenty of room for this stone cold classic from 1994’s Awake.
Next up and the djent metal magnificence of Awaken The Master’s face-melting guitar lick jostled for position with James LaBrie’s trademark vocal and Jordan Rudess’s peerless keys.
Dream Theater don’t do ordinary and a dazzling cut from latest long player A View From The Top Of The World underlined the band’s breadth of ambition.
It’s a trait that’s served the Boston proggers so well and on Endless Sacrifice Rudess and John Petrucci underlined the bold musicianship at the heart of a trailblazing quintet.
The latter’s taut guitar tones are gloriously unique and Petrucci treated the Toon to a superior six string masterclass.
Released five years apart, About To Crash and Ministry Of Lost Souls nevertheless sounded like companion pieces from the same session.
Within a setlist carefully created to capture the very best of Dream Theater’s 35-year career, their juxtaposition was an audio-visual triumph.
LaBrie But No Metal Cheese
Driven by the brilliant LaBrie, a set rich in melody and harmony was never allowed to drift into prog metal parody.
And Dream Theater’s main man delighted in telling the masses just how much he and his band mates had missed connecting with crowds and playing their music in person.
In Mike Mangini and John Myung, the Grammy winners boast one of the tightest and most technical rhythm sections in metal.
Neither need the vanity spot of a solo slot such is their constantly impressive contribution to a band in the form of its life.
Set closer A View From The Top Of The World proved the point but 20-minute encore The Court Of Tuscany was Dream Theater’s crowning glory.
Epic, enigmatic stuff.
Two hours and 10 songs. When the curtain finally came down on the Theater it still wasn’t enough.
But what a night from every prog metal fan’s wet Dream.
Words and pictures: Gordon Armstrong