Dream Theater, 2008-01-29, Festival Hall, Melbourne
Well, I'll say this about Dream Theater: when you go to one of their Evening With gigs, you sure as hell get your money's worth. They took the stage at 7:25pm and didn't finish until 10:40pm.

You even get your money's worth when they play a set that's miles upon miles from your ideal. Almost none of the songs I wanted to hear were played; songs such as Lines In The Sand and Scarred have been done this tour, but we weren't so fortunate. However, Dream Theater play to an extremely high and intense standard, so it doesn't matter that much. What they did play was still awesome as all hell.

Setlist:

1. Constant Motion
2. Panic Attack
3. Endless Sacrifice
4. Surrounded '07
5. The Dark Eternal Night
6. Forsaken
7. As I Am
8. Take The Time
--- Intermission ---
9. Overture 1928
10. Strange Deja Vu
11. Through My Words
12. Fatal Tragedy
13. A Mind Beside Itself I: Erotomania
14. A Mind Beside Itself II: Voices (unabridged!)
15. The Spirit Carries On
16. In The Presence Of Enemies I and II
--- Encore break ---
17. Shmedley Wilcox
I. Trial Of Tears
II. Finally Free
III. Learning To Live
IV. In The Name Of God
V. Octavarium

These guys just don't stop. The intensity is really awesome, and the highlight was undoubtedly the epic version of Voices. LaBrie was absolutely on and it sounded amazing. I would have loved if they had kept going into A Mind Beside Itself III: The Silent Man, but the segue into The Spirit Carries On was pulled off very well, and it was very rousing and another one of the high points of the show.

Probably the low point was The Dark Eternal Night. Sure, it's balls-to-the-wall, but it really lacks substance. It was somewhat disappointing to see how strong a reaction it got! You could very easily tell that the younger parts of the crowd were mainly in it for the new, more metal albums. But hey, I can't complain too much - out of what they did play from the more recent albums, I largely got the songs I do like. Endless Sacrifice and As I Am were both very enjoyable. And as for the classics? The total reinvention of Surrounded is nothing short of a work of genius. It was undoubtedly the best moment in the first set, though Take The Time was pretty huge too. Moving to the second set, it was opened with my favourite part of Scenes From A Memory, and we even got the "eat my arse and balls" lyric in Fatal Tragedy. That cracked me up. I'm still not convinced of the merits of medleys, but I think Shmedley Wilcox is certainly one of the better ones out there. I could have listened to Trial Of Tears all day as it's one of my favourite Dream Theater songs, but the transition into Finally Free and the crowd's sing-along with it was really good, and I have a soft spot for In The Name Of God.

All in all, that was an extremely good concert. One of the better shows I've seen, on a par with the Muse and Crowded House shows I saw recently. Muse still stand out for their even more ridiculously high intensity levels and the Crowdies pretty much ruled everything, from the song quality and Neil's vocals to the banter. Though James LaBrie burst out with a great quip at the start that they were going to rock for three hours and he'd put his microphone stand through anybody who tried to leave early! I wish other bands would play for 3+ hours! It certainly makes exorbitant Australian concert ticket prices feel not so bad.