Dream Theater Live In Singapore 27 Jan 06 @ Singapore Indoor Stadium

Well well, it's about time some top class metal act come play in Singapore. These couple of years, many metal/rock icons have come and gone, from Bon Jovi to Def Leppard, Malmsteen to Vai, etc...However, Dream Theater (DT)'s gig was a highly anticiapted one, or so I thought. Perhaps it was a reaction to their cancellation of the gig last year, I don't know, but attendance was really disappointing. It was three quarter filled to my visual judgement.

I am just going to cut the story short, although the band was technically precise, there were a few flaws in their performance here and there. One of course was the sound, during their first number, the guitars and bass were totally overpowered by the drums and the keyboards especially. Interaction with the audience is minimal, as compared to Metallica, Bon Jovi and Deep Purple etc. Even Kitaro and Yanni had more interaction with the audience when they were here.

Vocalist was lost in the midst, I believed he forgotten or was over powered by the drums. There was also a serious lack of energy, this is the first time, I see a metal gig with a top class act that people actually got tired and sat down, I was one of them. I never did that in my life for major metal acts' gig. The set list wasn't very exciting in my opinion. Seems like they just wanted to get it over and done with.

All is not lost though, Portnoy was entertaining enough with his antics, and also, the show case of their slower numbers actually had hints of Pink Floyd's influence. The encore, Pull Me Under was good...that was a saving grace.

Overall, it's an enjoyable gig, but definitely not the best I have seen and also not the most memorable. They are capable of doing better. My ratings based on entertaining value is 6/10. Simple reason is that I didn't had as much fun as I did with Metallica, Bon Jovi, Malmsteen, Vai and also not forgetting Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.