I figured it was high time that I finally reviewed this DVD since I have watched the original 1993 VHS version about ten times already, and now this great DVD version about ten more. A few years ago Dream Theater combined their two excellent VHS videos: Images And Words: Live In Tokyo, and 5 Years In A Livetime into this amazing double feature DVD that contains about five hours worth of material - all for the price of your standard DVD. This was not a hard sell.
Images And Words: Live In Tokyo will always hold a special place in my heart since it represents the very first Dream Theater tour that I had the pleasure to attend. Their performance during a thunder and lightning filled night at Pier Six Pavilion, in Baltimore, Maryland is still my favorite Dream Theater concert to date - save for perhaps their amazing Scenes From A Memory show I caught at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. a few years later.
I had only recently picked up the Images and Words album, after being blown away from hearing "Pull Me Under" on the radio. Yes, Dream Theater actually got some radio, and MTV, airplay back in 1993. The band was only beginning to make a name for themselves in the U.S., so less than a thousand people filled the 4,000 capacity Pier Six Pavilion this night to witness pretty much the same show you see on this DVD. That only meant I could easily push my way up to the front of the stage to witness these superhuman musicians from mere yards away. They have easily sold out this same venue almost every time they have played since.
Images And Words: Live In Tokyo was captured in Tokyo, Japan, on August 23rd, during Dream Theater's 1993 Music In Progress world tour. It intermingles live footage with the three music videos that were released from the Images And Words album, "Pull Me Under," "Take The Time," and "Another Day," as well as loads of behind-the-scenes footage taken during the tour. Don't fret, the live performances are all complete, and the footage only appears between each song performance. I'd prefer that they just keep this stuff entirely separate, but it did not distract too much from the performances.
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