They continued to keep things a tiny bit on the mellow side (for Dream Theater that is) with "The Spirit Carries On", a gorgeous ballad from the killer Scenes From A Memory album. Next, the band decided to throw a bone to their prog-metal, or should I say metal-prog fans out there by tearing through "Stream Of Consciousness", the heavy instrumental jam from their latest album, Train Of Thought. Until then it seemed like they had been tailoring their set list to something more appealing for Yes fans - sticking mostly to the lighter prog-rock stuff, versus the heavier metal stuff. I keep hearing that they played an instrumental section of Yes' "Machine Messiah", but, damn it, I don't remember hearing it. Maybe it was mixed in with "Stream Of Consciousness", as that would have been a good combo. I think they closed their set with the ending of Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence, which consists of the reprise of "About To Crash", and "Losing Time/Grand Finale". I apologize for any inaccuracies in this section.
I was extremely impressed with Dream Theater this evening. I had been a little disappointed with the last couple of times that I saw them, as they tended to stick mostly to their newer metal-oriented material instead of the stronger material from their first few albums. James Labrie's vocals are usually the only weak link when seeing Dream Theater live, because he often has to strain too hard to hit the high notes, and ends up missing many of them altogether. This night was a totally different story, as he sounded remarkably smooth and powerful. There seemed to be equal amounts of Dream Theater fans as there were bewildered Yes fans in their seats by now. To me, though, this was a match made in heaven.
Now to the headliners. When I returned to my seat only minutes before Yes would take the stage, they had a huge black curtain covering the front of the stage to keep you from seeing the elaborate stage design. I was very surprised at how weak the attendance was for this show. I heard that they only sold pavilion seats and no lawn seats for this show, but the pavilion was only about two-thirds full, at best. The show began when the strains of "Firebird Suite" poured over the PA system, and the curtain was pulled away to reveal an incredible Roger Dean themed stage show, consisting of huge inflatable "things", which looked like crosses between prehistoric birds, and giant amoebas, hanging all over the stage. This was all held together by two giant "PEACE" banners hanging from each side of the stage. It was pretty gaudy, but ended up looking incredible when their fantastic light show illuminated everything.
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