Caja con 3 dobles CDs bootlegs grabados en tres conciertos diferentes durante la década de los 90 y seguramente ya publicados en discos separados con anterioridad.
El sonido proviene de emisiones de FM y, aunque falto de amplitud, es bastante decente y se distingue perfectamente a todos los componentes de la banda sin demasiados altibajos.
Los dos primeros discos provienen de un concierto en Holanda en noviembre del 99 y de un clinic de batería de Mike Portnoy.
Los CDs 3 y 4 provienen de un concierto en el Nakano Sun Plaz de Tokio en 1995.
Los CDs 5 y 6 fueron grabados en el Summerfest de Milwaukee en junio del 93.
Disc One & Disc Two (tracks 1-7) from a live FM broadcast recorded at the IJsselhallen, Zwolle, Netherlands November 11, 1999
Disc Two (tracks 8-11) from a live FM broadcast recorded at the Mike Portnoy Drum Clinic, De Lantaarn, Hellendoorn, Netherlands September 29, 1999
Disc Three & Four from a live broadcast recorded at the Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo, Japan January 24, 1995
Disc Five & Six from a live FM broadcast recorded at Summerfest, Milwaukee WI June 29, 1993
From RateYourMusic:
Being an old Dream Theater fan, and loving their early records the most (Metropolis 2000 is the beginning of the end), I bought this set of CDs more as a collectable item that something to be listened to. Surprisingly, I've found myself listening to these sets with a sort o renewed interest.
The box puts together three previously existing double CDs with pre-2000 live performances in a paperboard board box, so if you are looking for a fancy set, this is not it.
As for the contents, the sound is pretty acceptable since the three of them were FM broadcast, therefore better than a regular bootleg and not as good as a live record (but more real). Interestingly, the editor decided to skip to include material from Falling Into Infinity and focus on fans three favorite records.
Dying to Live Forever - 1993
Recorded in 1993, it reminds me a lot of the Live In Tokyo home video set list. Even the guitar solo is very similar. Metropolis opens the show with LaBrie Struggling with a song that was not made for him, but it's clearly his worst song in the show, but it will get much better. The band goes through classics live Under a Glass Moon, A Fortune in Lies or Surrounded (the live solo has never worked as the studio's). The funny thing is that everything sounds more innocent and honest than the machine the band became through the years. We have the chance to listen to an early version of The Mirror (Puppies on Acid), again similar to Live in Tokyo and followed with no stop by Take The Time. Status Seeker is a nice surprise that I don´t recall listening to it from this era, and it improves any other performance I've heard before. LaBrie requests the audience to request Another Day on their local FM station, but we know now that it was (logically) a failure as a single, but it puts us on the right chronological frame. Pull Me Under (THE hit to come very soon) follows and they close with a Eve (from the Awake sessions and with no name at this point) Jam and closing the show with the gigantic Learning To Live.
Surely I would change any of the many shows I've attended through the years for one from this era.
Another Day In Tokyo - 1995
This show has been released several times, both in audio and video, like for instance:
http://dreamtheater-dvd.bl...apan-1995.html.
The audio quality is slightly better than the 1993 show, and the tracklist is even better, if that is possible at all. Opening with Pull Me Under and James explaining that the show is being broadcast all over Japan. 6:00 is great despite some LaBrie squeak. Take The Time is a nightmare for LaBrie who is in real trouble (I read that they were about to cancel the tour due to issues with James's throat, so I won't be harsh on that). As a compensation we get the extended version, including a jazz interlude (I used to know it by heart). Derek Sherinian is introduced. He's going to stay a while with the band...Caught in a Web is cool, but you only hear the bass. And without interruption, the drum solo, as boring as any other drums solo in the world (yes, I hate them). And Lifting Shadows plus a jam/guitar solo and the keyboard solo -the fast arpeggios from Derek used to amaze me at that time- to close first part of the show.
The second part (second CD) starts with an intro to The Mirror and the song itself. I miss this extended versions of the songs...Again, non stop jump to Lie (which is not listed in the CD tracklist), and John Myung's birthday and song...Japanese people seem very cheerful this time. The three act A Mind Beside Itself played together, with a short stop before The Silent Man to ask for 15 seconds of silence for catastrophe recently occurred in Japan. And the show is closed with Metropolis.
Another great show with a great setlist.
New Millennium - 1999
The show is recorded during the Metropolis 2000 tour, but it does not contain the full record performance. Most of the songs are there, but not played sequentially, so, from the top of my head this is probably a later leg of the tour. The sound is not very good. The stereo is gone every now and we mostly hear only the left channel.
The opening Laura Palmer to prepare the audience and Metropolis Pt.1 are extremely boring, one for being boring itself and the second one for being played and heard a zillion times. Soon you notice that the audience presence in the mix toooooo high. There is specially a group of people singing and humming all the solos and melodies. Not only that it's not interesting, but they do it terribly. Shut up!
Overture 1928 and Strange Deja Vu are played just to remind us what is this tour about. Surprisingly James LaBrie seems to be in good shape (I always pay attention to him since he's the weakest link of the band.
Lifting Shadows Off a Dream has a small intro with different arrangements.
Now a couple of songs from Falling Into Infinity: Just Let Me Breathe and Peruvian Skies. It would not be fair to ignore the record, it has some good songs. Just Let Me Breathe is not the best choice, though. However, Peruvian Skies sounds great. James is surprisingly good (no squeaks) and seems very confident.
And back to Metropolis 2000 with Through My Words and Fatal Tragedy. The dynamics makes total sense, and James starts having issues...
Now we enter in the instrumental zone with Erotomania, immediately followed by some excerpts from Liquid Tension Experiment. One of the famous and in my opinion terrible Dream Theater mixes. Do they mean that all their instrumental music can be cut up and mixed and that therefore it does not mean anything?
Suddenly, we go from the Liquid Tension frenzy to the laid back Hollow Years. Maybe too radical. With this the first part of the show is not finished.
Another Day only gives us a chance to hear Rudess' interpretation on this solo, James having some trouble and the audience gang to keep ruining the whole thing. Home is too long in the record, and here it becomes exasperating long. Too much.
For the encore we get the typical combo with Pull Me Under, Under a Glass Moon, A Fortune in Lies, final part of Only A Matter Of Time (fantastic!) and Take The Time with extended finale. Nice selection, but awful decision to amputate them.
Pay attention to James singing the first verses of Under A Glass Moon totally out of tune (OMG!).
We get 4 additional instrumental tracks from Liquid Tension Experiment and Dream Theater from a Portnoy Clinic, also in Holland: Hell's Kitchen, Byaxident, Paradigm Shift and New Millenium. It totally seems like Mike plays on top of pre-recorded tracks, which is not so appealing.
Needless to say that after this exercise I'm exhausted and won't listen to the Majesty for some time.
