Dream Theater
utorak, 29. 10. 2024., od 19.30 do 22.45 h
Zagreb / Arena Zagreb / Hrvatska
(for an English version, please scroll down the bar)
Dream Theater su ona institucija petorice strogo školovanih glazbenih profesora koja je svijet glazbe u mnogočemu okrenula naglavce. U žanru metala zasigurno, dok njihova glazba već godinama privlači i mnoge glazbene zaljubljenike koji metal u svakodnevici ni ne pomirišu. Prije nego nevjerojatan glazbeni opus, uvijek je zapanjujuća njegova reinterpretacija kad god kvintet izađe na pozornicu. Nakon dvije i pol godine otkako su ‘razvalili’ Malu dvoranu Doma sportova (‘predgrupa’ je bio Devin Townsend), u sklopu proslave prvih 40 godina djelovanja javili su se po četvrti put u hrvatskoj prijestolnici i? Opet zapanjili!
Što se to tako prijelomno dogodilo da je grupa nakon samo dvije i pol godine preskočila s prostora koji primaju nekoliko tisuća ljudi na prostore u koje se može nagurati i preko 20 000 posjetitelja? U glazbenom smislu ništa. Ali u postavu se vratio originalni i osnivački član grupe, Mike Portnoy. S obzirom na to, među ostalim, sasvim je razumljiv zaključak da financijsko stanje grupe nije odavalo osobitu ružičastost pa je trebalo posegnuti za radikalnim potezom. Vrhunski Mike Mangini, koji je više nego opravdao svoju ulogu bubnjara Dream Theatera, nakon trinaest godina besprijekorne službe morao se oprostiti, a na njegovo se mjesto vratio (među ostalim s čak tri bas bubnja smještena u svojoj utvrdi) dakle nama svima vrlo dobro poznato lice, koje je 2010. odlukom da napušta grupu koju je suosnovao kao rijetko tko šokiralo glazbeni svijet.
Bend je dakle isplanirao najveću svjetsku turneju u dosadašnjoj karijeri. S novom dahsoduzimajućom setlistom – čast odabira repertoara pripala je upravo povratniku u grupu, njezinu ‘izgubljenom i ponovno pronađenom sinu’ Mikeu Portnoyu. Tri sata sviranja, s pauzom tri sata i petnaest minuta, i tamo smo! Obavezno je bilo biti tamo. Srećom, Dream Theater su toliko veliki da se za njihov koncert ne treba voziti baš daleko. Ili nastupaju u Sloveniji, gdje su dosad svirali šest puta (uključujući i koncerte u Tolminu 2015. i 2019.), ili u Hrvatskoj. Obećavao se nezaboravan spektakl. Znali smo da će tako biti. Drukčije ne može biti kad se razgovor povede o ovim u mnogočemu velikim odličnicima i kad je riječ o glazbenom pionirstvu.
Te su se večeri sve stvari posložile na prava mjesta. Legle zajedno u jedno. Kao ključ u bravu! Bio je to čak jedan od onih rijetkih ovogodišnjih dana koji je isijavao čisto nebesko plavetnilo. U svemu začuđujuće sunčan i suh. Samo je jedna stvar bila blago iznenađujuća. Posjećenost koncerta bila je skromnija od očekivanja. Ulaznice u svim kategorijama, pa i za ‘front of the stage’, ostale su na raspolaganju i na dan koncerta. No to nije umanjilo veliko oduševljenje i katapultne salve ushićenih povratnih reakcija publike, u kojoj su kraljevali vrlo glasni i gorljivi ljubitelji grupe, koji su joj se zakleli na vjernost do groba! Zagreb je tog dana ugostio šarolik skup ljudi koji su doputovali iz furlanskog kraja Italije, Austrijske Koruške i Štajerske, čitave bataljune pristaša iz Slovenije, čulo se i mađarski, a naravno, na prostoru se našao i niz registarskih oznaka iz Srbije te Bosne i Hercegovine.
Idemo dakle na koncert! Točno u najavljeni sat pada zastor – zavjesa koja je simbolizirala svih 15 studijskih albuma grupe izdanih od 1989. do 2021. srušila se, a bend nas je odveo u 1992. i njihov drugi studijski album “Images And Words”, koji je i danas među većinom pristaša najomiljeniji album Dream Theatera. Uvodno ‘zagrijavanje’ dakle s jednim od vrhunaca tog albuma – Metropolis – pt. 1: “The Miracle And The Sleeper”. U prvim su redovima najgorljiviji izvodili pravu euforiju i reakcijama gotovo izazivali dojam opsesije koja je odnijela sav zdrav razum. No to je ‘fenovstvo’ koje u takvom opsegu zasja samo na koncertima. I ta masa nagurana u prednjem dijelu opsesivnom je nepopustljivošću držala grupu na krilima kroz njezin koncertni maraton, ili bolje rečeno progresivnometalski marš kroz Zagreb. Kad se na pozornici pojavio i nedostajući peti dio slagalice, vokalist James LaBrie, publika se u stihovima doslovno stopila s njim u jedno.
Bend se pobrinuo za odličnu setlistu u kojoj je zapravo nedostajala tek poneka pjesma s prvijenca “When Dream And Day Unite” (1989). Dva dijela, a zatim polusatni dodatak! Bez greške. Kako im je uopće uspjelo sve to zapamtiti? Olujno i poguban rasipanje nota na svakom koraku od kojeg se ježi koža, probijanje atmosfere ritmikom koja lomi noge i koljena, dahsoduzimajući ‘suživot’ beskrajnih solističkih eskapada u koji su huronskom i teško opisivom brzinom, skladno i s zapanjujućom kontrolom onoga što rade zajedno ulazila sva četvorica (Portnoy, Rudess, Petrucci i Myung), pri čemu je Portnoy svojim povratkom vratio u grupu nedostajući i zabavni moment glama, koji je u kratkom druženju s Twisted Sister, u vrijeme izvan Dream Theatera, još i usavršio (sportska odjeća, traka oko glave i izvođačko poticanje publike). Do njegova povratka za sjaj su se brinule Rudessove klavijature, koje su na pozornici u pozadini opet kradle pažnju zbog svog okretnog postava i neobično oblikovanih tipkovnica (na pozornici nije izostao ni famozni ‘Continuum Fingerboard’). Još nešto. Za pomični mikrofon Mikea Portnoya brinuo se isti tehničar, kao i na koncertu The Winery Dogs, hehe – pa nije istina, točno prije godinu dana, kad je Mike s Richiejem Kotzenom i Billyjem Sheehanom 29. 10. 2023. razbuktavao ljubljanski CUK Kino Šiška!
Prostrana pozornica s tri golema projekcijska platna u osnovi se nije mnogo razlikovala od onih koje grupa koristi godinama na turnejama. Bend je iznenadio izvedbom nekih točaka karijere koje već dulje vrijeme nije izvodio. Pritom je začarao već uvodno, kad se dulje vrijeme nije maknuo iz razdoblja devedesetih, među kojima je, nakon izleta na album “Awake” s The Mirror, točku na i stavila klasika s “Falling Into Infinity”, Hollow Years. Constant Motion, novi solistički vrtuljak, koji je zahvalno podsjetio na prvi posjet grupe Zagrebu 7. 6. 2007., kad je grupa donijela tada aktualni album “Systematic Chaos”, s kojeg potječe skladba što zapravo na neki način već naslovom i albuma i komada u četiri riječi objašnjava poantu o Dream Theateru. Bend je zaključio prvi dio navijenim, povampirenim šrapnelom s “Train Of Thought”, inače omiljenom As I Am. Stanka je došla takoreći neočekivano, jer je hipnotički učinak paralelnog svijeta u kojem smo se našli uz jedinstvenu magiju grupe bio nevjerojatno snažan. LaBrie najavljuje pauzu od dvadeset minuta! Iznenada!
Osvježenje ishlapjelih grla i uvodni film u drugi dio koncerta vode nas opet u parter Arene! Taj je prošao još brže od prvog. Bend je uvodno najavio izlazak šesnaestog studijskog albuma “Parasomnia” (izaći će u veljači 2025.) te u frazi izveo mračnu i nabrijanu koračnicu Night Terror. U tom je dijelu bend podgrijao publiku osobito gotovo nadobaveznom Under A Glass Moon te još dvama zaredom šrapnelima s “Train Of Thought” (Vacant, Stream Of Conciousness). Sve je bilo spremno za vrhunac. Octavarium! 24-minutna epska simfonija. Progresivnometalska zmija, u kojoj je bend zapravo opet u svemu opravdao onu uzrečicu koja ih prati oduvijek, kad dođeš na njihov koncert: “Nemoguće je moguće”! Na njihovim koncertima postaje moguće baš sve. I da. To treba čuti (i vidjeti), jer riječi koje bi korektno dočarale sve ono što se događa u tom ‘sustavno uređenom kaosu’ čovječanstvo jednostavno još nije izumilo. Niti su potrebne. Vibracija čini svoje! Izravno rečeno – ‘bolAAAAno i do kraja iščupano’!
U obavezni dodatak, koji je trajao čak pola sata, bend je krenuo s nedostajućim točkama jednog od albumskih favorita karijere, “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory” (1999). Sjeća li se još netko njihova prvog posjeta Ljubljani 18. 7. 2000., kad su u Križankama odsvirali taj album u cijelosti? I ulaza u onaj slavni Petruccijev wah wah riff u Home? Ludilo. Sve su se strasti ponovno probudile! A onda je uslijedio onaj trenutak. LaBrie je šokirao publiku najavom da sljedeću skladbu Dream Theatera posvećuju Portnoyevoj sestri Samanthi Leone Cattaneo, koja je preminula samo nekoliko sati prije nastupa grupe u Zagrebu. Slijedila je fantastična The Spirit Carries On – jedna od najljepših kompozicija cijele karijere Dream Theatera. Ljudi su upalili mobitele (analogna vremena upaljača i šibica odavno su postala prošlost). Atmosfera je kipjela od emocija i strasti. Petrucci, koji je tijekom izvedbe te skladbe pristupio bubnjarskom podiju do Portnoya, pustio je zajedno s Mikeom čak i poneku suzu (Mike se fascinantno držao kroz koncert – zadržao je sav uspravni stav stroge profesionalnosti). Nedostajala je samo točka na ‘i’. Nije teško pogoditi. Klasika svih klasika Dream Theatera. Pull Me Under. Metal kanonada za veliki finale s uvodom na sintisajzeru, što je budilo sjećanje na autora te kultne skladbe Dream Theatera, Kevina Moorea. Publika se na sav glas derala. Nakon tri sata i petnaest minuta svjetla na prostoru ipak su se upalila i morali smo priznati da je vrijeme za kući i da je gotovo.
Gdje su počeli i dokle su stigli ti nevjerojatni dečki koji ne prestaju oduševljavati svojom neuhvatljivom posebnošću i nevjerojatnim vragolijama za koje često pomisliš da ne dolaze s ovoga svijeta? I kamo idu odavde? Prvih 40 godina je iza njih. Dakle, iduće je godine najavljen novi album, a grupa već buka ljetne nastupe za iduću godinu. Zasigurno ćemo dečke uskoro negdje opet imati priliku uhvatiti na pozornici, jer slijedi turneja posvećena promociji nadolazećeg novog albuma “Parasomnia”. Odbrojavanje do tada je počelo, ali ruku na srce. Tko je ovaj veličanstveni spektakl s Dream Theaterom propustio, propustio je sigurno zabavu s grupom kojoj barem idućih deset godina neće biti nalik nijedna nadolazeća turneja grupe. Koncert dakle koji će ući u zapise i sjećanja pod oznakom ‘nezaboravno i neponovljivo’. Dream Theater su na koncertu u Zagrebu dokazali da ostaju neprobojna i neosvojiva tvrđava na karti svjetskog rocka i metala i tako će i ostati! Status velikih ikona žanra, koji su digli na noge, ostaje nepokolebljiv i bend će taj status u nadolazećim godinama kvečjemu učvrstiti!
Autori: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Fotografije: Aleš Podbrežnik
English version:
Dream Theater is an institution of five rigorously trained music professors that has turned the music world upside down in many ways. In the metal genre, for sure, while their music has for many years also attracted many music enthusiasts who don’t even get a sniff of metal in their everyday lives. Rather than an incredible body of music, it’s the stunning reinterpretation of it that is always amazing when the quintet takes to the stage. Two and a half years after they ‘smashed’ the Small Hall of the Sportova home (Devin Townsend was the ‘opening act’), they made their fourth appearance in the Croatian capital as part of the celebration of the first forty years of their activity and they stunned again!
What was so ground-breaking that the band after only two and a half years jumped from venues that hold a few thousand people to those that can accommodate well over 20,000? In musical terms, nothing. But the original and founding member of the band Mike Portnoy is back. In this respect it becomes quite reasonable to conclude that the financial situation of the band did not reflect a particularly rosy picture thus a radical move had to be made. The superb Mike Mangini who had more than justified his role as Dream Theater’s drummer had to say goodbye after thirteen years of immaculate service. In his place returned (with, among other things, no less than three bass drums installed in his fortress) a very well known face to all of us who in 2010 shocked the music world like few others with his decision to leave the band he had co-founded.
The band has thus embarked on the biggest world tour of its career. With a breathtaking new setlist – the honour of choosing the repertoire goes to the band’s returning ‘lost and rediscovered son’ Mike Portnoy. Three hours of full play with a break of fifteen minutes and there we are! It was a must to be there. Luckily Dream Theater is so big that you don’t have to drive very far to see them. Either in Slovenia where they have played six times so far (including the Tolmin concerts in 2015 and 2019) or in Croatia. It promised to be an unforgettable show. We knew it would be. It cannot be otherwise when it comes to these in many ways great artists even when it comes to musical pioneering.
That evening all pieces fell into place. They fit together into one. Like a key in a lock! It was even one of those rare days this year that radiated a clear celestial blue. It was surprisingly sunny and dry. Only one thing was mildly surprising. The concert attendance was more modest than expected. Tickets in all categories including ‘front of the stage’ remained available on the day of the concert. However, this did not diminish the great enthusiasm and catapulting salvos of enthusiastic feedback from the audience, which was dominated by very vocal and passionate fans of the band who had sworn their allegiance to the grave!
Zagreb hosted a large crowd that day, travelling from the Friuli end of Italy, Austrian Carinthia and Styria, whole battalions of supporters from Slovenia, Hungarian was also spoken, and of course there were many cars from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
So let’s go to the concert! At the appointed time the curtain that symbolised all 15 of the band’s studio albums released from 1989 to 2021 has fallen, and the band took us back to 1992 to the second studio album “Images And Words”, which to this day remains their most popular album among most of its followers. So let’s ‘warm up’ with one of the highlights of that album – Metropolis – pt. 1: “The Miracle And The Sleeper”. In the front rows the most ardent were creating a real euphoria and almost evoked a sense of obsession with their reactions that took all common sense. But this is a ‘phenomenon’ that only shines on such a scale at concerts. And this mass crammed in the front kept the band on the wings with obsessive relentlessness through its concert marathon, or rather, let’s say, a progressive-metal march through Zagreb. When the missing fifth piece of the puzzle, vocalist James LaBrie, appeared on stage, the audience literally became one with him in the verses.
The band provided a great setlist from which only one song from the debut album “When Dream And Day Unite” (1989) was actually missing. Two parts and then a half-hour add-on! No mistake. Where do they manage to remember all this? The stormy and devastating shaking of the notes at every turn that makes your skin crawl, the shooting of the atmosphere with rhythmics that break your legs and knees, the breathless ‘coexistence’ of endless solo escapades into which all four of them entered with a humongous and hardly describable speed, in harmony and with a stunning control of what they were doing together (Portnoy, Rudess, Petrucci and Myung) with Portnoy’s return bringing back to the group the missing and fun moment of glam that he had perfected in his brief association with Twisted Sister during his time away from the Dream Theater (sporting an outfit, a headband around his head, and a performance-style of audience incitement). Until his return the glamour was provided by Rudess’s keyboards, which, in their position on stage in the background once again stole the limelight thanks to their swivelling layout and oddly shaped keyboards (the famous ‘Continuum Fingerboard’ was not missing from the stage). More of this. Mike Portnoy’s moving microphone was handled by the same technician,, as during The Winery Dogs’ concert, heh – isn’t it true, exactly a year ago, when Mike, with Richie Kotzen and Billy Sheehan, rocked Ljubljana’s CUK Kino Šiška on 29/10/2023!
The spacious stage with three giant projection screens was not much different from the ones the band has been using for many years. The band surprised us by performing some career highlights they hadn’t performed for quite some time. In doing so it cast a spell right from the start having not moved on from the 90s era for quite some time during which it was the Hollow Years classic “Falling Into Infinity” that nailed the nail on the head after the outing on the “Awake” album with The Mirror. Constant Motion, a new solo carousel that gratefully recalled the band’s first visit to Zagreb on 7.6.2007, when the band brought there the then-current album “Systematic Chaos” from which the track, actually in a way after the title of both the album and the track explains the poem about Dream Theater in four words. The band closed the first part with the windingly vamped “Train Of Thought” shrapnel the otherwise popular As I Am. The pause came almost unexpectedly because the hypnotic effect of the parallel world we found ourselves in with the band’s unique magic was incredibly powerful. LaBrie suddenly announced a twenty-minute break!
A refreshment for parched throats and an introductory film to the second part of the concert takes us back to the Arena stalls! This one went even faster than the first. The band opened by announcing the release of their 16th studio album “Parasomnia” (to be released in February 2025) and performed the dark and charged chorus of Night Terror in phrasing. In this part the band fired up the crowd especially with the almost obligatory Under A Glass Moon and two more “Train Of Thought” shrapnels (Vacant and Stream Of Conciousness). Everything was ready for the climax. Octavarium! 24th minute epic symphony. A progressive-metal snake, where the band actually justified the saying that always sticks when you come to their gig: “The impossible is possible”! Everything becomes possible at their concerts. And yes. This is something that needs to be heard and seen because the words to correctly approximate everything that happens in this ‘system-regulated chaos’ have simply not been invented by mankind yet. Nor are they needed. The vibration does its job! To put it bluntly – ‘painfully and utterly exhausted’!
In the obligatory half-hour-long encore, the band started with the missing points of one of the album favourites of their career “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory” (1999). Does anyone else remember their first visit to Ljubljana on 18th July 2000 when they played this album in its entirety at Križanke? And the entrance to that famous Petrucci wah wah riff in Home? Crazy. All the passions were alive again! And then there was that moment. LaBrie shocked the audience by announcing that they were dedicating the next Dream Theater track to Portnoy’s sister Samantha Leone Cattaneo, who had passed away just hours before the Zagreb show. The fantastic The Spirit Carries On followed – one of the most beautiful compositions of Dream Theater’s entire career. People switched on their mobiles (the analogue days of lighters are long gone). The atmosphere was bubbling with emotion and passion. Petrucci, who came up to Portnoy on the drum podium during the performance of this piece, even shed a few tears with Mike (Mike held himself fascinatingly throughout the concert – he kept all the upright posture of strict professionalism). The only thing missing was the icing on the cake. It’s not hard to guess. A classic of all Dream Theater classics. Pull Me Under. A metal cannonade for the grand finale with a synthesizer introduction, evoking the memory of the author of this iconic Dream Theater song, Kevin Moore. The crowd was literally in tears. After three hours and fifteen minutes, the lights in the venue came up and we had to admit that we had to go home and that it was over.
Where did they start and how far have they come, these incredible guys who never cease to amaze with their irresistible uniqueness and incredible antics that often make you think they are not of this world? And where do they go from here? The first 40 years are behind them. So a new album is due next year, and the band is already buzzing with summer shows for next year. We’ll certainly have a chance to catch the boys on stage again somewhere soon, as they’ll be touring to promote their upcoming new album “Parasomnia”. The countdown to get there has begun, but hand on heart. Anyone who missed the spectacle of the Dream Theater this time missed a sure-fire party with a band that no upcoming tour of the band will be like for at least the next ten years. A concert that will go down in the records and memories as ‘unforgettable and unrepeatable’. Dream Theater proved at the Zagreb concert that they remain an impenetrable and unassailable fortress on the map of world rock and metal and they will remain so! The status of great icons of the genre they have set on its feet remains unshaken and the band will only strengthen it in the years to come!
Authors: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
Act I
1. Prelude (orig. Bernard Herrmann) (Psycho Main Title)
2. Metropolis Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper
3. Act I: Scene Two: I. Overture 1928
4. Act I: Scene Two: II. Strange Déjà Vu
5. The Mirror (with ‘Lie’ solo outro)
6. Panic Attack
7. Barstool Warrior
8. Hollow Years (demo verzija iz ’96)
9. Constant Motion
10. As I Am
—20 min. stanka—
Act II
11. Orchestral Overture (Containing excerpts from every Dream Theater album)
12. Night Terror
13. This Is the Life
14. Under a Glass Moon
15. Vacant
16. Stream of Consciousness
17. Octavarium
—dodatak—
18. There’s No Place Like Home (Movie clip from ‘The Wizard of Oz’)
19. Act II: Scene Six: Home
20. Act II: Scene Eight: The Spirit Carries On (Dedicated to Mike’s sister Samantha)
21. Pull Me Under
22. Singin’ in the Rain (taped outro, orig. Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown)
