This evening, I journied to the Universal Lending Pavilion to see Queensryche and Dream Theater in concert.

This is the first time I've been to the Lending Pavilion, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect from the venue. It's an outdoor venue, with a giant white tarp covering the seating area and stage, ala the DIA roof. Shade from the sun, and shelter from any potential rainstorms, but otherwise open on all sides to the elements.

In the case of this evening's event, the weather was excellent. As I arrived in late afternoon, the sun was shining in the west, and light summer breezes drifted through.

The first band to take the stage was Fates Warning, the opening act. Both the name of the band and their style of sound were faintly familiar to me, but I couldn't place where exactly. I suspected I had downloaded an mp3 of them at some point in the distant past. (Yep, now I see that there is one mp3 of theirs on my hard drive, and they are on mp3.com.)

Fates Warning, my reaction? Enjoyable, but I wasn't blown away by them. A good opening band for sure though.

Since Queensryche and Dream Theater were coheadliners, I wasn't sure who was going to be on first. As the crew rearranged the stage, I figured I would be pleasantly surprised either way.

As the sun started to go behind the mountains, Queensryche took the stage. They began with one of the songs from the new Tribe album, Open. Since it only came out today, nobody in the audience knew the song, but it was a good performance. I have a feeling it is the sort of song I will grow to love, but these things take time to absorb.

Then they went on to play some classics. NM 156. While it played, the video screen dissolved live images of the band memebers with a pattern very similar to the Matrix screensaver. (Similar enough to be recognizable, at least to me, but different enough not to invoke the wrath of Time Warner I suspect.) Though the song came out nearly 20 years ago, the symbolism was quite appropriate for the lyrics.

Screaming in Digital followed that. Have I mentioned that Geoff Tate simply has an amazing voice? Yes, I suppose I have. On the albums, he sounds really good. On a live dvd recording, even better. Hearing him in person trumps all.

Empire. The American flag shown flying in the background was no small irony. (They was about being patriotic. Yeah, that's it.) And the pictures of tanks firing in the dessert. No they wouldn't be trying to make the music say something, would they? (Although a lot of the footage looked more like the first Gulf War. Maybe it was re-used from previous shows back then?)

Anyway, that performance totally blew the crowd away. Incredible performances by all the band members. DeGarmo is a master on the guitar. The band is lucky to have him back, as are the fans.

They went on to play Right Side of My Mind, Jet City Woman, and The Lady Wore Black.

The Mindcrime set, always a fan favorite, was more abbreviated this time. The intro interludes (with classic animated video) were played. The crowd really got revved up on Revolution Calling. That was followed by Speak. Then they jumped straight to Eyes of a Stranger.

With Mindcrime, concluded, they left the stage. But of course, an encore was in order.

They came back and played Breaking the Silence, for which I was highly grateful. For me, that song had been the high point of the show at Red Rocks back in '97, so I was glad they were playing it again. While not quite as astoundingly impressive as before (perhaps partly due to the venue), it was a very good rendition. I always enjoy that song immensely.

And that was it for Queensryche. Having played for a little over an hour, they bowed and left the stage, making room for Dream Theater's crew to set things up.

I, along with some others in the crowd around me, had been hoping for a little more from Queensryche. Perhaps that is one downside to having two bands co-headlining a show. They each get less time than they would if it was one band doing the whole thing. To correct that, I personally wouldn't mind having the show go on until as late as 1 or 2am, but that's me.

Dream Theater got things going with Metropolis Part 1 (from the Images and Words album). Excellent.

They then did some stuff from Scenes From A Memory. Of course, there wasn't time to tell the whole story (not if they wanted to play anything else too). They still showed the past life video footage on the rear projection screen though. (I can't imagine that anyone who isn't already intimately familiar with the work as a whole would have any idea what any of it was about; but that's ok, it still makes for good eye candy.)

Though James LaBrie has a great voice, and I enjoy hearing him sing, I must admit that the real musical strength of the band shines through most during those times when he leaves the stage for a few minutes, and the other 4 are left to pound it out, taking the listener on a voyage of a purely aural nature. To call what they do a mere "guitar solo" or "keyboard solo" wouldn't do it justice. The scope and dynamic complexity of all the intertwining patterns of melody take into another musical dimension, which is as of yet undefined through conventionally accepted means.

(And now I'm talking out of my ass. Can you tell?)

They went on to play some stuff which I hadn't heard. I can only assume that it's either really old, or really new. Or maybe in between? Probably from their new album which came out not long ago. (Earlier this summer, I think.) I might also have to pick that one up one of these days.

Dream Theater finished their set fittingly with a total crowd pleaser. Pull Me Under. Intensity cranked up to the sky. It was awesome. It really was. At one point in the song, during the bridge, totally deviating from the album, they gradually sped up the tempo until it got to the point of sounding like speed metal. How the band members managed to stay in perfect sync through it all is a mystery best left to the wizards.

Then, somehow, without breaking pace, or slowing down, they launched into a guitar solo which ran at regular speed, but it was in time with the hyper-fast tempo, and the song continued seemlessly. Unbelievable. (And yes, I realize that the technical explanation would have something to do with the rhythms becoming a perfect multiple of one another. But knowing that doesn't lessen the "wow" factor.)

Though I liked them before, this experience has deepened my respect and appreciation for Dream Theater. In addition to being a fine rock band with some sweet concept albums, they are really talented musicians.

Pull Me Under ended with slowing the song to a complete crawl, and Dream Theater bowed and left the stage. The crowd cheered wildly for an encore. My vocal chords had been mostly used up by the end of Queensryche. The Dream Theater show left them raw and ragged. But still I screamed for all I was worth with the crowd.

After a couple minutes of that, James LaBrie returned to the center of the stage, but he was not alone. Geoff Tate was with him. The lights came back on, revealing both bands as they started to play.

Geoff and James sang a duet of a song I didn't recognize. (I'm going to guess it was something from Dream Theater's library. Obviously, I'm not as familiar with the breadth of their work as I am with Queensryche.)

Then, with the second encore, James sang the first verse of Take Hold of the Flame, with Geoff joining for the chorus. The instrumentation was utterly whacked out. Ten, count them again. 10. Ten guys playing and singing on that stage. 5 guitars, 2 drummers, 2 vocalasts, 1 keyboardist. It was nutty.

After Take Hold of the Flame, they just totally like started to jam for a while. Ear overload.

The bands bowed, and the show was over for real.

I'm glad I went. If I had a choice of 1 rock show to see all year, this one would have been it. And it may very well be it under my budget. That's ok though. Too much, and you deaden your senses anyway.

That's the word for now. Time for sleep.