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So, Dream Theater live, the sixth time. But - not enough - my second favourite band, Symphony X, the main reason why I went again to a Dream Theater concert.

The venue was the Philipshalle in Düsseldorf, Germany. First thing noted - not enough parking space. After driving in the row of cars for the parking for 20-30 minutes, they were all closed when we finally got there. Great. So we parked on private parking spaces in front of a school - luckily noone minded on a Sunday evening.

But, this way, our timing was good. We went in, found the seats all full, so why decided to stand in the back where at least you had some space and the fact that a mostly male audience means a average height well above the population’s average wouldn’t disturb us (no large people in front of you you can’t dodge).

After having a Bratwurst (fair prices!), the show started. Symphony X came on stage. They played mostly songs from their new album, only two older songs I think and four or five from the new album. But - as all their albums are great, I didn’t mind. They should definitely have been able to play one or two more songs. The sound wasn’t the best, I found the drums to be too loud compared to the guitar - with Symphony X, you definitely want to hear every instrument. Seems to be a normal live problem, drums and bass too loud - although overall the sound wasn’t very loud (but ok). Russell Allen sang like a young god - he’s a monster, really. They DEFINITELY need another headliner tour!

Then, after a pleasantly short break, it was time for Dream Theater. Nice gimmick - Over the stage, they had the traffic lights that are on the album cover of the Systematic Chaos special edition, complete with giant ants and wotking - red before the show started, yellow for the intro and then green for go (although, like on the cover, red was the bottom color and green the upper color - is that usual for US traffic lights?). On stage, they had a lamppost and the Majesty-logo sign from the cover. Behind the drums, a large video screen where videos were projected or live feed from the musicians playing, looked really good.

They started with Constant Motion, followed by the extremly annoying Never Enough. Overall, I didn’t like the setlist. Mostly stuff from Systematic Chaos, which is of course a great album, but then the other songs were also only from the newer albums, leaving out Scenes From A Memory. So, we had Blind Faith next and Endless Sacrifice. I don’t remember the correct order, but we also had a superb version of “Lines in the sand”, which again showed how underrated Falling Into Infinity is (especially compared to Octavalium). I Walk Beside You was there too, a pitifully bad song, which I turned into I Walk To The Toilet. Only good thing about that song - it’s short.

James LaBrie sang really bad that evening. I’ve seen him five times and was always happy to surprised with his performance, but this time it was was not good. Especially during the first few songs, where I always was hoping for the instrumental parts to start fast. The instrumental performance was exceptional, as usual. Jordan Rudess played solo with his newest toy, a keyboard which he can carry around like a guitar (don’t know what it’s called like). His runnerband instrument has been established and now has a white/black key painting for orientation. He used it for a extremly good intro to Lines In The Sand. The other performed magnificently as usual, but there were next to now surprises.

The also played In The Presence Of Enemies, both parts after one another, which was a bit of a problem as the first half of part II was a bit boring this way. They should have changed it a bit or played more aggressive or something, but this way there was a bit of a whole in the suspense. The Dark Eternal Night was the other highlight of the evening, with a very funny video of the gang as cartoon characters fighting some evil dark monster during the instrumental part.

The encore was a medley of several songs, and the only to include short parts from Images and Words and Scenes From A Memory. It was a rather long medley, but they should have played a nother song after that, the audience was calling for it.

Overall - a disappointing set list, no surprises, I don’t think I need to see them for the seventh time soon. But - I need to see Symphony X on a headliner tour!

Oh - and for your insanely overpriced merchandise - please stuff your 32€-T-shirts up your money-hungry holes. Raging idiocy.