Let’s face it; Dream Theater is better in the studio than
live. Live at Budokan isn’t bad at all
though. The mix does suffer a bit. Live at Budokan sounds like an assembly of
songs with less sound quality than a studio disc, and it doesn’t even serve
well as a greatest hits package because there is never a song that seems like
parts of it aren’t filler.
Why Dream Theater bothers releasing anything but their best
live stuff is beyond me. All the way
back to “Once In a LIVEtime” they released a cd where James LaBrie’s voice was
hoarse. Why on earth that they would
have picked this, one of the last stops on that tour to make a live set (for
Once in a LIVEtime) is perplexing? They
did the same thing when they practically wasted the first cd of Live Scenes
from New York. Disc 2 was great off that
one, but when they played the entire Scenes from a Memory from start to finish
on Disc one, on that particular day in New York it was a catastrophe, IMHO.
Most bands never come close to being this good, and that is
where the 4th star comes from.
However, what Dream Theater is doing with disc sets like Live at Budokan
is saturating an already saturate market.
I would scarcely miss this one if I no longer had it. Additionally, there is enough good prog metal
that makes this even further nonessential.
It is a good set of three discs and all 3 are good, but it
is just not as good as their average studio album, and they have plenty of
studio albums by now, well maybe. It
does seem like I always end up craving a new Dream Theater album.
I have been burnt enough on Dream Theater’s low quality live
albums that I am not looking for the next live album coming down the pike. For example, I am not even going to waste my
time on Live at Luna Park. I am not
going to say DT can’t play live. They
proved that they are one of the best live acts on earth when they released
Score. However, for the most part their
live acts are a disappointment. Even the
times when I have personally seen them live, the band seems to lack
personality, and can’t compare with more suave acts like Queensryche.
Granted it seems like there is not a track that doesn’t have
both a highlight, and also lull. But,
for the most of the part, I wouldn’t reach for this one off the shelf, having a
chance to listen to others is because the bulk of this material has dry parts,
or parts that are cheesy in quality or lack feeling.
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