Rod in Toronto

Rumour has it that the bass player will be Billy "Mr. Big" Sheehan. This will be awesome!!!!!

QUOTE (Steel Rat @ Jul 23 2011, 03:18 PM) I can't listen to anything from Dream Theater without feeling embarrassed. The story here is that as soon as they made a successful album, they decided that they'd just go through the motions. They play really fast, but innovate nothing. Then what are you doing in this here topic, my good friend?

QUOTE (KenJennings @ Jul 21 2011, 10:43 PM) The Tenement Funster/Flick of the Wrist/Lily of the Valley cover is just fantastic, and James' vocals on Lily of the Valley are incredibly Mercury-esq. Odyssey is also killer, and singlehandedly got me into the Dixie Dregs. I fully agree!! The Queen cover is fantastic...Petrucci's solo here, and pretty much everywhere else on the album, are brilliant. And LaBrie's voice is awesome here as well. He has a great voice, even when he's not on the "stratospheric high pitch" mode. About The Count of Tuscany - all DT epics could easily do without 3 or 4 minutes (apart from A Change of Seasons, which is ass-kicking from beginning to end), and this one is no exception. But the length and the grandiloquence is what makes these epics so awesome! Octavarium, In the Name Of God, Six Degrees...all have their excesses, but the overall result pays off. And Tuscany has two Rush quotes at least: from Entre Nous and A Farewell to Kings. And that ending!!!

QUOTE (fledgehog @ Jul 21 2011, 01:09 PM) aside from half of A Nightmare to Remember, all of A Rite of Passage, the form and construction of The Shattered Fortress, and The Count of Tuscany's lyrics, it's a great album. A huge improvement over Shitstematic Chaos, I might add as well. The slow middle section of Nightmare... is the best thing the band has done since 2002 (shame it had to be surrounded by the rest of that song), Wither is one of my favorite Dream Theater ballads, and despite the amount of hate it seems to get, The Best of Times is a great song IMO. I'm still hoping for and expecting a huge step up with A Dramatic Turn of Events, however. Here's an alternate version of Wither that I recently discovered. Really cool, shows that Rudess is actually tasteful when he's not jacking off all over his bebot app and his ipad; and that James is one of the most sensitive singers ever in his lower range: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl75k8ncXOo Wow, I didn't know this version!!! Thanks for sharing!!! The chorus on A Rite of Passage kicks ass live...I would have kept it on the setlist for the new tour.

QUOTE (Del_Duio @ Jul 21 2011, 10:51 AM) QUOTE (RodrigoAltaf @ Jul 21 2011, 10:02 AM) I know I'm a bit late, but I've just rediscovered this album. I gave it a second chance this week, and all of a sudden it clicked. It's not innovative or groundbreaking, but every song is flawless here! Petrucci is on fire from beginning to end, there's a perfect balance between prog and metal elements, the final chapter of the "tequila saga" is a proper closure for the whole thing, The Best of Times a very emmotional tale of the loss of Portnoy's father, A Rite of Passage has a catchy chorus that works perfectly live,a nd Count of Tuscany an absolute MASTERPIECE!!! For those of you (like me) who dismissed this album as uninspired and dull two years ago, give it another spin ASAP. I'm telling you, it's totally worth it. P.S.: Bonus points if you can listen to the bonus disc with covers from Queen, Iron Maiden, Kig Crimson, Dixie Drags, Rainbow...the Queen cover rocks!!!! Do you really think so? There's so much to it that's not original at all, borrowing from every other song way too much IMO. I love the AA Suite but the end piece is disappointing overall. I wonder if DT with Mangini will play the whole 5-piece thing or ignore it, thinking it too personally connects with Portnoy a-la Space Dye Vest and Kevin Moore. I don't think they'll be playing the "booze suite". If you look closely, their current setlist doesn't have a singel song written by Portnoy...it's a shame really, I'd really like to see this live - all 5 songs in a row. That must be quite a buzz. Hell, I'll try to listen to them in one of my morning runs and let you know how it feels. On the Count of Tuscany lyrics - YES, they're cheesy and kind of disappointing to say the least. But the music kind of overshadows the whole "Poor me, I took a ride and something strange happended" nonsense. As I said, there's nothing really innovative in this album, I just think the songs are overall catchy, tight and awesome. Jordan kind of takes a backseat on doing his faster-than-the-speed-of-light keyboard solos on the record, but still sets the mood for Petrucci to fly. Mike is awesome as always, LaBrie does not disappoint. The only one I'd like to see shining a little more is John Myung, whose bass lines are quite busy, but extremely low in the mix. I don't know if you've seen them live the previous tour - I was lucky enough to catch them in Perth and Rio - but live the songs from BCSL are ass-kicking!

I know I'm a bit late, but I've just rediscovered this album. I gave it a second chance this week, and all of a sudden it clicked. It's not innovative or groundbreaking, but every song is flawless here! Petrucci is on fire from beginning to end, there's a perfect balance between prog and metal elements, the final chapter of the "tequila saga" is a proper closure for the whole thing, The Best of Times a very emmotional tale of the loss of Portnoy's father, A Rite of Passage has a catchy chorus that works perfectly live,a nd Count of Tuscany an absolute MASTERPIECE!!! For those of you (like me) who dismissed this album as uninspired and dull two years ago, give it another spin ASAP. I'm telling you, it's totally worth it. P.S.: Bonus points if you can listen to the bonus disc with covers from Queen, Iron Maiden, Kig Crimson, Dixie Drags, Rainbow...the Queen cover rocks!!!!

Believe me, I've lived in Australia for almost 4 years, and almost NOBODY has heard of Rush. Actually, the only people I've met there who heard of them were either Canadians or Brazilians! I'd love to see Rush play Australia and of course an update by Neil on his travels Down Under. But the people I've shown Rush to over there did not seem to dig them. Also, usually the Australian Tours are combined with a visit to Asia, but Rush doesn't seem to be too big over there either, so economically-wise it would be stupid to go that far...

QUOTE (Presto-digitation @ Jul 5 2011, 07:20 AM) This rehearsal footage in '07 is what convinced me that the band was out to kick some ass: Romeo Delight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dgGntdnjxQ That was incredible!!!!

Check out Learning to Live:

Here's Mangini's drum solo and half of Ytse Jam: Sorry about the poor quality...

QUOTE (Ancient Ways @ Jul 4 2011, 08:38 PM) QUOTE (Presto-digitation @ Jul 4 2011, 07:47 PM) He got veneers about 4 years ago, prior to their reunion tour with Roth. I actually enjoyed him better with the shorter hair he had then than now. DLR also looks GREAT with short hair, as opposed to wearing a long platinum wig. Yikes! http://bp1.blogger.com/_9E9nnYlV-_A/R2Mc9jReZXI/AAAAAAAAAI4/pQTPYEfesIU/s400/VanHalenblog.jpg that stupid smile on Roth's face is unsettling. C'mon, mate, that's just classic Dave...I think this is an awesome shot. Ed looks better with short hair, but longer hair makes me think he's finally ready to show his rock and roll badassery once again and astound us with his playing. Hopefully he'll get his chops back for the Australian Tour. We'll see.

Here's a link to tonight's setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/dream-theate...y-53d36b01.html Under a Glass Moon!!!! The Great Debate!!!! Tuscany!!!! Caught in a Web!!!! Learning to Live!!!!! Ytse f***ing JAM!!!!

Check out these new photos of Eddie and Wolfie...the article is in POrtuguese, but boh seem well taken care of: http://whiplash.net/materias/news_849/133467-vanhalen.html

QUOTE (priest_of_syrinx @ Jul 4 2011, 12:33 PM) Same old same old. Dream Theater hasn't impressed me in any way since Octavarium. Everything up to that point was gold. Then ever since Systematic Chaos, something has been missing, and I'm not sure what it is. This. Since Octavarium, there's been flashes of awesomeness, but nothing as jaw-dropping as what we had before. They seem to have fallen into a formula f writing songs, and most of it sounds like "cut and paste" since Octavarium. I think they need the help of a producer - leaving all the production effort in Portnoy and Petrucci's hands has led them to write the same album over and over again.

Check this out, guys: in an interview to Australia's Loud Magazine, Geoff said they've already started to record Dedicated to Chaos' successor. Could it be they've realized how much this album sucks already?

QUOTE (RUSHHEAD666 @ Jun 30 2011, 10:24 PM) QUOTE (RodrigoAltaf @ Jun 30 2011, 08:03 PM) What are you guys talking about, this is a GREAT album!! I'd say it's one of my top 3 QR albums: 1 - Operation Mindcrime I 2 - Dedicated to Chaos 3 - Empire You guys are nuts!!!!!! NOT!!!!!!!!! Honestly, I've never seen a band dive so deep into shit after a streak of instant classics like their lat 80's - early 90's work. What were they thinking?????? Good one! I keep buying all of the Ryche shit no matter if it sucks or is good. That "covers" album was a piece of shit too. "Dedicated To Excrement" is the biggest dog poo of the year. Now that you mentioned it - the covers album was absolute crap too!!!!!

What are you guys talking about, this is a GREAT album!! I'd say it's one of my top 3 QR albums: 1 - Operation Mindcrime I 2 - Dedicated to Chaos 3 - Empire You guys are nuts!!!!!! NOT!!!!!!!!! Honestly, I've never seen a band dive so deep into shit after a streak of instant classics like their lat 80's - early 90's work. What were they thinking??????