DT in KC

This is one I wrote last year.
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On Monday night (8/6/2007) I stood in the presence of Deity and basked in its awesome power, wisdom, and glory. “Did you have some kind of near-death experience?” you ask. No…I went to a Dream Theater concert!

I’ll admit, this is my first real concert; not counting local bands playing in the back room of a bowling alley that is now being plowed over to build a Wal-Mart. But what an amazing night! The Uptown Theater in Kansas City is beautiful. The old-fashion decorations, arches, moldings, and statues transport you to another era (apparently an era before air conditioning was invented. More on that later.)


The evening didn’t start so great. The first opening act, Into Eternity, absolutely sucked. They were just loud and screamy. Ridiculously, painfully loud. So loud that everything turned to mush in my ears except for the singer’s embarrassingly comical squealing. They actually sounded better with ear plugs half-way in to dull the noise. They sounded better yet with the ear plugs in completely.

The second act, Redemption, was much better. I might seek out one of there CDs. Into Eternity and Redemption both played for about 35 minutes each.

Our seats were terrible (Jeep, Princess Flip-Flop, and myself). We were about 23 rows back, on the aisle of the middle section, directly behind the soundboard. All I could see was the backsides of the sound techs, and instead of seeing what was on stage, I was distracted by the lights on their equipment and monitor screens. But then a miracle happened! This shows that modern-day miracles do occur, and proves my theory that God is a Dream Theater fan. When Into Eternity finished we stood up to stretch (and/or throw poo at the stage) and Jeep and Princess Flip Flop’s chairs both broke! The ancient seats just fell apart!

So we had to ask the young female event staffer for different seats. And she was cute. Really cute! Dare I say “angelic”, sent from on high to work mighty wonders. She directed us to the row in front of the soundboard, about 5 rows up from where we were, in the more expensive seating section; about the 18th row. I shuffled over to my new spot and sat down, grateful to now have an unobstructed view. I looked up to the stage, and behold, I was dead-center! PRAISE THE HEAVENS FOR BROKEN SEATS!!

Dream Theater hit the stage and the whole place jumped to their feet, which is where they would stay for the next two hours. They started by playing a bit of Strouss’ “Also Sprach Zaratustra” (think “2001: A Space Odyssey”; bumm … bummmm … Bummmmm … BA-DUMMMM!!”) then launched directly into Constant Motion.

Dream Theater was amazing! The sound was great without being absurdly loud (no ear plugs during Dream Theater of course)! The lighting did a great job of enhancing the music without distracting from it. The videos on the screen were good. I liked the cartoon that went with The Dark Eternal Night, in the same fashion as the one for Octavarium (sorry, I’m off in DT World now. I realize none of you know what I mean.)

For the first two DT songs I sat about seven feet from the drummer’s wife and kids until they appeared up in the VIP mini-balcony in the upper-right of the picture above.

It was HOT! And I don’t mean “hot” in the Paris Hilton “that’s hot” kind of way. I mean that place felt like a giant sauna. The singer for Redemption was sweating buckets and commenting on the heat. Princess Flip-Flop got dizzy and had to sit down for a while after DT had been on stage for about an hour and a half. Major kudos to DT for playing under the hot lights for two hours.

When it was over I was hot and stinky, my voice was nearly gone, and my shoulders were sore from pumping my fists in the air. I probably lost 3 pounds in two hours from sweating, bouncing up and down, and a little head banging (as much as can be done without any hair to move around and without causing my glasses to fly off. I am so metal!). Jeep and Flip-Flop headed for the car to start up the air conditioner and get some water, while I ran around front to get a picture of the marquee. As I ran against the stream of people a tired, sweaty concertgoer said, “Dude, how can you RUN after that?” I like to think that all of my cycling has acted as training for this night. If I weren’t already past him I might have said, “You mean after two hours of moderate aerobic activity in unbearable heat and humidity? That’s what I do for fun, Buddy!”

I managed to sneak my camera in and take a few pictures without being caught, unlike the guy in front of me who was taking pictures with his cell phone until security spoke to him; then I didn’t see him any more. Unfortunately all my pictures are blurry due to my poor photography skills and my inability to hold still while I’m rocking out.















I hope they come back this way on their next tour!

Kevineb