Dream Theater: Bootlegs & CDRs

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It was sometime around the release of Metropolis Part 2 that I started collecting Dream Theater ROIOs* in earnest, first through mp3s (downloaded from numerous websites long before Napster was even a concept...man, in those days, if you found a clear 128k/s file you were HAPPY to get it!) and later through CDR trading. A couple very cool old-timer DT fans helped me out by dumping about a dozen shows in my lap, which I traded to get even MORE shows, and...well, suffice to say that I've got enough stuff here to start my own little unofficial "bootleg guide". :) Feel free to contact me at space@neteze.com if you have anything to contribute -- be it questions, comments, or more shows.

This page is divided into three sections: Fan Club CDs, compilations, and live shows. All are CDRs, unless noted otherwise.

"Christmas Fan Club CD 1997: The Making of Falling into Infinity"

1. - 25. Don't ask...

Now this is a weird one -- 76 minutes of raw, unmixed studio takes. Highlights include some amusing band comments, plus a (nearly) contiguous "alternate take" of "Take Away My Pain"; but overall, this CD is nearly impossible to listen to all the way through in one sitting. I guess it does offer a candid glance into the inner workings of the band's creative process...or something.

Oh, just so you know...I don't have the '96 or '98 CDs since they're basically redundant ('96 just has four outtakes from the Uncovered show, and the '98 songs were all covered on Stained Glass and The Lost Paris Tapes.) So there's really no point in owning copies...unless I wanna be a TRUE fan and buy the originals from eBay for $150 apiece...

"Christmas Fan Club CD 1999: Cleaning Out the Closet" (silver)

1. "Don't Look Past Me"--James LaBrie vox (6:23)
2. "To Live Forever '91" (4:36)
3. "To Live Forever '94" (4:55)
4. "Eve"--instrumental (5:10)
5. "Raise the Knife" (11:35)
6. "Where Are You Now" (7:26)
7. "The Way It Used to Be" (7:45)
8. "Cover My Eyes" (3:21)
9. "Speak to Me" (6:10)
10. "The Killing of Victoria"--unlisted (0:47)

You know, considering how long I've been a Dream Theater fan, I've been downright STUPID not to join the Dream Theater International Fan Club until now. [Or maybe not so stupid. Keep reading.] You see, every year at Christmas, the fan clubs would give away FREE CDs to all of their members, containing rare tracks, cover songs, etc...and you should see the INSANE prices these suckers command on eBay!!! (Even if it's just a copy, which most of them are!) Luckily, for the '99 CD, they extended the deadline to Feb 29 2000, so my application got in just under the wire.

Alrighty...this is, without a doubt, the best Fan Club CD to date. Subtitled "Cleaning Out the Closet", this sucker is PACKED FULL of unreleased tracks & b-sides dating back to Images & Words! "Don't Look Past Me", featuring James LaBrie on vocals, I'm pretty sure is a special recording for this CD. There's also TWO versions of "To Live Forever", my favorite DT song of all time (in fact, I made a road tape with 7 versions of TLF, including the "Live in Tokyo" version dubbed from videotape...DT fans all around the world concur that that's by far their BEST performance of that song, ever! But I digress.) "Raise the Knife" is a nice surprise, didn't even know a vocal version of that one existed. "Where Are You Now" is the only track I didn't have on mp3 beforehand...probably just as well, it's not that great of a song. "The Killing of Victoria" is a hidden track (with an annoying minute of silence before AND after the track, dammit I hate that) which is sort of an outtake from SfaM -- it's just an "action" track enacting the murder of Victoria, like the last minute of "Finally Free" on the CD. There's also an ECD portion (which at first I didn't notice, but it mysteriously appeared one day) with extra goodies...

Oh...BY THE WAY...when I got my DTIFC subscription, they were sold out of the Winter '99 fanzine so they said they were extending my subscription by three months, meaning I would get the Winter 2000 fanzine AND the 2000 Christmas CD as well...so I was VERY surprised to get an expiration notice with the Fall '99 zine (which arrived in early January, no one can accuse these dorks of being prompt.) Obviously they fucked up, so I wrote several emails to that skanky bitch who theoretically runs the U.S. chapter of the club, and all I was told was I had to fax my credit card number to Holland if I wanted to renew my subscription on time...well FUCK THAT I told them, I WANT MY FUCKING CD YOU PROMISED!!! Well, they never came through, and I got jewed out of the 2K fan club disc. What a fucking bunch of losers this club is, poorly run and guess what, there will be NO MORE Christmas CDs now! So it's not even worth joining the club, and I encourage everyone to boycott this poorly run organization. Support the band...NOT the fan club!!

"Christmas Fan Club CD 2000: Scenes from a World Tour"

1. "Heaven and Hell" (2:24)
2. "Erotomania/Paradigm Shift/Universal Mind"--instrumental (7:33)
3. "What Did They Say?/Wipeout/Canadian Rap" (6:46)
4. "War Pigs" (4:15)
5. "Keyboard Solo" (7:27)
6. "The Spirit Carries On" (8:19)
7. "Guitar Solo/Gladiator Theme" (10:24)
8. "The Zoo/Learning to Live/Whole Lotta Love" (6:01)
9. "End of Show" (2:54)

The last ever fan club CD, featuring a bunch of highlights (and low-lights) from the band's 2000 world tour. Of most historical significance is "Spirit Carries On", from the February L.A. show where the Fire Marshal shut down the concert in the middle of their set (oddly, no riots ensued.) "What Did They Say?" is a clip job of songs where LaBrie either forgot the words or sang something different on purpose (sample: "Pull my finger, pull my finger, pull my finger, I'm not a fart!"). The band's penchant for cover songs is evident on the two Black Sabbath tracks -- "War Pigs" is sung by some guy they pulled from the audience (and he did an amazing job, too...Mike Portnoy even says, "Someone take a picture of this guy, he's a star!") Whereas, "Heaven and Hell" proves that while LaBrie may be a great singer, he sucks compared to R.J. Dio. But then, doesn't everybody? :) I do wish they included the entire "Learning to Live" song instead of just the end where they segued into that Scorpions/Led Zeppelin medley. The keyboard & guitar solos are outstanding, better than any of the bootlegs I've heard; but the "Erotomania/etc." medley isn't much different from the versions on Chill of Winter, Live in Orlando and so forth.

"Majesty: March of the Tyrant"

1. "Afterlife"--demo, Charlie Dominici vox (5:38)
2. "The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun"--demo, Charlie Dominici vox (7:29)
3. "The Ytse Jam"--instrumental (5:39)
4. "Cry for Freedom"--instrumental (6:43)
5. "The Killing Hand"--instrumental (7:36)
6. "Resurrection of Ernie"--instrumental (6:27)
7. "Another Won" (6:03)
8. "Your Majesty" (3:46)
9. "A Vision" (11:20)
10. "Too Far" (5:28)
11. "Vital Star" (5:39)
12. "March of the Tyrant" (5:31)

A nice collection, featuring the six songs (tracks 7-12) Dream Theater recorded as Majesty (with Chris Collins on lead vocals, and if you thought Dominici's vocals sucked, well he's a damned Pavarotti compared to this guy!!); plus 4 tracks from their Instrumental I bootleg, recorded when "Majesty" was between vocalists (and without a name -- didn't they discover another band was already using the "Majesty" name?) and 2 demo tracks from WDADU, with Dominici on lead vox. The quality leaves something to be desired, but hey, it's a freakin' bootleg, am I to expect 24-bit digital remastering or something?? (This is the only one of the multitudinous CD versions I've heard of the Majesty demos, so I don't know how it compares sound-wise, but I've been told that this is one of the best.)

"Instrumental II: Your Brain on Music"

1. "YYZ" (3:54)
2. "Metropolis Part 1" (8:57)
3. "Another Won" (5:05)
4. "The Farandole" (3:08)
5. "A Change of Seasons" (17:50)
6. "Stars" (1:37)
7. "Mission Impossible Theme" (1:20)
8. "Light Guitar Piece" (1:20)
9. "Long Island Sound" (6:03)
10. "Guitar Player Spotlight II": (5:39)
    • I. Confessions of the Artist
    • II. Somewhere Under the Rainbow

Yikes, did I say the sound quality of March of the Tyrant was bad? This one's downright near UNLISTENABLE. Oh well...at least this all-instrumental compilation does contain some rare gems, like covers of Rush's "YYZ" and Billy Sheehan's "Farandole", plus super-rare instrumental demos of "A Change of Seasons" and "Metropolis", and a sequel to "Guitar Player Spotlight I" (which appared on Instrumental I and Uncovered.)

"Live & Demos"

1. "Surrounded"--live, Mike Portnoy vocals (2:47)
2. "Metropolis Part I"--live, Charlie Dominici vocals (8:25)
3. "Metropolis Part I"--demo, Steve Stone vocals (9:25)
4. "The Killing Hand"--demo, John Arch vocals (7:53)
5. "A Fortune in Lies"--demo, John Arch vocals (4:45)
6. "Oliver's Twist"--instrumental, "Pull Me Under"/"Erotomania" demo (9:32)
7. "Only a Matter of Time"--demo, John Arch vocals (1:21)
8. "Burning My Soul/Hell's Kitchen"--live, Birch Hill 10/14/96 (8:19)
9. "Another Hand/The Killing Hand"--live, Birch Hill 10/14/96 (13:27)

A good friend sent me this collection of various audition tapes and live tunes, mostly culled from Scenes from a Memory (the bootleg, not the album) and Antiquities. Of key interest are the songs with John Arch (who's apparently been unemployed since leaving Fates Warning, anyone know what he's up to now?); although he's far and away a better singer than Dominici, it's clear that his voice doesn't really fit the music. Dunno who Steve Stone is, but he's got a pretty rough voice with nowhere near the range of LaBrie (or Arch, for that matter.) The live version of "Metropolis" comes from Afterlife: Early Fantasy (see below.) The Birch Hill live tracks are from the Hollow Years Jap import single...I asked gaz to add them, but forgot to tell him to take them off when I finally scored that CD. :)

"Subconscious"

1. "Eve (Vigil)"--live, instrumental w/ samples (5:22)
2. "A Change of Seasons"--live (19:21)
3. "O Holy Night" (4:10)
4. "Carry That Weight" (6:16)
5. "Don't Look Past Me" (6:22)
6. "Wanted Dead or Alive" (5:11)
7. "To Live Forever"--acoustic demo (4:56)
8. "Gorilla Session"--live, instrumental (3:01)
9. "Mission: Impossible Theme"--instrumental (1:19)
10. "Back Pain"--live, instrumental (5:09)
11. "Heavy"--live, instrumental (3:53)
12. "Experimental"--live, instrumental (1:25)
13. "Tears"--live (3:08)
14. "Winter"--live (2:26)
15. "Mystery Track!"--instrumental (0:07)

The first of the (in)famous "Prism Records" bootlegs by Mike Bahr. Some people (eBay sellers, in particular) will have you believe that these were never pressed to silver discs, and only CDRs were ever made...NOT TRUE!!! They were pressed in extremely limited quantities, and distributed to members of the Ytsejam mailing list. (I think a few of the later discs were CDR-only, after the pressing plant he was using got wise to what he was doing...I dunno, every time I update the Bahr/Prism scenario, some bloke comes along with totally different information...so I give up!!!) Of course, the originals are virtually impossible to find now, and command INSANE prices when they do show up...(damn me for waiting so long to get on the fuckin' Internet!!!)

Okay...the main attraction here is a hilarious joke cover of Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive", which I've never seen on ANY other compilation. There's also an early live version of "Eve" (misprinted as "Vigil" on the sleeve) which features some weird samples; plus there's a whole buttload of short instrumental jams. Tracks 3-5, 7, 9, and 13-14 are identical to the versions on Uncovered (and are more or less the same quality), and "Change of Seasons" is taken from the 3/3/93 NYC show (and is a far inferior quality recording to The Dance of Eternity bootleg. Same goes for "Eve", too.) The "Mystery Track" is...odd.

"Acoustic Dreams"

1. "Another Day" (4:26)
2. "Lifting Shadows off a Dream" (5:28)
3. "Wait for Sleep" (2:28)
4. "The Silent Man" (3:29)
5. "Long Island Expressway"--instrumental (2:32)
6. "Tears" (3:14)
7. "O Holy Night"--live (3:56)
8. "Perfect Strangers"--w/Bruce Dickinson (5:52)
9. "6:00"--demo (5:39)
10. "Caught in a Web"--demo (5:12)
11. "Voices"--live excerpt, YTSECON (1:30)
12. "Bad"--live, YTSECON (5:28)

Of all the Prism CDs, this one has the best overall sound quality (except those two "YTSECON" tracks, which are best left ignored.) Tracks 1-4 are acoustic, "unplugged" versions -- it's hard to imagine any version of "Wait for Sleep" that's more acoustic than the original, but sure enough they pull it off. :) There's also a neat instrumental ("Long Island Expressway"), a Rush cover ("Tears"), a nice live version of "O Holy Night", and a fantastic studio recording of Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers" featuring Bruce Dickinson! The Awake demos aren't bad, either.

"When Dream and James Unite" (live & studio, various sources; silver)

Interesting idea, a compendium of all WDADU songs done live w/ LaBrie on vox. (Although "Ytsejam" doesn't quite fit...lol.) Taken from multiple sources, the sound quality varies from pretty damn good ("Fortune", "Ytsejam", "Killing Hand") to barely listenable ("Status Seeker", "Afterlife"). They even tacked on part of the ancient Majesty song "March of the Tyrant" to the end of "Only a Matter of Time"...which SUCKS because the ending of "OAMOT" is the greatest ever done!!! However, the "Moonbubbles/Showdown" section is a pleasant surprise, particularly because I have an mp3 of that instrumental and I never could figure out where it came from! However, I have another mp3 simply called "Moonbubbles" which is a COMPLETELY different song...so what's the fucking story here? [NOTE: At last, this mystery has been solved...see "Lost in the Sky", below...]

The recordings for disc one (as well as the general idea) were cribbed from the Prism CD When Dream and Today Unite, albeit with a better quality version of "The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun" (I shudder to think how bad the WDATU version sounds!!!) So there's no reason to own the 3rd Prism CD, if you get this one. (This one's also much easier to find.) As for the "bonus" disc, tracks 5-8 are identical to those from Acoustic Dreams, whereas tracks 1-4, taken from a sound check, appear to be unique to this collection -- but who cares? (And who the hell is James talking to during the transition from "Metropolis" to "Fortune"?? The road crew?)

"Antiquities"

1. "A Crack in the Mirror"--instrumental, live (2:36)
2. "Puppies on Acid (The Mirror)"--live (5:49)
3. "Take the Time/The Mists of Evening"--live (12:59)
4. "Under a Glass Moon"--live (7:25)
5. "A Change of Seasons" (16:44)
6. "Don't Look Past Me" (6:03)
7. "Metropolis"--demo, Steve Stone vocals (9:25)
8. "Killing Hand"--demo, John Arch vocals (7:53)
9. "A Fortune in Lies"--demo, John Arch vocals (4:45)

Part 4 of the Prism series. I actually have the liner notes for this one, and they're an interesting read...not only is there no mention of Dream Theater whatsoever, the members of "Majesty" are listed as "Herman Jr., Mikey, Johan and Taz" -- actual nicknames, or made up? I'm guessing the latter. There's also a load of crap about how "this is performed as a 'cover' of an original work, in compliance with ASCAP provisions..." and is "authorized for sale or distribution in the following countries: USA, Canada, Japan, [etc.]" Probably a lot of ringmarole to keep the CD manufacturing plant from realizing that it's a frickin' BOOTLEG...

Ok, not a lot of essential stuff here. Tracks 7-9, the main jewels, are the same audition tapes that I've got on Live & Demos, above. Tracks 5 & 6 feature James LaBrie, presumably auditioning for the band as well, and are unique to this collection (but are such BAD quality, why bother?) I do wish Mikey had provided information about the live tracks, which are from various soundboard shows and sound decent enough -- "Under a Glass Moon", in particular, is exactly like the version on the Live in Tokyo video. "The Mists of Evening" is just the normal jam session following "Take the Time" that's heard on many other releases, although this version is better than most. (As for the title, I'm fairly confident that Bahr pulled it out of his ass.) Track 2 is listed as "Puppies on Acid" but actually is "The Mirror" ...not all that inaccurate, really. :)

"Scenes from a Memory"

1. "Distant Echoes" (1:47)
2. "To Set the Sun"--live, Charlie Dominici vox (5:00)
3. "Status Seeker"--live, Charlie Dominici vox (5:09)
4. "The Killing Hand"--live, Charlie Dominici vox (8:59)
5. "Eve"--live, instrumental (5:03)
6. "Six O'Clock"--demo (5:20)
7. "Lifting Shadows"--demo (5:58)
8. "Caught in a Web"--demo (5:33)
9. "A Change of Seasons"--demo, Chris Cintron vox (17:13)
10. "Oliver's Twist"--instrumental (9:32)
11. "Only a Matter of Time"--demo, John Arch vocals (1:21)
12. "Autumn Moon"--instrumental (fake) (1:02)

Part 5 of the Prism series, not to be confused with the official studio CD that came out several years later. :) The trader who gave me this said I really didn't need it, since I had the best songs ("Oliver's Twist" and the John Arch demo for "OAMOT") on that "Live & Demos" thingy, listed above. He was wrong though...because this contains something I never thought I'd find, which is actual LIVE TRACKS from the Dominici era, and GOOD QUALITY live tracks at that (FM/soundboard, quality A- or so), and live tracks where HE ACTUALLY CARRIES A TUNE!!!!!! I didn't even realize they were live tracks until the audience (about 10-20 people, by the sound of it) kicks in at the end of "Status Seeker", and Charlie introduces himself and the band to the "crowd". :) On the other hand, this was the first bootleg where somebody found concrete evidence that Bahr was adding false recordings: "Autumn Moon", presented as a rare Kevin Moore piano solo, is actually by George Winston (a jazz musician of some note, I assume.) I'm suspicious about "Distant Echoes", a mixology of random samples & clips from other DT/Majesty songs, which could have been easily cooked up on someone's audio editing program.

The demo tracks are of unknown origin, but are different from the Acoustic Dreams versions. "Eve" is from an 11/14/93 show in Switzerland, and does not contain any samples.

"Precious Things" (live, various sources)

1. "6:00" (5:46)
2. "Covers Medley":
   
   • The Rover (Led Zeppelin)
   • Killers (Iron Maiden)
   • Damage, Inc. (Metallica)
   • In the Flesh? (Pink Floyd)
   • Heart of the Sunrise (Yes)
   • Innocence Faded (total=12:43)
3. "Raise the Knife"--instrumental, excerpt (3:54)
4. "A Change of Seasons" (22:01)
5. "Lost Without You"--instrumental (5:16)
6. "Solar Groove"--studio, instrumental (3:41)
7. "Freeport Jam"--studio, instrumental (2:59)
8. "Lifting Shadows off a Dream"--studio demo (5:59)
9. "Learning to Live"--studio, LaBrie audition demo (11:00)

Another collection of rare tunez by that crazy Bahr guy. I've never seen a silver CD of this, so I guess this was after the pressing plant got wise to what Mikey was up to. :) (It's also the first Prism CD that says "Dream Theater" on it...more evidence that the "Majesty" front had been blown.) Most essential is the super-rare "Covers Medley", which was only performed a couple of times (and "Innocence Faded" is indeed one of the band's rarest live tracks.) We also get "Solar Groove", a John Myung bass solo from his instructional video (rumor has it that HE ACTUALLY TALKS in that vid!) plus rare instrumental jams in "Lost Without You" and "Freeport Jam". Oh, and yet another rare version of "A Change of Seasons" -- this time, an unattributed live track with the more familiar slow intro. ("Lifting Shadows" is the same as the SFaM version, above.) DEFINITELY essential for all DT collectors!

"The Darkest of Winters" (live, various sources)

1. "Puppies on Acid/Take the Time" (11:58)
2. "Scarred" (12:07)
3. "The Silent Man (Electric Version)" (5:04)
4. "Home for the Holidays Jam"--instrumental (2:13)
5. "Caught in Alice's Nine-Inch Tool Garden" (6:22)
6. "Winter Night's Jam"--instrumental (3:00)
7. "Wait for Sleep" (3:26)
8. "Bad" (6:41)
9. "Perfect Strangers" (7:17)
10. "Dream and Day"--instrumental, studio demo (1:17)
11. "A Vision"--studio demo (7:09)

Mike Bahr may be the most well-known of all DT bootleggers (his work has even been endorsed by the band themselves), but on this nearly all-live release, his editing skills leave a lot to be desired. There are NO FADES WHATSOEVER between the tracks, which is VERY annoying...and the sound quality isn't that great, either! Still, it's got one essential song: "Caught in Alice's Nine-Inch Tool Garden", a super-heavy "industrial" remake of "Caught in a Web" (note that 4 grunge/industrial bands are referenced in the title?) These songs were recorded at the Malibu Nite Club, Long Island on 12/28/95, and "Toad's Place" in Connecticut on 12/6/96, if that's what the scanned ticket stubs on the rear liner actually mean. As for the exclusive instrumental tracks, don't get too excited -- "Home for the Holidays" is merely a variation on "A Crack in the Mirror", followed by the guitar intro to "Lines in the Sand"; and "Dream and Day" is completely useless, being nothing more than the introduction to "Cry for Freedom"! On the other hand, "A Vision" is a curious rendition, featuring Charlie Dominici on vocals (this has been confirmed, finally! Sadly, it's not live...)

"Guitar Talkin'"

Radio Veronica Sessions - NL - 2/14/95:
1. "Lifting Shadows off a Dream" (5:27)
2. "Wait for Sleep" (2:50)
3. "Tears" (3:18)
4. "The Silent Man" (3:33)
   US Radio Power Thirty - 6/93:
5. "Another Day" (4:55)
   John Petrucci & Mike Portnoy Clinic, Milano 3/3/96:
6. "Lost Without You"--instrumental (7:02)
7. "Where Are You Now?" (listed as "Untitled") (7:39)
8. "Final Jamming"--instrumental (11:08)
9. "Raise the Knife"--instrumental (11:49)
   James LaBrie audition demos:
10. "Learning to Live" (10:53)
11. "Take the Time" (5:45)
12. "To Live Forever" (4:35)

Ok, tracks 1-5 are identical to the Acoustic Dreams "unplugged" versions, and while they do contain some extra (mumbled) dialog between tracks, the sound quality is piss-poor; same goes for the LaBrie demos, which sound a helluva lot better on Precious Things and Uncovered. So really, the only worthwhile stuff here is the Petrucci/Portnoy clinic. "Lost Without You" is a lovely instrumental (and different from the Precious Things version), plus there's a fun jam session and an absolutely brilliant instrumental version of "Raise the Knife". ("Where Are You Now", listed on the liner notes as "Untitled", sounds kinda stupid since the vocals are quite obviously from a backing tape.)

"Mosaic"

1. "DaMotts" (1:48)
2. "Stankk" (1:46)
3. "Break it Off" (1:28)
4. "Spontaneous Combustion" (2:16)
5. "Crack of Doom" (1:49)
6. "Burning My Soul/Hell's Kitchen"--live (8:38)
7. "Peruvian Skies"--live (6:28)
8. "Lines in the Sand"--live (14:47)
9. "Take Away My Pain"--live (7:13)
10. "Just Let Me Breathe"--live (5:37)
11. "Trial of Tears"--live (13:03)

Oh man, was this ever a rude awakening. I chose this one specifically for the first five songs, which I'd never heard of before, and to my surprise they turned out to be total HARDCORE/PUNK tracks that sound NOTHING like Dream Theater!!! Well, I asked around to find out what the hell was going on, and wouldn't you know, it turns out this Mike Bahr character wasn't the bastion of integrity I assumed him to be. You see, it's widely rumored (and for some people, believed as absolute fact) that Bahr was notorious for putting FAKE SONGS on his bootlegs and passing them off as rare DT material! In particular, the piano instrumental "Autumn Moon" (see Scenes from a Memory, above) -- plus, perhaps, some of the instrumental jams from Subconscious. So it's no surprise that this was the final Bahr bootleg -- he had gone too far. (Plus, there's all the brouhaha of him ripping off customers and/or making them wait forever for their discs, but since *I've* never personally dealt with the guy, I won't mention that...)

...well, well, maybe not all of that is true. (About the fake hardcore songs, that is.) Another DT trader sent me this, from the liner notes of the original Mosaic pressing, purportedly by Mike Portnoy himself:

THE GREAT PORTHOLIO SAYS:
OK, here's the deal. You are now holding the long-lost, but legendary, ODJEDA demos. This is a goof, pseudo-hardcore, metal, rap sorta-side project, in the vein of S.O.D which I was very into at the time. Me + Kevin went up to Boston to spend the weekend with some of my school friends at Berklee (specifically, Paul Falcone and James Hull, who "produced" the infamous '86 Majesty Demo). The first night there, we grabbed a case of beer, set up some drums, some amps, and a cheesy 4-track. About 2 hours later, me + Paul had "written" and recorded the music to this thing. We spent the rest of the weekend with a few more cases of beer and Kevin + James Hull joined us for the completion of these "songs". I had actually forgotten about these tapes and just came across them recently. This was only stupid, drunken fun!
Enjoy!!

Ok, so those five songs are at least Dream Theater related -- but they're so far removed from their normal stuff, that even a hardcore fan can confidently let this one pass. The live tracks are genuine DT, no doubt about that, but the only halfway essential track is "Lines in the Sand", which is based on the demo version, and thus sounds radically different from all other versions, studio or live. (So is "Burning My Soul", which still contains "Hell's Kitchen" in the middle; but since they resurrected that version for the 2002 tour AND it appears on the Hollow Years jap import single, it's not as exclusive.)

"Trial of Singles"

1. "To Live Forever" (4:54)
2. "Another Day"--live (4:43)
3. "Take the Time"--demo version (7:58)
4. "Eve"--instrumental (5:11)
5. "You or Me"--demo version (6:22)
6. "The Way it Used to Be" (7:48)
7. "Burning My Soul"--live (8:19)
8. "Another Hand/The Killing Hand"--live (13:28)
9. "Take Away My Pain"--demo version (6:50)
10. "Speak to Me" (6:11)
11. "Tears" (3:23)
12. "The Silent Man"--acoustic version (3:38)

Not sure if this is a bootleg or an official release, it's marked as a "promotional copy" and has all the standard legal jargon about unauthorized duplication prohibited, yada yada yada... What we've got here is a compilation of B-sides from the singles off the first three albums with LaBrie -- outstanding quality, naturally, but as far as my collection is concerned, the only unique tracks are the live version of "Another Day" (from the Japanese import of Live at the Marquee, as well as the "Lie" single) and the demo version of "Take Away My Pain". (That last one is pretty neat, it has a different third verse that talks about Jesus.) "Speak to Me" is listed as a "demo version", but it's no different than the song on the '99 Christmas CD; similarly, "Tears" is listed as "live", but it's the same studio acoustic recording that appeared on Acoustic Dreams (where this version of "The Silent Man" is from, too.)

"Majesty & More" (custom 4-CDR set; mp3 source)

Yeah, this crappy thing is still kicking around...I never even listen to it anymore, having since gotten just about every song here on CD or CDR. A "second edition" is in the works, however....

"No Sleep Since Brooklyn/Instrumental III" (L'Amour, NYC, 9/25/86)

NO SLEEP SINCE BROOKLYN:
1. "Another Won" (4:53)
2. "Cry for Freedom" (6:33)
3. "The Gates of Babylon" (6:10)
4. "Your Majesty" (3:33)
5. "March of the Tyrant" (5:43)
6. "Afterlife" (5:18)
   INSTRUMENTAL III:
7. "Two Far" (5:52)
8. "The Saurus" (1:21)
9. "Your Majesty" (4:00)
10. "Viking Outro" (0:40)
11. "7 Mini Guitar Songs" (1:43)
12. "A Swell Guitar Piece" (0:53)
13. "Anti-Procrastination Song" (0:13)

A rare live show from 1986, featuring the original Majesty lineup. Sound quality is B/B- audience -- not all that bad, considering its vintage. (If you can stand the horrible screechy vocals, that is!) This one's essential for the Rainbow cover, plus alternate lyrics for "Afterlife", plus ACTUAL lyrics for "Cry for Freedom"!! It's also hysterical how Collins introduces the band members in full-on 80's metal style. :)) The instrumental tunes are really scraping the bottom of the barrel -- sound quality's a step up from Instrumental II, but aside from needless versions of "Your Majesty" and "Two Far", they're nothing but small guitar solos. ("Anti-Procrastination Song" is the S.O.D. song.)

"Afterlife: Early Fantasy" (The Ritz, New York City, 11/14/89)

1. "Metropolis Part 1" (9:05)
2. "Afterlife" (5:49)
3. "To Live Forever" (4:56)
4. "The Ytse Jam"--instrumental (6:32)
5. "The Killing Hand" (11:19)
6. "Only a Matter of Time" (4:10)

In late 1989, the band caught a major break when they were asked to fill the opening slot of Marillion's New York show. Problem was, they had just fired their crappy singer Dominici. So they asked him to come back and perform as a one-night only sort of thing. The results were atrocious. Dominici totally butchers "Metropolis", and can barely hold a melody in the songs theoretically within his range ("Afterlife" and "The Killing Hand", both from WDADU, of course.) He's not so bad on "To Live Forever", and of course the vocals are no problem at all on "Ytsejam". :) This recording is the same as the bonus tracks on Consciously Unreal but includes one extra song, "Only a Matter of Time", which unfortunately fades out halfway through. Sound quality is passable (B- audience).

"The Dance of Eternity" (3/3/93, The Limelight, NYC)

One of the most essential live recordings from the Images & Words tour, this one's an A+ audience recording that could easily pass for soundboard. Not only does is the band dead on, they also pull out an early, rare rendition of "A Change of Seasons"!!! (Except for a faster intro, it sounds similar to the studio recording.) The liner notes could use a little work -- "To Live Forever" is only listed as "Forever", "Eve" isn't listed at all, and "Another Day" segues right into "Another Hand" but that isn't listed either.

WARNING: There's another boot out there called "Dance of Eternity", but it's only a 1-CD version and doesn't have ACOS on it (which is the whole point, obviously.) I'm not even sure if it contains the same show or not...probably not.

"Lords of Sound" (6/29/93, Milwaukee, WI)

Hmm, do I have enough I&W boots yet? :) This one's a mixed bag...soundboard recording but the sound is rather thin, plus methinks Messr. LaBrie was gargling too much salt water the night before, because his voice is TOTALLY blown out and off-key for most of this set. He does get better by the end of disc one, and totally NAILS that scream at the end of "To Live Forever", which also features an atmospheric guitar solo & bonus drum solo which is very, very similar to the version on the Live in Tokyo videotape. (And as I've been hunting for that particular version forever, this sucker's a real gem!!) But then James goes back to spitting nails for the rest of disc two...and for some reason they only did an abbreviated version of "Learning to Live" as an encore. Oh, well.

"Lost in the Sky" (11/15/93, Palaseto, Milan, Italy)

First, I gotta give full props & word out to my Holy, Eternal & Reverend "DT Guru" :)) who provided many of the CDR boots from this point on, all for free...can't mention him by name, of course, but you know who you are, and YOU FUCKING RULE!!! However, this particular boot gave me a trial since the "original" bootleg version came in a 5"x10" longbox, which meant I had to get rather creative when printing out the liners...

Anyhoo, this is another great live set from the Images & Words tour, stunning A+ soundboard quality, with a few killer tunes such as "Mission Impossible/Afterlife", and "Only a Matter of Time" (same show as the WDAJU version, but MUCH higher quality!) -- also, the "To Live Forever/Instrumental" (as it's listed on the liner notes) is identical to the "TLF/Moonbubbles/Showdown" track on WDAJU. I must credit "SymX" of Perpetual Motion for clearing up the "Moonbubbles? or Barfbag?" mystery: Yes, this "improv" sounding track is officially called "Barfbag", although it does contain bits of "Showdown" ("from the intro right into the solo break"), which was later incorporated into "Raise the Knife". "Moonbubbles" is a different song entirely (which I have on mp3, but so far not on CD/CDR.) Whew! That one was REALLY bugging me...oh yeah, "Puppies on Acid" is also listed as "Instrumental" on the liner notes, but that one was easy to figure out. :)

"The Rudess Experiment" (9/9/94, Burbank, CA + other sources)

1. "Pull Me Under" (8:36)
2. "Caught in a Web" (5:11)
3. "Lie" (5:21)
4. "Lifting Shadows off a Dream" (6:09)
5. "Voices" (9:48)
6. "Take the Time" (11:59)
7. "Burning My Soul" (5:32)
8. "Over My Head" (0:36)
9. "Moby Dick"--instrumental (0:29)
10. "The Trooper" (0:44)
11. "YYZ"--instrumental (0:40)
12. "War Pigs" (2:15)
13. "Hot for Teacher"--instrumental (0:33)
14. "Smoke on the Water" (1:37)
15. "Mean Streets" (3:07)
16. "Caught in a Web"--"just a snippet" (1:47)
17. "Walk This Way"--instrumental (0:04)
18. "Perfect Strangers"--last performance of Nightmare Cinema (7:07)

The first DT release by Scarred Records (whatever happened to that guy, anyway? His site's been down for years now...) Here's the skinny...just days before Awake was released, Kevin Moore abruptly left the band, so the other guys had to scurry up a new keyboardist for their upcoming gigs. Which happened to be...Jordan Rudess. Familiar name, eh? Jordan couldn't join the band since he was still with Dixie Dregs, but he did find the spare time to perform at a 9/9/94 gig in Burbank, Calif., represented here by tracks 1-6. It's a soundboard recording, although the mix is rather nasty, with Jordan's keys mixed waaayy too high. Still, the show itself ain't bad for a spur-of-the-moment performance, and the band was obviously impressed enough to hire Jordan as Derek's replacement, five years later.

The other tracks come from various 1998 shows. Of prime interest is the medley of hella cover tunes from a Lubbock, TX gig on 5/22/98, the original artists being (staring with "Over My Head"): Kings X, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Rush, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Deep Purple, and VH again. "War Pigs" is sung by Mike Portnoy's drum tech, of all people (which makes him something like the 10th lead singer Dream Theater has ever had! As well as the 20th or so version that I own of that song...) "Trooper" and "Smoke on the Water" are basically sung by the audience. :)

"Burning My Soul", a totally needless addition, comes from a radio broadcast of some show in Spain (there's a Spanish D.J. talking over the intro, for Chrissakes), whereas "Perfect Strangers", recorded 2 days after the Lubbock show, features "the last ever performance by Nightmare Cinema". In case you don't know who Nightmare Cinema is, it's all the members switching instruments (except James, who can't play an instrument but nobody else can sing either) and jamming out the only song they apparently know how to play. :) And the "last performance" turned out to be untrue, as Nightmare Cinema did return seven months later on the Acoustic at the Electric Factory bootleg...

"A Kick Into a Dream" (10/24/94, Manhattan Center, NYC)

One of the first live shows with Derek Sherinian, before he was an official member of the band. Nothing too special about this show, except for a surprise rendition of "The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun" (where James forgets the words...no wonder they dropped it from the set list) which is the same version as the one on When Dream and James Unite. Damn good performance, but if you only need one bootleg from the Awake tour, go for Wake Up! instead...

"Wake Up!" (1/24/95, Saitama, Japan)

Another essential bootleg for the Dream Theater completist: this time, an A++ soundboard recording from their Awake tour, recorded live in Japan. "Caught in a Web" features a drum solo that includes an all-too-brief excerpt from Slayer's "Raining Blood" (!!!), and also a Public Enemy sample (which I'm too lazy to figure out which song it is exactly.) As it happens, this show just happened to coincide with bassist John Myung's birthday, and the Japanese crowd sings "Happy Birthday to You" -- I was eagerly waiting to hear Myung say "Thank you" or something, but alas, no luck...I swear, through all the DT live shows, videos, interviews, etc. that I've poured through, I have yet to hear that man speak A SINGLE WORD!! Forget about "soft-spoken", he's downright introverted... "The Silent Man", indeed! [Ok, quite a few people have told me that Myung actually speaks twice on the Live in Tokyo video -- while modeling a kimono, he says, "Actually I feel kinda spooky," and then, "All right, I'll take it, I'm sold." So he's NOT totally mute after all...and you can all stop emailing me about it now, thank you. :)] The "Instrumental" track on disc two is basically "A Crack in the Mirror" with an extended keyboard intro; I don't have a clue what the instrumental on disc one is actually called, if anything.

"Uncovered" (1/31/95, Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, London; silver)

disc one:
1. "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" (10:32)
2. "Perfect Strangers" (5:49)
3. "Red Hill Mining Town" (6:43)
4. "Led Zeppelin Medley" (7:57)
5. "Tears" (4:03)
6. "Damage, Inc."--feat. Barney Greenway of Napalm Death (5:58)
7. "Happiness is a Warm Gun"--feat. Steve Hogarth of Marillion (2:53)
8. "Easter"--feat. Steve Hogarth & Steve Rothery of Marillion (7:01)
9. "Winter" (2:32)
10. "In the Dead of Night" (5:29)

disc two:
1. "Yes Medley": (14:11) --instrumental, featuring Steve Howe
   • Machine Messiah
   • Heart of the Sunrise
   • Close to the Edge
   • Siberian Khatru
   • Starship Trooper
2. "The Big Medley" (12:08)
3. "Space-Dye Vest"--studio demo, Kevin Moore vox (7:03)
4. "Carry That Weight"--studio (6:15)
5. "O Holy Night"--studio (4:12)
6. "Don't Look Past Me"--studio, Jon Hendricks vox (6:23)
7. "Mission Impossible"--studio, instrumental (1:18)
8. "To Live Forever"--studio, acoustic demo (4:58)
9. "Indulge in Reverie"--studio, instrumental (4:57)
10. "A Late Summer's Rain/Schizophrenia"--studio, instrumental (7:50)

Well, here it is...the COMPLETE RONNIE SCOTT'S GIG, with rare studio tracks thrown in for good measure. Of course, I've owned mp3s of nearly all these songs for long time, but since I consider this the most ESSENTIAL Dream Theater bootleg in existence, I just *had* to get an original copy. Oh yeah, word of warning...be VERY careful when bidding on DT boots on eBay, unless it says "ORIGINAL SILVER DISC" or "NOT A CD-R" in the description, you can bet your firstborn son that it is NOT an original but a computer-burned copy. Not that that stops idiot people from bidding exorbitant amounts on these cheap pirate versions; however, I got damn lucky here and got this CD from a clueless (yet honest) ebay newbie from Sweden -- $38something, although w/postage & stuff it was more like $50+...

But I'm rambling...let's talk about the music. Well, for starters, although the music is clear enough, you'd think that a soundboard-source recording would sound better! Guitars are mixed waaaay too high, and for the first half of "Love Lies Bleeding", James's microphone broke down so you can't hear the vocals AT ALL!!! (Of course, everything was polished, remixed & overdubbed for A.C.O.S....) The songs NOT released on ACOS come from the following original artists: "Red Hill Mining Town", U2 (funny intro to that one, where Derek fucks up the keyboard intro and James shouts, "No, no, I don't think so!") -- "Tears", Rush -- "Damage Inc.", Metallica (and when announcing Barney, James says, "He gets to do all the fun songs!") -- "Happiness...", the Beatles -- "Easter", Marillion -- "Winter", Tori Amos (and why do so many prog fans like Tori Amos, anyway? Is she the godmother of prog or something?) -- "In the Dead of Night", UK -- and I'll let you figure out where "Yes Medley" originally came from. :) "The Big Medley" also ends with some thank-yous from the band & such (as well as a few vocal errors that were overdubbed on ACOS.)

Okay, now the studio tracks. "Space-Dye Vest" is Kevin Moore's demo for that Awake song, and his singing voice really isn't that bad (the demo also contains different samples than the final release.) "Carry that Weight" is another Beatles tune (although the full name SHOULD be "Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight/The End"), "O Holy Night" is misprinted as "The Night" on the liner notes, and "Don't Look Past Me" is an unreleased song, also misprinted as "Past (into the sun)". Although the liner notes state Chris Collins as lead vocals for tracks 4-6, I'm pretty sure that's wrong...at least I *know* it's wrong for "Don't Look Past Me", which is sung by some dude named Jon Hendricks. (I'm assuming he was auditioning for the band, and his vocal capacity definitely shows why he failed.) "To Live Forever" is an acoustic demo sung by LaBrie...obviously, he DID get the job!! The last two instrumentals (also known as "Guitar Player Spotlight #1") are the only tracks I didn't have on mp3, although they are both available on the Instrumental I bootleg.

"Fasten Your Seatbelts" (12/13/97, The Roxy, Boston)

You'd think that owning an FII tour boot would be extraneous, since Once in a LIVEtime was recorded on this same tour...well, this A-/B+ audience recording is an essential one, as it was recorded early on the tour with a completely different setlist, and includes two songs ("Burning My Soul", "New Millennium") NOT released on OIALT. (The title of this set is taken from the sped-up, "Fasten your seatbelts!" version of "Ytsejam", which was first played at this show.) As an extra added bonus, we've also got FIVE demo tracks of songs from FII (well, four songs + one outtake), which are essential because they sound QUITE different from the final studio versions!!! (Note: As far as I can tell, no silver recording of this bootleg ever existed.) The performance of "Under a Glass Moon" is just plain awful.

"Stained Glass" (6/22/98, The Nighttown, Rotterdam NL)

This is an incredible live show from Rotterdam, Netherlands, on 6/22/98. Also known as the "Rotterdam Fan Club Gig", the band played a laid-back set of hella cover tunes & unreleased tracks, plus some acoustic numbers. Some of the band's comments are hilarious, with James at one point saying, "Here's a song from a big influence of ours...Green Day!" They also fucked up "Silent Man" on the first disc, so they played it again as an encore. However, the most AMAZING thing about this set is the sound quality...although it's an audience recording, the guy who taped it must have had one HELL of a setup, because it sounds like A+ soundboard!! In fact, the only way you can tell it's not a professional release is the complete lack of overdubs. :))

This 2CD set, which I ordered directly from Scarred Records (which oddly appears to have vanished), is essentially the same set as the Nighttown Nostalgia bootleg (which was taken from a different source, no idea what the quality is like on that one), except for the "bonus" track "Puppies on Acid/Lie", taken from an open-air festival the band played at a few days later. A couple warnings are in order: 1) That Scarred guy is a college kid working out of his dorm room, and is goddamn SLOW in getting things shipped (1-4 week turnaround? HA!), and 2) both discs are actually computer-burned CDRs and NOT factory-pressed silvers. Granted, they appear to be very high-quality CDRs, but I was a little pissed to find that out since he didn't indicate that fact on his page (and neither did the other pages that listed Scarred CDs.) HOWEVER, all these problems (which are quite big for me) are in fact WELL WORTH IT. This show is just so damned awesome!!!

SPECIAL NOTE TO TRADERS: Ryan "Mr. Scarred" Whitaker got tricky and "overburned" the second disc, resulting in a tracking error on the final track, which unfortunately is read by most burners as the end of track #11. What all this means is that any copies made of this boot will NOT include "Puppies/Lie", since it's impossible to copy that track! But since it's NOT part of the Rotterdam show (and hardly a rare song), it's not that big a loss...it certainly hasn't disappointed the multitude of traders who have requested a copy of this show from me, easily the most popular ROIO in my collection. :)

"The Lost Paris Tapes" (6/25/98, Le Baraclau, Paris)

1. "Burning My Soul" (6:42)
2. "Under a Glass Moon" (7:49)
3. "The Way It Used to Be" (8:11)
4. "Anna Lee" (6:37)
5. "Speak to Me" (7:23)
6. "Hey You" (4:53)
7. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (3:55)
8. "Cover My Eyes" (4:58)
9. "Take Away My Pain"--no alto sax (6:44)
10. "Metropolis"--studio demo (9:04)
11. "To Live Forever"--studio demo (4:28)

A collection of "outtakes" from the concert which was recorded for Once in a Livetime. This really isn't as essential as you'd think, since the sound quality (B+ audience) and performances are rather mundane. Although "Under a Glass Moon" is performed much better than that shitty version on Fasten Your Seatbelts, James's voice totally cracks up during "Burning My Soul", and the other songs are done far better on Stained Glass and Electric Factory. About the only saving grace here is a demo of "Metropolis" which I've never seen anywhere else.

"Acoustic at the Electric Factory" (12/27/98, Philadelphia)

Another "Intimate Evening with Dream Theater", with a setlist almost identical to Stained Glass. I love these type of shows, not only for the rarely-played songs but for the candid, laid-back chatter (at one point James says, "Just so you know, we're NOT playing "Take the Time" tonight, so stop screaming for it!") There are two other shows like this, recorded a day before and 2 days after this gig, but this one has the best sound quality of the three (A/A+ audience.) Live at Irving Plaza has some extra songs, though...

Of prime interest are the two cover songs, Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You" (nice!!) and Rush's "Different Strings", which ends with a medley of "Analog Kid" and "La Villa Strangiato" (plus a snippet of "Cygnus X-1" at the start.) There's also a rare rendition of "Hell's Kitchen", a short, impromptu jam of Led Zep's "Rock and Roll" and Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" at the end of "Hollow Years", and a surprise return of NIGHTMARE CINEMA on "Perfect Strangers"! Man, I gotta get my ass to one of these "Home for the Holidays" shows someday...if only they didn't always play them in NYC/NJ/Philly in the DEAD OF FUCKING WINTER...

"The Chill of Winter" (11/11/99, Zwolle, Holland)

Live show recorded in Holland on 11/11/99, just 2 weeks after the release of SfaM. Decent (A-) audience recording, marred by a few "clicks", channel dropouts, and overzealous fans screaming too close to the microphone. :) Really, this is the best sounding show I've heard from the European leg of this tour (and a word of warning: if you ever run across a boot called "Sharing One Eternity", from their Luxembourg 11/23/99 show, DO NOT BUY IT, it fucking sucks!!!) and is especially desirable for the new songs, plus an awesome instrumental medley (which the bootleggers chopped in half, the bastards), PLUS their now-famous "When Images & Words Unite" medley, featuring choice tracks from their first 2 albums, including "Only a Matter of Time" (one of my favorite DT tunes, did I mention that already?) However, I'm getting REAL tired of hearing "Hollow Years", "Lifting Shadows" and "Peruvian Skies" at every one of their damn shows (not that "Peruvian" is bad, but it's a lot less interesting since they removed the Pink Floyd/Metallica samples...I wonder if Metallica threatened to sue? Wouldn't surprise me...)

The last 2 tracks on each CD are taken from a Mike Portnoy "drum clinic", recorded on 9/9/99 -- purely extraneous, since these "clinics" are merely the studio tracks on DAT, with only drums live...(the canned vocals on "New Millenium" [sic] are particularly distracting.)

"Live in Orlando, March 3rd, 2000"

A fully live rendition of Metropolis II: Scenes from a Memory, plus the standard instrumental medley and "When Images and Words Unite" medley as encores. This show was originally broadcast live on the Internet, and that's obviously where this boot was sourced from. (The front cover says it's "taken directly from the mixing table", but that is a LIE, I can clearly hear the RealAudio compression! It's probably even ripped from the same mp3s that I have of this show, damn conniving bootleggers...well I guess it saved me the trouble of ripping the discs myself, and comes with some nifty cover art as well...)

"Live at Web Theater, Phoenix AZ, August 19, 2000"

Oops, I totally forgot to mention that another great source for DT bootlegs is Ed Polzin's Live & Rare Recordings (good luck finding anything he doesn't already have, though!) He's a great trader and was even kind enough to offer me an extra CD set when a couple discs in our last trade were defective...well I really wasn't sure what I wanted, so I randomly chose this live set from the Metropolis II tour. The setlist is fairly similar to Chill of Winter, but the sound quality is far, far better, plus we're also treated to a FULL LENGTH encore of "A Change of Seasons" (where LaBrie's voice gives out at the end, unfortunately) and a song called "Caught in a New Millennium", which is a combination of "Caught in a Web" and "New Millennium". They just love to mix up those songs in concert, don't they??? Anyways, consider this yet another essential live set.

"Six Degrees Below Zero" (1/19/02, B.B. King's, NYC)

More of a historical document than anything else, this low-average audience boot comes from the "secret warm-up gig" prior to Dream Theater's Six Degrees of Inner Tourbulence tour. All the songs (except "Cover My Eyes") are readily available on better-sounding bootlegs, with the only real highlight being a HUGE fuck-up on "Strange Deja-Vu", so bad they actually had to start the song over! (As well as the "2112" excerpt, since according to Petrucci, "We screwed up part of that one, too." To which Portnoy replies: "What do you mean 'WE', Paleface?") The performance itself is quite loose, which is a plus I guess -- that and the fact that there's no "6DOIT", so you get just about all the other songs which were played on this tour. :)

"Master of Puppets" (Barcelona, 2/19/02; mp3 source)

1. "Battery" (5:12)
2. "Master of Puppets" (8:45)
3. "The Thing That Should Not Be" (7:06)
4. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" (6:43)
5. "Disposable Heroes" (8:21)
6. "Leper Messiah" (6:04)
7. "Orion"--instrumental (10:56)
8. "Damage, Inc." (4:13)

For their spring 2002 "World Tourbulence" tour, Dream Theater announced that they would be adding second dates to a few select cities around the world, which would be a "special gig" with no opening act and "many surprises". Obviously, my interest was peaked, as the band usually shines most brightly at these "special" gigs. The first one was in Barcelona, where it turned out their "big surprise" was......

.....the entire Master of Puppets album, by Metallica.

Say what?? Don't get me wrong, they do a great job covering these songs (indeed, playing them better than Metallica EVER did!) -- it's just, I dunno, the whole thing seemed so hyped up, like they were going to play all the original Majesty demos or something. In any case, this particular bootleg was downloaded from an FTP site (which is gone now, but you can probably get the mp3s from Audiogalaxy); it's a lo-fi audience recording in the B/B- range, with an audience so loud that you can't hear LaBrie's vocals half the time. Indeed, this CD's basically useless since getting The Show That Stumped Them All -- only reason I keep is because the artwork's so bloody cool. :)

"Brewing Up Turbulence" (3/17/02, Milwaukee, WI)

Okay, this is a soundboard recording which I've been told is the best-sounding boot from the "Six Degrees" tour, and while I can't give it an A+ rating, due to a few minor dropouts and other glitches, it's still THE show you must have, if you can only choose one from the 6DOIT era. In addition to the regular numbers, we're treated to "Only a Matter of Time" (a far better rendition than their attempts on the Falling into Infinity tour, though it's a shame James just doesn't have the voice to really pull it off anymore), as well as "The Great Debate" and "Lines in the Sand".

"When Mike and Mike Unite" (3/22/02, Orpheum Theater, Boston)

The title of this one comes from a guest appearance by Mike Mangini (drummer for Extreme, Steve Vai, and various others) who performs a "drum duel" with Mike Portnoy at the end of "Take the Time". (From the liner notes: "Mike P started off on the bigger half of the kit and Mike M on the smaller half, but during the duet, they switched seats, all the while playing!" I'm sure it was a helluva lot more impressive in person, since on CDR, it just sounds like a way cool drum solo -- Portnoy on the drums already sounds like five people, just by himself. :)

Okay...this is a good example of a World Tourbulence set, which was different on every single night of the tour! The highlights of this show are "Burning My Soul" (the demo version, natch -- also known as "Burning My Soul '96"), "Surrounded", "Another/Killing Hand", "Scarred" + whatever Rush song they were sampling that night...and most rare of all, "Another Dimension", that long-ass LTE (Liquid Tension Experiment) instrumental!!! (No Master of Puppets, aside from a title track snippet during the encore.) And then, the showpiece of this tour: THE ENTIRE 42-MINUTE "SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE", PERFORMED LIVE! Shit!! If I had known they were going to play THAT, I would have caught the L.A. show! (Though I was a bit disappointed with "Overture"...all this time spent wondering, how would they pull it off? Would they use sampling tracks for the orchestra, or would Jordan reproduce them on his keyboard? And it turns out, they merely played the studio track over the speakers. Lazy bastards....)

Quality-wise, this boot is fairly good (B+ audience), although "Pull Me Under" has some severe mastering errors for the first 2 minutes (and a bit at the end of "Spirit Carries On", too.) There's also a glitch during James' introduction to "The Great Debate", but that one's actually kinda funny. :) Oh, and the biggest annoyance of all...DT's sets have grown so long, they now require THREE CDs -- where the HELL am I gonna find a jewel case that holds 3 CDs????

"The Show That Stumped Them All" (3/28/02; Beacon Theater, NYC)

Well, the triple-CD storage dilemma has been solved, thanks to American Digital -- not only do they sell those rare, specially made 3-disc fat cases (in addition to the more standard 4-CD cases), they also have a line of neat little inserts that you can slip into the front of *slim* double cases, and store a *third* CD in the space where the liner notes usually go! Sounds crazy, but they really do work!! Just be sure to buy the inserts *only*, at $2.95 per pack of 50, since they will fit with any standard slim double case, and the "premade" cases they sell are outrageously overpriced...

Anyhoo, this comes from one of those "special nights" where they played Master of Puppets in its entirety, and as you can see the track listing is quite different from the Boston show just a few days earlier, aside from "Glass Prison", "6DOIT", and the 3 or 4 other songs that they played every night. Plus, we get "Strange Deja-Vu" (w/o "Overture 1928", oddly), "Misunderstood", and "Lie"...and STILL I don't have every song played on this tour!!!! (No wonder Dream Theater is bootlegged so heavily, you need five or six shows from each tour to get all the songs they played!! For cryin' out loud, EVEN THE RUSH EXCERPTS ARE DIFFERENT!!!!!) Sound quality is comparable to the Boston 3/22, perhaps a tiny bit better (and WAY better than the Barcelona mp3s!) and I didn't notice any mastering glitches this time. I'm a bit pissed, though, that the "MOP" tracks got split between two CDs...that was bad planning with the setlist, guys. :)

And the best news of all...NO "Metropolis" this time around, and NO "Voices"!! (Now all they need to drop is "Take the Time" and I'll be a happy man!!!!!)

"A Prog Band Came Across the Sea..." (10/21/01, The Astoria, London)

On the second European leg of the tour, the band pulled out ANOTHER classic album to play in its entirety -- this time, the lucky winner is Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast. The sound quality isn't great, but at least it's better than the show in Greece (which I have on mp3, but sucks so bad I never bothered burning it to CDR.) A nice twist is "Gangland" done lounge-jazz style...I guess they needed to give Jordan something to do, huh? Everything else has been done better on other boots, although "The Instrumedley" is something new (a mix of ALL their instrumentals, minus "Ytsejam") and they also fuck with the tempo on "Pull Me Under", which probably sounded cool in rehearsal but turned out to be a total train wreck on stage. :)

"Gaze into the Prism" (7/11/03, Jones Beach, Wantaugh, New York)

Ok, here's the first of what will likely be numerous bootlegs from the summer tour with Queensryche and Fates Warning. :) Seriously, they rehearsed something like 40 songs for this tour, including many cover songs that were only played at one or two venues! The featured cover track here is "The Necromancer" by Rush, which segues into the "teenage wasteland" part of "Baba O'Reily" at the end (and a pox on whoever did the artwork, though, as it lists both songs as different tracks and gives the impression that both songs were played in their entirety! Yup, track #3 is just 3½ minutes of audience noise.) Even better...this one's got "Only A Matter of Time"...WITH THE ORIGINAL ENDING!!!! The only other time they played this version, to my knowledge, was at the L.A. show which I attended -- and let me tell you, once that song was over, a spotlight could have fallen from the ceiling and crushed my skull and I would have considered my life complete. Excellent versions of "Only a Matter of Time" and "A Mind Beside Itself" round out this lovely package -- and I didn't even mention the encore with Queensryche, which I think is also unique to this show. Sound quality is average for an audience boot; a bit distant and warbly, but wholly listenable.

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