Dream Theater / ZPZ - Montreal August 12th

[Freak By Night]

Traveled to Montreal last night to see a four-band prog-rock extravaganza at Centre Bell:

Scale The Summit

Big Elf

Zappa Plays Zappa

Dream Theater

The action got underway at about 6pm.

Unfortunately we got there a bit late and and took our seats just as "Scale the Summit" was playing the end of their last tune. What I heard (30 seconds or so) sounded good!

I was pleasantly surprised by Big Elf. A real throwback to 70s era prog rock. The singer played two vintage keyboards at the same time. Very Uriah Heep-ish!

Thoroughly enjoyed ZPZ. Highlights were "Apostrophe", "Inca Roads", "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama" and "Montana". The six-piece band of very talented musicians played Frank's music perfectly. ZPZ was worth the price of admission alone.

During ZPZ, one of my friends disappeared for a while. He came back a bit later, and said there were 3 unoccupied seats down in front. We moved down to these seats in the 5th row and were able to stay there for the rest of the night!

Dream Theater was awesome as usual. I can't come up with a complete DT setlist - I don't know all the song titles, even though I do have all of their CDs.

Here's what I remember:

A Nightmare to Remember

A Rite of Passage

Prophets of War

The Count of Tuscany

The Dance of Eternity

As I Am

Metropolis Part 1

I've seen DT 4 times now, this was the first time they did not play "Pull Me Under" (their greatest hit).

I thought there would be more people at this concert, but the Montreal crowd made up for the empty seats with incredible enthusiasm. I've always contended that Montreal is the best place to see a concert, and Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater's drummer) said as much at the end of the show!

This show hits Toronto on Friday night. If you're not going away for Phish concerts, and you're a big prog fan, I implore you to attend!

[Northern Wish]

Other than ZPZ, this would probably have been my personal hell- but you made it sound fun!!