The Astonishing > LIVE Review

I am going to take a few minutes here, and over the next few weeks, to review Dream Theater’s new album, The Astonishing. IMO, this is a epic, massive and awe inspiring album. Clocking in at ~2h:10m, it’s gonna take a while.

In this case, this is a overview of the show on 5/5/16 @ the Ikeda Theater, Mesa, AZ. I had originally purchased ticket for one of the Los Angeles shows because they hadn’t announced the Mesa show. They eventually did, I think a good 5 or 6 weeks later.

This show is special for me because I’m going with a buddy who is a musician and has a complete understanding of the musical composition necessary to make a song. Plus, he has pretty damn good taste.

This has been a fascinating process for me. My friend and I have been “involved” with the album from the time it was announced, the first track being released, the show’s being announce, buying tickets, getting the album a few days early (maybe) and then just really getting into it. Having listened to the album so many times, the story came to conclusion. So Astonishing.

The seats were ridiculously close, Orchestra row E. There is a neat side note to the show where it was a seated show. Every Dream Theater concert, et all, that I’ve been to you stand at your assigned seat. The Astonishing, this was a seated experience and man, it was really fun.

The video package (sampling from someone on Youtube below) was just amazing. It really immersed me into the presentation. It was really cool.

Without further blabbing, said video. You don’t need the volume, and skipping about is fine. This is a representation of the package.