Dream Theater - Once in a LIVEtime

"Pretty awesome, marred by some weak performances and sound issues."

Although a very worthwhile purchase, Once in a LIVEtime, a 150-minute double live album, suffers from some unfortunate problems. The sound quality, which is always touchy with live albums, is visceral and raw, but the keys and guitars sometimes drown each other out. Also, Portnoy's bass drums are too loud have an annoying "slappy" sound here that I could do without. Then there's James LaBrie's voice. Half of his performances are sincere and powerful, others sound tired and strained. Heck, he even sounds like total CRAP on a few songs, where he actually sounds like he's losing his voice. This tends to manifest on some of the more aggressive moments like the mid-section of "Voices" or "Pull Me Under." On the second verses of "Take the Time" (the ones sung high), his range just falls apart and you can barely make out what he says. Still, he performs excellently on many songs, especially the slower ballads. "Trial of Tears," "Hollow Years," and especially "Take Away My Pain" are all very beautiful here, with an added feeling of emotion that wasn't present on the sterile studio performances. "Take Away My Pain" is one of my favorite performances on this release. Jay Beckenstein contributes some live saxophone, LaBrie's pipes flare, and it slaughters the original. "Scarred" is an awesome live song, and here the band adds a new intro rich in atmospherics and tone (BUT they cut the awesome outro). A mammoth jam is tagged onto the end of "Take the Time," which only a DT fan can appreciate, but they'll love it. Mike Portnoy's drum solo is just...impossible. Petrucci's guitar solo on disc two is incredible. Impossibly fast, charmingly melodic, quoting Liquid Tension Experiment's "Paradigm Shift," and it's tough not to smile when he brings in "Flight of the Bumblebee." I think my favorite moment on the album is the final medley of "Metropolis pt.1/Learning to Live/ACOSVII - The Crimson Sunset." The segue between LTL and ACOS never fails to give me chills. It's so perfect, so beautiful, as if they were meant to be connected. A must for fans, but DON'T buy this if you've never heard this band before.