Live Review: Dream Theater

Tonight's menu, served up by the band who can best lay claim to the title of 'greatest prog metal band of all time', is a tantalising three courses; an entree that just serves to get things warmed up and gets the taste buds tingling, a magnificent main course and the sweetest of sweet desserts.

The opening set is an hour-long, rather-random selection of tunes plucked from Dream Theater's illustrious back catalogue, albums such as Train Of Thought, Falling Into Infinity and Systematic Chaos, plus a rather left-of-centre, discordant tribute by John Myung to the late-and-great jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius (who died 30 years ago on 21 Sep) called Portrait Of Tracy. You really do get the feeling they are just warming up the crowd, and themselves, for what is to follow. The highlight is probably Hell's Kitchen, which is undoubtedly one of their most effective instrumental tracks; effective because it is relatively simple, for this most complex of bands. It doesn't try to do too much; it just builds beautifully and creates an inspiring vibe.

Appetite piqued, the packed-out Palais Theatre crowd are ready for their mains. After a 20-minute breather, the band return to play their classic breakthrough second album Images And Words, end to end, in the same order as the original recording and 25 years after its release. To say this album has stood up to the test of time is the understatement of the last quarter century. And this is given even more resonance and perspective by the intro tape that is played to open this set, which reels out a whole bunch of popular tunes from that era, from Achy Breaky Heart to grunge anthems. The musical climate in which it was released was utterly at odds with what Dream Theater were doing with Images And Words, but the album worked an absolute treat anyway and broke the band worldwide.

Each and every track on this ridiculously varied album is a classic, an epic, from the anthemic opener Pull Me Under, to the quieter, though no less compelling, tunes like Surrounded and Wait For Sleep to the monumental closer Learning To Live, and the band deliver these songs with the exuberance of men half their age and the technical prowess befitting the masters that they truly are.

The show could have ended there, and everyone would have gone home more than satisfied with their evening's entertainment, but that's just not how this band rolls. Dessert consists of A Change Of Seasons, also in its entire, tasty, 23-minute glory, replete with its head-spinning twists and turns and climatic and climactic imagery. A better encore cannot be imagined.

This evening is three sets and two-and-a-half hours of thoroughly delicious prog-metal delights. It's a gig that will be long remembered by the 2,500-odd hungry souls in attendance.