2009-09-01, 03:19 AM
(This post was last modified: 2009-09-01, 03:22 AM by Sn1perJohnE.)
So, this concert was the last stop of the Progressive Nation 2009 Tour, and it consisted of (in order of appearance) Scale The Summit, Bigelf, Zappa Plays Zappa, and of course, Dream Theater.
Scale The Summit was pretty good, the sound was great, but it was also kind of expected as an opener band. The one problem I had personally was the complete lack of vocals, meaning it was purely instrumental. Vocals aside, it would be good music to listen to again.
Bigelf was pretty interesting in itself, with the singer also playing a double keyboard setup, on either side of him. The music itself was ok, but with the main focus on the keyboards kinda made it seem outta place at this kind of tour. Also, Mike Portnoy came out and did a lil snare/symbol banging during one of their songs.
Zappa Plays Zappa was, no matter what you say
my favorite out of the four, mainly because of the vocals. Its really hard to explain it from my point of view, but its kind of like Primus in the way its done, but using songs created by Frank Zappa, and played by his son Dweezil Zappa, who also puts his own spin on some of the songs. The best part of their set was their last song, which had a part that was purely played out of the air, and they did it so well that you could never have told if it wasnt practiced or not. Like with Bigelf, Mike Portnoy came out, but this time, he played a full song with Zappa, called Love is For Assholes (and shove it up your poop shoot!)
Dream Theater was pretty awesome as well, and you could easily tell the difference from them and Bigelf and Scale The Summit skill wise. Everyone, and I mean everyone was standing for them (there was three guys in wheelchairs in front of our box, and 2 of the three stood up), and stayed standing for almost their whole set.
Awesomeness of Dream Theater aside, the absolutely most awesome part of the whole thing was during Dream Theater's last song (not the encore). In the middle of their last song, Mike Portnoy starts calling out all the drummers 1 by 1 that played before to play on Mike Portnoy's doubled drum kit. First up was Scale The Summit's drummer, and you could easily tell the skill difference between the two, but all I could think is how lucky that guy was to be playing drums with a drummer like Mike Portnoy. After the did some synchronous beats (my term a-@), he brought out the drummer from Bigelf, who was slightly better than Scale The Summit's drummer, but still had a noticeable lack of skill compared to Portnoy. From there, Zappa Plays Zappa's drummer came out, and dam was it awesome, they were almost perfectly matched skill wise, but Portnoy still had a slight edge over Zappa's drummer. BUT WAIT! Thats not all, Portnoy brought back out all the drummers, and all 4 drummers played the double drum kits with an awesome bit of synchronicity.
OH NO! We still arent done. After the drumming was done, Mike Portnoy called out Dweezil Zappa to play guitar with Dream Theaters guitarist, and the face melting began. First was playing with the band, then came synching with the Dream Theater Guitarist, and then it happened. Steve Vai comes out and rips both Dweezil and Dream Theaters guitarist a new one. It was getting hard to hear them even playing over the people roaring as Steve Vai walked out. And man, there is no words to explain the awesomeness of the three of them playing together. Towards the end, the three of them started into a Guitar Hero-esque guitar battle, and just when you thought they couldnt top it all, Dream Theater's keyboard player whips out his keyboard guitar and starts wailing right along with them.
All in all, Id freaking love to go to another concert like this. Pure Awesome Win.
Video of the Dweezil Zappa and Steve Vai with Dream Theater.
[YOUTUBE]<object width="384" height="313"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0U3D-V7LoaQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0U3D-V7LoaQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="384" height="313" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]
Scale The Summit was pretty good, the sound was great, but it was also kind of expected as an opener band. The one problem I had personally was the complete lack of vocals, meaning it was purely instrumental. Vocals aside, it would be good music to listen to again.
Bigelf was pretty interesting in itself, with the singer also playing a double keyboard setup, on either side of him. The music itself was ok, but with the main focus on the keyboards kinda made it seem outta place at this kind of tour. Also, Mike Portnoy came out and did a lil snare/symbol banging during one of their songs.
Zappa Plays Zappa was, no matter what you say
my favorite out of the four, mainly because of the vocals. Its really hard to explain it from my point of view, but its kind of like Primus in the way its done, but using songs created by Frank Zappa, and played by his son Dweezil Zappa, who also puts his own spin on some of the songs. The best part of their set was their last song, which had a part that was purely played out of the air, and they did it so well that you could never have told if it wasnt practiced or not. Like with Bigelf, Mike Portnoy came out, but this time, he played a full song with Zappa, called Love is For Assholes (and shove it up your poop shoot!)Dream Theater was pretty awesome as well, and you could easily tell the difference from them and Bigelf and Scale The Summit skill wise. Everyone, and I mean everyone was standing for them (there was three guys in wheelchairs in front of our box, and 2 of the three stood up), and stayed standing for almost their whole set.
Awesomeness of Dream Theater aside, the absolutely most awesome part of the whole thing was during Dream Theater's last song (not the encore). In the middle of their last song, Mike Portnoy starts calling out all the drummers 1 by 1 that played before to play on Mike Portnoy's doubled drum kit. First up was Scale The Summit's drummer, and you could easily tell the skill difference between the two, but all I could think is how lucky that guy was to be playing drums with a drummer like Mike Portnoy. After the did some synchronous beats (my term a-@), he brought out the drummer from Bigelf, who was slightly better than Scale The Summit's drummer, but still had a noticeable lack of skill compared to Portnoy. From there, Zappa Plays Zappa's drummer came out, and dam was it awesome, they were almost perfectly matched skill wise, but Portnoy still had a slight edge over Zappa's drummer. BUT WAIT! Thats not all, Portnoy brought back out all the drummers, and all 4 drummers played the double drum kits with an awesome bit of synchronicity.
OH NO! We still arent done. After the drumming was done, Mike Portnoy called out Dweezil Zappa to play guitar with Dream Theaters guitarist, and the face melting began. First was playing with the band, then came synching with the Dream Theater Guitarist, and then it happened. Steve Vai comes out and rips both Dweezil and Dream Theaters guitarist a new one. It was getting hard to hear them even playing over the people roaring as Steve Vai walked out. And man, there is no words to explain the awesomeness of the three of them playing together. Towards the end, the three of them started into a Guitar Hero-esque guitar battle, and just when you thought they couldnt top it all, Dream Theater's keyboard player whips out his keyboard guitar and starts wailing right along with them.
All in all, Id freaking love to go to another concert like this. Pure Awesome Win.
Video of the Dweezil Zappa and Steve Vai with Dream Theater.
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I'm so freaking jealous, even more now that I know steve vai was there aswell! pineapplekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk T____T xD
