Chaos in Motion [2 DVD]

To the point, like has already been said, I had no idea this would be a raw footage DVD, which will require some adjusting to, especially since Budokan and Score spoiled me so thoroughly.

Also, James Labrie's singing was just...off! I totally loved Blind Faith (Six Degrees was my first DT album), but I found myself wincing every time he hit the high note in the hook. That's my main complaint really, he's great so long as he stays in the mid to low range. I'm really sorry about his throat injury from years past, but it seems like it's still plagues him. I sincerely hope he overcomes this.

Now for the good stuff: The muscianship! These guys are incredible! Right now I've just finished listening to Surrounded and the ad libs and embellishments are brilliant. They have set the bar pretty high and they continue to live up to it. I can't wait to hear the rest.

Call me old fashioned, but Mike Portnoy's spitting, regular invective (his use of the f-word also shared by James LaBrie on stage) is what one tolerates from a teenager, but is just sad on men in their forties. My friends and I (who I should point out have loved DT's music for years)were not impressed. The backstage clips were in general self-indulgent and boring. And LaBrie's voice; once a fine singer, he's losing the ability to sustain the energy required by this music. I found it uncomfortable to sit through his performance as he struggled to hit and sustain the high notes. DT seems to heading for a more mainstream metal sound with their compositions, and maybe that's inevitable when ideas run dry. Maybe that's where the big money is....

I am a died hard Dream Theater fan and I love the band and their music, but I must say that this DVD is a huge disappointment. The format is similar to the old "Five Years in a Livetime" video in that it intersperses various concert footage with interviews, backstage footage, etc. I have two serious problems with this. First, I find it highly annoying and distracting when I'm getting into the music and then it cuts away to something else. Music DVDs are best when they show a full concert from start to finish (without cheesy visual effects). Second, the sound and picture quality of the concert footage reminds me of a bad bootleg. I have literally seen bootleg concert videos from the 1970s that have much better sound and picture quality than this 2008 DVD. The bottom line: Dream Theater completists (like myself) don't need to be reading this review, but if you're a casual fan and you're on the fence then I would highly recommend starting with their older, better DVDs such as Score, Live at Budokan, Live Scenes from New York, Images & Words Live in Tokyo, or the official bootleg When Dream & Day Reunite from ytsejamrecords.com. Chaos in Motion is by far the weakest Dream Theater DVD to date, which is a shame because the music itself is great (especially "Surrounded", "Lines in the Sand", and "Scarred").

The live portion looks as if someone shot this with a camcorder from 1985. Compared to the Score and Budokan DVD's this is a bootleg. I have the Dark Side of the Moon and and Live in Bucharest bootleg DVD's and the video quality is similar. The audio on the DVD is good, which is why I can't understand why the video quality is so bad.

Buy this for the bonus stuff (videos of the singles off of Systematic Chaos) and the behind the scenes documentary. Not for the live section.

I know some people like to write a song by song review of an album/DVD, but I don't really have the patience to do that, so I will just state my likes and dislike of Chaos in Motion.

THE PROS:

1.) The set list in my opinion is very good. Mike Portnoy tries to always give the fans a completely different experience from live album to live album, so it is nice to have tunes such as "Blind Faith" and "Lines in the Sand" on here. If you are a fan of Systematic Chaos (as I am) then you will also enjoy fan favorites such as "Forsaken" and "Constant Motion.

2.) The behind-the-scenes documentary is fantastic. It really gives the viewer an idea of what life on tour is like. Dream Theater are not a bunch of rockstars in the traditional sense. These are semi-normal people who have to make many sacrifices to do what they do for us. Aside from a tour of the stage, bus, and venues, there is a section where all the band members talk about one another from their own perspective which is interesting - for a DT fan at least.

3.) Musicianship is obviously fantastic. Jordan rips it up on the Zen Riffer (Key-tar)!! Labrie's vocals are just as good on this DVD as they have been on the past two live releases. The rest of the guys do their normal thing....normal for them....superhuman for many musicians.

4.) Promo videos and live screen production films are a great addition. This is just another example of how Mike Portnoy gives the fans more for their money. Any other band would just throw 15 or 20 songs together and say here ya go. Dream Theater is a class act though....

THE CON:

1.) The onnnlllyyyyyy thing that I can complain about is the video quality. Being that this DVD is a compilation of songs from different shows all around the world, the production value is sacrificed. It is not as sharp as Live at Budokan or Score. Don't get me wrong, it's not shot with a cellphone, but there is a noticeable difference in quality between this DVD and the aforementioned two live shows. I was disappointed...