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If you were expecting this latest DVD opus from progressive
metal giants, Dream Theater, to follow in the footsteps of
their previous two masterworks, Score, and Live At Budoken,
then you are probably going to be disappointed. Chaos In Motion
is closer in style to their 5 Years In A Livetime video, which
features a mix of pieced together live performances, video
clips, and behind-the-scenes footage. GRRRR.***
I didn't realize that Chaos In Motion was not a complete
concert performance until I read the back of the DVD case
and then plopped the thing into my player. As the back of
the case explains, "Dream Theater's latest live DVD features
raw footage captured throughout the entire World Tour." Although
I had been expecting another complete concert recording that
met the high production standards of their last two releases,
us Dream Theater fans really cannot complain - too much.***
Dream Theater has already released four excellent concert
videos over the last 15 years, with Images And Words: Live
In Tokyo, Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York, Live At Budoken,
and Score, and this time around they just wanted to present
something a little different. I think only Rush and Yes can
top that, and they've both been around nearly twice as long
as Dream Theater has. If this was the only type of concert
video that they were putting out, then we might have a more
legitimate right to piss all over them.***
My initial disappointment with the patchwork production
format of this DVD wore off pretty quickly after watching
some of the knockout performances of songs that had never
previously made it to official Dream Theater video. This includes
a couple of my all-time favorite Dream Theater tracks like
"Scarred" and "Lines In The Sand", along with all of the great
new Systematic Chaos tracks. I have a whole new appreciation
for that album now.***
The live performances were taken from shows in Rotterdam,
Buenos Aires, Toronto, Boston, Bangkok, and Vancouver during
the band's year long Chaos In Motion World Tour, which ran
from June 2007 through June 2008. The audio and video quality
from each of these shows was by no means equal either. I remember
hurling a few F-bombs at the TV after seeing the pathetic
video quality of the first song, but fortunately for us some
of the other songs saw a marked improvement.***
The video quality ranged from very mediocre, for the
Rotterdam recordings, to outstanding, for the Vancouver recordings.
The rest were somewhere in between. The audio quality was
a little more consistent and generally sounded very good throughout
most of the performances.***
The DVD set list was pieced together very well, allowing
it to gather a lot of momentum before climaxing with the band's
latest two-part, epic, masterpiece "In the Presence Of Enemies".
Along the way you get such classics as ultra melodic "Surrounded",
which they wildly extended with some cool Pink Floyd improvisations,
as well as some excellent new songs like the very catchy "Forsaken",
and the brutal "The Dark Eternal Night", which proves that
Dream Theater can definitely still throw down with the best
of them.*** But, hell, that was only two and one-half hours
going, so they returned to the stage for an encore of the
oddly named "Schmedley Wilcox", which was a medley featuring
"Trial of Tears", "Finally Free", "Learning to Live", "In
the Name of God", and "Octavarium". This was one of the DVD
highlights for me.***
The running time of the main feature was just over three
hours, although there is a ton of behind-the-scenes and interview
footage mixed in between most of the song performances. One
of my favorite scenes was of John "Rambo" Petrucci (just how
many damn protein shakes has this guy been swilling per day!?)
imitating that guy who overdubs all of his instructional guitar
videos on YouTube.***
If you have not yet seen any of these clips, usually
referred to as "John Petrucci Psycho Exercises", do so now.
They are a riot. You will hear such lines as "...these are
custom made metal strings that can exceed the temperature
of the sun, which is good, because I can play so fast the
strings would just melt if they couldn't." Petrucci imitates
the guy's ridiculously deep and robotic voice with the line,
"I find that if my arm isn't at 104 degrees, it doesn't pick.
I can't play a billion notes per second." Hilarious.***
We also find out that James LaBrie would probably have
been a paramedic if he wasn't a rock star - hey, if David
Lee Roth can do it this late in the game, then so can you
James. Keep the dream alive. Most impressive was just how
much behind-the-scenes work Mike Portnoy puts into this band,
including the stage show production, the videos, and the DVDs.***
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and PCM stereo audio tracks
were provided, and the video was presented in 16x9 widescreen.
As I mentioned previously, the audio and video quality varied
greatly depending on the venue that the performances were
recorded at.***
Disc two includes the following bonus features: ***
"Behind The Chaos On The Road" 90-minute tour documentary.***
Promo videos for "Constant Motion", "Forsaken", and "The
Dark Eternal Night".***
Live Screen Projection Films for "The Dark Eternal Night",
"The Ministry Of Lost Souls" and "In The Presence Of Enemies
Pt. 2".***
Stage and Backstage Tours.***
Photo Gallery.***
Chaos In Motion is certainly not the best concert DVD
Dream Theater has ever put out, but it does serve as an excellent
document of their 2007-2008 world tour.***
Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - October 2008
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