In the CD player playing: Falling Into Infinity
You know, between school here at Penn State going through finals
and writing a billion pages of research papers involving
taxonomy and diagnosis of mental illness using the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual, man, I was in need of a concert getaway.
Preview: Things here in State College have been hot on the
concert circuit. The Bryce Jordan Center (no relation,
unfortunately) has been open for about a year and
bands are finally starting to cum. Oops. Sorry. I mean,
I've had seats in the first five rows for Chicago and the
Beach Boys (wow! cheers! cowabunga!), 311 (most excellent show),
Live (highly acceptable), all within about a month's time.
Falling Into Infinity came out, and man, I was immediately
impressed. Even more so when DT announced a show about 5
hours away from here just when I needed to get away and
get off the Penn State Crazy Train. I don't care what
anyone says, Dream Theater rocks. It's the first band
that I've embraced since Rush, Pink Floyd and Led
Zeppelin with as much enthusiasm and respect.
So it was off to Poughkeepsie, NY to see Dream Theater.
Funny coincidence was the fact that the concert was two
days past the one year anniversary (how obsessive!!) when
I saw RUSH on the first leg of the TFE tour in San Diego.
Cool.
DT was playing a venue called "The Chance," a tiny, 400
capacity old movie theater turned into suburban dive biker
bar about a mile inland from the Hudson River and two hours
north of New York City. So my Silver Ranger plunged me onto
the Pennsylvania drab, grey weather and onto I-80, hauled
me across Pennsylvania and into New York, where I promptly
crossed the Hudson (very beautiful!) and stumbled upon this
town of Poughkeepsie approximately 3 hours pre-showtime.
Oh yeah. I was indeed wearing my advertising heavy
Rush vest just to show where my loyalty really is!
And I go to pick up my ticket at the Chance, and just before
the ticket is in my hand, none other than Mike Portnoy walks
by. At first I was like, well, is that him? After basically
touring with Rush in 96 and 97 for nine shows...there's no
mistaking who's who. But a new thing was for me....this was
the first time I was seeing a new act in a LONG time! My
soul was burning, so I just said, "hey Mike, what's goin'
on?" And of course, he was polite and said, "Goin' great,
gotta go test out the equipment." So I grabbed my ticket
and basically blended in with the rest of the pre-show people
inside and got to hear about half of sound check. Talk about
loud. The place was just tiny. Like, the floor area was the
size of a normal living room! YEAH!
Then of course, I got booted. Which meant it was then time
to go procure a cheap hotel for the evening, complete with
late night programming that we late night, single bachelors
tend to require on concert road trips to Poughkeepsie.
Then it was showtime. What a great evening of heavy metal like
music. The sound was incredible. I ended up in the GA section
three people back from the stage, crammed in like sardines
with high schoolers, mostly! But it was fun indeed. And a great
place to take a couple of rolls of photos, which came out nicely! However, mayham broke out about midway through the show, when Portnoy, and I like to think that he remembered me from the door, tossed a stick directly at me with eye contact. Of course it made it's way into my hand, but my hand was concurrently joined by a Show of Hands about 20 strong, and I didn't want to go home with a broken wrist or fingers, so I let it go. Two guys basically went to fisticuffs trying to claim the prize, at which time Mr. 350 pound security guard jumped both of them and settled the matter to the side of the stage. Which was nice because there was now a little more room up front!
The show was great musically, but the lighting show was nothing,
unfortunately, and that's one thing I value in a stage show.
But the DT machine is a small one, which is excusable IMHO.
They were flawless and didn't miss a note, much like our
friends to whom this list is dedicated to. And if you have
a problem with DT, well, you know what you can do on the
keyboard. Portnoy rocked. Man, that guy doesn't play, he
pounds, much like a younger NP. But if there was an accurate
way for me to desribe his talent, it would have to be a
cross between NP and John Bonham. Precision and rolls like NP
and serious abuse to the heads and cymbals much like Bonham.
It was cool when he poured water all over himself from the
head down and some flouerescent lights came on and the water
was spattering all over the place with each lick...oh, I forgot. This is a family publication!
Besides the music itself, and give credit to John Petrucci
because he was about three feet away from me the whole
time and just ripping, the afterimages are probably the
most memorable.
I hung out after the show and nicely begged for a guitar pick
off Petrucci's mike stand, and was rewarded with one. Then
I went to go buy a shirt, a necessity, and wanted a hat too.
Problem was, the hats were gone, and I was BUMMED! So bummed
in fact, that I just was in disbelief. No hats? So I hung
around, and noticed the guy was wearing an official Tour
Laminate. "Say, what are you going to do with that thing,
anyway?" Turns out it was his last show, and DT was off
to Milan and Germany for the next shows, and he didn't care
much, so he gave me the laminate as a souvie. Okay, so now
all I needed was some drum sticks, and I'd be happy!
Luck would have it that, if you know about these little shows,
you also know where the loading dock is. About an hour later,
I was in possession of a pair of drumsticks. I won't say how,
though!
Then to top it all off, the tour bus was in close proximity,
which allowed me to speak with James LaBrie and also obtain
an autograph on my used ticket stub.
I guess that was a productive night, for a $20 ticket!
Since Turkey Day was just around the corner, I rounded the
trip out by driving down through Westchester County, through
the Bronx, Brooklyn, and into Manhattan to pick up my sister
and haul her back to State College for the feast.
The great thing about this 36 hour Trip into Infinity was the
fact that I traversed the state of Pennsylvania fully, crossed
the Hudson, went to Poughkeepsie, did Westchester, screamed
through the Bronx, crossed the Triboro Bridge, went into
Brooklyn, went over another bridge over the East River,
picked up my sister in Manhattan, drove under the Hudson
through the Lincoln Tunnel, went through New Jersey, briefly
crossed through Delaware, and then hauled it back home to PA
once again.
And guess what? DT plays Philly in like two more weeks,
and that's only 4 hours away.
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!