CONCERT REVIEW: Dream Theater Take Amsterdam To The Top Of The World

The prog-metal pioneers Dream Theater are back in Amsterdam as part of their A View From The Top of the World tour, 30 years after the band first set foot in the capital city of The Netherlands for their first Dutch show, as James LaBrie shared with the audience while on stage.

Dream Theater came out swinging in the midst of the pandemic with their highly acclaimed new album A View From The Top of the World, which got them their first Grammy win with the single The Alien.

In order to properly support the 2021 album A View From The Top Of The World, Dream Theater brought along an impressive stage setup, which included huge pillars and screens on which Dream Theater truly outdid themselves. The displays on the screens complimented the live music extraordinarily well, showing many fantasy displays as well as several spots in aerial view from all over the world, as if we were collectively standing on top of the world.

Kicking off their set with the Grammy winning single The Alien from the new album, the musicians had a few minutes to keep the spotlight for themselves before the vocalist entered the stage. Dream Theater‘s music is celebrated for its complexity. Having this complexity on the studio albums is one thing, but to translate this well into a live setting is a different ball game. Unsurprisingly, with more than 30 years under their belt, Dream Theater were as great as ever.

Portraying a high level of sophistication and energy, Dream Theater showcased why they’re thought of as the bearers of progressive metal of this time and age in front of an ecstatic Amsterdam crowd of approximately 5.000 fans. In between songs, James LaBrie often chatted with the audience. Discussing the pandemic and the re-discovering of the intense fun that’s to be had playing shows in front of fans all across the globe.

I don’t envy Dream Theater when it comes to creating the setlist for a tour, given the band has been around for over 3 decades, with most of their songs being very lengthy. Tonight’s setlist consisted of a total of 9 songs + encore, which supplied us with two hours of live music, from which 4 songs were from the new record: A View From the Top of the World, Awaken the Master, Invisible Monster and The Alien. The rest of the setlist was compiled by 1 track per album throughout the band’s extensive career. The set was concluded by the track The Count of Tuscany from the 2009 album Black Clouds & Silver Linings.

We feel privileged to have seen the prog-metal pioneers live in Amsterdam this fine evening. Interested to see what the show looked like? Check more images in the gallery below, courtesy of Eva van den Bosch, and let us know if you are going to any of the remaining Dream Theater shows.

Glenn van den Bosch

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