The Guitar Channel

Dream Theater covers the Dixie Dregs classic "Odyssey"

Dream Theater has released a killer version of "Odyssey" by the Dixie Dregs as the third of what will be six bonus tracks leading up to the release of their new album Black Clouds & Silver Linings, coming 6/23/09 (They are releasing one bonus track per week for six weeks). I'm a huge Dregs-head, and "Odyssey" is an absolute classic (written by Steve Morse when he was 17 years old as I recall). The following Roadrunner Records page has a link to download the track on iTunes, plus a short video of Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy talking about "Odyssey" and the Dregs.

Download Dream Theater's version of "Odyssey"

Liquid Tension Experiment Live 2008 - Limited Edition Boxset available for pre-order

Saw this in a few places including Truth in Shredding: Liquid Tension Experiment (John Petrucci - guitar, Mike Portnoy - drums, Jordan Rudess - keyboards, Tony Levin - bass and Chapman Stick) is releasing a massive $130 CD/DVD boxset of live material from their 2008 reunion tour. Here are the details as posted on the Ytsejam Records order page:

The LTE Box Set is the ultimate souvenir of Liquid Tension Experiment's 10th Anniversary Reunion Tour.
Included in this deluxe package is both the NYC and LA shows in their entirety (on both CD and DVD), as well as the Liquid Trio Experiment 2 CD and two items that are exclusive to this set and will not be available separately: Live In LA on Blu Ray disc and a bonus CD of all of the improv jams from the other LTE 2008 shows.

THIS DELUXE BOX SET IS LIMITED EDITION AND ONLY AVAILABLE ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE BASIS!!!
THERE WILL ONLY BE ONE PRESSING DONE AND ONCE THEY ARE GONE, THEY ARE GONE FOREVER!!!
DON'T REGRET MISSING OUT ON THIS GREAT COLLECTOR'S ITEM!

Box Set Includes:

    * LTE Live In NYC (2 CD)
    * LTE Live In NYC (1 DVD)
    * LTE Live In LA (2 CD)
    * LTE Live In LA (1 DVD)
    * LTE Live In LA (1 Blu-ray) Available only in the boxset
    * LTE Bonus Disc (1 CD) Available only in the boxset
    * Liquid Trio Experiment - When the Water Breaks: Live In Chicago (1 CD)
    * 24 Page Booklet

THIS IS A PRE-ORDER, ORDERS ARE EXPECTED TO START SHIPPING JUNE 1ST.

LIVE IN NYC
1. Acid Rain (9:25)
2. Kindred Spirits (8:00)
3. Biaxident (7:39)
4. Freedom of Speech (9:00)
5. Improv Jam #1 (8:10)
6. Another Dimension (10:51)
7. State of Grace (6:20)
8. Universal Mind (9:36)
--
9. When the Water Breaks (16:49)
10. Improv Jam #2 (11:31)
11. Rhapsody in Blue (13:49)
12. Osmosis (3:43)
13. Paradigm Shift (9:31)

LIVE IN LA
1. Acid Rain (10:43)
2. Kindred Spirits (7:53)
3. Biaxident (7:34)
4. Freedom of Speech (8:54)
5. Improv Jam #1 (8:21)
6. Another Dimension (10:31)
7. State of Grace (6:00)
8. Universal Mind part 1 (3:36)
9. Keyboard Solo (5:19)
10. Universal Mind part 2 (3:46)
--
11. When the Water Breaks (17:52)
12. Improv Jam #2 (13:03)
13. Rhapsody in Blue (13:34)
14. Osmosis (5:52)
15. Paradigm Shift (9:17)

WHEN THE KEYBOARD BREAKS: LIVE IN CHICAGO
1. Universal Mind (When the Keyboard Broke) (2:21)
2. The Chicago Blue & Noodle Factory (7:03)
3. Fade Away or Keep Going? (5:03)
4. The Haunted Keyboard (9:34)
5. Close Encounters of the Liquid Kind (15:13)
6. Ten Minute Warning (5:55)
7. That 'Ol Broken Down Keyboard Blues (6:34)
8. Liquid Anthrax (4:55)
9. That's All Folks! (2:12)

LTE BONUS DISC
1. NYC (Early Show) Improv Jam #1 (6:54)
2. NYC (Early Show) Improv Jam #2 (7:41)
3. NEARfest Improv Jam #1 (3:42)
4. NEARfest Improv Jam #2 (5:43)
5. Chicago Improv Jam #1 (7:58)
6. San Francisco Improv Jam #1 (10:41)
7. San Francisco Improv Jam #2 (13:17)

Pre-order the Liquid Tension Experiment Live 2008 - Limited Edition Boxset

John Petrucci interview

Modern Guitars Magazine has a great interview up with John Petrucci, conducted by Brian Holland.

John Petrucci interview

Review: Liquid Tension Experiment - Chicago, IL 6/25/08

Liquid Tension Experiment
Park West
Chicago, IL
June 25th, 2008

When you go to a concert to see a band you really enjoy, your hope of course is that everyone plays great, and they play your favorite songs, right? Just meeting that simple criteria would have most concert goers leaving the venue with a smile. However, every once in a while, if you're lucky, you'll get to witness a live performance that goes beyond your hopes and expectations; something unique and special. A one-of-kind gig, the likes of which may never happen again. Such was the case when I saw Liquid Tension Experiment on Wednesday, June 25th at the Park West in Chicago. Had the show gone off without a hitch, I'm sure I still would have loved it, and would have been raving about it afterwards. There was a hitch however - a big one. But that hitch turned out to be the catalyst that pushed this already amazing show into that category of "unique and special." More on the hitch later - first some background.
 
Liquid Tension Experiment is one of the great modern-day progressive rock super groups. Featuring John Petrucci on guitar, Mike Portnoy on drums, Jordan Rudess on keyboards, and Tony Levin on bass and Chapman Stick, the group recorded two excellent albums in the late 90s; Liquid Tension Experiment (1998 - Magna Carta), and Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (1999 - Magna Carta). Petrucci, Portnoy, and Rudess are members of the prog-metal band Dream Theater (though Rudess was not yet in that band when LTE first formed), and Levin is a prog-rock legend who has played and recorded with King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, and countless others. Last year, a third recording was released under the name Liquid Trio Experiment entitled Spontaneous Combustion (Magna Carta). This album features completely improvised jams that Portnoy, Rudess, and Levin recorded during the making of the second Liquid Tension Experiment album in late 1998, after Petrucci had to leave the sessions early to be with his wife who had gone into labor. The band played some gigs in 1998 and 1999, but that was it. It seemed like this great prog-rock project had come and gone.

Then, late last year it was announced that LTE were reforming to play the NEARFest Progressive Rock Festival in Bethlehem, PA in June of 2008. I live near Chicago, and was considering driving out to Pennsylvania to see this can't-miss performance. Turns out I didn't have to. The group decided to book some more dates, and turn the NEARFest show into the first gig of a short 10th Anniversary reunion tour. Luckily for me, the third stop on this tour was the Park West in Chicago, IL.

When I arrived about 30 minutes before the doors opened, my heart sank - the line was already around the corner and halfway down the block. Would I be able to get a good spot once inside? No problem; despite the huge line I still ended up pretty close to the stage. Shortly after 7:30pm, "Flight of the Valkyries" starts playing over the PA as video screens slowly drop on either side of the stage. When the band finally walked out, the crowd went insane. Their opening song was "Acid Rain" - one of my favorites. Petrucci uses a seven string for this song, making it extra-heavy. Levin had the Chapman Stick, and was fascinating to watch right from the start. Rudess' rig consisted of a single keyboard - a Roland Fantom G8. It was mounted on a rotating platform of sorts, and he would often spin around to face a different direction. I actually thought he was a little buried in the mix from where I was standing, but I could still hear him. Petrucci's solo in this first tune was incredible. He's one of the few players who's alternate-picking speed rivals that of the late Shawn Lane, in my opinion. When the first song ended, the crowd again went bananas. The band also played "Kindred Spirits" - a strong riff-based tune, "Biaxident" - a piano-heavy piece that featured some great work on the keys by Rudess, and "Freedom of Speech" - a song that starts out quite low-key and melodic, before building into some uber-heavy James Bondesque riffs. Levin used a regular 5-string bass on a couple of these tunes. Petrucci and Rudess also played the duet "State of Grace" while Levin sat in front of his amp and snapped a few pictures.

Group improvisation is one of this band's strong points. Both of their albums include long improvised pieces, and the Liquid Trio Experiment songs were entirely improvised in the studio. The band's first foray into this area during the show were some long jams leading into "Another Dimension," the highlight of which was Levin's Stick playing. The amount of music he can create on that instrument is amazing.

On to the hitch I mentioned earlier. Maybe an hour into the show, after the band finished "Universal Mind," it was obvious something was wrong with Rudess' keyboard. He spent a couple of minutes trying to fix the problem, before finally saying something to Portnoy and leaving the stage. Portnoy, in his comical showman way, told the crowd one of the things this band loves to do is improvise, even when they don't plan on it such as when the keyboard rig goes down. He informed us that the rest of group were going to jam awhile until they got the thumbs-up from Rudess that the keyboard was good to go. Well guess what... that thumbs-up never came. The trio of Levin, Petrucci, and Portnoy spent the next hour improvising through a wide range of grooves and moods. Blues, heavy riffs, atmospheric stuff, crazy experimental stuff, you name it. I'd say if anyone was the leader here, it was Levin. Oftentimes it would be his riff or groove that would start the jam, then Portnoy and Petrucci would build on it and change it's direction. It was a fascinating thing to see. Group improv is something normally associated with jazz or fusion, or "jam-band" groups like Phish or Umphrey's McGee. To hear it done in a heavy prog -rock context by players of this caliber was remarkable. Levin used both the Stick and his bass during these jams; and even whipped out his famous miniature finger drumsticks (known as "funk fingers") a few times to attack the bass strings. Petrucci was very impressive during these jams. Yes, he did a ton of shredding, but he also displayed some great blues and jazzy chops during certain sections. He also had a keen sense of when to back down and throw in some clean chordal stuff. Occasionally, Portnoy would chat with the crowd to make sure we were all still on-board (everyone was). He mentioned at one point that he hoped someone was bootlegging this, since this could be their next album. Rudess came back out a few times to check some things on the keyboard, but it was no use. He was out of the picture completely, or so it seemed. There came a point where Portnoy said they could only play for another ten minutes. The show had already lasted about 2 hours by this time. So they launched into what would apparently be their final jam. Had the show ended that way, it would have been seen by all in attendance as an amazing gig, I'm sure. But a few minutes later, something happened that pushed the evening even further over the edge. Rudess walked out and went right up to  Petrucci while he was shredding his brains out. He said a few words to him then asked if he could play his guitar. Petrucci took off his guitar, handed it to Rudess, and watched as Rudess - who moments before was the fallen band member - became the hero who stole the show. Rudess stood right at the front of the stage and wailed. The crowd went cock-eyed stinking nuts. Everyone was screaming their heads off as a sea of cell phone cameras were thrust into the air to capture this rare moment. Levin then handed his bass to Petrucci and picked up his Stick. Now I'm watching Liquid Tension Experiment with Jordan Rudess on guitar, John Petrucci on bass, Tony Levin on Chapman Stick, and Mike Portnoy on drums. What a amazingly cool thing to see. After awhile, the instruments changed hands again with Portnoy taking over the bass while Charlie Benante from Anthrax (apparently there to take in the show) played drums, Petrucci played guitar once again, and Levin played the Stick.

When all this incredible music came to an end, more than 2 hours after it began, Portnoy said a few words to thank the crowd then handed the mic to Rudess who explained his keyboard situation. Apparently, the Roland had freaked out, and every fourth key was playing up about a half-step. He was unable to fix the problem, so he had called Roland in Japan while he was backstage, and they were stumped too! The audience cheered when he mentioned there was a high-profile meeting taking place in Japan at that very moment to figure out what was wrong with his keyboard. I'm sure Rudess was none-too-happy when his keyboard freaked out, and I certainly would have liked to hear him play more that night, but I have to call it like I see it - it was a blessing in disguise.

I was looking forward to hearing "Paradigm Shift" (a popular LTE song which I'm sure they would have played), and the prog version of "Rhapsody in Blue" they had arranged for this tour. Was I disappointed that I didn't get to hear those songs? Not at all. What I got to see and hear instead was so cool, the stuff they weren't able to get to didn't matter. This unforgettable gig turned out to be a very special treat for those lucky enough to attend. I've read that the show they played two days later in Downey, California was filmed for a possible DVD release. If and when that DVD comes out, it will be at the top of my most-wanted list. 

View my photo album of pics from this show.

Check out the official websites of Tony Levin and Jordan Rudess for some great pics and road diaries from this reunion tour.

Rich

List all reviews

Liquid Tension Experiment - Another Dimension 6/23/08

I'll be seeing Liquid Tension Experiment (John Petrucci - guitar, Mike Portnoy - drums, Jordan Rudess - keys, Tony Levin - Chapman Stick) tonight when their 10 year reunion tour comes through Chicago. A few videos from their first couple of reunion shows have popped up on the interwebs. This one is "Another Dimension" from their 6/23/08 show at B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill in New York. I wish the audio was better, but it's a cool vid nonetheless. Check out Levin playing the Stick... awesome stuff. I don't even know if he's playing any regular bass on this tour. Guess I'll find out tonight. Also, Levin and Rudess have started tour diaries on their sites. Check them out.

John Petrucci clinic dates

Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci has posted the following clinic dates on his site:

May 13th Make N Music - 3:00pm
1455 west Hubbard street
Chicago, IL 60622
312-455-1970

May 18th Parkway Music - 3:00pm
1602 ROUTE 9
Clifton Park, NY 12065
518-383-0300

June 1st Express Music - 3:00pm
Express Music Inc.
8900 Seminole Blvd.
Seminole, FL 33772
727-392-5922

via Truth In Shredding

Liquid Tension Experiment reunion tour

In other reunion news, the prog-rock supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment (Mike Portnoy - drums, John Petrucci - guitar, Jordan Rudess - keyboards, and Tony Levin - bass) will embark on a short, 10th anniversary tour in June. Here are the dates and locations:

June 21 - Bethlehem, PA - NEARfest
June 23 - New York City - BB King's
June 25 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theater
June 27 - Downey, CA - Downey Theater
June 28 - San Francisco, CA - Bay Area Rock Fest

via Blabbermouth.net

John Petrucci to give guitar clinics in Australia

Dream Theater will be doing a short tour of Australia in early 2008. To coincide with these dates, guitarist John Petrucci will be giving some guitar clinics. Here are the dates and locations.

Perth - Friday, January 26th: 1pm to 3:30pm, venue yet to be announced
Adelaide - Monday, January 28th: from 1pm at the Viva Function Centre (Lizard Lounge), 9a Light Square, Adelaide
Brisbane - Friday, February 1st: 1pm to 3:30pm, venue yet to be announced.

via Truth In Shredding

Liquid Tension Experiment to headline the 2008 NEARfest X festival!

Huge news! The awesome heavy-prog band Liquid Tension Experiment will reunite to headline the 2008 NEARfest X prog-rock festival. The festival will take place on June 21-22, 2008 at Zoellner Arts Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Liquid Tension Experiment features John Petrucci on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, Mike Portnoy on drums, and Jordan Rudess on keys. This quartet has not played live in some time, so this is pretty exciting news.

On a related note, Magna Carta Records is releasing an album of studio improv jams recorded during the 1998 Liquid Tension Experiment 2 album sessions on Oct 23rd. The album is called Liquid Trio Experiment – “Spontaneous Combustion”, and features Portnoy, Levin, and Rudess jamming in the studio after Petrucci had to leave the sessions unexpectedly to be with his pregnant wife. Let hope the NEARfest performance inspires these guys to head back to the studio for another full band album.

via Blabbermouth.net

Review: G3 - Chicago, IL 3/24/07

I saw the G3 show last night at the Congress Theater in Chicago, and was completely blown away. Talk about getting your money's worth. The current incarnation of G3 for 2007 features Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci, and of course Joe Satriani. Each guy played an amazing set of tunes, before all 3 got together at the end for some great jams. 

Paul Gilbert opened the show, and his set was my favorite of the night. He played several songs from his latest album, Get Out Of My Yard, plus some Racer X tunes, his solo tune Space Ship One, and some Mr. Big stuff at the end. Bruce Bouillet (Paul's old partner-in-crime from Racer X) is playing second guitar in Paul's band for this tour, and he's one of the reason's I liked this set so much. Bruce was AWESOME. He's playing better than ever, and the inclusion of a second guitar really enhanced the tunes. It was so cool to hear Scarified, for example, done up right with the original guitar harmonies. Bruce added harmony lines to the Get Out Of My Yard tunes also, and had several great solos (ie. the outro to Radiator). He was whipping out some awesome Zakk Wylde-esque pentatonics, and lots of cool string-skipping and hybrid-picking licks too. I definitely want to hear more from Bruce in the future. Paul's playing was incredible all night. It sounds like a cliche, but he makes everything look easy. I prefer his playing now to when he first came on the scene with Racer X back in the mid-80's. He has a real strong blues/classic rock influence in his phrasing that wasn't there 20 years ago. His bending and vibrato are always dead on, and the dynamics in his touch sound very mature. Having said that, he was also shredding his brains out. His fast picked stuff was so punchy and tight that you felt like you were getting kicked in the chest on some of his runs. All his fast stuff was squeaky clean. His playing on Rusty Old Boat was particularly good. Very cool, funky phrasing with awesome shredding as well. Paul's wife Emi took a nice keyboard solo on that song also. Overall, Gilbert's band had a fun, enthusiastic presence that made them sound like they've been playing together for a long time. This was a well-rehearsed, tight band that was fun to watch.

John Petrucci came up next, and if I had to describe his set in one word, it would be HEAVY. His opening tune, Jaws Of Life, was the heaviest thing I have ever heard. Petrucci played a seven-string Ernie Ball guitar on that song, and some others, which made things even heavier. However, on some tunes, it was  so heavy and loud, that it was hard to discern what was being played. He did play a couple of lighter songs as well; Lost Without You was really good. But overall, Petrucci's set had the effect of a heavy metal freight train bearing down on you. His solos were great, but some of his picked runs were just a blur. This was especially true if he was using the neck pickup, and the run had smaller intervals. Petrucci was backed up by Dave LaRue on bass, and Mike Portnoy on drums. LaRue had several nice solos (LaRuuuuuuue!), and Portnoy was just a mad-man. What a great drummer. He was throwing sticks all over the place, and was just generally beating the crap out of his kit. He and Petrucci were both very popular with the crowd (I saw lots of Dream Theater t-shirts).

Joe Satriani's band played last (Double-duty Dave LaRue played bass for Satriani also). I really liked Satriani's set. He mentioned Surfing With The Alien was released 20 years ago, so he played several songs from that album. Ice 9 and Circles were both great. My favorite song from his set was Cool #9. The thing I dig about Satriani is his use of old-school blues licks, and Cool #9 was a great example of this. When he goes into pentatonic box territory, the bends, vibrato, and phrasing are always very solid and authentic-sounding. Another fun tune was Crowd Chant. In this song, Satch plays a line, then has the crowd repeat it back to him. The audience was way into it.

One of the fun parts of G3 of course is the big jam at the end. After Satriani's final song (Always With Me, Always With You), he went immediately into a slow major-sounding three chord vamp. Petrucci then walked on and played a very cool solo that kept building and building. Then Gilbert came on played a fantastic solo with some of his patented string-skipping triad lines. Very cool. They then played a Hendrix tribute that consisted of Foxy Lady, Purple Haze, and a snippet of Voodoo Chile. After that it was the Jeff Beck classic Going Down, and finally Jumping Jack Flash closed the show. Satriani sang Going Down, and Gilbert sang the others (Gilbert's vocals on Jumping Jack Flash were really great). Going Down was my favorite jam of the night. All 3 guys sounded great on this tune. I kind of wish they'd play some different stuff for these jams though. These are great tunes, but they've been doing Hendrix songs for years now. There are lots of classic instrumental guitar jams they could play too (speaking of Jeff Beck, how about playing Freeway Jam or Led Boots for a change?). Regardless, the jams did not disappoint. Gilbert was wailing, and he seemed to enjoy listening to the other guys play too. At one point, after Petrucci played a wicked fast-picking run, Gilbert used his classic pick-enabled drill to counter Petrucci's attack. Too funny.

This was an awesome night of guitar craziness. I'm not 100% sure of this, but I heard they won't be filming any of these shows for a DVD. That's too bad, because it would sell like hotcakes if they did. If this version of G3 comes to your town, you must go see it. Highly recommended.

View more photo's from the Chicago 3/24/07 G3 show      

Rich

List all reviews

UPDATE: Here's a video I took of Going Down. The audio is not great. It was so loud in there, my cameras built-in mic got overloaded.

Review w/pics from G3 opening night

Someone posted a review of the first show of the current G3 tour (w/ Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, and Paul Gilbert) on the Petrucci forum. There's some cool pics included as well. Here's the link to the post:

G3 - 3/14 Phoenix review and pics

I'm going to the show in Chicago next Saturday. Can't wait!

Paul Gilbert to join G3 tour for 2007!

The 2007 incarnation of G3 will feature Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, and Paul Gilbert (!) The new tour will kick off March 14th in Phoenix, with more US dates throughout March and April. There are 5 dates confirmed so far, with more to follow shortly.

Official press release
Tour Dates