August 31, 2004
Dream Theater's endless riffing and noodling prove more soporific than stimulating

Yes, that was a standing ovation for a loud, progressive rock band with a charismatic vocalist at the John Labatt Centre last night.

No, it wasn't for the headliners, British rockers Yes, yet to appear at deadline time.

No, that standing 'O' wasn't a sign great music had unfolded.

The best that can be said for Dream Theater is that the U.S. rockers had 14 -- count 'em -- 14 fans holding lighters aloft for a ballad. The second-best thing is that Dream Theater's frontman is a big-voiced Canadian who is no stranger to hockey rinks.

Vocalist James LaBrie grew up in the Ontario community of Midland. As a kid there, he spent his winters playing hockey and loving the Toronto Maple Leafs and worshipping former London Knight Darryl Sittler, a Leaf star in the early 1970s.

Later, LaBrie escaped from Toronto glam rockers Winter Rose when Dream Theater took his audition tape seriously.

The magnificently maned LaBrie is an interesting case in a band that has members who can boast of Berklee, Mass., music college educations.

While he was developing young defenceman and dishing out hits, he played the drums and also sang in a family barbershop quartet.

Then, at 16, LaBrie threw one hip check too many. He came away from the jolt with a back injury. It turned out he had suffered a fractured backbone and his hockey-playing days were over.

A long period of recovery followed, but two years later he was ready to move to Toronto and study with a vocal coach.

Among the holdovers from the band's early days in 1986 is guitarist John Petrucci, who used up enough solo space to fill a half-empty hockey rink. Wait a minute, those endless runs of notes were still bouncing into empty spaces.

The crowd count was not available at review time. But the centre's top level was shut off and the fans, including the numerous Dream Theater applauders, were not nearly plentiful enough to fill the 5,600-seat format.

It's not fair to blame LaBrie for the long, nightmarish washes of precisely played riffs going nowhere and atmospheric blahs in the night that were Dream Theater's specialities in its 55-minute opening set.

For much of the Petrucci riffing and string-noodling, LaBrie banishes himself to the back stage. On one number, he had a great opening yowl and then strode backstage. He spent a lot of time backstage, presumably because the long stretches of Dream Theater instrumental would leave a singer who moves like a defenceman -- and LaBrie does plod nicely out there -- looking numb.

But then Dream Theater and its fans aren't really there for the lyrics. Songs such as The Spirit Carries On and Solitary Shell don't go much beyond those banal titles when it comes to the words.

Yes, Dream Theater was loud and the fans loved it.

But here's the thing. Why would any Dream feel the need to repeat something called About to Crash a couple of times? Loud as the band was, that kind of repetition could put a critic to sleep . . . or at least have him nodding and waking up cranky.

The Yes tour brings together one of the British band's most famous lineups. In addition to its two continuing co-founders -- vocalist Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire -- the 2004 crew has guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White and keyboard player Rick Wakeman.

Squire is the only member of Yes to have stayed with the band from its origins in 1968. The other significant Yes presence on the tour is visual artist and concept master Roger Dean, designer of the elaborate touring set and the swoopy, loopy Yes logo.