When I first heard that Dream Theater would visit our country, I hardly believed it. When I saw the whole gig announced in their official site, I remained doubtful because of the number of factors on which an event depends.And finally, only a few minutes after 9 p.m., in the theater (ha!) of Lykavittos, there they were, beginning with "The crimson sunrise" and "Innocence" from "A change of seasons"! The place was full (to be honest, there were more people than I expected and that made me even happier), the Greek fans are regarded as one of the most energetic and powerful  audiences, the group needs no comments, so what else should I say for what happened? The playlist,except the pre-mentioned tracks and "The crimson sunset", and without order of playing, was consisted of "Ytse Jam", "Pull me under" (they made it heavier than you can imagine), "Under a glass moon", a medley of "Metropolis" and "Learning to live", "Caught in a web" (my neck is still aching because of it), "Voices" (with the whole audience screaming!), the first 2 minutes of "The mirror" (I mean, until the point the vocals come), "Lie" (all heads banging!), "Peruvian skies" (they finished it in another perfect way), "Burning my soul" (and my feet, too), "Lines in the sand", "Just let me breathe" (pandemonium!) and "Trial of tears". Petrucci's solos attracted very much the interest of the audience, especially when John with Mike's help in drums played in a classic heavy metal way (or was it a song??? Please forgive any misunderstanding, I was totally out of mind), or when he played some well known excerpts from classical music's symphonies. Mike while playing his solo took a drum from the drum-set on his hands - without the fans to notice how he did it! - and started playing with rage while running all around the stage! Mike picked a fan, he gave him two sticks and a "competition" began while Mike wanted the fan to play whatever he was playing on the drum which was on the floor! This fan wasn't the best drum-player on the world but the whole thing repeated with another fan who was really good. After this guy managed to play what Mike was playing Mike left "dissapointed". Everyone lauphed for the great acting of the "dissapointed" Mike and after this he continued his solo thing. For me, this part of the show was one more reason to put this group even deeper in my heart. Derek did his own solo before "Lines in the sands" and he thanked us in Greek at the end of the show, but I stayed completely astonished by James's performance as he was moving and running all the time and his voice reached points far higher from the ones we knows in their studio works. John Myung's fame about his low profile was proved, as he did his job excellent without any communication with the audience. The whole group's performance anyway was really terrifying for anyone who dares to denies their majesty, and it also was a great answer to the ones who consider them as a creation of studio techniques and lack of feeling. Let's hope that we will be able to see more great groups in our place and after all this, we want to thank them very much for the experience of living within a theater of dreams.
 

Review by John Vidiadakis
Awful Photos by Michael Menegakis :)
 

...and here is the ticket :))