Once In A Livetime

Once In A Livetime captures the progressive metal group Dream Theater live in Paris, France on a summer evening in 1998. The live format allows the quintet to stretch out even more than on their studio releases, and most cuts clock in between six and fourteen minutes. Thankfully, singer James LaBrie's audience interaction is kept to a minimum ("Put your hands in the air everybody!"), so most of the 155 minutes of audio content is brilliantly executed prog, with improvised solos by guitarist John Petrucci, drummer Mike Portnoy and keyboardist Derek Sherinian. Once In A Livetime also captures a favorite ploy of Dream Theater -- quoting other band's material in solos, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", themes from "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" and "Flight Of The Bumblebee". Dream Theater does it again.