**** Live at Budokan by Dream Theater – Spotty. Buy It If You Are A Fanatic. Skip It If You Are Not.

This was my first indication that the album 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence was not a total loss. Score proved that without a doubt, and so did 4 Degrees of Radio Edits. Score is a 5 by any standard, and those that criticize are not correct, they are wrong, but that is not this album.

Now, I know that I am in the minority, as most fans loved 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence. My major criticism of that album, 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence, is that the songs on it are too repetitious. For some reason on Live at Budokan, songs from that album don’t bother me as much.

There are definitely some tracks on this one that are not as good as they could have been. If they took Live at Budokan into the studio, and worked some magic, I might have loved this album. For example, “In the Name of God,” has an absolutely incredible guitar solo, but LaBrie is a little lacking on that song, and there are a few times when it sounds like the show nearly falls apart given a little improvisation. That is how this album goes. Usually, it is not perfect like a studio album, and Dream Theater is the type of band that needs to sounds perfect, or else they sound like they are playing under their own ability levels!

Sometimes Jordan’s keyboard sounds cheesy, sometimes John Petrucci’s guitar sounds cheesy, James LaBrie’s voice sometimes sounds awesome, other times it needs some help, and the bass is almost non-existent. Mike Portnoy comes across very well.

This is not an essential Dream Theater album IMHO. With Dream Theater, you can expect to hear flawlessness, especially with their studio albums, but as usual, and with Live at Budokan, the live albums Dream Theater releases are spotty.