This takes the place of my older, much shorter video criticizing LaBrie on this. Just another piece in the puzzle of why he needs to leave Dream Theater.
@@toddgrossmanmusic2167 Too be fair he was far better when they first hired him. I used to wonder why they ever hired him to begin with considering how awful he's been live for around 2 decades now, but then i saw recordings of their old 92' concerts when I&W first came out and he was really impressive. He matched the studio album pretty well live and you could feel the power in his voice. He sounded like an actual rockstar back then, not like the grandma walked onto the set he sounds like nowdays. I'd say he had a lot of natural talent and a great voice, but lacked the discipline and training it takes to evolve or even keep the voice he had.
Oh, but trust me, lots of Dream Theater fans will, or they'll play the apathy card (God, I can't believe you're butthurt about this, get over it!). They have a knack for attracting lemmings who think their very shit doesn't stink.
Akdiwi1 Jkssk Not only Debrie; as much as I love DT they should have retired by now. Debrie sounds like a mere shadow of himself (except for the Xanadu cover somehow), Petrucci isn't what he used to be and we have far to much Rudess in our DT since Portnoy left... and I'm pretty sure that Myung started speaking again. I can't bare this... All jokes aside DT isn't what it used to be and you can't really blame it on one person... Edit: backpedaling a little bit because I realized that I really like The Astonishing. Still they have regressed in recent time :(
Big DT fan here that’s soured on Labrie over the last several years. Never thought he was that great of a singer. To me it says how good the band is. For the most part they can overcome his short comings. I always imagine DT with a singer like Russell Allen. Perfection...
This is a lack of professionalism, period. Not about talent. You can forget the lyrics, thats fine, but after 2 decades in the business, to not know your limits and adhere to prudence is not acceptable. Should have printed the cheat sheet if he knew his lyrical memory was not at 100%. Also, to curse multiple times when performing arguably the most iconic song from the band/musician you are paying tribute to is just unbelievably unacceptable. And in the way LaBrie did, so casually and brazen with no apparent ounce of care in his voice or appearance (not saying he didn't care, just simply that it appears to not care), would never sit well with any audience that has no pre-determined conclusion. Shame on LaBrie for trying to justify his atrocious performance. More musicians should follow Peter Steele's idea that if people are paying to see your craft, you should respect them and thus attempt to perform at the best level you can.
I'm not sure if it's really virtuosity/professionalism failure. Maybe (just maybe) deep down, they're really just not into Soundgarden stuff but opted to ride the trend of tributes to Cornell to show "they care"
What you're describing is a clear lack of professionalism though. I teach guitar for a living and I can say I'm definitely not into 90% of the songs we play in class but that doesn't make me play them any worse than the ones I do like. I think the Chris Cornell tribute is just another example of DT's enormous ego, thinking they can just roll up in there, half-ass a performance and still get hailed as musical geniuses.
Can you imagine if Portnoy was still in the band he'd EVER allow some shit like that to go down? He'd thrown a snare at Labrie for that shit I mean Portnoy was the guy that wrote a 22 minute-long piece all in tribute to his musical inspirations and bands (Octavarium) A barely put together tribute like that wouldn't fly in the old DT, specially for a fellow musician and idol Actually knowing Portnoy he'd probably have them do an entire concert composed entirely of Chris Cornell songs like they did with Metallica or Pink Floyd etc
DT died the day Portnoy left. And the irony is that people have generally labelled Portnoy as the resident douche of DT. They're soulless without him. All he asked for was a year off to recharge the batteries. They should have taken his suggestion. Might have given them all some much needed perspective.
"Oh yeah sure mate let's make a tribute to this guy who died right now...rehearse? Nah, I have good memory" Then proceeds to go full defensive blaming the people who rightfully criticized him. That's just wrong. When you do something like that, you apologize. You say something like "I'm sorry. I fucked up. That was really disrespectful to the audience and the singer we were paying tribute to. I should've rehearsed it more." Basically the problem is not that he made a mistake, the problem is his arrogant attitude.
I know, right? I would have said something like "Sorry about messing up the Cornell tribute. Me and Jordan decided to do it just before the show and didn't rehearse it as much as we should have, but the good intentions were there." Lames is a toxic duo of washed up and cocky.
The Ravenskill Rebel Militia Sorry, I said the I thing above. I'm sure most of the people commenting here are musicians and, if they're true to themselves, should understand full well that the worst of things happen when you don't prepare or rehearse. The chances of pulling something off diminish greatly and even if you do, it's not the best you could have given the effort. As a band, I really don't understand them putting up with the hideous caterwauling that emanates from him now. Maybe they need tune down a whole step if they want to keep him
The problem isn't just with LaBrie's high notes now, it's his entire voice. If you listen to the clip of Black Hole Sun in this video, most of the notes are "low" and yet bad pitch and bad enunciation ("vash" rather than "wash" like he's some kind of Russian).
You know, it's not always easy to go straight into apology mode, especially if you're still pissed off about fucking up the performance. Everyone piling on right at that moment is like rubbing salt into a wound. Twitter really can make people seem like douches because they don't sort out their emotions before posting. Did LaBrie fuck up? Absolutely. Were his excuses good enough? No. His emotional reactions though were absolutely typical of all humans.
The Ravenskill Rebel Militia Yeah, it's like he suddenly lost all range, volume and sound in his voice. Even after his 'tragic' food poisoning incident he didn't sound that bad. In fact he still sounded freaking amazing (Once in a Livetime for the win :3)
If only youtube had of been the force it is today back in the mid 2000's, maybe James would have got the fucking clue by now and one of the greatest collection of modern rock musicians wouldn't have been dragged into the mud along with his flabby floundering atonal arse.
Ash W “Floundering atonal arse” hahaha, nice. Maybe he should join a band that plays atonal music...actually maybe he shouldn’t cause he’d even find a way to mess that up too.
IMO the bloated cheesiness of The Astonishing was more listenable than their super bland self-titled album. I have nothing against the band members, I at least like all of them past and present, except James. I don't even like his 90s voice back when he could still sing. The nasally timbre of his voice is just so annoying to me, even when he sings well! When I first started listening to Primus, Les Claypool's voice was jarring at first but I got used to it. I still haven't gotten used to James' yet. He's well on the other side of the line between "acquired taste" and "plain annoying" for me. They really should replace him. This might sound like a weird choice but IMO if Dio were still alive his voice would fit DT's style pretty well.
I've never liked this guys' voice, especially his higher register. Hearing him sing Maiden/Metallica/Pink Floyd numbers is fuckin' excruciating. Why the hell DT persist with him is a mystery.
Honestly, that's what put me off from getting into Dream Theater for the longest time. These covers were bad. However it's on some Dream Theater albums that he really does shine, in particular on Scenes From a Memory. You see, he's not the type of vocalist that Bruce Dickinson and Geoff Tate are. His soft voice fit perfectly on that album and it's partly why Scenes worked as well as it did.
My favorite album has always been Images and Words. And up until Scenes from a Memory, the guy was amazing. What happened is that a food poisoning incident damaged his voice back in 1998. Or 99. I don't remember. The guy would never sound the same again. Look at his pathetic attempt at hitting that high note in Under a Glass Moon in later live recordings. He just can't. But songwriting is also not on their side. The Astonishing, except for a few cool passages and Our New World is an entirelly forgetable double album. I still call DT my favorite band. I mean, it's still the band with most cherrypicked songs on my cellphone. I just don't get excited for new albums anymore.
@@ThZuao he had food poisoning before they had to tour for Falling Into Infinity i think. The doctor told him he cannot sing for 6 months to recover. But they were on the rise during that period. Still a new band. It would be horrible for them to stop and wait 6 months. That would fuck them up financially and success wise. The guys said we can't wait, so he sacrificed his voice for the success of the band. Also did you not listen to Distance Over Time? It's phenomenal. It's better than some portnoy albums
My favorite part is LaBrie apparently being more emotional in a half-assed tribute to a guy he never met than a song he wrote about his daughter being put into a coma and not knowing if she'll even make it out alive
Though I'm agree this was a mess, your comparison have no sense. He said he just got emotional and that's why he forgot the lyrics, but that doesn't mean that the more emotional you get, the more vulnerable to forget the lyrics. Also, in Vacant (the song about his daughter), he was very very emotional when he sang it in Score, and he didn't forget lyrics because HE WROTE LYRICS, and that's a 2 minute song with very few lines. Finally, maybe he never met Chris Cornell but that doesn't mean you can't get very emotional when you sing to him and pay a tribute. I never met Kurt Cobain, Chester Bennington or Freddie Mercury, but if I could make them a tribute, I'd get very emotional too.
Eddie Vedder's tribute was any day the best in terms of pouring in immense passion and emotion. However, technically speaking, Norah Jones' piano rendition of the Soundgarden classic is just over the top!
Smells like prog snob spirit. (pun intended) Say what you will about drumming or DT's new direction, but we can't deny that Milke Portnoy had always been the one who grounded the other DT members in terms of musical respect. He always tried to compensate Rudess and Petrucci's cockiness by bringing new elements in to DT's music, as well as paying tribute to bands that were not really known for their incredible technical chops (Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd) without overlooking them. This fail would've never happened had MP still been in the band. To start with, he would have had THE WHOLE FUCKING BAND play A WHOLE FUCKING SONG. Rehearsing during soundcheck isn't so hard, right? And yet, if the fail still happened, he would be the first one to apologise, live and over the web. After all, this is A FUCKING TRIBUTE. This "I was emotional" crap is the most ridiculous excuse I've ever heard. When it comes to music, being emotional usually makes it even more legendary. It's either this or you're not able to sing because you're crying your eyes out (like Eddie Vedder), which was far from the case in point. LaBrie wasn't just disrespectful with Cornell (and I'm not even considering the fact that, if you are fan enough to pay tribute, you would know the words of the man's most successful song). He was also disrespectful with music. It's very evident to me that he and Rudess were like "Come on, this is 90's grunge shit, of course we can pull it off without rehearsing" and fucked it up.
Renato Loureiro nah but on serious note James labrie arguement is fine he is arrogant. But you called john petrucci cocky, if you ever met him he is down to earth a good person and plays and practice 110%. 🤜🤘 that is my only beef with you and Mike portnoy was cocky and arrogant a lot of times but you wouldn't know unless you watched his drum lesson videos.
I've always hated rudess and labrie but James has always had a shit voice. DT aren't shit without portnoy and would've have been THE shit if not for James' shit voice and rudess' elitist attitude. Everyone knows petrucci, myung and portnoy made that band. The other two were nothing more than dead weight.
I was at a Dream Theater concert in Athens, Greece many years ago. They were paying tribute to Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast. LaBrie was using a screen to read the lyrics (much like reporters read news nowadays). During Hallowed be thy Name he was seriously pissed off towards the screen content technician for running the lyrics too slow. He was waiving his hands angrily as in a "move the damn thing faster" gesture while humming incomprehensible words.
That was the time when MP had the shitty idea of covering whole album of bands who doesn't sound like DT (Maiden and Metallica need 2 guitars and no keyboard) and which vocals range where totally out of JLB capability (like Iron Maiden or Deep Purple). If I pay to listen Dream Theater, why do I have to listen "The number of the beast", "Master Of Puppets", "Made in Japan" or "Dark Side Of The Moon"? Don't get me wrong, I love ALL that album, but if I go to a DT gig, I wanna hear DT stuff....I can accept 1 cover or a little exerpts of Rush or Metallica song...but that's enough! I really miss Mike Portnoy, but this is one of his aspect that I won't regret.
@@albertandrew1183 I see your point, but let's not forget that this only happened when they played the same venue two nights in a row and fans usually knew this would happen the second night. Anyway, I got plain lucky in 2005 when they came to Brazil. Instead of playing a classic album, they played Scenes From a Memory in its entirety. Glorious.
LaBrie had great potential as a singer and one hell of a set of pipes, but he's always seemed lazy. His technique was bad, he's always slurred words, poor breath control, and now his vocals seem shot. I still feel like he's such an integral part of the DT sound so it hurts to say this, but maybe he should consider retirement.
This reminded me of a Jack Black interview where he shares a story about paying tribute to (edit) Elliot Smith and he forgot the lyrics mid song. So he stopped the music and restarted the song. The same thing happens, he apologizes and restarts the song again. This goes on several times until he finally nails it, audience applaud him for finishing a proper cover at least. With Labrie, this is just snobbery plain and simple.
When I first heard "Home" in the movie "The History of Trunks", I was hooked on Dream Theater. I was excited and floored by every release from then up to "Black Clouds and Silver Linings" with the exception of "Octavarium", which had enough cool moments for me but was obviously lacking. When Portnoy left, he took the magic with him, and they've gotten steadily worse. I no longer call myself a Dream Theater fan. This is a goddamn travesty.
I’m amazed at the amount of musical experts present here. This isn’t his song , he doesn’t get up on stage and sing this song every night , at least they took the time out their day, not to mention their set.. to do a tribute. I think Chris would’ve respected that .. whether he messed up a line or didn’t.. I also believe he would’ve told all you whining little girls to grow a pair.
Ugh, why would you stick up for this? Do you not remember DT doing full album covers from Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Pink Floyd? Or how on their early live DVDs they did Marillion, Napalm Death, etc. They're not unknown for covering other artists' songs who they don't "sing every night". I understand that the truth might be it was a spontaneous cover, but that doesn't excuse the execution, especially considering their reputation and previous track record of covering other people's music. So, no, nothing you say or think excuses this. It was lazy and poorly executed. It doesn't make you NOT a nice person to criticize this. You want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and you love, and I get that. I'll never have ill will towards this band because of the upbringing they gave me when I was a teenager, but a mistake is a mistake and there are no excuses for it.
@@musicJRF I'm sticking up for it because it's not that big of deal, people are making it seem like he went up there a pissed on Chris's grave. Don't get me wrong, I can't watch this video without cringing when he says 'and I forgot the fuckin words' he should've just skipped the line and moved on. As far as it being lazy and poorly excuted.. I won't argue with you there, but i'm also not much of a James Labrie fan lol People's reaction to his tweets are even more ridiculous. The man got flooded with hate for this and he responded with 3 light-hearted tweets. What he said wasn't 'self-righteous' in the slightest, he didn't scold any of his fans or the people criticizing him, he said he got emotional and OP said he blamed it on illness. Lol I think people are just looking for a reason to hate on him some more honestly. I do think he could've owned up to it a little better, but I'm sure he was embarrassed as fuck too.
@@Iheartdgd You're right. Completely agree with you about the backlash to the tweets. Also the video gets dumb from that point on. The whole memorizing examples was a video from 25 years ago and another with a song that probably doesn't get performed a lot on an album James wasn't even a member for.
I respect every member of Dream Theater for being some of the best players of their specific instruments on earth. But this is unforgivable. He is basically shoving the middle finger to a dead man. Disrespectful.
Spicy Dragon in my opinion the life/death topic is the less important thing. I mean, everybody's gonna die, new people is coming to life, happens all the time, and Chris Cornell was not more important than you or me. The real issue is how fucked up is James LaBrie.
Ismael Salvatierra maybe, but Chris can’t stand up for himself. It’s like picking on someone a foot shorter than you and with no muscle. They can’t defend themselves.
IF he excused himself during the song, by saying "I'm so sorry, I messed up the words, we love you Chris" or anything like that.... but ad.libbing "I don't know the f@*king word" and continuing makes it sound more like mockery than a tribute!!!, no excuses!
Ralph Ciavolino I'd like to share a few thoughts with you. In my opinion, since MP left the band became better on stage, but James didn't. During the ADTOE tour his voice seemed to be ok, but in the following tours he sounded like a dog whose skin is peeled off while it's alive. I love MP and what he did, but it wouldn't be fair to say he's a better drummer than MM. If you are a musician, you can watch any other live DVDs and notice that before MM the whole band played following Portnoy's (whom I've seen many times missing out tempo) drumming without using a metronome metronome, which is an unforgivable mistake for a band like DT. But when MM joined, they've never missed up with BPM because they use live metronome. I mean... Come on, they proclaimed to be music virtuosos for like 25 years, but they never played with a live metronome? What kind of "perfect" band is that?
Multiple times I’ve heard this story about LaBrie finding out his father died during a break between sets. Then he cried a little bit, got himself together and sang through the entire cover set. I was told this happened in São Paulo but now I’d file it as an urban legend. He could alternatively be losing his professionalism over the years.
Honestly, I think it's really shallow to focus the majority of an argument on whether or not an artist can remember lyrics, however... 1.) LaBrie is obviously falling in and out of key with this performance (...and pretty much all of his live performances, to be fair) 2.) The fact that it's a tribute makes it pretty sacred, and the lack of care and delicacy given to it is extremely disrespectful, and 3.) LaBrie has been the downfall of the band for a very long time now. I'm new to your videos, but I think you're pretty much on point. I always felt that Dream Theater covers were pretty half-assed, actually. I still have immense respect for the band, but there seems to be some kind of cockiness when they tackle other people's material because they always seem to try and just 'wing it'. If they put even a fraction of the attention to detail they grant their own compositions, it would go much better. It wouldn't be a problem if they didn't insist on covering other people's material as often as they do... if you're not going to take it seriously, then just don't do covers. I don't get what they feel they're proving otherwise, and jumping on the Chris Cornell thing is nothing but a bandwagon move. Very disrespectful and insincere.
They do not owe Chris Cornell anything, yet they put out time to sing a tribute to him (whether its bad or good idc), many others didn't even do anything, but post a simple tweet about it. Get a grip, douchebag
Well, since no-one mentioned this, I'll do it. Dream Theater never even liked grunge and Seattle scene in general, because they considered themselves as superior to them. That is pretty close minded approach for a PROGRESSIVE band, so they say.
James doesn't have good days and bad days, he has occasional mediocre days and absolutely horrible days. I definitely lost respect for James for this one. You either attempt to do a tribute right or not do one at all.
Im not defending him in any way, LaBrie used to be much better than what he is today. But I think the reason why they are keeping him in the band is that they are all getting older and the band is coming to an end. They just don't want ruin people's memories of what Dream Theater is by changing the vocalist in their last years. (Pardon my English)
The reason he's still in the band apparently has to do with Dream Theater's business model where LaBrie holds the 3rd highest amount of stock in the company. He has to voluntarily leave and sell his stock like Portnoy did to be excommunicated from the band.
Never understood how he acquired that much considering It was Myung's, Petrucci's and Portnoy's band to begin with. It's still a shame as to what happened. Also YTSE jam records being given to him hasn't done much for the label. When things were under Portnoy's leadership YTSE jam records thrived as well.
Dude, you're a fucking poet! Check this out: I'm not defending him in any way; Labrie used to be much better than he is today; But I think the reason why they're keeping him in the band; Is that they're getting older and the band; Is coming to an end; They just don't want to ruin people's memories; Of what Dream Theater is; By changing the vocalist in their last years. It all rhymes so perfectly!
lol the "too emotional" excuse is laughable. the man was sitting there going "i forgot the fucking words" then ends the performance with a "shit." He didn't give a fuck about cornell he was just worried that people were gonna use this against him. the respectful thing to do wouldve been to stfu and let jordan try to save the performance rather than swearing during a tribute
Keep in mind also that a talking point of my haters is that I am supposedly "too emotional," but they will never hold their infallible Gods Dream Theater to the same standard as anyone else.
My interest in Dream Theater began to wane as I exited my teenage years; nevertheless, I still think that they were the most original progressive metal band of that era with the vast majority of their contemporaries all sounding very similar and as if they wanted so desperately to be Dream Theater instead of their own unique band. I continued purchasing every album they put out, even if I didn't care for the previous one, up until I discovered the concept for The Astonishing album; I didn't even have to wait for samples to be released, the concept alone was enough to realize that it was going to be their worst album to date. I realize now that Scenes from a Memory was their last great album; perhaps because of the lingering influence, direct or otherwise, of Derek Sherinian. In my opinion...were Dream Theater to start producing/writing music that I would be interested in listening to again I'd say that they'd need to first replace Jordan Rudess and then rehire Mike Portnoy. Only then does it make sense to talk about replacing LaBrie. Complain all you want about LaBrie's suitability as Dream Theater's lead singer, but I find it a little odd to call him out for using profanity during a tribute show...comes off as extremely sanctimonious.
I'm not a dream theater fan nor am I a labrie fan, but this Is exactly the problem with the internet. A crappy performance that lasted a couple minutes and should be disregarded become a point of discussion among keyboard warriors...move on, who cares, certainly not Chris Cornell (whom I love) and I doubt Vicky cornell would feel any disrespect. The only ones hurt are the mighty users of TH-cam. Idiots...
Theo Tsek - exactly. LaBrie has done nothing but embarrass himself for three years. Live At Wacken and the Cornell Tribute are the maraschino cherries on top of the shit sundae.
This video is really unfair to Labrie, as you listed other REAL singers and expected Labrie - a clear amateur who just got lucky in his early years for screaming his lungs out - to deliver the same performance. I'm glad you didn't show the LIving Colour tribute, now THAT would put the final nail in Labrie's coffin lol
I like LaBrie, I like his vocals. I wouldn’t have performed any song live unless I was ready though. It seems easy to jump on the “tribute “ bandwagon when other artists are putting their versions out there, but as a professional I’d rather pass on the song unless I was 100% sure it could be kick ass.
The thing that really worries me apart from James' abilites is that he is dragging the band down. It's supposed to be a world class band and now the only real uphold is John P with his Ernie Ball promotions. I was at the sydney concert recently and people were walking out even on their main tracks. Shame
Hey dude, I'm from Melbourne and refused to see them last year. Seen them the last three times prior to that. Sorry you spent good money for a lousy show.
James Simpson Hey man. Thanks for saying that. Do not be sorry. It was by no means a bad show. The thing that bothers me is that DT is the main inspiration in my life. I appreciate more than anything else. However, the fact that they perform at 50% and do not really care to be honest is just sad to me. Maybe they are tired and i respect that. But for something that holds such high a significant part in my daily life they should honestly consider why their fans including me go to see them
Eh. I gave up on this band after Black Clouds and Silver Linings was released. Portnoy got out while the getting was good. I know other DT fans who were sure that if that hadn't happened, the trajectory would have reversed and all would be good but that's bullshit - naive optimism. I saw Breaking the Fourth Wall. It is TERRIBLE. And Mangini is actually...not that bad. You can't put the downfall of this once-great band on his head, no way. I blame Petrucci mainly for not having the humility to recognize what Portnoy brought to the table (I mean, all of the guys forced Mike's hand and sealed their own fates, but Petrucci just could not replace Portnoy as the Man - the fact he thought he could is HILARIOUS) and Petrucci, Myung and LaBrie for doubling down on rekindling past glory without recognizing what made them so good in the 90's and 00's. Rudess was always a technician who had difficulty writing meaningful, tactful music, but from Scenes from a Memory thru Octavarium he was constrained by decent SONGWRITING - the fact that he went to seed and started losing the plot was absolutely in character with who and what he is (so it's not really his fault that the band sucks now). Dream Theater was a great band because of songwriting. Anybody can practise their instrument 10 hours a day and become the next Michael Romeo. But not just anyone can use that technical ability to write incredible songs. Portnoy got this. His favorite band was the Beatles (iirc...if not absolute favorite, very definitely one of his favs). The Beatles were kings of songwriting. Yes, people who don't understand prog, people who aren't musicians or fans of incredible musicianship will look at Dream Theater and see a bunch of very talented people showing off their abilities relentlessly, but in the prog world, they had the golden ticket for a decade. Not just anyone can write a groove that gets your head bobbing in 13/8. Not just anyone can incorporate polyrhythms into a ballad. I'm not saying they didn't ever have moments of pure wankery, but their wankery was impeccable, and it often had a structural function within a song. It was when they stopped trying new things, stopped their sonic innovation that they became stale. Iron Maiden is a band with an illustrious past that overshadows anything they could ever do in the present. And yet they keep writing great music that takes center stage at their shows. I saw them once live and they played their whole new album before any of the greatest hits. Relying on past glory is the easy way out, and Dream Theater is doing it about as poorly as I've ever seen it done. Hopefully they break up before anything truly embarrassing happens.
That means you include Falling into Infinity in your "jam" but exclude Scenes from a Memory. Are you nuts!? The latter album is clearly FAR superior to the former, it's not even close. FII is not a bad album, but aside from WDaDU, it's their weakest studio album of the last millenium and about as good as Octavarium, which is Portnoy DT's second best studio album of THIS millenium (with 6DoiT being the best). But I would agree with your unspoken implication that Jordan Rudess basically ruined Dream Theater (since your "jam" excludes every album he's played on, I assume this approximates your thinking). You just saw the writing on the wall and disengaged 2 studio albums earlier than I did. Personally, I actually liked Octavarium, and didn't hate Systematic Chaos. It was only when Black Clouds came out that I gave up. I still think the rest of the band, plus impeccable songwriting made Rudess' first two studio albums with the band into virtual masterpieces and Octavarium into a totally listenable album, but he kind of represents all that's wrong with the *new* DT. All wankery, no creativity. You're amazed at what they can do with their instruments, but the songs don't make you FEEL anything. The fact that Rudess arrived just as DT were peaking and made decent contributions immediately made it seem like he would fit in and help the band keep innovating, but that was an illusion. I also don't think it's a coincidence that the growth of a legitimate fanbase coincided with the decline of the band. Back when following DT was like belonging to a secret club that nobody else knew about, they were accoutable to the fans and to the music because they needed to be. After they became "mainstream" this changed.
Six Degrees killed 99% of my love for this band. Rushed to the store to buy it the day it came out and listened to it in the parking lot. Drove home and NEVER listened to it again. IAW, COS and Awake are stunning. I should have know where they were going with Falling Into Infinity. Octavarium and Systematic Chaos are blips outside the curve. And I'll agree that James "phones in" his live performances. I saw them on 'Metropolis 2000' and then for the 'Images and Words 25' tour. They'll never get another dollar from me to see them live. :/ This "tribute" is truly horrid. RIP Chris.
@@WRXBase I'm pleased to see someone who feels the same as me about Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. Not a terrible album, but man it's so damn filler.... Never thought it was good
Does anyone if JLB solo tour announced in 2018 has ever took place? I can't find anything about it on the internet: no video, no report, neither a single announcement of the cancellation of one or more evenings. It'ss not even clear how many concerts he should have done and where. Did someone attended at one of this concert? Or they was all canceled? Did someone bought tickets for these gig (and been refound) or have they not even been sold? I know that James made some brief appearance with other bands, but it seems that his solo concerts has disappeared from the web, maybe expecting that people would forget that news. I've read that even on Dream Theater Forum the threads about JLB solo tour was deleted.
Back in March of 2000, I saw dream theater in Atlanta at the tabernacle on the metropolis 2000 tour. They played the entire album all the way through with no problem. Then after that, they performed pull me under, and going into the lyrics "watch the sparrow falling", James comes in a measure ahead, and everyone notices that. Then when it's time for the chorus, he sticks the mic out towards us on the front row and says "fuck it, I'll let ya'll sing it."
I dare say it, but I think I'm a better vocalist than James. He forgets lyrics all the time, nor does he know how to sing in pitch. I think Jordan's part was great (wish I could play like that, too). Couldn't stand James' vocals. Anybody who actually tries to defend him is just... Hmm. Wrong? Like... I'd rather listen to Dexter Holland's take on this song than LaBrie's.
Have you been singing incredibly hard songs (vocally) for 25 years? The stuff James has been singing, day in day out, is enough to damage anyone’s voice.
Not if he did it properly. There are SCREAMERS that last longer but no matter how you scream, there will always be a form of damage to your vocal chords. But, anywho. I obviously haven't. But he also wasn't able to sing consistently in his prime, so I don't understand your point.
Well, I suppose him sounding good in his prime is subjective. But, touche. However, there will always be some form of vocal chord damage after any long period no matter if you scream properly or not (would be much worse if you scream improperly like myself.)
I got a fucking tattoo of the DT logo they are and probably will forever be my favorite band but today I don't even care what they do/where or when they play anymore. I should add a "RIP 1985 - 2013" to my tattoo if you take music quality or "2015" if you take live performances.
Dream Theater is a band of virtuosos saddled with a crap vocalist---LaBrie has always been the weakest link, and I'll never understand why they haven't replaced him yet
The 4 actual musicians are the ones who crush all.. James is the weak link anymore.. seen them 2 years in a row, once on The Astonishing tour, then last year on The Images and Words and Beyond tour.. his singing is hard to take at times..
I wouldn’t look too far into it. It’s obvious they didn’t rehearse. Lack of judgement not to wait until they did and do it right. Now this video lives forever. Bad call.
I find it perplexing that as a big Rush fan, I’ve been reading that DT is in their class.... ummmm no. Not because of this debacle, but Rush is very meticulous in their craft. Hard to match their professionalism. This on the other hand was hard to watch. Why not skip the tribute and really honor him vs risk fucking it up?
I have been a fan of DT for years and years, and I have always thought they'd do a lot better without Labrie. Or LaBrie. Labia. Whatever. L.A. Brie. It's just one cheese too many.
Poor Mangini. But I do love the Dream Theater with Portnoy (sorry Mangini). Every song has its soul till dramatic turns of events. After that (selftitled and new album) I'm sorry I resign as DT fan (Mangini ver.)
Not exacly defending LaBrie, im saying musicians can also be self righteous and stubborn enough to not recognize their own mistakes and try to hide them behind excuses.
James Labrie is this week part if dream theater. Even on their iwn material is singing is really decent, whereas the rest of the band is phenomenal. I never have never understood why they chose him.
Yep, really can’t argue with this. In fact, it’s disrespectful to the memory of the great Chris Cornell, to not rehearse and just ‘wing it’ at the last moment. In my opinion, you’d do whatever you have to do, to not f#%k it up.
The question I have for the Ravenskill Rebel Militia... actually, three questions: 1) Are you musicians? 2) Have you ever had to perform a song that may not have been on your Ipod, or even a song you might not have ever paid attention to with no real time to practice and perfect it? Did you play it perfectly? 3) If you are a musician, have you played every song you've ever performed on stage perfectly? There is not a musician alive who has never completely bit it on stage, regardless of the level they play at.
Well i will say i am a DT specifically portnoy so there goes new DT but ok so they made a mistake. So therefore why degrade their character what is the point does it make you feel better? does it make them feel worse? Likely not. People these days just have to much too complain about. Waste the amount of time you did making this movie on helping someone in need. Maybe thats a good use of peoples time.
I escaped from that video at the end for a very long time and that little footage was enough to rip my apart. Should i say thank you or not, i dont know. Apart from that, the thing he did is just obnoxious. This is not appropriate in any place on earth and as you said, you can't defense him, you just can't.
Damn.. I was there, and my feelings went a bit like this Wow, really nice of them to do a tribute Wtf James your pitch is way off Wtf James those are not the right words “I forgot the fucking words”… ok, that’s funny, at least he admitted At least he got the chorus right, let’s sing along “Shit, fuck” eh, he’s human, and it was pretty funny Only then it struck me that it was a fucking tribute and this should not have happened under any circumstance. If he’d forgotten the words to WfS then it would have been funny but for a tribute no way
Old video but seriously, did you not have anything better to do with your time besides dedicating a channel to hating on a band? A band that you're clearly passionate about and spent time researching too. I'll agree they really should fire LaBrie, in fact he's the reason why i'm skeptical to see them live but fuck me I can get over it and move on. I'm not gonna make 16 videos to shit on a band I love because it's a waste of time just to look like a loser in the end. I can still enjoy their studio albums and old live performances and accept that they're not as good as they used to be. Also come on he decided to do a tribute show and forgot the lyrics holy shit how crazy is that!? And then you show a clip of him forgetting lyrics from over 2 decades ago, really?
Well James...forgetting words and melody is one thing...forgetting how to sing in tune is a whole different story...
Hilbert Kuipers he didn't forget...he never really knew how.
@@untethered_ thank you. Your reply has completely changed my mind.
@@toddgrossmanmusic2167 Too be fair he was far better when they first hired him. I used to wonder why they ever hired him to begin with considering how awful he's been live for around 2 decades now, but then i saw recordings of their old 92' concerts when I&W first came out and he was really impressive. He matched the studio album pretty well live and you could feel the power in his voice. He sounded like an actual rockstar back then, not like the grandma walked onto the set he sounds like nowdays. I'd say he had a lot of natural talent and a great voice, but lacked the discipline and training it takes to evolve or even keep the voice he had.
He was sloppy at first. Then, he was disrespectful. And finally, highly arrogant. There's absolutely no way I can defend this guy.
"I forgot the f*cking words"
Sounds he also forgot the melody....
... Yeah, okay, I really can’t defend Labrie on this one.
Oh, but trust me, lots of Dream Theater fans will, or they'll play the apathy card (God, I can't believe you're butthurt about this, get over it!). They have a knack for attracting lemmings who think their very shit doesn't stink.
The Ravenskill Rebel Militia I'm a big fan of dream theater but i have to say james should be fired long time ago
Akdiwi1 Jkssk Not only Debrie; as much as I love DT they should have retired by now. Debrie sounds like a mere shadow of himself (except for the Xanadu cover somehow), Petrucci isn't what he used to be and we have far to much Rudess in our DT since Portnoy left... and I'm pretty sure that Myung started speaking again. I can't bare this...
All jokes aside DT isn't what it used to be and you can't really blame it on one person...
Edit: backpedaling a little bit because I realized that I really like The Astonishing.
Still they have regressed in recent time :(
Big DT fan here that’s soured on Labrie over the last several years. Never thought he was that great of a singer. To me it says how good the band is. For the most part they can overcome his short comings. I always imagine DT with a singer like Russell Allen. Perfection...
Nobody can
Sure James Labrie was a HUGE Soundgarden Fan very believeable
This is a lack of professionalism, period. Not about talent. You can forget the lyrics, thats fine, but after 2 decades in the business, to not know your limits and adhere to prudence is not acceptable. Should have printed the cheat sheet if he knew his lyrical memory was not at 100%. Also, to curse multiple times when performing arguably the most iconic song from the band/musician you are paying tribute to is just unbelievably unacceptable. And in the way LaBrie did, so casually and brazen with no apparent ounce of care in his voice or appearance (not saying he didn't care, just simply that it appears to not care), would never sit well with any audience that has no pre-determined conclusion.
Shame on LaBrie for trying to justify his atrocious performance. More musicians should follow Peter Steele's idea that if people are paying to see your craft, you should respect them and thus attempt to perform at the best level you can.
I'm not sure if it's really virtuosity/professionalism failure. Maybe (just maybe) deep down, they're really just not into Soundgarden stuff but opted to ride the trend of tributes to Cornell to show "they care"
Correct. These days the minimum you have isca fucking ipad with the lyrics on in front of you...
What you're describing is a clear lack of professionalism though. I teach guitar for a living and I can say I'm definitely not into 90% of the songs we play in class but that doesn't make me play them any worse than the ones I do like. I think the Chris Cornell tribute is just another example of DT's enormous ego, thinking they can just roll up in there, half-ass a performance and still get hailed as musical geniuses.
Nikolay G well said.
He was just trying to play it off but I agree
Can you imagine if Portnoy was still in the band he'd EVER allow some shit like that to go down? He'd thrown a snare at Labrie for that shit
I mean Portnoy was the guy that wrote a 22 minute-long piece all in tribute to his musical inspirations and bands (Octavarium) A barely put together tribute like that wouldn't fly in the old DT, specially for a fellow musician and idol
Actually knowing Portnoy he'd probably have them do an entire concert composed entirely of Chris Cornell songs like they did with Metallica or Pink Floyd etc
DT died the day Portnoy left. And the irony is that people have generally labelled Portnoy as the resident douche of DT. They're soulless without him. All he asked for was a year off to recharge the batteries. They should have taken his suggestion. Might have given them all some much needed perspective.
I'm convinced that if Portnoy was still in the band, he would fire James.
@@andoletube Portnoy has done nothing decent since leaving DT.
@@ozricaurora6943 Neither has DT!
@@andoletube True
Time to go James
Where....?
sebs2306live2 wherever there isnt singing involved
This would be a good time for another Liquid Tension Experiment
Ventiglondalator was actually just thinking about that. They need to refresh
"Oh yeah sure mate let's make a tribute to this guy who died right now...rehearse? Nah, I have good memory"
Then proceeds to go full defensive blaming the people who rightfully criticized him. That's just wrong.
When you do something like that, you apologize. You say something like "I'm sorry. I fucked up. That was really disrespectful to the audience and the singer we were paying tribute to. I should've rehearsed it more."
Basically the problem is not that he made a mistake, the problem is his arrogant attitude.
I know, right? I would have said something like "Sorry about messing up the Cornell tribute. Me and Jordan decided to do it just before the show and didn't rehearse it as much as we should have, but the good intentions were there." Lames is a toxic duo of washed up and cocky.
The Ravenskill Rebel Militia
Sorry, I said the I thing above. I'm sure most of the people commenting here are musicians and, if they're true to themselves, should understand full well that the worst of things happen when you don't prepare or rehearse. The chances of pulling something off diminish greatly and even if you do, it's not the best you could have given the effort. As a band, I really don't understand them putting up with the hideous caterwauling that emanates from him now. Maybe they need tune down a whole step if they want to keep him
The problem isn't just with LaBrie's high notes now, it's his entire voice. If you listen to the clip of Black Hole Sun in this video, most of the notes are "low" and yet bad pitch and bad enunciation ("vash" rather than "wash" like he's some kind of Russian).
You know, it's not always easy to go straight into apology mode, especially if you're still pissed off about fucking up the performance. Everyone piling on right at that moment is like rubbing salt into a wound. Twitter really can make people seem like douches because they don't sort out their emotions before posting.
Did LaBrie fuck up? Absolutely. Were his excuses good enough? No. His emotional reactions though were absolutely typical of all humans.
The Ravenskill Rebel Militia
Yeah, it's like he suddenly lost all range, volume and sound in his voice. Even after his 'tragic' food poisoning incident he didn't sound that bad. In fact he still sounded freaking amazing (Once in a Livetime for the win :3)
I love that someone created an entire TH-cam channel dedicated to bashing James Labrie.
If only youtube had of been the force it is today back in the mid 2000's, maybe James would have got the fucking clue by now and one of the greatest collection of modern rock musicians wouldn't have been dragged into the mud along with his flabby floundering atonal arse.
Ash W “Floundering atonal arse” hahaha, nice. Maybe he should join a band that plays atonal music...actually maybe he shouldn’t cause he’d even find a way to mess that up too.
Except I also criticize things like The Astonishing, Mangini, Rich Chycki, and even Petrucci and Rudess' recent phony statements on my channel.
Me too. It’s great! Can’t stand LaBrie. Unfortunately, the band’s music eventually became just as unbearable as he is.
IMO the bloated cheesiness of The Astonishing was more listenable than their super bland self-titled album. I have nothing against the band members, I at least like all of them past and present, except James. I don't even like his 90s voice back when he could still sing. The nasally timbre of his voice is just so annoying to me, even when he sings well! When I first started listening to Primus, Les Claypool's voice was jarring at first but I got used to it. I still haven't gotten used to James' yet. He's well on the other side of the line between "acquired taste" and "plain annoying" for me. They really should replace him. This might sound like a weird choice but IMO if Dio were still alive his voice would fit DT's style pretty well.
I've never liked this guys' voice, especially his higher register. Hearing him sing Maiden/Metallica/Pink Floyd numbers is fuckin' excruciating. Why the hell DT persist with him is a mystery.
Honestly, that's what put me off from getting into Dream Theater for the longest time. These covers were bad. However it's on some Dream Theater albums that he really does shine, in particular on Scenes From a Memory. You see, he's not the type of vocalist that Bruce Dickinson and Geoff Tate are. His soft voice fit perfectly on that album and it's partly why Scenes worked as well as it did.
My favorite album has always been Images and Words. And up until Scenes from a Memory, the guy was amazing.
What happened is that a food poisoning incident damaged his voice back in 1998. Or 99. I don't remember.
The guy would never sound the same again. Look at his pathetic attempt at hitting that high note in Under a Glass Moon in later live recordings. He just can't.
But songwriting is also not on their side. The Astonishing, except for a few cool passages and Our New World is an entirelly forgetable double album.
I still call DT my favorite band. I mean, it's still the band with most cherrypicked songs on my cellphone. I just don't get excited for new albums anymore.
@@ThZuao he had food poisoning before they had to tour for Falling Into Infinity i think. The doctor told him he cannot sing for 6 months to recover. But they were on the rise during that period. Still a new band. It would be horrible for them to stop and wait 6 months. That would fuck them up financially and success wise. The guys said we can't wait, so he sacrificed his voice for the success of the band.
Also did you not listen to Distance Over Time? It's phenomenal. It's better than some portnoy albums
Go listen to Liquid Tension Experiment. Problem solved.
Because he has such a wide range and a powerful voice,
My favorite part is LaBrie apparently being more emotional in a half-assed tribute to a guy he never met than a song he wrote about his daughter being put into a coma and not knowing if she'll even make it out alive
Though I'm agree this was a mess, your comparison have no sense. He said he just got emotional and that's why he forgot the lyrics, but that doesn't mean that the more emotional you get, the more vulnerable to forget the lyrics. Also, in Vacant (the song about his daughter), he was very very emotional when he sang it in Score, and he didn't forget lyrics because HE WROTE LYRICS, and that's a 2 minute song with very few lines. Finally, maybe he never met Chris Cornell but that doesn't mean you can't get very emotional when you sing to him and pay a tribute. I never met Kurt Cobain, Chester Bennington or Freddie Mercury, but if I could make them a tribute, I'd get very emotional too.
@@alecolon4601 bruh this comment is 3 years old, I don't even have this same opinion anymore and I love LaBrie lmao
@@hatujemeletsplayeryheskyce6460 Vacant on Train of Thought
@@hatujemeletsplayeryheskyce6460”Vacant” from their Stream of Consciousness album
Everyone knows that LaBrie is the worst musician from Dream Theater
Mr. Onion Nicely played
fact
He's not even a musician, man. He's a singer, or was a decent singer many years ago.
Yeah, the other guys are all superior to him. Heck, I have solo stuff from John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess but nothing of James LaBrie's.
@@SeriesTube01 Singers are musicians. The voice is an instrument.
Jeez nobodys perfect, leave him alone
Is this a joke? Honest question.
Eddie Vedder's tribute was any day the best in terms of pouring in immense passion and emotion. However, technically speaking, Norah Jones' piano rendition of the Soundgarden classic is just over the top!
Smells like prog snob spirit. (pun intended)
Say what you will about drumming or DT's new direction, but we can't deny that Milke Portnoy had always been the one who grounded the other DT members in terms of musical respect. He always tried to compensate Rudess and Petrucci's cockiness by bringing new elements in to DT's music, as well as paying tribute to bands that were not really known for their incredible technical chops (Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd) without overlooking them.
This fail would've never happened had MP still been in the band. To start with, he would have had THE WHOLE FUCKING BAND play A WHOLE FUCKING SONG. Rehearsing during soundcheck isn't so hard, right? And yet, if the fail still happened, he would be the first one to apologise, live and over the web. After all, this is A FUCKING TRIBUTE.
This "I was emotional" crap is the most ridiculous excuse I've ever heard. When it comes to music, being emotional usually makes it even more legendary. It's either this or you're not able to sing because you're crying your eyes out (like Eddie Vedder), which was far from the case in point.
LaBrie wasn't just disrespectful with Cornell (and I'm not even considering the fact that, if you are fan enough to pay tribute, you would know the words of the man's most successful song). He was also disrespectful with music. It's very evident to me that he and Rudess were like "Come on, this is 90's grunge shit, of course we can pull it off without rehearsing" and fucked it up.
Anthony Lane wow, what a great argument!
Renato Loureiro nah but on serious note James labrie arguement is fine he is arrogant. But you called john petrucci cocky, if you ever met him he is down to earth a good person and plays and practice 110%. 🤜🤘 that is my only beef with you and Mike portnoy was cocky and arrogant a lot of times but you wouldn't know unless you watched his drum lesson videos.
Hahaha! Spot on!
"Petrucci's cockiness" hahahahahahaha you are a funny drunk guy, but go home buddy, you are clearly drunk(or high)
I've always hated rudess and labrie but James has always had a shit voice. DT aren't shit without portnoy and would've have been THE shit if not for James' shit voice and rudess' elitist attitude. Everyone knows petrucci, myung and portnoy made that band. The other two were nothing more than dead weight.
If you don't like a band,
don't do a tribute.
It's that simple.
Watching this again, 4 years later, and thinking: why not just saying "we dedicate this gig to you Chris, RIP"?
That requires being smart and being smart had no place in dream theater post-1995
I was at a Dream Theater concert in Athens, Greece many years ago. They were paying tribute to Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast. LaBrie was using a screen to read the lyrics (much like reporters read news nowadays). During Hallowed be thy Name he was seriously pissed off towards the screen content technician for running the lyrics too slow. He was waiving his hands angrily as in a "move the damn thing faster" gesture while humming incomprehensible words.
That was the time when MP had the shitty idea of covering whole album of bands who doesn't sound like DT (Maiden and Metallica need 2 guitars and no keyboard) and which vocals range where totally out of JLB capability (like Iron Maiden or Deep Purple).
If I pay to listen Dream Theater, why do I have to listen "The number of the beast", "Master Of Puppets", "Made in Japan" or "Dark Side Of The Moon"? Don't get me wrong, I love ALL that album, but if I go to a DT gig, I wanna hear DT stuff....I can accept 1 cover or a little exerpts of Rush or Metallica song...but that's enough!
I really miss Mike Portnoy, but this is one of his aspect that I won't regret.
@@albertandrew1183 I see your point, but let's not forget that this only happened when they played the same venue two nights in a row and fans usually knew this would happen the second night.
Anyway, I got plain lucky in 2005 when they came to Brazil. Instead of playing a classic album, they played Scenes From a Memory in its entirety. Glorious.
The official LaBrie Bashing Channel. WTH?...
LaBrie had great potential as a singer and one hell of a set of pipes, but he's always seemed lazy. His technique was bad, he's always slurred words, poor breath control, and now his vocals seem shot. I still feel like he's such an integral part of the DT sound so it hurts to say this, but maybe he should consider retirement.
They should retire DT, period. They're finished as a creative force. They had a great run. Find something new to do, with different people.
This reminded me of a Jack Black interview where he shares a story about paying tribute to (edit) Elliot Smith and he forgot the lyrics mid song. So he stopped the music and restarted the song. The same thing happens, he apologizes and restarts the song again. This goes on several times until he finally nails it, audience applaud him for finishing a proper cover at least. With Labrie, this is just snobbery plain and simple.
Portnoy would've made sure the guy would have been prepared with some lyrics....
When I first heard "Home" in the movie "The History of Trunks", I was hooked on Dream Theater. I was excited and floored by every release from then up to "Black Clouds and Silver Linings" with the exception of "Octavarium", which had enough cool moments for me but was obviously lacking. When Portnoy left, he took the magic with him, and they've gotten steadily worse. I no longer call myself a Dream Theater fan. This is a goddamn travesty.
I’m amazed at the amount of musical experts present here.
This isn’t his song , he doesn’t get up on stage and sing this song every night , at least they took the time out their day, not to mention their set.. to do a tribute.
I think Chris would’ve respected that .. whether he messed up a line or didn’t..
I also believe he would’ve told all you whining little girls to grow a pair.
Ugh, why would you stick up for this? Do you not remember DT doing full album covers from Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Pink Floyd? Or how on their early live DVDs they did Marillion, Napalm Death, etc. They're not unknown for covering other artists' songs who they don't "sing every night".
I understand that the truth might be it was a spontaneous cover, but that doesn't excuse the execution, especially considering their reputation and previous track record of covering other people's music. So, no, nothing you say or think excuses this. It was lazy and poorly executed.
It doesn't make you NOT a nice person to criticize this. You want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and you love, and I get that. I'll never have ill will towards this band because of the upbringing they gave me when I was a teenager, but a mistake is a mistake and there are no excuses for it.
@@musicJRF I'm sticking up for it because it's not that big of deal, people are making it seem like he went up there a pissed on Chris's grave. Don't get me wrong, I can't watch this video without cringing when he says 'and I forgot the fuckin words' he should've just skipped the line and moved on. As far as it being lazy and poorly excuted.. I won't argue with you there, but i'm also not much of a James Labrie fan lol
People's reaction to his tweets are even more ridiculous. The man got flooded with hate for this and he responded with 3 light-hearted tweets. What he said wasn't 'self-righteous' in the slightest, he didn't scold any of his fans or the people criticizing him, he said he got emotional and OP said he blamed it on illness. Lol I think people are just looking for a reason to hate on him some more honestly. I do think he could've owned up to it a little better, but I'm sure he was embarrassed as fuck too.
@@Iheartdgd You're right. Completely agree with you about the backlash to the tweets. Also the video gets dumb from that point on. The whole memorizing examples was a video from 25 years ago and another with a song that probably doesn't get performed a lot on an album James wasn't even a member for.
I’m just glad I got to see DT in concert back in the early 90’s with the original lineup. Those were the days.
This may be the worst tribute in the history of rock.
Band of four virtuoses and Labrie
I respect every member of Dream Theater for being some of the best players of their specific instruments on earth. But this is unforgivable. He is basically shoving the middle finger to a dead man. Disrespectful.
Spicy Dragon in my opinion the life/death topic is the less important thing. I mean, everybody's gonna die, new people is coming to life, happens all the time, and Chris Cornell was not more important than you or me. The real issue is how fucked up is James LaBrie.
Ismael Salvatierra maybe, but Chris can’t stand up for himself. It’s like picking on someone a foot shorter than you and with no muscle. They can’t defend themselves.
IF he excused himself during the song, by saying "I'm so sorry, I messed up the words, we love you Chris" or anything like that.... but ad.libbing "I don't know the f@*king word" and continuing makes it sound more like mockery than a tribute!!!, no excuses!
Dream Theatre is unlistenable since Portnoy left.
R.I.P.
Ralph Ciavolino I'd like to share a few thoughts with you. In my opinion, since MP left the band became better on stage, but James didn't. During the ADTOE tour his voice seemed to be ok, but in the following tours he sounded like a dog whose skin is peeled off while it's alive. I love MP and what he did, but it wouldn't be fair to say he's a better drummer than MM. If you are a musician, you can watch any other live DVDs and notice that before MM the whole band played following Portnoy's (whom I've seen many times missing out tempo) drumming without using a metronome metronome, which is an unforgivable mistake for a band like DT.
But when MM joined, they've never missed up with BPM because they use live metronome. I mean... Come on, they proclaimed to be music virtuosos for like 25 years, but they never played with a live metronome? What kind of "perfect" band is that?
Multiple times I’ve heard this story about LaBrie finding out his father died during a break between sets. Then he cried a little bit, got himself together and sang through the entire cover set.
I was told this happened in São Paulo but now I’d file it as an urban legend.
He could alternatively be losing his professionalism over the years.
Petrucci = 10.0
Rudess = 10.0
Mangini = 10.0
Myung = 10.0
Labrie = 3.8
No one can sing like Chris
Honestly, I think it's really shallow to focus the majority of an argument on whether or not an artist can remember lyrics, however... 1.) LaBrie is obviously falling in and out of key with this performance (...and pretty much all of his live performances, to be fair) 2.) The fact that it's a tribute makes it pretty sacred, and the lack of care and delicacy given to it is extremely disrespectful, and 3.) LaBrie has been the downfall of the band for a very long time now.
I'm new to your videos, but I think you're pretty much on point.
I always felt that Dream Theater covers were pretty half-assed, actually. I still have immense respect for the band, but there seems to be some kind of cockiness when they tackle other people's material because they always seem to try and just 'wing it'. If they put even a fraction of the attention to detail they grant their own compositions, it would go much better. It wouldn't be a problem if they didn't insist on covering other people's material as often as they do... if you're not going to take it seriously, then just don't do covers. I don't get what they feel they're proving otherwise, and jumping on the Chris Cornell thing is nothing but a bandwagon move. Very disrespectful and insincere.
This is spot on! Actually the whole band has become a mess.
nop petrucci #1 my beloved
Atleast they did the fucking tribute, for me its the thought that counts, really.
To me you are just a snob that are protecting them for being assholes on that one
They do not owe Chris Cornell anything, yet they put out time to sing a tribute to him (whether its bad or good idc), many others didn't even do anything, but post a simple tweet about it. Get a grip, douchebag
they didnt put any time in it.If you dont know the song dont sing it,learn it first.
He forgot the words to "Lie" when I saw him in NYC a few years ago...it was really embarrassing.
Well, since no-one mentioned this, I'll do it. Dream Theater never even liked grunge and Seattle scene in general, because they considered themselves as superior to them. That is pretty close minded approach for a PROGRESSIVE band, so they say.
@@Jock-mj4zd if you think songs like the best of times, 6 degrees of inner turbulence, or octavarium have no feeling you're deaf
He also has a cheat sheet for the Cemetry Gates performance in Gigantour...
James doesn't have good days and bad days, he has occasional mediocre days and absolutely horrible days. I definitely lost respect for James for this one. You either attempt to do a tribute right or not do one at all.
Just goes to show that even pro's have to practice
Im not defending him in any way, LaBrie used to be much better than what he is today. But I think the reason why they are keeping him in the band is that they are all getting older and the band is coming to an end. They just don't want ruin people's memories of what Dream Theater is by changing the vocalist in their last years. (Pardon my English)
The reason he's still in the band apparently has to do with Dream Theater's business model where LaBrie holds the 3rd highest amount of stock in the company. He has to voluntarily leave and sell his stock like Portnoy did to be excommunicated from the band.
Never understood how he acquired that much considering It was Myung's, Petrucci's and Portnoy's band to begin with. It's still a shame as to what happened. Also YTSE jam records being given to him hasn't done much for the label. When things were under Portnoy's leadership YTSE jam records thrived as well.
Your english is perfect my friend. No need to apologize.
Dude, you're a fucking poet! Check this out:
I'm not defending him in any way;
Labrie used to be much better than he is today;
But I think the reason why they're keeping him in the band;
Is that they're getting older and the band;
Is coming to an end;
They just don't want to ruin people's memories;
Of what Dream Theater is;
By changing the vocalist in their last years.
It all rhymes so perfectly!
volimNestea LOL I didnt even realize that.
lol the "too emotional" excuse is laughable. the man was sitting there going "i forgot the fucking words" then ends the performance with a "shit." He didn't give a fuck about cornell he was just worried that people were gonna use this against him. the respectful thing to do wouldve been to stfu and let jordan try to save the performance rather than swearing during a tribute
Another good point. He is being SO fake lately.
Keep in mind also that a talking point of my haters is that I am supposedly "too emotional," but they will never hold their infallible Gods Dream Theater to the same standard as anyone else.
Lmao Elpresador's son
My interest in Dream Theater began to wane as I exited my teenage years; nevertheless, I still think that they were the most original progressive metal band of that era with the vast majority of their contemporaries all sounding very similar and as if they wanted so desperately to be Dream Theater instead of their own unique band. I continued purchasing every album they put out, even if I didn't care for the previous one, up until I discovered the concept for The Astonishing album; I didn't even have to wait for samples to be released, the concept alone was enough to realize that it was going to be their worst album to date. I realize now that Scenes from a Memory was their last great album; perhaps because of the lingering influence, direct or otherwise, of Derek Sherinian. In my opinion...were Dream Theater to start producing/writing music that I would be interested in listening to again I'd say that they'd need to first replace Jordan Rudess and then rehire Mike Portnoy. Only then does it make sense to talk about replacing LaBrie. Complain all you want about LaBrie's suitability as Dream Theater's lead singer, but I find it a little odd to call him out for using profanity during a tribute show...comes off as extremely sanctimonious.
*James Labyrinth*
When you get upstaged by goddamn TRAIN you know it's time to call it a career
I'm not a dream theater fan nor am I a labrie fan, but this Is exactly the problem with the internet. A crappy performance that lasted a couple minutes and should be disregarded become a point of discussion among keyboard warriors...move on, who cares, certainly not Chris Cornell (whom I love) and I doubt Vicky cornell would feel any disrespect. The only ones hurt are the mighty users of TH-cam. Idiots...
I wish this was the only "crappy performance" of labrie...
Itamar Arce well said
Theo Tsek - exactly. LaBrie has done nothing but embarrass himself for three years. Live At Wacken and the Cornell Tribute are the maraschino cherries on top of the shit sundae.
This guy is a loser anyway.is entire channel is dedicated of pissing on a band he supposedly likes
Labrie can’t sign live.
This video is really unfair to Labrie, as you listed other REAL singers and expected Labrie - a clear amateur who just got lucky in his early years for screaming his lungs out - to deliver the same performance. I'm glad you didn't show the LIving Colour tribute, now THAT would put the final nail in Labrie's coffin lol
LaBrie is one of my favorite singers but damn he fucks up bad sometimes
Forgetting the lyrics is human. Cursing in the middle of a tribute isn’t. He could just have stayed silent and apologized at the end of the song.
Opeth writes better music.
Grief A potato writes better music
Grief They are focused.
Water is wet...
Nikolay G fire is dry
Opeth who?
Sorry, 2 weak!
I like LaBrie, I like his vocals. I wouldn’t have performed any song live unless I was ready though. It seems easy to jump on the “tribute “ bandwagon when other artists are putting their versions out there, but as a professional I’d rather pass on the song unless I was 100% sure it could be kick ass.
The thing that really worries me apart from James' abilites is that he is dragging the band down. It's supposed to be a world class band and now the only real uphold is John P with his Ernie Ball promotions. I was at the sydney concert recently and people were walking out even on their main tracks. Shame
Hey dude, I'm from Melbourne and refused to see them last year. Seen them the last three times prior to that. Sorry you spent good money for a lousy show.
James Simpson Hey man. Thanks for saying that. Do not be sorry. It was by no means a bad show. The thing that bothers me is that DT is the main inspiration in my life. I appreciate more than anything else. However, the fact that they perform at 50% and do not really care to be honest is just sad to me. Maybe they are tired and i respect that. But for something that holds such high a significant part in my daily life they should honestly consider why their fans including me go to see them
I got some footage from the Melbourne show if you're interested. Spoiler.. JP on point, KJLB laughable.
Ash W would be interested haha. Ofcourse JP is point
Eh. I gave up on this band after Black Clouds and Silver Linings was released. Portnoy got out while the getting was good. I know other DT fans who were sure that if that hadn't happened, the trajectory would have reversed and all would be good but that's bullshit - naive optimism. I saw Breaking the Fourth Wall. It is TERRIBLE. And Mangini is actually...not that bad. You can't put the downfall of this once-great band on his head, no way. I blame Petrucci mainly for not having the humility to recognize what Portnoy brought to the table (I mean, all of the guys forced Mike's hand and sealed their own fates, but Petrucci just could not replace Portnoy as the Man - the fact he thought he could is HILARIOUS) and Petrucci, Myung and LaBrie for doubling down on rekindling past glory without recognizing what made them so good in the 90's and 00's. Rudess was always a technician who had difficulty writing meaningful, tactful music, but from Scenes from a Memory thru Octavarium he was constrained by decent SONGWRITING - the fact that he went to seed and started losing the plot was absolutely in character with who and what he is (so it's not really his fault that the band sucks now).
Dream Theater was a great band because of songwriting. Anybody can practise their instrument 10 hours a day and become the next Michael Romeo. But not just anyone can use that technical ability to write incredible songs. Portnoy got this. His favorite band was the Beatles (iirc...if not absolute favorite, very definitely one of his favs). The Beatles were kings of songwriting. Yes, people who don't understand prog, people who aren't musicians or fans of incredible musicianship will look at Dream Theater and see a bunch of very talented people showing off their abilities relentlessly, but in the prog world, they had the golden ticket for a decade. Not just anyone can write a groove that gets your head bobbing in 13/8. Not just anyone can incorporate polyrhythms into a ballad. I'm not saying they didn't ever have moments of pure wankery, but their wankery was impeccable, and it often had a structural function within a song. It was when they stopped trying new things, stopped their sonic innovation that they became stale.
Iron Maiden is a band with an illustrious past that overshadows anything they could ever do in the present. And yet they keep writing great music that takes center stage at their shows. I saw them once live and they played their whole new album before any of the greatest hits. Relying on past glory is the easy way out, and Dream Theater is doing it about as poorly as I've ever seen it done. Hopefully they break up before anything truly embarrassing happens.
That means you include Falling into Infinity in your "jam" but exclude Scenes from a Memory. Are you nuts!? The latter album is clearly FAR superior to the former, it's not even close. FII is not a bad album, but aside from WDaDU, it's their weakest studio album of the last millenium and about as good as Octavarium, which is Portnoy DT's second best studio album of THIS millenium (with 6DoiT being the best).
But I would agree with your unspoken implication that Jordan Rudess basically ruined Dream Theater (since your "jam" excludes every album he's played on, I assume this approximates your thinking). You just saw the writing on the wall and disengaged 2 studio albums earlier than I did. Personally, I actually liked Octavarium, and didn't hate Systematic Chaos. It was only when Black Clouds came out that I gave up.
I still think the rest of the band, plus impeccable songwriting made Rudess' first two studio albums with the band into virtual masterpieces and Octavarium into a totally listenable album, but he kind of represents all that's wrong with the *new* DT. All wankery, no creativity. You're amazed at what they can do with their instruments, but the songs don't make you FEEL anything. The fact that Rudess arrived just as DT were peaking and made decent contributions immediately made it seem like he would fit in and help the band keep innovating, but that was an illusion. I also don't think it's a coincidence that the growth of a legitimate fanbase coincided with the decline of the band. Back when following DT was like belonging to a secret club that nobody else knew about, they were accoutable to the fans and to the music because they needed to be. After they became "mainstream" this changed.
Six Degrees killed 99% of my love for this band. Rushed to the store to buy it the day it came out and listened to it in the parking lot. Drove home and NEVER listened to it again. IAW, COS and Awake are stunning. I should have know where they were going with Falling Into Infinity. Octavarium and Systematic Chaos are blips outside the curve. And I'll agree that James "phones in" his live performances. I saw them on 'Metropolis 2000' and then for the 'Images and Words 25' tour. They'll never get another dollar from me to see them live. :/
This "tribute" is truly horrid. RIP Chris.
@@WRXBase I'm pleased to see someone who feels the same as me about Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. Not a terrible album, but man it's so damn filler.... Never thought it was good
Does anyone if JLB solo tour announced in 2018 has ever took place? I can't find anything about it on the internet: no video, no report, neither a single announcement of the cancellation of one or more evenings.
It'ss not even clear how many concerts he should have done and where.
Did someone attended at one of this concert? Or they was all canceled? Did someone bought tickets for these gig (and been refound) or have they not even been sold?
I know that James made some brief appearance with other bands, but it seems that his solo concerts has disappeared from the web, maybe expecting that people would forget that news. I've read that even on Dream Theater Forum the threads about JLB solo tour was deleted.
Back in March of 2000, I saw dream theater in Atlanta at the tabernacle on the metropolis 2000 tour. They played the entire album all the way through with no problem. Then after that, they performed pull me under, and going into the lyrics "watch the sparrow falling", James comes in a measure ahead, and everyone notices that. Then when it's time for the chorus, he sticks the mic out towards us on the front row and says "fuck it, I'll let ya'll sing it."
If you ever giged in your life... you'd understand
Goddammit, James. That's all I have to fucking say. Just... Goddammit.
"I forgot the fucking words." I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
I dare say it, but I think I'm a better vocalist than James. He forgets lyrics all the time, nor does he know how to sing in pitch. I think Jordan's part was great (wish I could play like that, too). Couldn't stand James' vocals. Anybody who actually tries to defend him is just... Hmm. Wrong? Like... I'd rather listen to Dexter Holland's take on this song than LaBrie's.
Have you been singing incredibly hard songs (vocally) for 25 years? The stuff James has been singing, day in day out, is enough to damage anyone’s voice.
Not if he did it properly. There are SCREAMERS that last longer but no matter how you scream, there will always be a form of damage to your vocal chords.
But, anywho. I obviously haven't. But he also wasn't able to sing consistently in his prime, so I don't understand your point.
Well, I suppose him sounding good in his prime is subjective. But, touche.
However, there will always be some form of vocal chord damage after any long period no matter if you scream properly or not (would be much worse if you scream improperly like myself.)
how do you forget your own lyrics? I can remember lyrics from songs I wrote when I was 16 lol
I got a fucking tattoo of the DT logo they are and probably will forever be my favorite band but today I don't even care what they do/where or when they play anymore. I should add a "RIP 1985 - 2013" to my tattoo if you take music quality or "2015" if you take live performances.
The Ravenskill Rebel Militia thats what i meant, didnt it came out in 2013? Anyway yeah..
Dream Theater is a band of virtuosos saddled with a crap vocalist---LaBrie has always been the weakest link, and I'll never understand why they haven't replaced him yet
The 4 actual musicians are the ones who crush all.. James is the weak link anymore.. seen them 2 years in a row, once on The Astonishing tour, then last year on The Images and Words and Beyond tour.. his singing is hard to take at times..
Disrespectful...from a musian to another great musician...he should have sang their own song dedicated to Cornell..
I wouldn’t look too far into it. It’s obvious they didn’t rehearse. Lack of judgement not to wait until they did and do it right. Now this video lives forever. Bad call.
I find it perplexing that as a big Rush fan, I’ve been reading that DT is in their class.... ummmm no. Not because of this debacle, but Rush is very meticulous in their craft. Hard to match their professionalism. This on the other hand was hard to watch. Why not skip the tribute and really honor him vs risk fucking it up?
Those of us who are free of forgetting lyrics sometimes shall cast the first stone.
I have been a fan of DT for years and years, and I have always thought they'd do a lot better without Labrie. Or LaBrie. Labia. Whatever. L.A. Brie. It's just one cheese too many.
Poor Mangini. But I do love the Dream Theater with Portnoy (sorry Mangini). Every song has its soul till dramatic turns of events. After that (selftitled and new album) I'm sorry I resign as DT fan (Mangini ver.)
Imo Distance over time was a breath of fresh air.... The new single from this year sounds boring though... DT by the numbers
He's past it, DT died when portnoy left anyway
Even if he forgot the lyrics he should have been able to play it off a bit cooler than that, trying to make the audience sing along or something.
Yee-ikes, that physically hurt to listen to.
If you dont know the artist that well, than you shouldn't be covering their song. Comes of as trying get some clicks
Quick question for you:
What do you have to say about JP’s backing vocals being played back from recording on the the last few tours?
James should've followed Eddie's foot steps and cried it through.
Is this channel dedicated to just nitpick every little mistake Dream Theater has ever made lol? This guy needs a life.
BlueBerry14 Top-notch playground you picked that comeback up from.
'Ok lets just make ever minor chord into major....wait...fuck
Sometimes you forget musicians are also humans, like us...
Not exacly defending LaBrie, im saying musicians can also be self righteous and stubborn enough to not recognize their own mistakes and try to hide them behind excuses.
James Labrie is this week part if dream theater. Even on their iwn material is singing is really decent, whereas the rest of the band is phenomenal. I never have never understood why they chose him.
Yep, really can’t argue with this. In fact, it’s disrespectful to the memory of the great Chris Cornell, to not rehearse and just ‘wing it’ at the last moment. In my opinion, you’d do whatever you have to do, to not f#%k it up.
The question I have for the Ravenskill Rebel Militia... actually, three questions:
1) Are you musicians?
2) Have you ever had to perform a song that may not have been on your Ipod, or even a song you might not have ever paid attention to with no real time to practice and perfect it? Did you play it perfectly?
3) If you are a musician, have you played every song you've ever performed on stage perfectly?
There is not a musician alive who has never completely bit it on stage, regardless of the level they play at.
The poor guys are so old and tired. Made some of my favorite albums of all time and also some of the most disappointing
If there is a God of music 2018 will be LaBrie s Final Year with Dream Theater.
Well i will say i am a DT specifically portnoy so there goes new DT but ok so they made a mistake. So therefore why degrade their character what is the point does it make you feel better? does it make them feel worse? Likely not. People these days just have to much too complain about. Waste the amount of time you did making this movie on helping someone in need. Maybe thats a good use of peoples time.
How fuckin dare they?!?
I escaped from that video at the end for a very long time and that little footage was enough to rip my apart. Should i say thank you or not, i dont know.
Apart from that, the thing he did is just obnoxious. This is not appropriate in any place on earth and as you said, you can't defense him, you just can't.
whats the song he's singing in the old video?? somebody help
Un error lo comete cualquiera , pero Labrie.. el ya cometio demaciados xd
Wolf Chan Se le olvida la palabra xd
Como el que cometiste en tu comentario...
i grew up listening to black hole sun and spoonman, and i found this insulting
What song were they performing at 2:00?
James LaBrie doing... Multiple characters in The Astonishing made me lose respect in him more. He could have differentiated them much better.
Dream theater is so pretentious. Their music is almost unlistenable
Robert Cullen What do you mean "almost"?
Bit like the new Opeth albums. They have crawled up their own asses into pretentious crap.
If you're not a fan of the music why comment on the video?...
Labrie: I forgot the fucking words
Jordan: i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/471/227/dd0.png
should've changed his name into LaBeer..
Labrie has kept dream theater from reaching its full potential for a long time. Nothing new here.
Damn.. I was there, and my feelings went a bit like this
Wow, really nice of them to do a tribute
Wtf James your pitch is way off
Wtf James those are not the right words
“I forgot the fucking words”… ok, that’s funny, at least he admitted
At least he got the chorus right, let’s sing along
“Shit, fuck” eh, he’s human, and it was pretty funny
Only then it struck me that it was a fucking tribute and this should not have happened under any circumstance. If he’d forgotten the words to WfS then it would have been funny but for a tribute no way
Old video but seriously, did you not have anything better to do with your time besides dedicating a channel to hating on a band? A band that you're clearly passionate about and spent time researching too. I'll agree they really should fire LaBrie, in fact he's the reason why i'm skeptical to see them live but fuck me I can get over it and move on. I'm not gonna make 16 videos to shit on a band I love because it's a waste of time just to look like a loser in the end. I can still enjoy their studio albums and old live performances and accept that they're not as good as they used to be. Also come on he decided to do a tribute show and forgot the lyrics holy shit how crazy is that!? And then you show a clip of him forgetting lyrics from over 2 decades ago, really?