Birthday Weekend Round-Up (3/31 - 04/02)

( FYI: This post was started on Wednesday 04/05/06 and finished Friday 04/07/06. I've just been insanely busy to finish edit and post it. Sorry!!!)

Hello Spider-fans!

It’s a glorious Wednesday here in NYC and . . . . ok, I’m lying. It’s not a glorious day. It’s partly cloudy and cold again. A bitter turn from the beautiful weather that I had for my birthday weekend. (Side note: Just got to a give a big shout of thanks to the Big Guy and Mother Nature for that awesome birthday present! End side note.) We actually have snow right now!! The warmth of spring was just an April’s Fools joke I suppose.

My birthday weekend was great. I wish I had more descriptive words right now, but I am at work and the brain hasn’t checked in yet. Friday night, I went out to Woodhaven House, and Irish Pub & Restaurant near my house that has great food. It was a mix of family, old friends and new friends. A great birthday night.

Saturday, was a mellow day of lessons. The highlight was going to Radio City Music Hall to see my favorite band Dream Theater perform the last concert of its Octavarium tour, and a celebration of 20 years of making music. To say the concert was outstanding would be an understatement. This show made into the top three concerts I have ever seen.

Dream Theater started out playing a couple of songs from the new album, and then went on a career retrospective playing one song from ever album they have every done, even one from their demos when they were known as Majesty. The first set ended with the song “The Spirit Carries On” from their concept album Scenes From a Memory. There was a 15 minute intermission. We were all excited as they still have three more albums to play through. Instrumental music to the Overture of the title track of the album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence started before the curtain rose. As soon as the crowd recognized it, they went nuts. The curtain opens and there's a 25-30 piece orchestra playing on the back part of the stage. The crowd went nuts even more. Dream Theater then came out and performed the 42 minute Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence in its entirity.

The orchestra stayed on stage for the rest of the show as Dream Theater performed Vacant from the album Train of Thought. The only album left was Octavarium, of which I knew they were going to perform the 24 minute title track. They didn't dissappoint with that. But first they played two other songs from that album. One in particular that was extremely touching, but at the same time painful, was "Sacrificed Sons," which is about 9-11, particularly the Twin Towers and NYC. Dream Theater is a New York band. This is their home. So it was very apropos to play that song here. And I now every New Yorker in the crowd was touched as I was. The encore of the show was the song "Metropolis Pt. 1" from their album Images and Words. A fitting end for the show.

I know I wrote a bit about the show, and if you're not a Dream Theater you don't get what I wrote. Let's just say that it was an amazing experience. And you if you have like progressive rock or metal in any fashion, you owe it to yourself to check out their music. I was lit up on the train ride home. A high that came from an evening of incredibe music. I can't wait for this show to come out on DVD.

Sunday was a day of relaxation, which I needed. I don't get many of those. Pictures of the birthday night to come soon! I promise!