The second official live release from Dream Theater. A discussion goes on about James LaBire. The common opinion is that he's has lost most of his ability to sing it seems, which I immediately refused to agree on. Those who say so, are still comparing him to what he did on "Images & Words". Lets face it, that album will never be repeated. James will never again in his life sing as good as he did then. If you've heard what he did at the end of the Awake tour, I can say Once In a Live Time is a much greater achievement.

The thing that they did on A "Change of Seasons", I think, is quite cool and some parts of it showing up occasionally in the show. Of course, "Take The Time" is probably one of the best songs that Dream Theater has ever written and I think it's a good thing that they're doing it live. This is where the LaBrie discussion appear. If you listen to the song you'll hear that he hasn't got that same ability from "Images..." but that is just in the first half of if, he's much better in the later on... CD2 in general shows a good performance from LaBrie.

Derek Sherinian does a really cool piano solo, sounding something like Rick Wakeman in a blues mood. Mike Portnoy does a really good job too, with his Neil Peart influenced drum solo. He always manages to ge the crowds attention. Then there's the guitar solo of John Petrucci. The first part of it is just sounds and fast playing without any style at all. Actually, it sounds a little like the guitar solos from Tracy G (Dio), and he has never been really appreciated by anyone. Later on in the solo, John puts in some more style that is really him, though. Really good too...

When it's time for "Hollow Years", the band goes into an acoustic mood and does the song just to continue with the other ballad of "Falling into Infinity", "Take Away my Pain". On this one, instead of the guitar solo, there's a saxophone solo by Jay Beckenstein. Jay is the the same guy that did the sax solo on "Another Day" on "Images & Words".