March 23, 2002 - Philadelphia, PA - Dream Theater

Venue:  Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA

This was the third concert I had ever attended, and it still stands as the only show I've ever seen in Philadelphia.  My friend Nick's favorite band was Dream Theater and through him I had a period where I was also pretty heavily into them.  Nick bought our friend Ryan and I tickets in the balcony for what I assume was the closest show we could attend.

Nick drove us all the way to the show on the day of the show in his dad's white panel van.  Ryan slept in the back for most of the drive.  We ate a cruddy little diner a block away from the venue.  It had bars behind the windows, to prevent break-ins and we walked in around either 530 or 630 when they had less than an hour to close. 

Upper Darby, PA is not a great area of Philadelphia and the long line of progressive rock fans waiting outside the venue stood out awkwardly against the rest of the population.  Dream Theater was touring their double album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and the show was great.  At the time, it was enough that they were playing such fast, complicated songs, but years later I look back onto my time with Dream Theater as a strange thing.

I was largely adopting my friend Nick's love of the band, even though I was never, nor would I ever be, a big fan of progressive metal.  The whole things did give me a respect for musicians that were at the top of their technical game.

We drove directly home, the 8-9 hours that it takes to get across Pennsylvania.

Ryan and I slept most of the way, but I remember being awoken by a startled and sleep-deprived Nick, who swore that he had seen a sheep cross the road.  We took his hallucination as a sign that we should stop for a little rest before going the rest of the way.