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1997.04.12 - Dream Theater - Another Hand / The Killing Hand

The Killing Hand is really a song that should need no introduction, but is unfortunately not very well known among most fans. Not considering the original studio album, the only officially recorded performance of the song dates back to April 23rd 1993, to the famous, seminal Live At The Marquee. There most of you should have enjoyed the ungodly amount of wild screams James succeeds in delivering throughout the song. That one performance also happened to be the last time the song made its appearance on stage for more than three years. The circumstances of TKH's comeback are peculiar, and demand a short introduction: after the wrapping of the Awake-and-related tour cycle in December 1995 the band took a couple of months off and then reunited to write the songs that would have made up the bulk of the future 4th studio release. Then all the management issues we are more or less aware of hit, and the band was kept standing by for much longer than they wished. For this reason they took the exceptional decision to go out on a tour with no album to promote, but with the mere goal to reconnect with the fans and with the live environment after almost one year of forced absence from the stages. What came out of this decision were two very short legs, one in the NY area, spanning the first half of December 1996 (The Fix for '96), and a European leg the following April. This shows were remarkable for more than a reason, the first and foremost being the renewed and explosive set of songs that was proposed to the fans. Many a new song made the first appearance in the outer world on the North American stages, like Lines In The Sand, Peruvian Skies and Take Away My Pain. Older material was performed as well, but almost always with new arrangements or inside jams. The Killing Hand is the perfect example of what happens when this restyling doesn't end up well, but EXTREMELY well! The song was enriched with two solo sections, the first of which more than vaguely reminiscent of a certain Christmas song, featuring Derek Sherinian and prominently John Petrucci at the top of their game, bringing up the song a couple of notches from the already good Marquee performance. The one difference between the 1996 and the 1997 legs of this preview tour that needs to be noted is the condition of James LaBrie. Having suffered from the horrific shrimp accident in December 1994, and his airways far from having completely recovered, James was going through one of the darkest periods of his professional life. This is very evident and his struggle with the critical loss of range can be felt as well as heard in the 1996 bootlegs. Surprisingly, though, the first performances of the 1997 leg, like the one caught on this video, showcase a James LaBrie nearly at the top of his game. Why so, you may ask. Of course nobody but the Pirate himself (and maybe not even him) can say precisely what was going on with his voice those days, what and why triggered ON nights and OFF nights. Still, a vast collection of DT bootlegs may evidence the existence of a reasonable pattern: throughout the first legs of the FII tour, as well as this preview tour, James enjoyed good shape, vocal clarity, range and power, even delivering extremely positive and daring performance such as this one. However, the chronical damage inflicted by the hematoma and his very physically demanding approach to singing made so that this good initial shape wouldn't last for much more than the first couple of dates, before a steep loss of range would ensue. This trend is mostly evident in 1997, but still visible, to a lesser scale, in 1998, 1999 and, even less pronounced, on later tours. Still, all of this is really unnecessary DT-scholar-ness (a bad way to mean absolute nerdery), so forget all this questionable shit and enjoy the video and the music!