The Number of the Beast

Until recently i owned the bootleg (not official) version of this show, which took place in Paris in October 24, 2002.
Now I got this official bootleg and the quality of the mix is much better than the audience recording of the bootleg - The mix is so good that at times you forget this is a bootleg.

About the music - the addition of the keyboard instead of a second guitar gives the songs a pleasant emotion. The best example is at children of the damned - just listen to the intro or the solo.
I'm a bit disappointed that it is used only a little during the show.
I'm also disappointed that instead of the famous duel guitar harmonies of Dave & Adrian, they didn't try a duel guitar-keyboard but instead went on one guitar only.

James LaBrie - I think he does his best. He has no problem reaching the high notes but his problem is that Bruce Dickinson he is not and where bruce's gives the songs his power and intensity james lacks.
Sometimes his voice sounds so weak & frail (listen to invaders and hallowed) putting ththat I feel like e original album just to hear Bruce's voice.
What I do like about james though is that when he holds his voice for a few seconds on the same note he starts vibrating his voice.

The other musicians, are great but this is no surprise to me since each musician in Dream Theater, excluding the singer is a true virtuoso at his instrument, again I'm only disappointed that I didn't hear the keyboard more often. Most of the songs are played almost identical to the originals except for gangland in which they played a nice slow-groovy version.

The crowd was also good. Just imagine what a treat it was for them to be in a Dream Theater concert when suddenly the whole setting changes to Iron Maiden and Dream Theater are actually starting to play Iron Maiden who must have had quite a few fans there.

I say that if you play a tribute and you play it identical to the original, then at least play it well and Dream Theater does that. The reason they decided to play a tribute concert at the first place was for their own fun and I believe you shouldn't criticize something which is done for the fun (and the fans) since this is the very essence of the music we all love.

So the sound is good, the performance is good and if you love both Iron Maiden and Dream Theater I can certainly recommend this album to you.