A dramatic turn for Dream Theater: Playing Jakarta.

Byline: Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Leave the protracted debates about new drummer Mike Mangini alone: Dream Theater successfully turned its two-hour Jakarta concert into a form of mass hypnotism that gave unforgettable exhilaration to more than 12,000 progressive metal maniacs who flooded the Mata Elang Indoor Stadium in Ancol, North Jakarta, last Saturday.

Some grumbled over John Myung's barely audible melodic bass playing. Others complained about how unprofessional Variant Entertainment was in organizing ticketing and managing entrance queues. But the band's first appearance on Indonesian soil, worth the 26 years' of waiting, clearly overshadowed such petty problems.

The progressive metal aficionados, which included local musicians such as Ian Antono, Achmad Albar and Lilo, did not stop headbanging and singing along.

The set-list, which only slightly differed from their Seoul gig two days earlier, was brilliantly composed of a …