Dream Theater "Once in a LIVEtime (2CDS, USA, Elektra Records, 62308-2)"

Once in a LIVEtime is the second live album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, released in 1998. It is their second live release. It was produced and recorded by Kevin Shirley during the European leg of the Touring into Infinity world tour, at the Bataclan theater in Paris.

Jay Beckenstein of Spyro Gyra plays alto saxophone on "Take Away My Pain". Beckenstein had previously played on the song "Another Day" on the album Images and Words.

The album cover, one of two designed by Storm Thorgerson for the band, shows an overhead view of the ancient Roman theatre in Orange, France set into a head of a monk. Like Falling into Infinity it does not feature the band's traditional logo due to Thorgerson's distaste in working with existing band logo designs. When Dream and Day Unite and Dream Theater are the only other albums without the classic font (although the font can be seen on the spine of Dream Theater).

Tracklist:

Disc 1

1. A Change of Seasons (Part 1: The Crimson Sunrise) 03:56  
2. A Change of Seasons (Part 2: Innocence) 03:06  
3. Puppies on Acid 01:24  
4. Just Let Me Breathe 05:53   
5. Voices 10:35   
6. Take the Time 12:20   
7. Derek Sherinian Piano Solo 01:54  
8. Lines in the Sand 13:13
9. Scarred 09:28
10. A Change of Seasons (Part 4: The Darkest of Winters) 03:18  
11. The Ytse Jam 04:09  
12. Mike Portnoy Drum Solo 07:00  

Time:  01:16:16  

Disc 2

1. Trial of Tears 14:11  
2. Hollow Years 07:01
3. Take Away My Pain 06:17  
4. Caught in a Web 05:16   
5. Lie 06:46   
6. Peruvian Skies 07:50  
7. John Petrucci Guitar Solo 08:07  
8. Pull Me Under 08:15  
9. Metropolis (medley) 06:17  
10. Learning to Live (medley) 04:13   
11. A Change of Seasons (Part 7: The Crimson Sunset) 03:49   

Time:  01:18:02  

Throughout the album, parts of songs originally recorded by other artists are played by the band.

• The segue from "Burning My Soul" into "Voices" features John Petrucci playing the first half of John Williams' "Force Theme" from Star Wars.
• The ending of "Take the Time" contains the solo from Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" and the main riff from Led Zeppelin's "Moby Dick".
• "Derek Sherinian Piano Solo" contains themes that would later be used in the track "Platt Opus" by Platypus (a progressive rock supergroup of which Sherinian and John Myung were members).
• Before the beginning of "Trial of Tears", and at the end of the song, Petrucci plays the famous five tone motif from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The opening of the same song contains portions of the Rush songs "Xanadu" and "The Trees" played by Mike Portnoy.
• "Peruvian Skies" contains portions of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" and Metallica's "Enter Sandman".
• "John Petrucci Guitar Solo" contains portions of Liquid Tension Experiment's "Paradigm Shift" (a progressive rock supergroup of which Portnoy and Petrucci are members), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", and themes that would later be used in "Gemini", which appeared on Petrucci's 2020 solo album Terminal Velocity.

Recording information:

Recorded at Le Bataclan - Paris, France on June 25th 1998 with Manor Mobiles.

Mastered at Absolute Audio, NYC.

Kevin Shirley - engineering, production

Alex Goodison - assistant engineer

Ian Dyckoff - assistant engineer

Rich Alvy - assistant engineer

Leon Zervos - mastering at Absolute Audio, New York City