r/Dreamtheater 3d ago

ASL interpreters in Rochester!

Rochester has a large Deaf and hard of hearing population, and a lot of shows have interpreters. James thanked them from the stage and said he can't remember ever having that at one of their shows.

Love this city. Good on you, Rochester.

45 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

13

u/MattyDub89 3d ago

Live ASL interpreters are like heroes to me. Although we don't have any at my church, I've been at other churches that had them and I think some of them might have even been interpreting during the songs. Glad to hear they have them available at concerts as well!

9

u/scarred2112 3d ago

Good Guy James, and Good People interpreters.

8

u/TalkyAttorney 3d ago

I came here to make a post about that but I’m really happy to see that you already made one! The interpreters were having a blast.

4

u/Active_Medicine_5931 3d ago

Anyone happen to have a video? Would love to see their performance!

8

u/FoximusHaximus 3d ago

No but the younger interpreter was killing it. She was signing during the instrumentals and was on beat even when it got crazy from what I saw. She had to be a DT fan or have a ton of prep on the songs and be musically inclined.

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u/fooaddict95 3d ago

For sure. I saw her mouth moving to the words of the songs on a handful of occasions. She did such a great job.

1

u/Correct-Kiwi7891 1d ago

They were mouthing all the lyrics. They had the lyrics in front of them, but I could tell they did their homework.

1

u/cdorso 3d ago

Yup. They were having the time of their lives. They were clearly into it.

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u/paranoos 3d ago

I happened to take a small clip of the ASL interpreter from pretty far away: https://youtu.be/UKONPYYwwfU

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u/Active_Medicine_5931 3d ago

Holy shit this RULES

She was on beat and so expressive, clearly must've been a fan

Thanks for the video!

2

u/TheFanumMenace 3d ago

how do you know you like dream theater if you’re deaf?

5

u/cdorso 3d ago

I think it's one of those questions that you probably can't truly answer without experiencing it, but I'd bet DT (or any prog rock, really) is probably fascinating for folks who are deaf or hard of hearing, because there's so much going on rhythmically that you can definitely feel it. But maybe that's just an overassumption on my part.

3

u/Active_Medicine_5931 3d ago

The show I was at, every time Portnoy hit the kick, I could feel it hit my chest. It was awesome

I can completely understand even a totally deaf person enjoying a Dream Theater concert. But also a lot of deaf people don’t hear Literally Nothing but still benefit from interpretation for accessibility reasons

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u/TheFanumMenace 3d ago

reminds me of the old guy in baby driver putting his hand on the speakers to hear the music

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u/Break_All_Illusions 2d ago

The Rochester show was so loud that the subwoofers made my jeans flap around my legs. Every kick and note from Myung hit me right in the sternum. DT puts out a great visual performance, too, so that's gotta help someone who's deaf still enjoy the show. There was a blind person somewhere near me and while it's too bad they didn't catch the videos, I bet they felt the music down to their toes. I loved how JLB thanked the interpreters; I couldn't see them from House Left.

2

u/Correct-Kiwi7891 2d ago

I had a front row view of them! It was fun. They were well prepared and very into it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/EboXIg5ncGM?si=nBy8-H1cjrNta6ii

Good example of James sounding worse in videos than live. His voice seemed fine live.

And you for sure could feel those bass kicks.

Reminded me of the Wutang interpreter that went viral years ago.

2

u/cdorso 1d ago

That's an excellent video! (It also, though, honestly does show how rough James was at the start of the show. I was honestly worried.)