Few bands do musical shock and awe quite as well as Dream Theater.

And that’s exactly how the prog/metal quintet left fans feeling — in the best possible way, — on Sunday, Sept,. 21 at Detroit’s Fox Theatre.

Blending advanced instrumental skills, tight ensemble prowess, an ambitious compositional approach and conceptual daring-do, Dream Theater delivered two-and-a-half-hours of aural fireworks, in two parts. Make that three, as the 20-plus minute encore featured the suite-like title track from the band’s 1995 EP “A Change of Seasons” — preceded by a clip from the 1989 film “Dead Poets Society” that partly inspired it — making it a kind of show within a show.

Dream Theater had a couple of purposes going into the night. It’s continuing to celebrate its 40th anniversary, since forming in 1

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