When the Keyboard Breaks: Live in Chicago

When the Keyboard Breaks is a live album by progressive metal group Liquid Trio Experiment 2. The album was recorded during a live show of Liquid Tension Experiment in Chicago, IL. The album came about when, during the track "Universal Mind", Jordan Rudess' Roland Fantom-G8 keyboard started playing half-step higher notes on every fourth key. Following the song, he went off stage to see if his technical crew could fix the keyboard. In the meantime, the other three musicians decided to improvise until Jordan was ready to come back. Jordan was on the phone with Roland in Japan for at least 20 minutes trying to figure out what was wrong. The other three just continued to jam with drummer Mike Portnoy giving updates every now and then (the determining point for the track splices). In the end, Rudess took John Petrucci's guitar and started jamming, then Petrucci took Tony Levin's bass, and Levin played Chapman Stick. When that jam was over, Portnoy ended up taking Levin's bass and Charlie Benante ended up playing drums. The keyboard was never fixed that night.

The production of the album was not official, as it was taken from a live stereo recording from the mix off stage. Thus there was no way for it to be properly mixed so everything is how the audience heard it.

The name of the album is a pun on the Liquid Tension Experiment track When the Water Breaks from Liquid Tension Experiment 2.

Track listing

Track 8 contains an excerpt of "How Many More Times" by Led Zeppelin.

Personnel

• Tony Levin - Bass, Chapman Stick
• Mike Portnoy - Drums,
• John Petrucci - Guitar

Other Personnel

• Jordan Rudess - Keyboards on track 1, Guitar from 2:00 of Track 7
• John Petrucci - Bass from 2:40 of Track 7
• Mike Portnoy - Bass on Track 8
• Charlie Benante - Drums on Track 8