Dream Theater

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Mosh said:
if JP has to pick between JLB and the ex-drummer then the answer is obvious. Just ask Steve Harris how replacing the singer worked out.
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The singer from Haken's performances inThe Shattered Fortress shows suggest that JLB is not irreplaceable.
 
At this stage though? James LaBrie has been Dream Theater's singer for 12 consecutive albums since 1992. Changing the singer after 25 years would be a crazy decision and while nobody would claim that he's a great singer, he sounds like Dream Theater.
 
Exactly. It's really that simple. I'm sure there are people who can just as good a job (if not better) but JLB is the voice of the band and has been for nearly 30 years.

Another example is Priest. Ripper could pull off all the Halford material and it still wasn't anymore successful than Maiden with Blaze. You generally can't replace the singer this far into your career.

I would also argue JR would be difficult to replace. Maybe not impossible, but first of all you'd have to search really hard to find someone who possesses his abilities and tech savvy. Then you're breaking up the writing partnership that has created the core of DT since Scenes From a Memory.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
The only people who are irreplaceable in Dream Theater, the two people who have come to define the "sound of Dream Theater", are John Petrucci and James LaBrie.
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So, following your logic "Ytse Jam", "Erotomania" and "Dance of Eternity" do not exemplify the Dream Theater sound?" ;)
 
James, JP and JM would be hard or impossible to replace. They are the core. Jordan is older so I could see someone stepping into replace him, bring back Derek would be the best choice if this was the case. I would love to see Portnoy back in the band as they wrote the best stuff with him but I don't see that happening unfortunately.
 
Collin said:
James, JP and JM would be hard or impossible to replace.
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"impossible" is not a relevant word in the music business. No more Tarja in Nightwish, no more Andre Matos in Angra, no more Mike Portnoy in DT... these bands are still standing -and in some cases, they are more popular than they have ever been.

As far as I'm concerned, these bands mentionned above have just been the shadows of themselves for years (6DOIT is the last really good DT album in my opinion), which doesn't prevent me from recognizing they have managed their recent careers very well (except for Angra) and that they have offered good live performances. But once again, we're talking more about "business" than art here.

After all, we live in a world in which AC DC without Malcolm Young and with Axl Rose sells out stadiums in minutes. So nothing is "impossible". ;)
 
Black Wizard said:
Their live performances are miles better since MP left.
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Saapanael said:
Really? That's the opposite of what people usually say.
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I guess it depends on whether you prefer their "professional" side (Luna Park) or their "rock n'roll" side (5YIALT). For the record, DT has stopped changing setlists every night in 2007. Could it have something to do with their move to Roadrunner -which I think has tamed, even sterilized, many bands?
 
Black Bart said:
I guess it depends on whether you prefer their "professional" side (Luna Park) or their "rock n'roll" side (5YIALT). For the record, DT has stopped changing setlists every night in 2007. Could it have something to do with their move to Roadrunner -which I think has tamed, even sterilized, many bands?
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That's not true. Check out Portnoy's tourography for every set list until he left: http://www.mikeportnoy.com/dates/MPTourography/TourList.aspx?bandId=6

They obviously stopped changing set lists because that was Portnoy's thing and he left.
 
Yea Im conflicted on that one. I miss rotating set lists but the static set lists have also been very strong. I remember being grateful that they didn't change the setlist on the DT12 tour because I thought it was perfect as is and wanted to see it myself.

The ADTOE tour is an ideal middle ground imo. Have two or three set lists rotating so that there are still surprises but everyone gets to see the tour highlights.
 
I have mixed feelings about a setlist that changes during the same tour. Depends on how well you know the material. I like to know the setlist ahead of time so I can familiarize myself with any tracks I don't know well. It is a roll of the dice.

I remember on Rush's Clockwork Angels tour (leg 1). Every other night they were alternating between deep tracks (Middletown Dreams, The Pass) with better known songs (Limelight, Bravado). Of course, the night I saw them turned out to be the Limelight night, not Middletown Dreams. I was not happy. Should have traveled and seen the previous night.
 
I'm also iffy about rotating setlists. I think that Portnoy's influence helped keep the band more spontaneous, especially with the jamming they used to do at gigs, but as a fan I like to know what I'm getting into.

I was discussing this recently in another thread, but Clutch changes their setlist around every night. Each member takes turns picking the setlist, sometimes taking the city into account, sometimes just playing whatever they feel like. I know that I've personally gone to two or three Clutch shows after looking at their most recent setlists and thought, "Oh man, they're playing some of their new, super melodic bluesy stuff!" then shown up to a gig and been treated to the bassist's choice of 90% early hardcore Clutch songs yelling like cavemen.

From the musician's standpoint, I think Dream Theater is at a point in their career where they are becoming/have become a package band, same with Maiden. They put together a package and really drill it while touring the same set every night and I think that works to their advantage. This is definitely true of LaBrie, who is able to train his voice to a specific set of songs instead of being thrown for a loop when Mike Portnoy whimsically decides he wants to put The Killing Hand on the setlist.
 
Black Bart said:
"impossible" is not a relevant word in the music business. No more Tarja in Nightwish, no more Andre Matos in Angra, no more Mike Portnoy in DT... these bands are still standing -and in some cases, they are more popular than they have ever been.
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In the case of Nightwish, the rest of the band considered her to be a disruptive influence to the band and detailed such to her in a letter (which was somewhat unfairly made public). In Dream Theater's case, the disruptive member of the band removed himself (sort of by accident) and is now publicly making his negative feelings towards one of his former bandmates known. I guess bands can become bigger and better when a disruptive member leaves (imagine if Axl left GNR!) and we don't truly know how important someone is until they're not there.
 
Technically yea anyone could be replaced, but there are key members who shape the sound of the band and things would be dramatically different without them. Tarja is a good vocalist, but Nightwish still sounds like Nightwish because they still have Tuomas. If he was replaced, the band might not survive. Same thing with Iced Earth. They've burned through a ton of members but Jon Schaffer has created a signature sound for the band that transcends whoever is in the band. So it really depends on who you're replacing.
 
I would love to see Jordan Rudess replaced, and he is replaceable. I have nothing against him personally but his masturbating space monkey circus has ruined so many of their instrumental sections since his inception on Scenes from a Memory. Look back on the instrumental sections in the pre-Rudess songs and observe how well they flowed with Kevin Moore's natural patches and Derek Sherinian's tasteful playing, and compare them to tracks like Endless Sacrifice and The Dark Eternal Night...
 
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