Dream Theater

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First public statements from Mike Portnoy about the reunion in a Q&A:

They basically ask all the questions everybody has been asking, here's a quick summary:
- It sounds like the logistics behind the reunion haven't really been settled yet. He doesn't know what the band dynamic is like and he's not necessarily looking to be in charge again. He recognizes that they act more as a collective than before and he's going to roll with that.

- If he is going to be given control of anything, his top priority is being in charge of setlists and he would like to see rotating setlists come back

- He doesn't need to play any cover albums live since he gets to do different styles with other projects.

- He is willing to play Mangini era songs but it sounds like he is not really that interested and is not going to push for it himself. Seems like Mangini representation is going to entirely come down to what the rest of the band wants, and (this is me speaking) sounds like if MP is put in charge of setlists again we're not going to see any Mangini era songs played live.

Pretty interesting stuff overall. Nothing too surprising but you definitely get the vibe that he has a very clear vision for what he wants the band to look like while also recognizing he is not in the position of power here. It's weird to watch Mike Portnoy talk about how he would like things to go in Dream Theater knowing full well that it's only going to be that way if that is what the rest of the band wants. Frankly the whole thing makes me wonder how much of a risk there is of this thing imploding.
 

I'm posting this here since the second musician is Trucci and the third is Jordan and honestly, you need to hear Jordan's Oscar-Petersonesque rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it's fucking sweet.

EDIT: Devy is as 10:29
 
Mosh said:
Frankly the whole thing makes me wonder how much of a risk there is of this thing imploding.
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Yeay, the announcement came a little early I think. Have they even rehearsed since then? Mike have some things to do with other projects as well. What will they do in 2024, only write and record new music? Maybe we will know as soon as the $$$ rolls in for signing contracts for headlining festivals in 2025.

Probably no Mangini era songs the first tour at least. They already have a big catalouge of other songs
 
Sth2112 said:
Yeay, the announcement came a little early I think. Have they even rehearsed since then? Mike have some things to do with other projects as well. What will they do in 2024, only write and record new music? Maybe we will know as soon as the $$$ rolls in for signing contracts for headlining festivals in 2025.

Probably no Mangini era songs the first tour at least. They already have a big catalouge of other songs
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I thibk they might put the balls on the table, like Maiden did by playing SOTC on Brave New World Tour (that set wasn't voted by fans like Ed Hunter).
 
I can see them playing some of the stuff that's closer to the Portnoy era and possible crowd pleasers. Bridges in the Sky, The Enemy Inside, Breaking All Illusions, Paralyzed, or maybe something off the last album, for continuity.
Definitely nothing off The Astonishing, though.
 
Sth2112 said:
Yeay, the announcement came a little early I think. Have they even rehearsed since then? Mike have some things to do with other projects as well. What will they do in 2024, only write and record new music? Maybe we will know as soon as the $$$ rolls in for signing contracts for headlining festivals in 2025.

Probably no Mangini era songs the first tour at least. They already have a big catalouge of other songs
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From what I’ve gathered, the five members of the band have not been in a room together since the news of the reunion.

Imo the album will come out in September with a quick summer tour, probably Europe since they did dreamsonic last year in the US. I don’t think this is really going to give them any venue boosts and to be fair DT saw lots of growth and higher profile stuff with Mangini.
 
Mosh said:
Imo the album will come out in September with a quick summer tour, probably Europe since they did dreamsonic last year in the US. I don’t think this is really going to give them any venue boosts and to be fair DT saw lots of growth and higher profile stuff with Mangini.
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That would be a dream situation, if they have an album out next september and ready for touring. It’s just unusual to have dates booked so early and not even have tickets up for sale. Most bands announce a tour about a year in advance now.
 
I don’t think it’s that weird because we’ve been here before. They recorded ADTOE early 2011, did a late summer tour, and then released the album in September. They can do something similar with Portnoy. The only roadblock is that he has a busy early 24 schedule, but they also own their studio now and can be more flexible with studio time.

It would be insane if they didn’t do anything publicly in 2024 after announcing the reunion.
 
I recently listened to all the albums from Images and Words through Six Degrees, except for Falling into Infinity, and I noticed something. I really enjoyed Six Degrees. This was an album that I wasn't particularly impressed with when it came out, right down hated for a while and to this day REFUSE to call the second CD "one song." It's not. You can call it a suite, you can call it a concept album, but it is NOT one song. Octavarium is one song, hell even Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick is one song, but not this.

ANYWAY. I was pleasantly surprised I actually enjoyed it. It is still fairly low on my list of DT albums, but I can no longer say I dislike it. Speaking of Octavarium and for y'all to get an idea, that's an album I didn't like upon first getting it, but is now one of the DT albums I go back to the most and absolutely love it.

I think a lot of the dislike I had for SDoIT was that it was just tough to follow Scenes from a Memory.
 
I think Six Degrees is the most forward they ever pushed their sound, and I usually consider it my favorite of theirs for that reason, I also just genuinely love each song.

Whether or not Six Degrees is one song, idk I go back and forth and can see both sides of it, ultimately I go with artist intent and the only reason it is split up on the CD is due to convenience. It's true that it is closer to Dark Side of the Moon than Thick As a Brick, but the way it ties together themes throughout the piece makes a strong case for it being a single song - and structurally it's not that different from Octavarium. IMO it loses its structure at Solitary Shell. Tonally and dynamically just way outside the rest of the suite and it feels the most like a single song within the suite. I think if you took Solitary Shell out and had Goodnight Kiss go directly into About to Crash (reprise) or an instrumental section similar to the end of Solitary Shell, whether or not it qualifies as a single song would be less disputed. And for me personally, I never listen to tracks from the 2nd disc out of context, just doesn't work for me.

Big fan of Octavarium as well, I think the songwriting on that album is super underrated.
 
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