Dream Theater

On that note, they really must be putting a lot of faith into this reunion with the big venues they’re playing and going straight into evening with. Between Dreamsonic, DT’s move to a smaller label, and now this, you have to wonder about what’s been going on behind the scenes. Doing a European arena tour as an evening with (no openers/coheadliners) is a pretty big about face from what was going on last summer.

I plan to read that interview later (it seems like a good read), but I need to comment on this.
First, something bugged me when I saw the poster, but I only realized it this morning. It's not 40 years, is it?
Second, those are some pretty big-ass arenas, definitely a couple of steps up from their previous European tour.
Third, I got the presale code this morning and Front of Stage is 80 euros. A bit expensive. Even worse, there's this VIP Front of Stage, where you pay 20 euros more so you can enter 15 minutes earlier. Just that. It doesn't sound very DT-ish to me (I guess they'll add those M&G packages later).
Forth, they announced a new album, but this is an anniversary tour and there are details from (almost) every album cover, which definitely hints at best off list.

The best I could think of right now to justify all these points (and this is only my wishful thinking) is if they're planning a tour with an orchestra.
 
They count their starting year as 1985 when Myung, Petrucci, and Portnoy formed Majesty. They have since commemorated 20 years and 30 years with special career spanning setlists. In 2005 we got the Octavarium tour where they opened and closed with Octavarium songs and then played one song off each album in chronological order. 2015 they opened with a WDADU song and went all the way up to DT12. So they are starting it early but I guess it makes sense that they want to start MP’s first tour back with a bang.

It seems to me like there’s no way they get a song off every album AND play the standard ~40 min of new material. I’m not sure if they can fit that into 3 hours, but it also means almost a third of the set is Portnoy playing songs he didn’t have anything to do with, which I just don’t see Portnoy going for. I have seen some people suggest they go R40 style and work their way backwards and cover each era rather than strictly trying to cover each album. Something like this:

3-4 new songs to start
1 or 2 Mangini songs
BC&SL/Systematic Chaos
Octavarium/TOT/Six Degrees
———Intermission——
Scenes From a Memory
FII/Awake
I&W
WDADU
Big DT16 epic

Encore: Prob something obvious like Metropolis or LTL

It pushes a lot of their best known /fan favorite material into the second set, but that could be good for building fan anticipation for those songs and make the second set full of bangers. Idk there are a lot of ways to make it work.
 
They count their starting year as 1985 when Myung, Petrucci, and Portnoy formed Majesty. They have since commemorated 20 years and 30 years with special career spanning setlists. In 2005 we got the Octavarium tour where they opened and closed with Octavarium songs and then played one song off each album in chronological order. 2015 they opened with a WDADU song and went all the way up to DT12. So they are starting it early but I guess it makes sense that they want to start MP’s first tour back with a bang.

It seems to me like there’s no way they get a song off every album AND play the standard ~40 min of new material. I’m not sure if they can fit that into 3 hours, but it also means almost a third of the set is Portnoy playing songs he didn’t have anything to do with, which I just don’t see Portnoy going for. I have seen some people suggest they go R40 style and work their way backwards and cover each era rather than strictly trying to cover each album. Something like this:

3-4 new songs to start
1 or 2 Mangini songs
BC&SL/Systematic Chaos
Octavarium/TOT/Six Degrees
———Intermission——
Scenes From a Memory
FII/Awake
I&W
WDADU
Big DT16 epic

Encore: Prob something obvious like Metropolis or LTL

It pushes a lot of their best known /fan favorite material into the second set, but that could be good for building fan anticipation for those songs and make the second set full of bangers. Idk there are a lot of ways to make it work.
I think that also playing "To Live Forever" would be particularly fitting, as an encore for example, not only because of the commentary on the longevity of the band it would suggest, but also to pay homage to Charlie Dominici.
 
Yea I assume a Dominici tribute will be worked in there somewhere. Afterlife is a good pick as well and one iirc he wrote the lyrics for.
 
Yeah, I definitely expect to hear WDADU songs this year, especially with the rotating setlists coming back in some form. Afterlife would be my top pick too.
 
Imagine if he said he hates how the guitars turned out. :p
 
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