Dream Theater

Mosh said:
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.
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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.
 
Mosh said:
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.
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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.
 
TheMercenary said:
blabbermouth.net

JOHN PETRUCCI Completes Recording Guitars For New DREAM THEATER Album: 'I'm So Happy With How They Came Out'

DREAM THEATER's John Petrucci has completed laying down the guitar tracks for the band's sixteenth studio album. The upcoming effort will mark the progressive metal legends' first LP since drummer Mike Portnoy's return to the group last October. Earlier today (Wednesday, May 1),Petrucci shared a...
blabbermouth.net blabbermouth.net
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Imagine if he said he hates how the guitars turned out. :p
 
Saapanael said:
Imagine if he said he hates how the guitars turned out. :p
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Also, what's with him and the obsessive tendency to compare the sound to chocolate?

It's like a T-Rex made out of chocolate cake lit on fire
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I remember that "chocolate cake" was supposed to be at least DT12 already, back in the day... and it wasn't. I mean, there's probably no DT album where the guitars would sound like chocolate, now Sabbath, maybe, but DT? Not really. Let the chocolate whale go, Ahab.
 
The guitar sounds have been the only thing about DT albums that you can always count on sounding good. Every album seems to have some other weird sonic quality but I’ve never had a problem with the guitar sound, although I do wish he would layer less guitars sometimes.

Based on social media it sounds like MP has written the Setlist, so he’s fully back in charge there. It’s an open question on whether the album be out by then? I would put money on “yes” but who knows.

Additionally, at first I took MP’s comment to mean there is a singular setlist, although I guess even when they were rotating there was always a master setlist they drew from, so that could be the case here. I would bet at least 75% of the show will be locked in with a few rotating slots throughout. Initially I thought they would play it safe with a “hits” (using that term very loosely) oriented set but since they seem to be going all out immediately I’m guessing we’re going to get a lot of long requested songs including both songs that weren’t touched during the Mangini era and songs that hadn’t been played with Portnoy since 2005 or earlier. I’m thinking The Glass Prison and Octavarium are close to locks. I also wouldn’t be surprised if MP picks a couple Mangini era songs that were never played live. Best of Times and Shattered Fortress seem like possibilities as well.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
I remember that "chocolate cake" was supposed to be at least DT12 already, back in the day... and it wasn't. I mean, there's probably no DT album where the guitars would sound like chocolate, now Sabbath, maybe, but DT? Not really. Let the chocolate whale go, Ahab.
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According to my knowledge, the first time he used chocolate cake to describe his guitar tone was during ADTOE (there's a video where JP used the term), and the succession to the chocolate cake tone was the T-Rex tone, which in my view is what he had on DT12 and Distance Over Time. I also remember him talking about combining chocolate cake and T-Rex. "Like a T-Rex made out of chocolate cake lit on fire" is hilarious, but it's another continuation of that tone.
 
Guys from Prog Report did a video guessing the Dream Theater setlist nd Portnoy retweeted them saying they got a lot of it right.
Now, he probably meant he they got DT's way of thinking right, because I doubt they started discussing setlist right in the middle of recording a new album.
Even if they did, and guys from Prog Report guessed it it right (I have only skimmed the video), I can't shake this feeling that I'll be a bit underwhelmed. Then again, last couple of years, a lot of their setlist "looked" underwhelming but worked really well live.
On that topic, I'm still thinking should I go or not. 80 euros seems really to much considering I saw them two years ago for 32 euros in a much smaller venue.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
I remember that "chocolate cake" was supposed to be at least DT12 already, back in the day... and it wasn't. I mean, there's probably no DT album where the guitars would sound like chocolate, now Sabbath, maybe, but DT? Not really. Let the chocolate whale go, Ahab.
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This just illustrates how pointless it is to discuss sound through colorful words that aren't generally agreed upon (ish) as terms.
 
Spambot said:
Guys from Prog Report did a video guessing the Dream Theater setlist nd Portnoy retweeted them saying they got a lot of it right.
Now, he probably meant he they got DT's way of thinking right, because I doubt they started discussing setlist right in the middle of recording a new album.
Even if they did, and guys from Prog Report guessed it it right (I have only skimmed the video), I can't shake this feeling that I'll be a bit underwhelmed. Then again, last couple of years, a lot of their setlist "looked" underwhelming but worked really well live.
On that topic, I'm still thinking should I go or not. 80 euros seems really to much considering I saw them two years ago for 32 euros in a much smaller venue.
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My worry with the setlist is that with Portnoy back in charge he won’t be considering all the awesome deep cuts and rarities that were sprinkled throughout the Mangini era, songs that pretty much everybody got to hear since the setlists were generally static. Even just recent focus on classic albums (I&W and SFAM in their entireties not that long ago). Back in the day MP would pay attention to what the band had played live recently in a given city, I hope he’s done research on what they’ve been playing on the last few tours now. Of course I expect there to be a lot of classics on this tour, but there were a lot of songs they didn’t touch in the Mangini era and I hope MP is aware of those.

Regarding their setlist, well, of course they got a lot right. A few of those are undeniable classics that I would be kinda surprised not to hear.
These songs seem highly possible to me:
The Glass Prison (not an overplayed song, but one fans have been clamoring for for years)
As I Am
Constant Motion
The Mirror/Lie
1928/SDV
Panic Attack
PMU
Spirit
Learning to Live
Metropolis

I would expect at least half of the songs from that list alone.

Breaking All Illusions is a sensible Mangini era pick, although I wouldn’t mind one more thrown in there. That seems plausible though.

They are not going to play a medley.

Best of Times seems like an obvious pick. I might predict The Shattered Fortress instead (maybe after TGP even). But having Glass Prison, Mirror, and TBOT feels like it’s a little too MP centric. Not to mention Constant Motion. TBOT will get played someday, not sure if this tour will be the time for it.

Overall I would be pretty excited for that show and think it strikes a pretty good balance of being career spanning, playing it safe, and throwing in a few rarities.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
The Glass Prison would be the absolute best opener they could possibly choose for this tour.

1. It's a Portnoy song and features him heavily.
2. It hasn't been played in forever.
3. It's a fucking power move.
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Absolutely agreed. My other pick would be Metropolis pt. 1, they haven't done that one in 7 years oddly enough.
 
I think I remember Trucci saying that the hardest part was the unison in Blind Faith, but that's ages ago, does anyone happen to know if he's updated it since?
 
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