I am generally one to stay out of matters of opinion and just let people have theirs, but I have to say that Scotty, you are WAY off base.
And yes, it is unrealistic to expect them to do EVERYTHING Portnoy did. If doing those kinds of things were their things, they would have been doing them in the first place, like Petrucci answering questions from the fans or whatever. Obviously, posting on his internet forum and/or social media is not really his thing, otherwise Petrucci would be doing it, not because he feels the need to fill the shoes of a former member, but because it was something he really wanted to do. Forcing himself to do it just to do it would come off as disingenuous.
Then don't say you will.
They didn't say they would. Read Scotty's post a few below yours (or quoted below in this post). They said nothing about how they would do EVERYTHING Portnoy did.
Precisely this. Are they doing all of the exact same things now that Portnoy did during any 2 album span of time? No. But then again, if you take any given 2 album span during the time Portnoy was with the band and compare it to any other 2 album span during the Portnoy era,
he wasn't doing all of the exact same things.
MAYBE if you do a one-to-one matchup of exactly what Portnoy did during a given 2 album span and compare it with what the rest of the band has done over the last two album stretch, you
MIGHT find that they did
a few less things. But they are still doing quite a bit--definitely far above and beyond what most bands do for their fans. A number of those things have already been pointed out. And if you don't like them quite as much as some of the things Portnoy did, that's fine. You are entitled to like what you like. But to argue that the band hasn't stepped up is just plain wrong. To add to what has already been posted:
-They did not one, but TWO live chats with the fans on this forum where WE essentially got to interview the band with our own questions and have the band speak to us in real time. The history behind that is *I* approached John Petrucci with the idea, and he was instantly enthusiastic about doing it? Why? He thought it would be a great way to connect with the fans. And then he and the band liked it so much that he and Wey decided to do it again a second time (and although I am not promising anything, we
may have others in the future).
-We got the drummer documentary. Some may not have liked the way it turned out, but the point is, they did it.
-We did indeed get in studio videos (not sure why it was said above that we have not gotten anything like that).
-We got a forum back on the official site (given, that flopped, but so did some things that Portnoy has done over the years--the point is, they are in fact doing things, even if some of them may not turn out great).
-We not only got a special performance in Boston, but are getting a live release from it (again, not sure why it was posted above that there are no more "special performances").
-We got evening-with shows back.
-Unlike the Black Clouds tour, we have actually gotten headlining tours in DT's home country in support of their last two albums.
-We got the most ambitious video production the band has yet done for a tour.
-We have an intermission on the current tour that is made up mostly of
fan videos (from a band that supposedly hasn't done much to be in touch with its fans since Portnoy left--gee, how does that work exactly?
)
-We have a member of the band who actively checks in with me to see how things are going on this forum, something that NEVER happened during Mr. Portnoy's tenure.
-We have a member of the band who personally looked into one fan's customer service issues with one of the label's distribution outlets because the fan had a bad experience getting their order.
Those are just a few off the top of my head. Qualitatively, you may not like what the band is doing nowadays. That's cool. But, yeah, it
is just silly to argue that the band has somehow dropped the ball and is doing substantially less
quantitatively than they used to. They aren't doing exactly the same things, but they are doing a lot of things that are really quite similar.
About the only thing Portnoy
was doing that isn't really being done yet is the official bootlegs. And that is legit. But (1) as pointed out, Mike is holding the old stuff hostage, and there isn't a lot since then that they could release, so I think they get a pass for a little while; (2) they did give us the Christmas set
for free, which covers the ADTOE tour quite nicely; (3) at the time Portnoy left, it had been well over 2 years since the last set, with no new ones on the horizon, so it isn't like he was even actively doing it either toward the end of his tenure.
Topic: Biggest DT-related disappointment (Read 16533 times)
