Favorite set list (not show) of the four featured on official live DVDs

[KevShmev]

Note: I am talking about the main set list on each release; not any extras included. 

And I am talking about strictly the set list, not which show you like for any particular reason (editing, crowd, etc.). 

This is basically looking at each set list, leaving everything else out of the equation, and picking a favorite.

I'm giving the slight nod to the new one, just slightly over Luna Park.  Budokan is a distant third, with Score last.

[Madman Shepherd]

LALP!

I have grown to love BTFW.  I love how bold it is not to have Metropolis or Pull Me Under.  It made me appreciate TSF more.  I also have always thought Awake was a bit underappreciated even though everyone claims to love it.  A lot of those songs seemed to be ignored on a lot of past tours so performing the second half of the album was a very cool decision. 

All things considered, LALP was the pefect mix of most albums.  Yeah, you gotta ignore some and that sucks but we got a good chunk of ADTOE, my favorite album, along with some cool gems like Fortune in Lies and especially underappreciated songs like 6:00. 

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Definitely the new one.

I love Budokan's setlist, I really do; but that one's missing some Awake stuff.

Score's setlist had potential, as most of that tour's setlists were incredibly amazing. That being said, I Walk Beside You, The Answer Lies Within, and the subpar version of Vacant (the orchestra didn't really do justice to the song) bring the setlist down a bit. They had so many amazing songs being rotated and I remember expecting updates of the setlist as the show was taking place and going like...what? really? It was an amazing thing they performed the whole Six Degrees, tho.

Also, I don't think it was a great idea to put I Walk Beside You just after the kickass The Root of all Evil opener. It felt like the energy built from it went down real fast. Panic Attack could have been much a better choice, IMO.

LALP had a great setlist, and I really enjoyed the two shows I saw from that tour. The only thing I missed from those setlist was the lack of a big epic song, a'la ACOS or Octavarium in the setlist.

[YtseJamittaja]

Budokan. The most enjoyable setlist.

[jammindude]

I'm just realizing for the first time that LAB was their first *full length* live video release.   

[Mosh]

BTFW.

Budokan is probably the most consistently good, but it doesn't have as many heavy hitters that make it essential.

Score is the total opposite. It is jam packed with songs that you won't get anywhere else that are stunning live. Six Degrees and Octavarium in the same show? Hell yes. Not to mention the orchestra. Unfortunately it doesn't flow quite as well as BTFW.

BTFW has the strengths of both of these setlists. It has the heavy hitters, lots of never before played songs, and it flows amazingly well. You can tell they put a ton of thought into this setlist. It's one hit after another, not one dull moment.

[BRGM]

Chaos in Motion

[Rodni Demental]

I actually really like the song selection on Chaos in Motion (not necessarily the versions of those songs), but I suppose it's not really a setlist, even if it's somewhat representative of the average setlist of that tour.

I don't see why Live and Tokyo and Scenes from New York aren't on here, but I suppose if they were it'd essentially be concerts made up of I&W and SFAM respectively. If we're talking about songs alone, then Livetime also has a great setlist but with the confusion between the DVD and the Live album, I can understand why that wouldn't be here.

I want to click Score because I feel it's underappreciated as I do like how different it is, and the first set with the timeline thing going through the albums was pretty cool I thought, and the second set and encore containing Six Degrees and Octavarium, that's still full of win.

So as it is, and without tricking myself, I honestly really like Luna Parks setlist, so LALP it is.

Also, I don't think it was a great idea to put I Walk Beside You just after the kickass The Root of all Evil opener. It felt like the energy built from it went down real fast. Panic Attack could have been much a better choice, IMO.

Ahh.. I know right, Panic Attack so needed to be on Score!

[Sad Wings]

Budokan is a distant third, with Score last.

What do you like about the Budokan setlist Kev?  I think it and Score are both equally lackluster.  Budokan has Disappear and Only a Matter of Time, while Score has Raise the Knife, The Spirit Carries On, and the title track to Octavarium.  I'd say the Score show was more disappointing given the hype but its setlist is slightly better than Budokan's.  It's very telling that, as of this writing, Score is last place in this poll in spite of how hyped the show was at the beginning of 2006.

[jammindude]

Disagree about the energy level on I Walk Beside You.   You may not like the song, but the audience was *totally into it*...   I was there, and I've never seen so much energy from a crowd.   Everyone was just freakin NUTS for that whole show, including IWBY.    The moment when the hands all went into the air clapping was pretty amazing.  Because usually when I see that at a live show, it's just the first few rows, or the front half of the lower section.   But I remember looking back and I swear there wasn't a single person not clapping from front row of the stage, to the back row of the balcony.   It was a really magical moment.

[Rodni Demental]

Yeah, you could tell the audience was into it, even on the DVD, it just didn't feel like the right song to be there though. Then again, JP and MP probably like the song, and all their families were there so maybe it was the better choice for the night from that perspective. And they were hardly gonna play something like Never Enough that night. 

Furthermore, we got a great live version of IWBY, has more life and energy than the studio version imo. Still.. Would be nice to have that definitive live version of Panic Attack aswell. I wonder if they'll pull that one out again someday soooooon.

[Sad Wings]

Panic Attack probably would've gotten just as good a reaction as IWBY.  Most of the "metal" songs from their recent albums got good reactions from what I can tell.  The band could probably just cover Pantera's Walk and it'd go over real well since it's cool to thump thump thump mosh mosh mosh too.

The only reason why IWBY was included on Score is because Panic Attack was on the Gigantour DVD with a grand total of one other DT song.  I don't think MP thought These Walls came across well live and, yeah, they weren't gonna play Never Enough.  The other Octavarium songs were already in the setlist.

[krands85]

I went with Score, but it's close between it, LAB and LALP.

Breaking the Fourth Wall I'm not so keen on - it only features 2 songs in total from my top 3 DT albums (and none from my 2 favourites, I&W and ToT).

[BlobVanDam]

Budokan
Score
LALP






Breaking the Fourth Wall



I'm glad I have two DVD drives on my computer, because I was only interested in a grand total of one song on the first disc of BTFW (excluding the intro vid), and only SFAM from disc 2, so I wouldn't want to have to swap discs for that.

[KevShmev]

Budokan is a distant third, with Score last.

What do you like about the Budokan setlist Kev?   

Not to be negative, but I think it's easier to say what I don't like about it.  I mean, there isn't a song on there I flat-out dislike, but, for one, it's just an odd-looking set list, and the end of Set 2 - Disappear, Stream of Consciousness and Pull Me Under - is just a bumpy flow, punctuated by my long-held view that Pull Me Under is a good set opener, but not a good set closer or encore.  To me, the Instrumedley is a complete throwaway, the keyboard solo is a waste of time, and it kicking off with two songs I merely kind of like (As I Am and This Dying Soul) makes it struggle to get going.  Plus, you've got a set list featuring songs from their first seven albums, and only two songs from my three favorites (Awake, I&W and Scenes) combined, and those are two of my least favorites from that bunch.  Like Mosh said, just not enough heavy hitters; it's basically a set list filled with, IMO, mostly middle-tier Dream Theater songs, which is a shame considering how great many of the set lists on that your were.  As good as Portnoy was at mixing up set lists, I think he sometimes got too overly worried about not repeating songs on DVDs, and the Budokan set list definitely suffered as a result of it.

[Zydar]

Fourth Wall

Budokan is too heavy on the Train Of Thought album, of which I'm no big fan.

[wolfking]

Love the setlist on the new DVD.

[son_ov_hades]

Breaking The Fourth Wall, its hard to beat a setlist with Trial Of Tears, Breaking All Illusions, The Mirror/Lie, Space Dye Vest, Illumination Theory, and a good chunk of Scenes From A Memory.

Budokan is great but has way too much Train Of Thought, which drags it down quite a bit.

Score has a very awkward first set that doesn't flow well, but the second set is amazing.

Luna Park has a spectacular setlist, but includes the clunker Build Me Up, Break Me Down. 

[hefdaddy42]

Breaking The Fourth Wall

[?]

Space-Dye Vest alone would be enough to make BFTW my favorite, but then there's the rest of the Awake stuff, Trial of Tears, BAI and Finally Free.

LALP is my second favorite - fairly balanced with lots of classics and a good chunk of songs from ADTOE, which is a top 3 album for me.

Budokan and Score are tied - the former has a bit too much emphasis on the heavy side of the band and includes a few clunkers (BTL, New Millennium) and no full songs from Awake, and the latter is just underwhelming for the most part, with the exception of a few highlights in the first set.

[KevShmev]

Breaking The Fourth Wall, its hard to beat a setlist with Trial Of Tears, Breaking All Illusions, The Mirror/Lie, Space Dye Vest, Illumination Theory, and a good chunk of Scenes From A Memory.

Budokan is great but has way too much Train Of Thought, which drags it down quite a bit.

Score has a very awkward first set that doesn't flow well, but the second set is amazing.

Luna Park has a spectacular setlist, but includes the clunker Build Me Up, Break Me Down.

That's not part of the main set list; it's part of the bonus features, which is not a factor here, given what I stated in the first post here.

[cramx3]

This is tough. I'd say Score is my least favorite set but the rest and even CiM are all very close and one could be better any given day based on how I feel.

[Dream Team]

Budokan is a distant third, with Score last.

What do you like about the Budokan setlist Kev?   

Not to be negative, but I think it's easier to say what I don't like about it.  I mean, there isn't a song on there I flat-out dislike, but, for one, it's just an odd-looking set list, and the end of Set 2 - Disappear, Stream of Consciousness and Pull Me Under - is just a bumpy flow, punctuated by my long-held view that Pull Me Under is a good set opener, but not a good set closer or encore.  To me, the Instrumedley is a complete throwaway, the keyboard solo is a waste of time, and it kicking off with two songs I merely kind of like (As I Am and This Dying Soul) makes it struggle to get going.  Plus, you've got a set list featuring songs from their first seven albums, and only two songs from my three favorites (Awake, I&W and Scenes) combined, and those are two of my least favorites from that bunch.  Like Mosh said, just not enough heavy hitters; it's basically a set list filled with, IMO, mostly middle-tier Dream Theater songs, which is a shame considering how great many of the set lists on that your were.  As good as Portnoy was at mixing up set lists, I think he sometimes got too overly worried about not repeating songs on DVDs, and the Budokan set list definitely suffered as a result of it.

Exactly this. It's hard to build a 3-hr setlist while ignoring material from the best albums. Unfortunately the curfew resulted in a few songs being cut that would have definitely elevated the setlist.

[aprilethereal]

BTFW. It doesn't get much better than that.

[mikeyd23]

BTFW. It doesn't get much better than that.

Yep, agreed!

[As I Am]

Budokan. The most enjoyable setlist.

EASILY

[snapple]

Budokan has a ton of FII (good things)
Score has Afterlife and Another Won (good things)
LALP was just so damn boring to watch, because of the editing.

I'm going with BTFW. Fun Fact: Nothing from Images on this DVD

[KevShmev]

That is still pretty crazy.  Even though I like The Shattered Fortress, had they played an I&W song like Take the Time in its place, my gosh, the set list would have been even more beastly.

[BlobVanDam]

Exactly this. It's hard to build a 3-hr setlist while ignoring material from the best albums.

Which is one reason BTFW's setlist is so lacking for me. No IaW or SDOIT at all, along with the rest. If not for the chunk of SFAM, it would have almost nothing I'm interested in at all.

[El Barto]

Disagree about the energy level on I Walk Beside You.   You may not like the song, but the audience was *totally into it*...   I was there, and I've never seen so much energy from a crowd.   Everyone was just freakin NUTS for that whole show, including IWBY.    The moment when the hands all went into the air clapping was pretty amazing.  Because usually when I see that at a live show, it's just the first few rows, or the front half of the lower section.   But I remember looking back and I swear there wasn't a single person not clapping from front row of the stage, to the back row of the balcony.   It was a really magical moment.

You weren't looking in my section. I thought it was a real downer, and there wasn't much energy up in nosebleed to change that.

And I vote none of the above. Budokan is the best of what's listed, but there are other shows tons better so.

[Sad Wings]

OMFG apparently a ton of other shows have been released on official DVDs.

[KevShmev]

Exactly this. It's hard to build a 3-hr setlist while ignoring material from the best albums.

Which is one reason BTFW's setlist is so lacking for me. No IaW or SDOIT at all, along with the rest. 

The lack of I&W and 6DOIT probably doesn't bother me here cause of all of the Awake and Scenes material.  Plus, I love Trial of Tears, and it has seven songs from the Mangini albums, both of which I like a lot.  I even like The Shattered Fortress, even though I think replacing it with something else could have made it better. 

But yeah, with all of these varied set lists, personal preferences will dictate which ones we all like better.

[Cool Chris]

Budokan has a nice setlist, as those ToT hit pretty hard live.
Strengths: Disappear, Only a Matter of Time
Weaknesses: NM and Goodnight Kiss/Solitary Shell

Score would easily be my favorite, except for the 6 Degrees of Boredom.
Strengths: Entire first set except for IWBY, Octavarium
Weaknesses: 6DoIT

Score would be my favorite, except for the 6 Degrees of Boredom.
Strengths: Entire first set is awesome except for IWBY, Octavarium
Weaknesses: 6DoIT

LaLP, solid, no major duds or lulls. Good representation of ADToE
Strengths: ADToE songs, 600
Weaknesses: TDEN

BTFW (I still can't get used that acronym)
Strengths: Trial of Tears, Shattered Fortress came off much better than I expected. Awake mini-set is incredible, and Finally Free is a great finisher
Weaknesses: Overture-SDV-TDOE. Toward the bottom of SFaM for me.

Overall, hard to say. I'd rate all of them a solid B/B+ as all have a few downers. But for a band to have such different setlists I'd rate that high for 4 straight DVD releases is pretty awesome.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

BTFW (I still can't get used that acronym)
Strengths: Trial of Tears, Shattered Fortress came off much better than I expected. Awake mini-set is incredible, and Finally Free is a great finisher
Weaknesses: Overture-SDV-TDOE. Toward the bottom of SFaM for me.

wowwat

[DerekTheater]

I chose Score for Octavarium and Six Degrees, plus those incredible versions of Under a Glass Moon and Innocence Faded.

The others might have more good songs total, however.