Improving the setlist

[TheCountOfNYC]

Dream Theater are a band who clearly like making live CD's/videos with 8 live releases compared to 12 studio efforts (meaning only four albums didn't have a live release to go along with the tour: WDaDU, Awake, SDoIT, and BC&SL). Some are highly regarded (LSFNY, Score) while some are not (OIaLT, CiM) but none are perfect. This thread is where we get to hypothetically improve at least one aspect of any live release: the setlist. It's pretty straightforward: just pick a live album and swap out/replace whatever songs you want to make what you think would be the perfect setlist for that particular release. If you want to explain your reasonings you can. The only rule is you can't put it songs that weren't released yet. I'll start off with what I believe is already their best live release: Score.

Act 1


The Root of All Evil: This one stays because it's the perfect show opener. It's so high energy (powah!) and can get the crowd fired up immediately.

These Walls (replacing I Walk Beside You): While the crowd went crazy for IWBY, they probably would have went nuts for any song, so why not replace what was played with an arguably better song? These Walls is still poppy like IWBY but is more proggy and would have worked better following TRoAE.

Another Won: Just the fact that they were playing something from the Majesty days is cool enough. This song worked well so no need to change it.

Take the Time (replacing Under a Glass Moon): You can't really go wrong with any song from IaW, but other than Metropolis and LtL, TtT is generally the most highly regarded song from their breakthrough album. Also, with it being so early in the set, James would be able to do the usually omitted verse on a night where he was firing on all cylinders.

Lifting Shadows off a Dream (replacing Innocenece Faded): This makes up for losing a ballad by replacing IWBY earlier. This also means that all five members at the time had a song with lyrics fully written by them included.

Lines in the Sand (replacing Raise the Knife): While it was cool to include an obscure track from the FII demos, I feel leaving out a song from one of their albums when they were celebrating their entire career and discography is wrong. The crowd would have went crazy for LitS.

The Spirit Carries On: This one stays and I truly believe that this song should be in every setlist. It works so well live and the crowd absolutely loves it. It's the perfect live song.


Act 2


Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: To open the second set with a full orchestra version of this masterpiece was brilliant and really helped put this show on another level.

Vacant: I'm leaving this for two reasons. The first reason is that it works with the orchestra. The second reason is for the song I chose to follow it.

Stream of Consciousness (new addition): One thing I felt was missing from this release was an instrumental. Since Metropolis was arranged for am orchestra, this could have been as well and it would have worked. Playing Vacant and SoC back to back with the orchestra would have been great.

The Answer Lies Within: With this being one of the three songs from Octavarium with an orchestra on the album, this has to stay.

Sacrificed Sons: This stays for the same reason as TALW but with the added reason of it being played in NY. Considering the subject matter, that adds additional emotion to an already chilling song.

Octavarium: It stays not just for the same reason as TALW and SS, but also because it's the perfect main setlist closer. It's epic in every sense of the word. There's not much I can't really say about why this song should stay in the set. I think it speaks for itself.


Encore


A Change of Seasons: Metropolis is great, but if they had closed with a key part of their discography that they for some reason left out with an orchestra arrangement, I truly would feel like this show was perfect. Some people may say that including all three epics that they had written at the time in the same show is too much, but wrapping up a celebration of 20 years with one of their most beloved songs which also happens to be their best closer would have been incredible for those in attendance as well as those watching at home.


I hope to see more setlists posted in this thread, as I think this could be an interesting little exercise.

[KevShmev]

Not bad, but you left out Afterlife.

I think Score is the obvious one that needed improvement, especially in the 2nd set.  I would leave it as is, but get rid of 6DOIT, Vacant and The Answer Lies Within, and replace them with The Glass Prison, Blind Faith, Misunderstood and In the Name of God.  The 1st set, on paper, always looks like it needed improvement, but when you watch it, the band was on fire and the flow was good.  I wouldn't mess with that.

Budokan could have used some work, too.

[wasteland]

Let's see:

Score:

Pull Me Under
Another Won
Afterlife
Take The Time
Innocence Faded
Lines In The Sand
The Spirit Carries On
Blind Faith
Vacant
Stream Of Consciousness
---
The Root Of All Evil
The Answer Lies Within
These Walls
I Walk Beside You
Panic Attack
Never Enough
Sacrificed Sons
Octavarium
---
Metropolis Pt.1





Budokan:

https://www.mikeportnoy.com/dates/MPTourography/ShowInfo.aspx?showId=789
or
https://www.mikeportnoy.com/dates/MPTourography/ShowInfo.aspx?showId=759

[The Dark Master]

Score's an easy one, given that half of the set is essentially a history of Dream Theater, while the rest is what you would expect from an Octavarium tour.  Personally, My ideal setlist for Score, using the existent release as a basis, would be this:

Set 1

1- The Root of All Evil
2- Panic Attack
3- Two Far
4- The Killing Hand
5- Take The Time
6- Lifting Shadows off a Dream
7- Trial of Tears
8- Home

Set 2

9- Blind Faith
10- Endless Sacrifice
11- Never Enough
12- Sacrificed Sons
13- Octavarium

Encore
14- A Change of Seasons

As for Budokan, I've always been bothered by the lack of Awake tracks, so I would at least swap out The War Inside My Head/The Test That Stumped Them All for The Mirror/Lie.  It also would have been cool if they had included Honor Thy Father, since they had every other track from Train of Thought, so why not just have every song from the album on there?  I'd probably have that replace Goodnight Kiss/Solitary Shell (I'm not a big fan of the Six Degrees song).

Not sure about the others live albums, I'll have to give them some thought.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Not bad, but you left out Afterlife.

I think Score is the obvious one that needed improvement, especially in the 2nd set.  I would leave it as is, but get rid of 6DOIT, Vacant and The Answer Lies Within, and replace them with The Glass Prison, Blind Faith, Misunderstood and In the Name of God.  The 1st set, on paper, always looks like it needed improvement, but when you watch it, the band was on fire and the flow was good.  I wouldn't mess with that.

Budokan could have used some work, too.

Oh crap, I knew I left something out. I was gonna keep Afterlife anyway.

[chaossystem]

Parts of my idea might seem crazy, but I'm going with a kind of "best-of" format, since it's an anniversary show, but  also something similar to the Santiago show.

Set One:
1) These Walls
2) A Fortune in Lies
3) Pull Me Under
4) 6:00
5) A Change of Seasons
6) Just Let Me Breathe
7) Overture 1928 / Strange Deja Vu
8) About to Crash
9) As I Am

Set Two:
1) Panic Attack
2) Sacrificed Sons
3) The Answer Lies Within
4) The Spirit Carries On
5) Stream of Consciousness (How cool would THIS one sound with the orchestra!)
6) Octavarium
7) Metropolis

Encore:
1) The Glass Prison
2) This Dying Soul
3) The Root of All Evil

[OpenYourEyes311]

I'll play. I think Score is the one that's most fun. (I might do another album later.) I saw the last three shows that tour, so my set will be somewhat of a conglomerate of those three shows (at least in the first set).

Set 1 - Dream Theater
1. The Root of All Evil
2. I Walk Beside You
3. Another Won
4. A Fortune In Lies (played this in Boston)
5. Take the Time (starting right when it kicks in, as they did in Boston)
6. Innocence Faded
7. Speak To Me (played this in CT)
8. Peruvian Skies (added for proper inclusion of FII, but they were also pulling this one out that tour)
9. Home (played this in CT)

Set 2 - Dream Theater with the Octavarium Orchestra
10. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
11. Vacant
12. Stream of Consciousness (added this b/c it should have been in anyway. MP said during the Budokan commentary that he wanted to play SoC w/ an orchestra. I'm sad that it didn't work out.)
13. The Answer Lies Within
14. Sacrificed Sons
15. Octavarium

Encore - Dream Theater with the Octavarium Orchestra
16. A Change of Seasons

I looove Score, and with the exception of SoC not being in the second set, that part is pretty much perfect. I understand a lot of sacrifices were made to the set due to time constraints and the fact they had their two longest songs in the set. But this is pretty much a perfect set for me circa 2006.

[IdoSC]

I'm not gonna make my own suggestion at the moment, but gonna have to gasp at the amount of people who suggested to have 8VM followed directly by ACOS. Isn't it a bit of an overkill?

I mean, even having SDOIT and 8VM on the same show always seemed like a bit much to me, but they were about 20 minutes apart and while I do regard to SDOIT as a single song, it's hardly a single unit (as in, one giant "musical pill" to swallow). Octavarium and ACOS, while both obviously have their moments of diversion and instrumental variety, are both very concise, very long songs that actually sound consistent and almost require full attention when listening/watching (at a concert/DVD). Seems kind of taxing on the viewer to have them both back-to-back, but maybe it's just me.

[KevShmev]

No, I agree.  In theory, it sounds great to have their two best 20-minute songs played at the same show, but back-to-back like that might be a bit too much in a live setting.  Maybe if ACOS had been played in the first set as part of the chronological running order, and a slight retweaking by having two songs in the encore, you could have had this:

Set 1:

The Root of All Evil
I Walk Beside You
Another Won
Afterlife
Under a Glass Moon
Innocence Faded
A Change of Seasons

Set 2:

Raise the Knife
Home
Misunderstood
In the Name of God
Sacrificed Sons
Octavarium

Encore:

Metropolis
The Spirit Carries On

Everything would be in chronological order in the normal set list, four 8V songs (since they were touring on it, and I get that those songs all had to be included), and then you'd have a song each from their two most popular albums in the encore.  You could maybe swap out Home for something like Through My Words/Fatal Tragedy so the second set isn't nothing but long song after long song.

[wasteland]

Care to explain the order of the encore songs? I'd say it's VERY unconventional bordering on heretical to put Metropolis in the encore but not as the final song!

[KevShmev]

I thought of that, but The Spirit Carries On is such a phenomenal closer, in the regular set or as an encore, that I put it last.  Feel free to swap them and my set list still stands as pretty awesome, I think.

[wasteland]

Well, TSCO is very emotionally climatic, but picture the ending of the song with Jordan's gentle piano wrapping it all and then James saying: "Thank you *city*, this has been indeed an incredible night, thanks for coming and see you next time around, GOODNIGHT!". I'd say that as good as the song is live, it would fall a bit flat as an endshow.

[IdoSC]

Well, TSCO is very emotionally climatic, but picture the ending of the song with Jordan's gentle piano wrapping it all and then James saying: "Thank you *city*, this has been indeed an incredible night, thanks for coming and see you next time around, GOODNIGHT!". I'd say that as good as the song is live, it would fall a bit flat as an endshow.

There's also something heartwarming about finishing the concert with the one "upbeat ballad" most of your fans unanimously appreciate and relate to with almost no exceptions (at least in a live setting, regardless of whether they're listening to it on a daily basis), then saying something a bit more corny and in a lower voice as you bid farewell. It leaves the viewer with a different taste of the show, but with a smile nonetheless.

Specifically with this song's ending, they could alter the arrangement a bit to make it less awkward. I remember they've done it previously, but not with which song...No wait, Finally Free. It's a minor change but it is there.

Still, I'd prefer something like Metropolis and a big band breakdown at the end of a concert as well

[KevShmev]

I think it would work both ways, so yeah, switch my order around and that set list still slays. 

[Robo4900]

Live In Tokyo: First, I'd include the full setlist like MP originally planned on doing for the DVD re-release, and second, I'd swap out the setlist for this.

5 Years In A LIVEtime: First, I'd include all the stuff MP had to cut to fit the label's "Not a second over 2 hours" limit(Caught In A Web/Drum Solo from Japan 1995, Guitar Solo/Paradigm Shift from Once In A LIVEtime, The Silent Man from the Rotterdam fan club show, New Millennium from summer 1998, parts of To Live Forever, Voices, and possibly also 6:00), as he originally planned for the DVD re-release, and second, I'd add in The Way It Used To Be and Trial Of Tears from the Rotterdam fan club show, Where Are You Now, Hell's Kitchen, and the Rush medley from December 1998, and in the bonus features of the DVD, include the electric version of Cover My Eyes from December 1998.

Metropolis 2000, WDADRU, Romavarium, OIAL, and LATM: Include the full set, although the fact that they didn't for Romavarium and WDADRU makes sense.

Live At Budokan: Take out Pull Me Under, War Inside My Head/The Test That Stumped Them All, Goodnight Kiss/Solitary Shell, have In The Name Of God close the main set, put A Change Of Seasons as the encore, and swap out Trial Of Tears for Lines In The Sand(Segue into it from the end of Instrumedley like they did on the SDoIT tour).

Score: Add Stream Of Consciousness after Vacant, and Panic Attack after I Walk Beside You.

Live At Luna Park: Include all the bonus songs in the main feature.

Breaking The Fourth Wall: Swap out On The Backs Of Angels for Only A Matter Of Time.

[ninja1125]

People seem to forget they were against the curfew for Score. They went over 3 minutes even with the setlist they had

[bosk1]

I honestly don't know how you change the Score set list realistically.  And when I say "realistically," I mean that you HAVE TO take the following factors into account:  (1) They were going to heavily feature Octavarium since they were touring on that album; (2) They were going to play something from every album; (3) They were going to use the orchestra; and (4) They had a strict time limit.

So, what songs do you change or remove?  I'll start with the easy ones from Octavarium:  TROAE was going to be played no matter what.  And it is a great opener.  IWBY was the "hit" from that album.  It was going to be played.  Sacrificed Sons worked well for the orchestra and, as mentioned above, was very appropriate for a New York City show.  Octavarium...yeah.  Honestly, I would remove TALW.  It sucked the life out of the set and isn't a great song anyway.  The problem is, it is only 5:35, so it doesn't buy them much.  But anyhow, if we go album by album below, let's see where we end up:

Majesty:  Another Won was great.  And there are no good alternatives.  Keeper.

WDADU:  Afterlife isn't my favorite.  But what are the alternatives?  They need something short.  So that leaves AFIL, Status Seeker, and Ytse Jam.  AFIL would have been my vote.  And it saves 20 seconds.  I doubt they would have chosen Status Seeker, but I would not have minded that either.  But if they did, it would buy them a minute. 

I&W:  UAGM was okay.  For this show, I would have gone with PMU, despite that it had gotten a lot of play previously.  It is about :45 longer, but dumping TALW more than buys enough time.

Awake:  Innocence Faded was an okay choice.  CIAW or 6:00 would have worked in terms of song length.  In terms of vibe, I think they would have been fine too.  But a lot of people seemed to like having IF in there, so okay.  No change.

FII:  I liked their choice.  No change.

SFAM:  I was already tired of TSCO, but I get why it is there, and I'm fine with it.  No change.  It makes sense.

SDOIT:  Granted, I hardly listen to this anymore.  But at the time, this absolutely needed to be done.  No change. 

TOT:  This is where it gets tricky.  Vacant was a strange choice, but it sounded SO good with the orchestra that I would not change it for the world.  But it is so short.  I really wish there was a way to put SOC in there as well.  I think it would have been fantastic with an orchestra behind it.  But I just cannot figure out how to make it fit with the time constraints.  Dumping TALW and substituting a couple of shorter songs in other places still doesn't make it fit.  Bummed.

Encore:  Metropolis was the right choice.  No change.

So...what would I change?  Not a heck of a lot, under the circumstances.  In retrospect, it would have been really cool if they could somehow have done 2 nights.  That would have given them a lot more freedom to change things up, which would have been amazing.  If they did that, and assuming they would still keep the 8VM songs and Another Won in place, let's say they keep the first night exactly the same, and maybe we could have gotten this the second night:

TROAE
IWBY
Another Won
AFIL
PMU
CIAW
Peruvian Skies
Strange Deja Vu-Through My Words-Fatal Tragedy  (they were playing this combo on the tour, and I am okay with it)
----
The Glass Prison
This Dying Soul (not my first choice from TOT, but they did play the TGP->TDS combo on this tour, and that would have been cool to see)
Sacrificed Sons
Octavarium
----
ACOS

[chaossystem]

I didn't take into account that there might be a time-limit, so I made my "version" about three hours long. But I've thought about it since, and I realize that you have to consider that the Radio City workers, and the Orchestral musicians are probably all Union, and as such they probably have really strict rules about how long they can be "on the clock." Plus Radio City itself probably has a strict curfew, and maybe can't stay open after a certain hour of the evening.

However, I think my idea still might work by just simply removing ACoS, which wouldn't be the end of the world, anyway. The band doesn't usually play more than one song that is over 15 or 20 minutes per live show, and my idea would still keep Octavarium in the set.

Bosk, your ideas are somewhat similar to mine, and while I do LIKE Another Won and Raise the Knife, I left them out to make room for album songs ONLY.

One idea we BOTH had was to include The Glass Prison, but I wonder if an orchestral arrangement could be worked out for that song. Same goes for This Dying Soul. I think The Root of All Evil might be a little easier.

Also, I wanted to ask the OP: are you going to do the any of the OTHER live releases?

[TheCountOfNYC]

I didn't take into account that there might be a time-limit, so I made my "version" about three hours long. But I've thought about it since, and I realize that you have to consider that the Radio City workers, and the Orchestral musicians are probably all Union, and as such they probably have really strict rules about how long they can be "on the clock." Plus Radio City itself probably has a strict curfew, and maybe can't stay open after a certain hour of the evening.

However, I think my idea still might work by just simply removing ACoS, which wouldn't be the end of the world, anyway. The band doesn't usually play more than one song that is over 15 or 20 minutes per live show, and my idea would still keep Octavarium in the set.

Bosk, your ideas are somewhat similar to mine, and while I do LIKE Another Won and Raise the Knife, I left them out to make room for album songs ONLY.

One idea we BOTH had was to include The Glass Prison, but I wonder if an orchestral arrangement could be worked out for that song. Same goes for This Dying Souls. I think The Root of All Evil might be a little easier.

Also, I wanted to ask the OP: are you going to do the any of the OTHER live releases?

I was gonna leave that up to you guys. If I come up with something for one of the other live releases I will but the point of this thread is for all members to hypothetically improve the setlist from any of the eight live releases that they choose.

[Setlist Scotty]

The Score setlist is definitely good - I appreciate that MP put forth the effort to not have much overlap with the previous live shows. It's a shame that he didn't know in 2004 what they'd be doing in 2006, or else he wouldn't have had the individual parts of SDoIT included in the setlist and would've used that time for other songs that he had to cut due to time constraints - specifically CiaW, TGD and UaGM.

Anyway, while the setlist is good, for my personal taste it isn't great. I prefer some of the other tracks that were swapped from night to night on that tour. So here's what I would do, keeping in mind time constraints like Bosk:
TRoAE - obviously the song that opened up almost all evening with shows on the tour, it must be kept
IWBY - while it's a poppy hit, I thought it was a disappointment to include, especially as the second song; when looking at some other setlists, they go right from TRoAE into AW, so I'd drop this track
AW - a rarity featured at most shows on the tour - must be kept
ALife - not a huge fan of this song; I'd swap AFiL for it
UaGM - considering this song hadn't been on a live album up to that point, it needed to be on this album
IF - similar to UaGM, it needed to be on this album, especially given how rarely it was played
RtK - just like AW, a rarity that needed to be kept
TSCO - while I get the idea behind including this song, this was another disappointment; instead of this, with the guitar solo intro, I'd go with Home which had the cool excerpt of Stockholm Syndrome tacked on to the end
SDoIT - while not a song I'm a huge fan of, given that they had the orchestra, it needed to be played for this show
Vacant - given that it's short and the most fitting for an orchestra (never mind that almost everything else had been played on L@B), I'd keep it
TALW - definitely the biggest snoozer of the show; drop it
SSons - with them playing in NYC and the orchestra, this was a perfect choice for this show
8v - another given and perfect way to wrap up the second set
Metropolis - never was a huge fan of this particular song and while the orchestra playing along was cool, I think a far better choice would've been LtL, especially since they had included a different instrumental section in the middle for this tour

So my final setlist, which comes out to be almost the same amount of time as the Score CDs (based on using live versions of songs from the 20th anniversary tour) would be:
The Root of All Evil
Another Won
A Fortune in Lies
Under a Glass Moon
Innocence Faded
Raise the Knife
Home
~~~intermission~~~
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Vacant
Sacrificed Sons
Octavarium
~~~encore~~~
Learning to Live

While it may seem odd to only have 3 songs from Octavarium in this setlist, there were 2 shows on that tour that only had 3 songs from the album. And considering that the three songs I picked make up more than half the album, I'd say it's represented well enough.

[chaossystem]

This is going to be REALLY long-winded, so I apologize in advance, but they should have put the Marquee (London) show out in it's entirety.

For those who don't know, this is/was the concert in it's original form:

1) Metropolis
2) A Fortune in Lies
3) Under a Glass Moon
4) Surrounded
5) YtseJam / Drum Solo
6) Bombay Vindaloo
7) Another Day
8) The Killing Hand
9) Pull me Under
10) Take the Time

Encore:
1) Wait for Sleep
2) Learning to Live

Not bad, but my idea is to basically add the rest of the songs from Dream and Day, expanding the show to a little over two hours>

The first version is a "compromise" show, something closer to what most people would want the order of the songs to be-

1) Metropolis
2) Afterlife
3) Under a Glass Moon
4) Status Seeker
5) Surrounded
6) Only a Matter of Time
7) Bombay Vindaloo
8) Light Fuse and Get Away
9) Wait for Sleep
10) Another Day
11) The Killing Hand
12) Take the Time
13) YtseJam / Drum Solo (I like the idea of separating the instrumental tracks, instead of cramming them all together.)
14) The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun
15) Pull Me Under

Encore:
1) A Fortune in lies
2) Learning to Live

And Lastly>

This is pretty much the order that I would put the songs in:

1) Under a Glass Moon (I think it would make a good opener)
2) The Killing Hand
3) Surrounded
4) Afterlife
5) Wait for Sleep
6) Bombay Vindaloo
7) Status Seeker
8) Take the Time
9) Only a Matter of Time
10) Learning to Live
11) YtseJam / Drum Solo
12) Light Fuse and Get Away
13) Another Day
14) The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun
15) Metropolis

Encore:
1) A Fortune in Lies
2) Pull Me Under

[KevShmev]

The Score setlist is definitely good - I appreciate that MP put forth the effort to not have much overlap with the previous live shows.

I think we've gone over this before , and while I get why he did it, the set list suffers because of it.  It's like, sure, if you look at all of the DVD releases at the time, it's cool to see so many songs across them and not having a lot of repeats, but as time went on, the individual set lists on them suffered a bit because total classics were omitted because he didn't want them on another live DVD.  Budokan is such a fantastic-looking show, but the set list is pretty average, especially when you consider how beastly some of those set lists were on the ToT tour.  Consider the arsenal of songs they had at their disposal by 2003-2005, those are two pretty underwhelming set lists (Budokan and Score) for their first two live DVDs that were full shows.

[chaossystem]

You make some really good points, Kev. Just before I started writing this, I took a look at the "tourography" on Mike Portnoy's website. I saw the "Phoenix version" of the ToT show, and with the exception of Endless Sacrifice, they didn't do anything that I didn't like. They should have played Stream of Consciousness instead. Even Honor Thy Father would have been better. But I wouldn't trade that show for the shows before and after it, because both set-lists weren't nearly as good, in my opinion, at least.

As for Budokan: I would probably keep the first set as is, but the second part could have used a major overhaul. To begin with, I don't like Goodnight Kiss or Disappear, and there are much better songs from Six Degrees and/or Awake that they could have included instead, and again they could have gotten rid of ES to make more room for something better. Also I prefer that the encore not be one of the new songs, so I would probably have had In the Name of God and Pull Me Under in reverse order.

The idea that I want to propose-even if it is just an imaginary notion-is that they could write up four set-lists for each tour: two of them would be for "evening-with" shows, and the other two would be for things such as festivals or when they tour / play with other bands. They would play all of the same new songs in the same order, then pick two songs from as many of the older albums as will fit in the time allowed, and alternate between those songs. An example of that might be that they would include Pull Me under in the first show of tour, then play Metropolis on the second, go back to PMU on the third, and so on...

And if they're playing a shorter set, they would still include at least three new (or new-ER) songs each night. An example of this might be:
Let's say Metallica was on tour right now, and took DT along as their opening act, and they gave them about 90 minutes for their set.

It might go something like this-

First Show:
1) Surrender to Reason
2) The Killing Hand
3) 6:00
4) Just Let Me Breathe
5) Overture 1928 / Strange Deja Vu
6) The Bigger Picture
7) These Walls
8) As I Am
9) Constant Motion
10) Lost Not Forgotten
11) Behind the Veil
12) Pull Me Under

Second Night:
1) Surrender to Reason
2) Light Fuse and Get Away
3) Peruvian Skies
4) The Dance of Eternity
5) About to Crash
6) The Bigger Picture
7) Honor Thy Father
8) The Root of All Evil
9) Forsaken
10) A Rite of Passage
11) Behind the Veil
12) Metropolis

If you don't like this particular selection, like I said: it's just an example.

[Voices]

Following the idea of the current setlists:

1. Afterlife (What a great opener! I never thought it would work that well)
2. Take The Time (I can't remember the last time it was performed live...and I do enjoy this song)
3. Voices (I really love this song, you know?)
4. A Change Of Seasons - Another World / The Inevitable Summer (Tricky, just tricky)
5. Hollow Years [with JP's extended solo] (Maybe Trial Of Tears would be the best choice, but they're using shorter songs, so I would let the longest to the end of the set)
6. Fatal Tragedy (This song has been performed recently, and really worked with MM's drumming. I liked that)
7. Blind Faith (I love this song and I do think that it's one of their best)
8. In The Name Of God (As I Am is souding great on this tour, but I don't think it can fight ITNOG)
9. These Walls (This song is very deep and has power. Works really well live, when not speeded up)
10. In The Presence Of Enemies PT. I (It's the logical choice of SC IMO. Not too long, not too short, and a great song, that really builds up to end of the set)
11. Wither (Maybe this song is as little controversal, but I love it)
12. Breaking All Illusions (One of the beautiest things DT ever did IMO, so I don't have too much explanation for that)
13. Surrender To Reason (This song will KICK ASS live. Seriously. It would be the perfect choice to end the show)

[ninja1125]

My Live At Budokan Setlist:
As I Am
Beyond This Life
Hollow Years
The Great Debate
Endless Sacrifice
Instrumedly
Trial Of Tears

The Glass Prison
This Dying Soul
New Millennium
Keyboard Solo
Caught In A Web/Drum Solo
Honor Thy Father
Only A Matter Of Time
Pull Me Under

In The Name Of God

[ninja1125]

My Score Setlist:
The Root Of All Evil
These Walls
Another Won
A Fortune In Lies
Under A Glass Moon
Innocence Faded
Raise The Knife
The Spirit Caries On

Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
Vacant
Stream Of Conciousness
Sacrificed Sons
Octavarium

Metropolis

[chaossystem]

I don't know how much of an "improvement" this is, or if anyone will even see it as such, but I just wanted to throw my idea for an alternative version of the Falling Into Infinity / Once in A LiveTime tour and show out there.

You know...

...just for fun...!...

Set One:
1) Just Let Me Breathe
2) The Ones Who Help to Set The Sun
3) Surrounded
4) Hollow Years (original version)
5) Voices (LiveTime version)
6) YtseJam / Drum Solo
7) Burning My Soul
8) Innocence Faded
9) Lines in the Sand
10) Metropolis (from beginning to end!)

~~~Intermission~~~

Set Two:
1) Trial of Tears
2) Only a Matter of Time
3) Hell's Kitchen
4) Another Day
5) Scarred (UN-abridged!)
6) Peruvian Skies (LiveTime version)
7) A Change of Seasons (in it's ENTIRETY!)
8) New Millennium

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Encore:
1) A Fortune in Lies
2) Pull Me Under
3) 6:00

[chaossystem]

My Live At Budokan Setlist:
As I Am
Beyond This Life
Hollow Years
The Great Debate
Endless Sacrifice
Instrumedly
Trial Of Tears

The Glass Prison
This Dying Soul
New Millennium
Keyboard Solo
Caught In A Web/Drum Solo
Honor Thy Father
Only A Matter Of Time
Pull Me Under

In The Name Of God

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has an "alternative" idea for Budokan...

Try THIS one-

Set One:
1) Honor Thy Father (I think this is a good song to come "out of the box" with)
2) The Great Debate
3) Hollow Years
4) Stream of Consciousness
5) Only a Matter of Time
6) Beyond This Life
7) As I Am

~~~~~Intermission~~~~

1) Metropolis
2) Erotomania
3) Light Fuse and Get Away
4) The Glass Prison
5) This Dying Soul
6) 6:00
7) New Millennium
8) In the Name of God

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Encore:
1) The Dance of Eternity
2) The Spirit Carries On
3) Pull Me Under

[ninja1125]

My Live At Budokan Setlist:
As I Am
Beyond This Life
Hollow Years
The Great Debate
Endless Sacrifice
Instrumedly
Trial Of Tears

The Glass Prison
This Dying Soul
New Millennium
Keyboard Solo
Caught In A Web/Drum Solo
Honor Thy Father
Only A Matter Of Time
Pull Me Under

In The Name Of God

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has an "alternative" idea for Budokan...

Try THIS one-

Set One:
1) Honor Thy Father (I think this is a good song to come "out of the box" with)
2) The Great Debate
3) Hollow Years
4) Stream of Consciousness
5) Only a Matter of Time
6) Beyond This Life
7) As I Am

~~~~~Intermission~~~~

1) Metropolis
2) Erotomania
3) Light Fuse and Get Away
4) The Glass Prison
5) This Dying Soul
6) 6:00
7) New Millennium
8) In the Name of God

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Encore:
1) The Dance of Eternity
2) The Spirit Carries On
3) Pull Me Under

More different compared to the real one than mine. I tried to keep the same structure in my setlist. I didn't include Stream of Consciousness because I want it to be on Score.

[chaossystem]

I wouldn't mind if it was on both. Then we could have a "regular" version and an "orchestral" version!

[ninja1125]

I wouldn't mind if it was on both. Then we could have a "regular" version and an "orchestral" version!

I think the Score version would of ended up the better version so I feel like the regular version would be then ignored.

[chaossystem]

Normally I wouldn't say that my ideas are better than the show in it's existing form, but in this case I feel the need to make an exception. I'm sure most people will agree with me that the Chaos in Motion show could use some badly-needed improvement. My fantasy idea is that first of all it would be shot/recorded all at one venue. I like the looks of the two where some of CiM was filmed in Canada. My first choice would be the Orpheum Theater in Vancouver, but I would settle for the Molson Amphitheater in Toronto.

Here is the show that I would like to see and hear-

Set One:
1) The Dark Eternal Night (I think this is the first song most of us heard from SC, thanks to YouTube, and I think it would make a good opener.)
2) These Walls
3) Status Seeker
4) Prophets of War (I know a lot of people don't like this song very much, but there are some of us that would like to hear a decent live version of it.)
5) Take the Time (CiM version, but I would want Petrucci to help Mike P. sing the beginning part.)
6) About to Crash (I thought the CiM version of Blind Faith sounded pretty awful, so hopefully this song would come off better.)
7) In the Name of God
8) Constant Motion
9) Home

(if you don't like Status Seeker and About to Crash being in there, just pretend that they were taken out, and Blind Faith was put back in instead.)

~~~~Intermission~~~~

Set Two:
1) Scarred (CiM version)
2) Repentance (They should have included this in the show anyway, but it might have to be a shorter version leaving out all of the voices of people talking over each other, or maybe they could extend it instrumentally)
3) Lines in the Sand (CiM version. But I wish I knew what those extra lyrics are from that James sings towards the END of it!)
4) Surrounded (CiM version)
5) In the Presence of Enemies (But someone please tell James that he going to sing it RIGHT if we have to use an ELECTRIC CATTLE PROD to make it HAPPEN!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Encore:
1) The Root of All Evil
2) Forsaken
3) As I Am

[Setlist Scotty]

3) Lines in the Sand (CiM version. But I wish I knew what those extra lyrics are from that James sings towards the END of it!)
4) Surrounded (CiM version)

Those extra lyrics come from the original demo version that were edited out by Kevin Shirley who produced FII.

[wasteland]

The Baptised part is absolutely amazing. I hope it will come back with the rest of the song the next time it gets played!

[TAC]

Yeah, I like it too.