Report from the show last night in Pittsburgh -
PROS:
The band sounded great, including James, and they all seemed to be having a ton of fun on this tour. It was definitely a very different vibe from TA tour, which they played this same venue on. Everyone was standing, for the most part, the majority of the show, rocking out and having fun (also tons of people were filming and no one seemed to care).
JR was JR, literally perfect performance, his solo spot before Wait for Sleep was gorgeous. He should consider doing a solo piano tour, I'd pay money to watch that guy sit at a piano and just play for a couple hours, no questions.
JMX was fantastic as well, he was audible in the mix (more on the mix later) and seemed in good spirits.
James sounded great in the room, I'm sure if I watched a recording back there would be some shaky stuff, but in the room with sound bouncing around, he was great. Dude was giving it 110% and was engaging, funny, and charming.
MM was a joy to watch, didn't miss a beat, literally, and put his own stamp on the songs in a lot of places. I think this show was the perfect blend (for me) of him holding true to MP's original parts while also adding his own vibe to fills or patterns. From where I sat, he struck the perfect balance last night.
JP was the star of the show, no doubt. His playing was on fire, his outro on Take the Time was one of the best guitar moments I've seen live, period. After every solo he was getting a big pop from the crowd, as usual, I was blown away.
The mix was possibly the best of any DT show I've seen. Now this was at The Palace Theater, a venue known for incredibly inconsistent sound from seat to seat, row to row. So maybe I was just in a good spot, I intentionally got a seat dead center on the floor, right smack in the middle of the theater. The sound was great, each player was audible and the mix was powerful but not overly-harsh.
CONS:
DT has played this same venue the last three times I've seen them (AftR, TA, and last night) and last night probably was the worst attendance I've seen for a DT show at that venue. Surprised me to see that the venue was more empty for the band playing I&W than it was when they played TA last year. I was on the floor, so I have no clue how full the balcony was, but the floor was packed except for 2 rows in the dead center that were completely empty and probably about 10 rows in the back corner of the theater. The strange part is that I looked at the venue website a few days before the show to see how tickets were selling and they showed like only 5 seats left available on the floor. I suspect the promoter had these seats and folks didn't even know they were available. When I was shopping for tickets for this show, I checked the venue's website and was ready to buy from them before a poster here (thank you!) sent me a link to the promoters site, where much better seats were available. I'm guessing this had something to do with the empties, which was pretty disappointing because the show was pretty great.
Other random thoughts:
The setlist was awesome! Funny how DT fans freak out for "rare" songs then I look around and no one knows the words.
Maddie appears to be doing a lot of John's patch changes now. I remember a recent interview with Maddie where he goes over that he has a duplicate pedal board back by him, and if John isn't close to his board on stage, Maddie will switch sounds for him. They must have grown very comfortable doing that, I'd say last night Maddie changed John's sounds 50% of the time. A lot of times, going into his solos or out of his solos, JP wouldn't have to travel back and forth to his board to switch sounds, which honestly was great, he basically wasn't as tied to it. Shows how much John trusts Maddie, which is really cool especially since John's been doing his own effect changes for like 25 years +.
Overall great, great show! Go see this tour! If you are one of those fans that wishes DT would be more loose and jammy like they were previously, there is actually a lot of those moments built into the set, JP extended solos, JR spot, JMX spot, MM solo during Metropolis, etc... Great balance of fun, loose jamming and tight, well coordinated set list and show structure.