Take the Time - Live

[Vivace]

Perhaps this has been covered but I was listening to Take the Time and wanted to see a before and after and noticed they cut a whole verse from the song, at least from the Chaos in Motion tour. I was curious if this is because LaBrie has a hard time singing it to satisfaction or if there is another reason. Granted that is a very hard part of the song, but he sounds great singing it today. Is this just out of his range permanently now? It's too bad if that is the case but I guess that is the danger in writing such difficult music to sing early in the career only to realize later on you have to truncate it without blowing a gasket. 

[RodrigoAltaf]

 I think they cut it because it was too hard for LaBrie back then, and still haven´t thought about bringing it back to the setlist because they prefer to play other songs. But I have a feeling thta he could handle it nowadays.

[Setlist Scotty]

Actually at some shows on that tour, that verse was performed (such as when they performed all of IaW to mark the 15th anniversary) but generally TtT was abridged. This was so that there was flexibility in where it was in the setlist - depending on where it was in the setlist, it could be awfully difficult for JL to perform, so rather than drop it from the set or have to keep it in one specific spot in the set, this was the choice that was made.

[Vivace]

Yeah it seems today James could tackle that song. His voice really has gotten better live. When listening to Live at Tokyo he was rasping and screaming the high notes most of the time, but like on the Chaos in Motion tour he opened the song with a much cleaner wail and it sounded great. He's just got a much cleaner voice today. Too bad his range has suffered.

[KevShmev]

To me, this song live has never come close to approaching the awesomeness of the studio version.  Granted, I think studio versions are almost always better, but the gap is pretty wide in the case of this song, mostly because the overall vocals do not compare to the studio version. 

For one, I have always been disappointed that the crowd doesn't loudly sing the "take the time" chorus, which should have been obvious and a natural thing to do.  The live versions where Portnoy and Petrucci did that part of the chorus never sounded good. 

Two, the aforementioned 2nd verse is a bitch to sing, and even when JLB is on his game, it has to be extremely difficult to sing well and have it sound good.

[Laughingplace56]

I don't think he sounded good on CiM at all. Granted, I think the mixing of the whole thing is shit and that may have made his voice sound worse, but I just can't listen to most of CiM. And I'm not one of those people who thinks he has a bad voice because I think he is a phenomenal singer. It's just that one DVD/CD he doesn't sound good. He was excellent in LaLP though.

As far as TtT live goes, I like the OIAL version with the soloing at the end. They could switch out OtBoA for it on the AFTR tour and I wouldn't care much. It'd be fun live.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

CiM is something horrible and I like pretending it doesn't exist.

The only good thing from that DVD is the "Behind the Chaos on the Road" documentary. Like all post-Metropolis 2000 MP-directed documentaries, it was incredibly well done.  I agree with Kev on this one, there hasn't been a live version that comes close to the glory that is the studio version. Maybe nowadays it would work better now that DT are using backing vocals and samples in their live shows, but I'm not quite sure how JLB would handle it.

[Zook]

I never did like when MP would sing the first part of the song.

I also didn't like them cutting out that whole section. The same with Voices. If they feel they have to cut out a whole verse, they might as well just not play the song.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

I never did like when MP would sing the first part of the song.

I also didn't like them cutting out that whole section. The same with Voices. If they feel they have to cut out a whole verse, they might as well just not play the song.

Yeah, happens to be that the sections they removed were the best parts from their respective songs. 

[Zook]

Hell yeah!

FUCK THIS WHORE
DRINK A TROLL

[?]

In some ADTOE-era interview James said that they won't cut out sections of songs anymore. I was expecting TTT to make a comeback on this tour, but it's actually logical that they're not playing it because of the "evening with" format and its effects on James' voice. Maybe it'll be played when the setlists get shorter again and James will be able to nail the full song.

[Sycsa]

Hell yeah!

FUCK THIS WHORE
DRINK A TROLL

SEXIST DEATH!

[BlobVanDam]

I also didn't like them cutting out that whole section. The same with Voices. If they feel they have to cut out a whole verse, they might as well just not play the song.

While I would prefer the whole song intact, I'd still rather them play the song without the verse than not play it at all, especially as there's nothing at all from IaW on the current setlist.

[Laughingplace56]

I expect that once they stop doing the Evening With format after April and go back to normal 2 hour+ shows, they'll cut the Awake/SFAM anniversaries and just play one song from one and maybe two from the other, maybe cut BAI and/or ToT (hopefully BAI and not ToT), then start adding songs from the other 6 albums/the rest of DT12. The encore will be Metropolis or PMU at one point in the tour we can all expect this I think. I expect them to play both TtT and Voices since
1. TtT is the only I&W song not played with Mangini yet, and
2. They'll probably play both Awake and SFAM in their entirety throughout the tour, like how they played played all of I&W minus TtT last tour, so Voices will come up eventually. Maybe even paired with Erotomania 

But if any songs are gonna be played at almost every show this tour, I think they'll be FAS/TEI, TLG, AFTR, IT, OtBoA, and Space Dye Vest.

[cyberdrummer]

The encore will be Metropolis or PMU at one point in the tour we can all expect this I think.

I wouldn't count on that.

They'll probably play both Awake and SFAM in their entirety throughout the tour, like how they played played all of I&W minus TtT last tour, so Voices will come up eventually. Maybe even paired with Erotomania 

Or on that.

[adastra]

The encore will be Metropolis or PMU at one point in the tour we can all expect this I think.

I hope not :E

[Laughingplace56]

The encore will be Metropolis or PMU at one point in the tour we can all expect this I think.

I wouldn't count on that.

They'll probably play both Awake and SFAM in their entirety throughout the tour, like how they played played all of I&W minus TtT last tour, so Voices will come up eventually. Maybe even paired with Erotomania 

Or on that.

Really? I wouldn't mind no Metropolis or PMU for a whole tour, but it's kind of hard to believe they'd leave them out after not leaving them for nearly every tour since they came out. Do they already know what songs they'll be playing for all legs of the tour?

[KevShmev]

Hard to say, but it is foolish to say that fans should expect this or that, especially when you have nothing to base that statement on.  Having those kind of expectations only sets you up for disappointment.

[cyberdrummer]

Do they already know what songs they'll be playing for all legs of the tour?

I would suggest they have a pretty good idea, yeah.

[Laughingplace56]

Hard to say, but it is foolish to say that fans should expect this or that, especially when you have nothing to base that statement on.  Having those kind of expectations only sets you up for disappointment.

Expect wasn't the right word to use I meant assume oops 

[Setlist Scotty]

I never did like when MP would sing the first part of the song.

I wouldn't be surprised if they chose to do that to give JL some help to make it easy for him to hit and hold that high note at the end of the first verse.

 

If they feel they have to cut out a whole verse, they might as well just not play the song.

Well aren't you just the party pooper!   

I also didn't like them cutting out that whole section. The same with Voices. If they feel they have to cut out a whole verse, they might as well just not play the song.

While I would prefer the whole song intact, I'd still rather them play the song without the verse than not play it at all, especially as there's nothing at all from IaW on the current setlist.

Yeah, but it's not as if they never play anything from that album normally, Blob.

I expect that once they stop doing the Evening With format after April...

Source for this "fact"? Why wouldn't they do Evening With shows in Asia and South America?

The encore will be Metropolis or PMU at one point in the tour we can all expect this I think.

I hope not :E

QFT

Do they already know what songs they'll be playing for all legs of the tour?

I would suggest they have a pretty good idea, yeah.

Agreed, altho there is the possibility they may tweak things along the way, depending on the audience reaction (such as dropping TGD from the setlist last tour) or maybe if they come up with some other ideas.

[ErHaO]

Well, if they decide to chance the setlist I really hope they won't do that before playing in Amsterdam (ok, maybe swap OTBOA for something else). And I would be really dissapointed if the encore is not this SFAM selection.

[krands85]

Found this from an interview in 2011

You've been shortening some of the old songs on recent tours, like Voices and Take the Time. Whose idea was that?

Yeah... I don't know! (gives a sarcastic look) Heh! Wasn't mine, but... You know, I'm not saying... That's what Mike wanted and he was partly right, because to sing those songs every night and all those sections would've been extremely taxing on my voice. But the way we like to work it out now, like doing Learning to Live and doing all these songs where I'm singing like F#s and stuff like that, is, ,,let's put that in the set, but I'll sing it one night here and I'll sing it another night here, but I won't sing it every night." – and that way, I can do the whole frickin' tune.

I don't mind them leaving that section out really, I'd rather they omit it than have James struggle through it most the time. What disappoints me more about the song these days is Jordan playing about with the keyboard solo much that it's almost unrecognizable from the original. Though I can't really blame him when he does things like that, it's just because it's my favourite keyboard solo ever 

As for live versions, I really love the one from 1994 on the Antiquities bootleg (not sure if it's an official bootleg, so I won't post a link, but it's on Youtube if you search). The final 'Take the tiiiiiiime' from James is incredible  then there's a great instrumental jam at the end of the song.

[Laughingplace56]

I expect that once they stop doing the Evening With format after April...

Source for this "fact"? Why wouldn't they do Evening With shows in Asia and South America?

I interpreted them saying the tour will end in Mexico meaning that the Evening With tour would stop there too. I could be wrong though that's just a guess, though I could've sworn I read they weren't doing it the whole tour somewhere. Second  of the day 

[Vivace]

I've never been a fan of Jordan's noodling of the older songs as well. Perhaps TtT might find it's way in the set list again in whole through alternating setlists if DT decides to ever do that again. I'm hoping at some point they do.

[IdoSC]

I'm pretty sure it was confirmed that the reason behind it is that James has a hard time, but the idea to abridge the song came from Portnoy. I can't say it with confident, but I can definitely say that at some point during 2011, James was interviewed and was asked about "harder songs" like Learning to Live. He said he has no problem singing them in their entirety as long as they don't overkill it and rotate these harder songs a little rather than singing them every night.

So if Take the Time or Voices will ever be played again, I assume they won't be abridged anymore.

[Vivace]

Oh no.... I'm ........... turning ..... into....

[Podaar]

They won't be playing TtT anymore because they can't top this.

[hefdaddy42]

To me, this song live has never come close to approaching the awesomeness of the studio version.  Granted, I think studio versions are almost always better, but the gap is pretty wide in the case of this song, mostly because the overall vocals do not compare to the studio version. 

For one, I have always been disappointed that the crowd doesn't loudly sing the "take the time" chorus, which should have been obvious and a natural thing to do.  The live versions where Portnoy and Petrucci did that part of the chorus never sounded good. 

Two, the aforementioned 2nd verse is a bitch to sing, and even when JLB is on his game, it has to be extremely difficult to sing well and have it sound good.

This.  I've never heard a really good live version (one of the few songs in their catalog about which I can say that).  I would be OK if they never performed it again.