The Astonishing Live 2016 Setlist Wishlist

[The Paddies]

What songs would you like to hear besides the whole new (double) album?

I guess if The Astonishing (TA) is a double album there will only be time for like 30-40 minutes of older material.

Considering the hints of a dystopian/fantasy/futuristic kind of theme for TA I'd say songs like In The Presence Of Enemies, Prophets Of War, The Great Debate, Lines In The Sand, Metropolis Pt. 1, In The Name Of God and perhaps Pull Me Under and New Millenium would fit best lyrically.

Whatever songs DT will pick I guess it will be great and there are some cool tunes among the ones mentioned above. But I'd really like to hear other types of songs though, since the band is playing theaters. So my wishes are that DT chooses among these (softer) ones: These Walls, A Change Of Seasons, Disappear (I think this is the perfect tour to highlight this song for once), Surrender To Reason, The Bigger Picture, Through Her Eyes (w/extended solo), Through My Words/Fatal Tragedy and Eve (one can hope, right).

What do you think DT will do and what are your wishes?

[MirrorMask]

But I'd really like to hear other types of songs though, since the band is playing theaters.

Good point, for example I think we're all dying to hear The Glass Prison again, but it will kinda be a buzzkill to hear such a trashy intense song and being forced to sit down 

It all comes down to the length of the album, if it's a double or not. If it's a double the two sets will be the entire album (Don't see them playing the whole thing and then playing some other songs before the encore... Imagine if on the last tour Awake was performed in its entirety, and imagine if it was a double album so long that it would have filled up the set: Set 1 from 6:00 to The Silent Man, set 2 what we actually got, and then after Space Dye Vest having another song, in this case Illumination Theory? I see it anticlimatic...), and the encore will be the older songs. They either go the extreme way, pulling out A Change of Seasons or Octavarium, or do a medley but that was more Portnoy's thing, or a couple of hits: The Spirit Carries On, The Enemy Inside (grammy nominated song) and Metropolis.

If it will be a single disc album, they could have a more properly balanced second set, something like this:

Bridges in the Sky
These Walls
Through My Words
Fatal Tragedy
The Bigger Picture
Peruvian Skies
Disappear
Stream of Consciousness
Forsaken
The Enemy Inside
The Count of Tuscany
-------------
Metropolis pt. 1

[Jinx]

I can't see them NOT breaking out The Bigger Picture or Surrender To Reason surely??

[ErHaO]

First of all, I would be surprised if this album is not two full(ish) discs.

That said,I saw two concept albums played in their entirety in my life thus far (barring Human Equation, which was a bit more like an actual play). One was Quadrophenia by the Who and  the other was Thick as a Brick (1&2) by Jethro Tull/Ian Anderson. Both Played the two concept discs live and returned on stage for an encore with their hits/fan favorites.

My expectation is that DT will do something similar. Examples would be pmu, tsco, m:p1, and possibly grammy award tracks tei and otboa. However, this is DT and I also think they like to change up things, with setlists between tours being quite different (and last tour not even playing IAW tracks, for example). So I can see them doing something special at the end as well. If so, my wish would be a full on performance of ACOS. That or some songs they have never played or rarely played.

[The Curious Orange]

 A Change of Seasons.


Apart from that, TSCO is probably a safe bet, and I'd put money on Bridges in the Sky and Behind the Veil showing up. And of course I'd die happy if they played The Killing Hand...

[Jinx]

If they are filming a DVD of this then I need NEED The Count to make it on there. Surely the last of the epics to get a live recording??

[ErHaO]

If they are filming a DVD of this then I need NEED The Count to make it on there. Surely the last of the epics to get a live recording??

No DVD, but there is the Happy Holidays version, which was great.

I think this is allowed to speak of here as it is a videobootleg with the free Happy Holidays material: On YT some fan attached it to live footage, it syncs really well as far as I can remember (captured from screens at the concert, giving somewhat DVD-like angles and close-ups of the band).

[CharlesPL]

New Date: Denmark, Copenhagen 8th march

[Train of Naught]

Considering the hints of a dystopian/fantasy/futuristic kind of theme for TA I'd say songs like The Great Debate would fit best lyrically.

Did I miss subliminal fantasy songmeanings in TGD?

[Octavarious]

Considering the hints of a dystopian/fantasy/futuristic kind of theme for TA I'd say songs like The Great Debate would fit best lyrically.

Did I miss subliminal fantasy songmeanings in TGD?

Subliminal? The whole part of anti-scientific rubbish based on defendingthe rights of frozen embryos like they were new born babies is 100% based on fantasy - to be kind...

[splent]

It's impossible to surprise.

I wouldn't be surprised if they played the whole album in it's entirety.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did that and then encored with a popular song like Metropolis.

I would be surprised if I could go.

[KevShmev]

Yep, I think some will be disappointed, but if the new album takes up most of the show, they almost have to play some popular favorites as encores (Metropolis, The Spirit Carries On, etc.).

[Lucien]

I imagine it will just be the new album.

[mike099]

I was going to start a new thread for the U.S. but will start here.  Assuming that the new material is outstanding,
do folks in the US want to hear the whole new cd and very little if any old material or mix it up.  Of course this may depend on how much of the new material can be played independently.

[bluehaze]

According to this interview, the only songs played will be from the new album....my bi-annual plug...I hope they play South Florida and the rest of the South this time around, but I am not expecting it...https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-dream-theaters-wildly-ambitious-new-concept-lp-20151203 ...oh, and first song is released...listen here.

[OpenYourEyes311]

I was going to start a new thread for the U.S. but will start here.  Assuming that the new material is outstanding,
do folks in the US want to hear the whole new cd and very little if any old material or mix it up.  Of course this may depend on how much of the new material can be played independently.

If they don't bring the whole "Astonishing Live" Tour over to the US I will be extremely disappointed. I imagine this album being as good as anything prior to 2006 and would like to see it the way it was meant to be seen. That said, I would be surprised if they did anything else, so my hopes are high.

[Darkstarshades]

Guys we're still missing The Bigger Picture and Surrender to Reason...

[Mladen]

I imagine it will just be the new album.

This would be brave but also very special. I think even the people that didn't necccessarrily go crazy about the album would show up to see such a one of a kind show.

[SwedishGoose]

I imagine it will just be the new album.

This would be brave but also very special. I think even the people that didn't necccessarrily go crazy about the album would show up to see such a one of a kind show.

It's advertised as 2 hours 40 minutes including intermission with the astonishing in full. With the new album beeing more than 2 hours long there is not much room for anyting extra.
Besides I think it could actually be strange to do a totally unrelated encore after this.
I'm thinking it will be Astonishing but no more than that 😉

[Krissi91]

Yes, it most likely will be "only" The Astonishing. I would like to wait until I've heard the album in full before purchasing tickets, as they aren't exactly low priced. But with just a limited amount of tickets available, the shows will surely be sold out within a few days...

[Mladen]

Calling it now: Octavarium or A Change of seasons as the encore.

[krands85]

Calling it now: Octavarium or A Change of seasons as the encore.

That would be great! Though I'm getting more and more worried that it might just be The Astonishing and nothing else, which would be a bit of a bummer from my point of view.

[FrostbiteZ]

Calling it now: Octavarium or A Change of seasons as the encore.

I hope for Octavarium as I always have since I first discovered DT in 2011, but I dont have high hopes to hear it on this tour
Maybe next tour or the one after that or perhaps it will be there on their 40th Anniversary tour 

[As I Am]

They are presenting.............The Astonishing! I'd be SHOCKED if they did any other songs aside from maybe a 1 or 2 song encore.

[The Curious Orange]

Guys, there is no way they are going to come out, play the entire new album over 2 sets, walk off stage and NOT play an encore. Get real.

[Cyclopssss]

There won't be an encore. They play The Astonishing. And that's it. Believe me. I'ts billed as such, it's a theatrical show, with multi-media elements. I'm happy with just that.

[SwedishGoose]

There won't be an encore. They play The Astonishing. And that's it. Believe me. I'ts billed as such, it's a theatrical show, with multi-media elements. I'm happy with just that.

Agreed....

[As I Am]

There won't be an encore. They play The Astonishing. And that's it. Believe me. I'ts billed as such, it's a theatrical show, with multi-media elements. I'm happy with just that.

Yeah, there will definitely BE an encore.

[MirrorMask]

Well, Petrucci in that Rolling Stone interview said that it was important to bill it that way so that the casual fan wouldn't come out and then say "Hey, where's Pull Me Under?"... however the way he worded it gave no conclusive indication if the whole album was the entire show or not.

The show will be an Evening With, 3 hours included the intermission, so 2h40' of actual music and in the same interview Petrucci said the album is around 2h and 10', so that leaves space for a 2-3 songs encore. Or a single epic as encore, as someone above suggested / hoped.

Anyway, this will be the first time in the history of DT shows that we'll know beforehand the order of the first 34 songs played 

[Major Thirteenth]

You have to think of this differently than a normal concert. You are going to a show with songs, plot, story, AV, etc. Not a concert of album songs. So expect a show, not a concert, and no encores.

[ErHaO]

I do not expect them to, but I wouldn't count out an encore either. It can definitely happen.

And while it is indeed a theatershow, it is still the band playing a concert, rather than something like Ayreon's Human Equation rendition recently. Furthermore, I have seen theatershows with an encore (Jethro Tull/Ian Anderson's thick as a Brick parts I and II for example, followed by some hits at the end).

[SwedishGoose]

I do not expect them to, but I wouldn't count out an encore either. It can definitely happen.

And while it is indeed a theatershow, it is still the band playing a concert, rather than something like Ayreon's Human Equation rendition recently. Furthermore, I have seen theatershows with an encore (Jethro Tull/Ian Anderson's thick as a Brick parts I and II for example, followed by some hits at the end).

Oh... they should definitely have time to play their hit

[robbob]

The obvious choice is ACOS as the encore. That would be epic. They haven't played that in it's entirety since 2003 or 2004

[ResultsMayVary]

JP said that they'll play the entire new album every night. So that leaves the question of an encore or not. Personally, I got the indication from JP's interview on Rolling Stone when The Gift of Music was released that the band wasn't planning on playing any other music besides the music off the new album.

However, if they did decide to play an encore, I'd like to see something like Octavarium as the encore. I remember JR said a year or two back that he went back and realized how great of a song that was.

[mike099]

If they do not perform an encore I would rather they not have long breaks in the music and play videos or have someone read a story to the audience.