Euro 2017 Winter - Images And Words and Beyond

[GuitarWizard]

Heres some audio/video I have to share. Video is average but audio is really good. You can kind of hear how intense the kick drum was in Take the time. I have some more but not sure if it's worth putting up as I only have audio.

Take the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pxc6RR-0oo
Another day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2P44sHA76s

[Nachtmerrie]

Awesome show in Tilburg last night. Although the crowd was a bit tame at the start/first set. I've heard ACOS and can now die a content man. 

Awesome show!
Everybody were on fire.. loved every bit of it

Amazing show! Nice to see JP taking the talking spot before Wait for Sleep. He had some great stories about the years before I&W.
It looked like JR had some kind of injury as he was treating his arm with towels during the Mangini solo and didn't use his keytar this time.

[dodido253]

Some footage that I took from Tilburg:
Learning to Live - https://youtu.be/d8hno1fxIKI
As I am solo - https://youtu.be/305Mf2bJy5g
Take The Time - https://youtu.be/x3ybmDeyFAI

[Elite]

Great show in Tilburg last night. The first half was fine but JLB was probably saving his voice for the Images and ACOS segment. And that was absolutely phenomenal to witness. Really liked the talking to the audience bits, and JP throwing in some Glasgow Kiss! The Jaco Pastorius tribute I didn't feel all that much, but it made As I Am hit really hard afterwards.

I considered going and really wanted to, but the tickets were so expensive. Good to hear that it was nice though! Were there many people attending? Since they only just played 013 a couple of months back and this show was moved from AFAS to 013.

[PixelDream]

Great show in Tilburg last night. The first half was fine but JLB was probably saving his voice for the Images and ACOS segment. And that was absolutely phenomenal to witness. Really liked the talking to the audience bits, and JP throwing in some Glasgow Kiss! The Jaco Pastorius tribute I didn't feel all that much, but it made As I Am hit really hard afterwards.

I considered going and really wanted to, but the tickets were so expensive. Good to hear that it was nice though! Were there many people attending? Since they only just played 013 a couple of months back and this show was moved from AFAS to 013.

Well the balcony was closed and the main floor was busy but not packed. Suits me better than how packed Opeth was in 013. Also,  in contrast to that show there wasn't a lot of talking throughout the gig and moderate filming with phones. The loud talking is a major problem in our country, with artists even referring to it as the Dutch Disease. 

Edit: for me it's a problem, of course. Not for everybody.

[rumborak]

There's actually a good crowd shot in the beginning of the TTT video. The website says it's 2300 capacity with balconies closed, so sounds like 2000 or so were at the gig.

[Siddhartha]

Went to Bilbao concert last night.

It was good but not great.

Jordan and the two Johns were on fire. I loved the Jaco tribute, and the three of them played their ass off. A 10 out of 10.

James singed very beautifully during the first part of the set and during Sorrounded and Wait for Sleep. But the rest... buff there were some embarrasing singing moments yesterday to be honest. The kind of singing so out of pitch that you wouldn´t want a friend to hear. It is not just that he can´t hit the highest notes. The problem is that even without attempting them the vocal parts are still too hard to pull out and in the end it shows and he sounds very strained.

This is the 6th gig I have seen of DT with Mangini, and by far the worst one on the drumming part. He just makes the music sound worse. There were a couple of good ideas, like the part following his solo on Metropolis, but for the most part his drumming sounded robotic and uninspired. How I miss Portnoy.

[juan20sa]

The gig in Barcelona was amazing. Everyone played their instruments perfectly and LaBrie sang really well (he modified some parts of the first set), I didn't expect him to sing that good.

The venue was full and there was a lot of energy there, the band was really enjoying it. The sound was perfect, Petrucci's guitars sounded really aggressive and full. I loved the modifications of some songs and the extra solos. A Change of Seasons was the highlight of the night.

It's definitely the best concert I have ever seen.

[PixelDream]

I really liked the Tilburg show but I can definitely see why some would find Mangini's playing robotic. The clicktrack makes everything even more rigid. One obvious moment was the transition in ACOS out of the Another World solo into that heavy downtuned riff. On the Metropolis DVD the tempo goes down, giving it that nice and heavy feel. Now the tempo remained constant which was a bit weird.

[lucasembarbosa]

Today is the day

[Prog Snob]

Rex Manning Day?

[lucasembarbosa]

Rex Manning Day?

Didn't get it... 

[Adami]

Rex Manning Day?

Say no more....















...mon amour.

[Prog Snob]

Oh Rexy, you're so sexy.

[dodido253]

John Petrucci Speech - Tilburg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNfUc3S8QgY

[Mladen]

It's slightly awkward seeing John being the one talking to the audience for so long, but it was an informative, interesting speech and, like James said, he's really good at this.

[TAC]

That was awesome!!

[V_R11]

John Petrucci Speech - Tilburg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNfUc3S8QgY

I literally laughed out loud, this was amazing  Thanks for sharing!

[rumborak]

I love listening to JP. The guy could talk about his car repair and I'd still love it.

[KevShmev]

I love listening to JP. The guy could talk about his car repair and I'd still love it.

I'm surprised you'd love anything about DT nowadays...

[TAC]

I love listening to JP. The guy could talk about his car repair and I'd still love it.

I'm surprised you'd love anything about DT nowadays...

It's car repairs, not DT!

[Adami]

I love listening to JP. The guy could talk about his car repair and I'd still love it.

I'm surprised you'd love anything about DT nowadays...

He meant to say that he would only love JP talking about getting his car repaired. Nothing else.

[rumborak]

TRAPPED INSIDE THIS CAR REPAIR SHOP!!

TRAPPED. INSIDE. THIS. CAR. REPAIR. SHOOOOOOOPPPPP.....


But enough of this kumbaya session, I'm getting all teary-eyed.
Back to business: I listened to the Bilbao Metropolis video on YouTube, and man, yeah...

[lucasembarbosa]

Anybody who went to the shows noticed that JP is using the NOMAC Majesty during The Gift of Music/Our New World?

[SjundeInseglet]

Anybody who went to the shows noticed that JP is using the NOMAC Majesty during The Gift of Music/Our New World?

Yes, I was there last night (in Porto) as well. He has been using the NOMAC Majesty to play "Our New World" on this tour. I had seen the band in Stockholm last February and he was already doing that back then. Got to say that last night's show was pretty darn amazing. I think I liked it even better than the one I witnessed in Stockholm. And I must point out that the guys looked pretty animated too. James, in particular, was very engaging. He talked to audience often and did his best to get the crowd going multiple times. He sounded considerably better than on the previous leg too. I guess that  why I was never able to understand why people complain about the band's lack of presence and James' supposed inability to behave himself like a true frontman. I've seen these guys 9 times since 2000 and they've always delivered.

[Siddhartha]

Anybody who went to the shows noticed that JP is using the NOMAC Majesty during The Gift of Music/Our New World?

Yes. Very cool looking guitar. All his Ernie Ball Majestys are beautiful.

[lucasembarbosa]

Looks like James saved his voice between the middle songs of I&W, to unleash it all in ACOS, his performance was flawless!

[Prog Snob]

 At which show?

[lucasembarbosa]

At which show?

Coliseu do Porto, last sunday. Specially during Another World and The Crimson Sunset:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK8GT2X7Kso

[Prog Snob]

That was pretty damn good. He didn't try to oversing anything.

[Logain Ablar]

Agreed! Here's another good one from London - the sound is a bit wonky to start with, but improves after a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YefVvuMrrOU

The solo starting at https://youtu.be/YefVvuMrrOU?t=893 is a top DT moment for me. I could never get tired of listening to that part.

[SjundeInseglet]

That was pretty damn good. He didn't try to oversing anything.

James has been in much better shape on this leg. Sure, he will change a melody or two here and there but that's not detrimental to the songs. Seems like he (or the band) has worked out definite alternate parts to the ones that are just too hard to pull off live (such as the "pensive fear" section in "Take The Time"). I liked the show I saw on the first leg of the tour too but the concert I saw last Sunday was indeed better. James' vocal improvement aside, the band just seemed to be slightly more into it. The added intro/improv to "Hell's Kitchen" was really cool too. I particularly liked the fact they deliberately take the time (pun kind of intented) to share a lot of interesting stories from the Images and Words days with the audience. Seems to me they have actually expanded these moments on the current leg (which makes this tour particulary memorable).

[Mladen]

There's an enormous amount of work going into alternating vocal melodies and therefore I must give James a lot of credit. It requires him sitting down, figuring out which of the vocal sections are difficult, exhausting or uncomfortable, and finding out the alternative ways of singing them while still staying powerful, convincing and in key. There are quite a few sections and songs to be covered, so I really admire him for the hard work put into all of this. Kudos!

[devieira73]

James has been in much better shape on this leg. Sure, he will change a melody or two here and there but that's not detrimental to the songs. Seems like he (or the band) has worked out definite alternate parts to the ones that are just too hard to pull off live (such as the "pensive fear" section in "Take The Time"

I find very interesting what he is doing with that part... well, when I first heard the bootleg of it, I thought WTF, James is loosing breath or what ?!  . Now I get that is intentional and it's really cool

[bosk1]

Do you have a link to a recent (and good) performance of it?  I know there have been a lot of links posted recently to various things, but I have not been keeping up. 

And I will also reiterate the obvious fact that we all know, which is, that passage in that song is one of the most difficult, if not THE most difficult, vocal passages in the entire DT catalog.