Another Anniversary World Tour

[SeRoX]

Well, I&W is their milestone which must be honored with a world tour and they are doing it. Another album that deserves a world tour is SFAM, at least for me.

I can see they can play FII, ToT, Octavarium, SDOIT or even WDADU in its entirety for the selective cities to celebrate their anniversary but the possibility of doing a SFAM world tour is high.

Thoughts?

[Adami]

I think they consider that one tour that had a heavy focus on Awake and Scenes as the anniversary celebration for both. Breaking The Fourth Wall is probably the closest we'll get to that.

[KevShmev]

Eh, I know they are getting up there in age, but I'd hate to see them turn into a nostalgia band by feeling the need to tour on the anniversary of an album every few years. They did all of SFAM every night on the Metropolis: 2000 tour; that was good enough. 

[MirrorMask]

WDADU = Been there, done that
Six Degrees = Too long
FII, TOT, Octavarium = Too divisive, not the entirety of the fanbase likes them

If at all, they'll do a 20 years anniversary of SFAM, but then again, that will be when they'll be touring for a new album so I don't think they want just like in 2014 to have a portion of the show dedicated to that album.

[Madman Shepherd]

No more anniversary sets!!!

I hope DT14 is so badass that people clamor for a DT14 centric setlist. 

[Cool Chris]

No more anniversary sets!!!

!!!!! Agreed.

[Ben_Jamin]

No more Anniversary tours!!!!! We need a regular Dream Theater set tour. No Concept in full, no dedicated sets to an album. Just a regular whatever songs they choose to play tour.

We haven't gotten that since A Dramatic Tour of Events.

[RoeDent]

How about the 0th anniversary tour for DT14?

[Lethean]

I would love an anniversary tour for Scenes from a Memory. For all of us who missed the boat the first time around. (Plus I'd also like a version sans MP vocals).  I don't want it to be at the expense of their new album, but I hope they do it somehow. I wouldn't even care if it wasn't on an anniversary. Tour the new album in 2019, break out Scenes for 2020. It can be the anniversary of the Metropolis 2000 tour.

[gzarruk]

How about the 0th anniversary tour for DT14?

This!

I would love to see the play SFAM in full again, but maybe as a one off show somewhere and not a full tour for that.

[pg1067]

IMO, I&W is the only album that warrants an anniversary tour.  Maybe a one off show for SFAM, but that's about it.

[SwedishGoose]

IMO, I&W is the only album that warrants an anniversary tour.  Maybe a one off show for SFAM, but that's about it.

A huge +1 on this

[Lethean]

I think Scenes from a Memory absolutely warrants it.  Not because it's one of my personal favorites (which it is), but it's one of the most highly rated albums across the fan base and was really important for their career.

[Drinktheater]

I would love see them perform the whole SFAM with an Orchestra.

[don_waka]

How awesome it'd be if they played Falling into Infinity plus the  b-sides

[TheCountOfNYC]

The problem is that every year is a 5 or 10 year anniversary of something.

0/5: The band's formation, A Change of Seasons, Octavarium
1/6: A Dramatic Turn of Events, The Astonishing
2/7: Images and Words, Falling Into Infinity, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Systematic Chaos
3/8: Train of Thought, Dream Theater
4/9: When Dream and Day Unite, Awake, Scenes From a Memory, Black Clouds & Silver Linings

That leaves no time to tour for new material and I don't think anyone here wants to see Dream Theater turn into the world's greatest Dream Theater cover band.

[bosk1]

I don't know anything for certain, but if I had to make a prediction, it would be that they don't do anymore full-blown anniversary tours after this.  I might expect mini-sets for some important anniversaries, like what they did with Awake and SFAM on the AFTR tour.  But as far as full anniversary tours, it doesn't seem like that's a realistic thing to expect in the near future.

[pg1067]

The problem is that every year is a 5 or 10 year anniversary of something.

. . .

That leaves no time to tour for new material and I don't think anyone here wants to see Dream Theater turn into the world's greatest Dream Theater cover band.

Exactly.  Aside from being at or near the top of just about everyone's list of favorite DT albums, it was the breakthrough album, so a 25th anniversary tour made sense (the 25th anniversary of just about anything generally being regarded as significant).  If you do an anniversary tour for any other album, it creates a slippery slope: "if you do the 20th anniversary tour for SFAM, why not a 20th anniversary tour for SDOIT" (especially for folks who think SDOIT is a better album).  I agree that a one-off show for SFAM with an orchestra (or without) would be good.

[Evai]

DT with an orchestra never worked that well for me. Only if it was something like The Astonishing that was made specifically for it

[Cool Chris]

DT with an orchestra never worked that well for me.

* Uses the SCORE cover as his avatar

[MirrorMask]

DT with an orchestra never worked that well for me.

* Uses the SCORE cover as his avatar

[mikeyd23]

DT with an orchestra never worked that well for me.

* Uses the SCORE cover as his avatar

[Lethean]

The problem is that every year is a 5 or 10 year anniversary of something.

. . .

That leaves no time to tour for new material and I don't think anyone here wants to see Dream Theater turn into the world's greatest Dream Theater cover band.

Exactly.  Aside from being at or near the top of just about everyone's list of favorite DT albums, it was the breakthrough album, so a 25th anniversary tour made sense (the 25th anniversary of just about anything generally being regarded as significant).  If you do an anniversary tour for any other album, it creates a slippery slope: "if you do the 20th anniversary tour for SFAM, why not a 20th anniversary tour for SDOIT" (especially for folks who think SDOIT is a better album).  I agree that a one-off show for SFAM with an orchestra (or without) would be good.

I don't want them to become a nostalgia band either - and I certainly don't think they need to do an anniversary tour for each album when it's 10th, 15th, 20th, etc anniversary comes up. I love Six Degrees and would personally be happy for them to play it in its entirety, but I think in terms of DT's career, Scenes is a huge milestone album and it would be more than appropriate for them to do a tour. Maybe for it's 25th instead of the 20th in 2019.

For some of the other albums, I'd love it if they did what Bosk mentioned with mini sets. 

On a side note - I definitely think it's time for some tracks from Six Degrees to make their way back into the setlists.

[The Walrus]

I haven't even seen any of the Scenes songs live, but please, enough, no SFAM anniversary, just move on.

But I'm also not crazy about SFAM in the first place.

[pg1067]

I don't want them to become a nostalgia band either - and I certainly don't think they need to do an anniversary tour for each album when it's 10th, 15th, 20th, etc anniversary comes up. I love Six Degrees and would personally be happy for them to play it in its entirety, but I think in terms of DT's career, Scenes is a huge milestone album and it would be more than appropriate for them to do a tour. Maybe for it's 25th instead of the 20th in 2019.

For some of the other albums, I'd love it if they did what Bosk mentioned with mini sets. 

On a side note - I definitely think it's time for some tracks from Six Degrees to make their way back into the setlists.

SFAM will be 25 years old in October 2024 (by the way, I love that you can just type in "sfam" in Wikipedia and it takes you to the page for the album -- same with "sdoit" or "6doit"), by which point the five band members will be 57 (JM and JP), 61 (JLB and MM), and 68 (JR).  I'm not saying I wouldn't go if they did it, but I just don't see it happening.

I do, however, think that they'll do what they did on the DT12 tour and play small chunks from SFAM and SDOIT if they're on the road when those albums come up for their 20th anniversaries.