Worst DT fail you saw in person?

[DT1138]

For those who have seen them in person, wondering what the worst fail you saw them do live and in person?  They were practically flawless in Chicago.  This is just for curiosity and fun reasons.

[MirrorMask]

No fails from me either. I don't count the occasional difficulties of James as "fail", I'm thinking of trainwrecks, blatant musical mistakes, someone slipping or falling on stage, James completely forgetting the lyrics etc... never saw that happen in person.

[Lethean]

I did see James fall on stage once. I don't know if I'd count it as a fail or not. I can't remember which show it was - either on the Astonishing tour or back in the spring for this tour.

[pg1067]

The first thing that came to mind was when MP fake humped the stage prop ant on the Systematic Chaos tour, but maybe that's not the sort of "fail" you were going for.

[DTA]

I'm not sure it's a "fail" really as it wasn't the band's fault, but I remember JP's guitar cutting out during UAGM at the Radio City Score show.

[goo-goo]

A couple of train wrecks during Metropolis Pt 1 at the Aug 2000 Phoenix AZ show. They restarted the song twice during the instrumental section.

[ozzy554]

The fact that they didn't play You Not Me was a MASSIVE fail.

[Sycsa]

I'm not sure it's a "fail" really as it wasn't the band's fault, but I remember JP's guitar cutting out during UAGM at the Radio City Score show.

Yeah, they obviously overdubbed it for the Score DVD, but you can still pick up clues as to what happened. Petrucci is dicking around with his pedals and speakers, Portnoy keeps nervously checking him.

[SystematicThought]

James fell off the stage during Bridges in the Sky at the State Theater in Minneapolis during the Summer leg of the ADTOE tour

[Chris Hinton]

During the FII tour at the Fenix in Seattle the power went out at least once, and maybe twice.

[dtrocker25]

Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn't  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I'm assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck

[ozzy554]

The fact that they didn't play You Not Me was a MASSIVE fail.

Just saw them again and they made the same mistake as above.

[ToT-147]

Not a fail of the band, but the power went down too in Buenos Aires, AFTR tour, fortunately (and not) while the youtube compilation video was on, so it didn't cut any song, but it was a tense moment where we didn't know if the show was going to conclude.. I remember JP came back almost running to the stage to start playing The Mirror to not wasting any more time..

[TheCountOfNYC]

The only colossal screw up I saw was at my first DT show at Hammerstein Ballroom in April of 2014. James completely forgot the words to Lie and even told the crowd that he messed up. John ended up singing the rest of the lyrics to the song into his face to mess with him. It's on YouTube somewhere.

[Zydar]

Power failure during TDOE when I saw them in 2009, Stockholm. Not sure it falls under the "DT fail" category though.

[DT1138]

Sorry, guess I should have defined fail as mistakes, errors, or whatever else happened that was unexpected or unplanned.  So in my opinion all of the above apply.  Interesting that there were so many power failures.  I've been to tons of show's over the years and thankfully that has never happened.

[dparrott]

James blowing a line during Scarred in L.A.  He just smiled, did a spin and kept going.

[Sycsa]

Not in person, but there's a rare double fail here (@1:42:50), Portnoy messes up the beat, then Jordan fails to switch patches in time for the solo 10 seconds later: https://youtu.be/M81CHCBcwqs?t=1h42m50s

[Evai]

then Jordan fails to switch patches in time for the solo 10 seconds later: https://youtu.be/M81CHCBcwqs?t=1h42m50s

Around these parts, we call that 'pulling a derek'

[JayOctavarium]

then Jordan fails to switch patches in time for the solo 10 seconds later: https://youtu.be/M81CHCBcwqs?t=1h42m50s

Around these parts, we call that 'pulling a derek'

#NoPatchFails

[Dublagent66]

James fell off the stage during Bridges in the Sky at the State Theater in Minneapolis during the Summer leg of the ADTOE tour

Did he break a leg? 

[Ben_Jamin]

In Tucson, on The Astonishing tour, during the intro to Losing Faythe, JLB forgot the lyrics. You hear "My foolish pride...da da dada...wow." Then remembered and sang the rest really giving it, making up for that mistake.

[Adami]

At one point in LA (back in the MP days) James couldn't figure out how to come in with the 2nd verse of Scarred and kept screwing up and stopping. MP looked SUPER pissed and James was clearly annoyed.

[Setlist Scotty]

At the beginning of their set covering all of Master of Puppets, JL lost his place with the lyrics to Battery because he was relying on a teleprompter for the lyrics, and the teleprompter guy had screwed up and wasn't cycling thru the lyrics like he was supposed to. IIRC, the problem didn't get sorted out until the end of the song, so we got an instrumental version of that song. But on the up side, JL was so pissed off as a result that he gave a fiery performance for the rest of that set, which benefited those songs.

[SwedishGoose]

Power failure during TDOE when I saw them in 2009, Stockholm. Not sure it falls under the "DT fail" category though.

That was awesome.... MP entertaining the audience while the others had nothing to do...
Sweden can't handle the Meshugga riff

[goo-goo]

Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn't  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I'm assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck

I was there too. I've witnessed two fails then 

[?]

On the AFTR tour in Helsinki in 2014 JP flubbed the lead before the vocals come in on Trial of Tears and ended up improvising a random solo in its place.

[El Barto]

Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn't  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I'm assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck

Not a trainwreck at all, but JP's panicked reaction was worth the price of admission.

[Adami]

Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn't  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I'm assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck

MM is playing to a click track. He comes in at the same time no matter what.

[Evai]

Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn't  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I'm assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck

MM is playing to a click track. He comes in at the same time no matter what.

Yeah, for all we know Mangini could have all the other band members turned down in his in ears, so he just hears his drums and the click. He hasn't listened to Dream Theater in years

[Drinktheater]

Its when big John Petrucci signed at the wrong part of the Song book I brought during a meet and greet.

J/K. 

[gilpdawg]

At the beginning of their set covering all of Master of Puppets, JL lost his place with the lyrics to Battery because he was relying on a teleprompter for the lyrics, and the teleprompter guy had screwed up and wasn't cycling thru the lyrics like he was supposed to. IIRC, the problem didn't get sorted out until the end of the song, so we got an instrumental version of that song. But on the up side, JL was so pissed off as a result that he gave a fiery performance for the rest of that set, which benefited those songs.

I remember that, I think you were right behind me. (I seem to recall that discussion way back on the MP board then)

I've never seen James that angry before.

Adding one:

Cleveland Gigantour James split his pants.

[ReaperKK]

I'm not sure it's a "fail" really as it wasn't the band's fault, but I remember JP's guitar cutting out during UAGM at the Radio City Score show.

I remember this!

[legenden1]

The first time I saw them, on the Awake-tour, James microphone didn´t work. After a while he threw away the whole microphone stand and left the stage furious. The band jammed on and he returned about 10 minutes later and restarted the song (Pull me under). All in all, a fantastic concert 

[pcs90]

The first time I saw them, on the Awake-tour, James microphone didn´t work. After a while he threw away the whole microphone stand and left the stage furious. The band jammed on and he returned about 10 minutes later and restarted the song (Pull me under). All in all, a fantastic concert 

Wonder if this was recorded... They had lots of great jams back then when things went wrong (the Back Pain jam being one that immediately springs to mind.)