If YOU were writing the set list for the next DT tour...

[Mosh]

I agree completely. I certainly don't expect stuff from those 5 albums to ever take up even a 1/3 of a setlist, but having 2 or 3 tracks per show - especially on this tour - is not an unreasonable request, and I'm of the mind that this will happen. I don't think that MP is that unreasonable to push 1/3 of their catalog to the side just because he wasn't involved with those albums and even if he did, I'd imagine JP and perhaps the others would request that he did.

Yea, that's pretty much where I'm at. I can't imagine JP (or anyone else in the group) being willing to let a third of the catalog go just because MP wasn't there. It also just isn't consistent with the band's history until now. They still play songs that Rudess wasn't part of and have been arguably more charitable to their debut album than most other bands have been with lesser known/less popular albums. I don't really see any reason why the Mangini era would be ignored other than the fact that they have struggled to include songs from those albums on recent tours already besides whatever the album they're touring on is. But if they are bringing back rotating setlists* then there is more room to include songs from those albums and less of an excuse not to.

Maybe, maybe not. Especially if MP intends to include something from every album at every show besides a healthy amount of the new album, a medley might be a good way to make that happen. I could see MP reasoning with him on that.

I get that and I guess we really have no way of knowing what the behind the scenes discussions are right now. Obviously the infamous example of JP not liking medleys is Rush, but Rush used medleys to solve the same problem DT has now: how to fully incorporate a big discography. I would rather them not try to do the impossible and instead just make sure each era is appropriately covered and use rotation to round things out. i.e. city A gets a song from BC&SL while city B gets a song from Systematic Chaos. Or city A gets never before played song from DT12 and city B gets the same from Distance Over Time.

*BTW someone dropped that 50th anniversary albums Prog Report video with MP somewhere recently. I highly recommend it to those who haven't watched, but also MP dropped a few more nuggets that I haven't really seen mentioned here yet. The big one to me, and maybe this is just reading too much into things, is Portnoy said something along the lines of submitting the "main" setlist to the rest of the band. I read that as meaning "master" setlist and that there will be some sort of rotation going into the tour.

[brakkum]

I'm hoping they pull out some of the less/never played Mangini era songs as a way to cover that territory, plus some of those songs seem like they'd go really well with MPs style. The epics from that period were very well represented during their respective tours, so I'd rather see some other jems.

[Mebert78]

I've been thinking this for a few weeks now and wanted to share it... I think DT should do a Mangini-era medley on the upcoming tour featuring the lead singles (aka the opening tracks) from the five albums he played on: "On The Backs of Angels," "The Enemy Inside," "The Gift of Music," "Untethered Angel" and "The Alien."  They can call it "The Mangini Medley."

Wow, what a patronizing and marginalizing way of treating the Mangini Era. That would seriously piss me off as a Dream Theater fan.

I totally didn't mean it in a patronizing away.  My apologies, as I didn't read the previous pages of the thread before posting, so if I missed something that's my fault.  In my head, I'm thinking there's a chance DT might not play any Mangini-era songs on the upcoming tour and might focus exclusively on MP songs since he just returned to the band.  If that's the case, I would encourage them to consider a "Mangini Medley" featuring the lead singles from each of the five albums he played on, which I think would be kind of cool.  I don't think it would "marginalize" Mangini, it would do the opposite in my opinion: it would dedicate a solid 15-minute chunk of the show to Mangini in celebration of him as opposed just peppering in his songs here and there. 

[Mosh]

I'm guessing the epics slots are going to be taken by MP era songs anyway. One or more of the following seems like a lock: Octavarium, Learning to Live, Metropolis, A Change of Seasons. If there's a new album in time, whatever the new epic is will probably be in as well. So that more or less guarantees the Mangini era picks will mostly be non-epics. I could maybe see Breaking All Illusions as a few people here have requested, but there's a lot to choose from in the non-epic category especially when three of the five albums went for shorter songs overall.

I'm hoping they pull out some of the less/never played Mangini era songs as a way to cover that territory, plus some of those songs seem like they'd go really well with MPs style. The epics from that period were very well represented during their respective tours, so I'd rather see some other jems.

[Setlist Scotty]

*BTW someone dropped that 50th anniversary albums Prog Report video with MP somewhere recently. I highly recommend it to those who haven't watched, but also MP dropped a few more nuggets that I haven't really seen mentioned here yet. The big one to me, and maybe this is just reading too much into things, is Portnoy said something along the lines of submitting the "main" setlist to the rest of the band. I read that as meaning "master" setlist and that there will be some sort of rotation going into the tour.

That's how I understood that comment as well.

[TAC]

I totally didn't mean it in a patronizing away.  My apologies, as I didn't read the previous pages of the thread before posting, so if I missed something that's my fault.  In my head, I'm thinking there's a chance DT might not play any Mangini-era songs on the upcoming tour and might focus exclusively on MP songs since he just returned to the band.  If that's the case, I would encourage them to consider a "Mangini Medley" featuring the lead singles from each of the five albums he played on, which I think would be kind of cool.  I don't think it would "marginalize" Mangini, it would do the opposite in my opinion: it would dedicate a solid 20-minute chunk of the show to Mangini in celebration of him as opposed just peppering in his songs here and there.

I didn't mean that YOU were marginalizing. Sorry. That's not how I meant it. I mean, there's any number of ridiculous setlist proposals on DTF all the time. I meant that if that was something the BAND actually did, I'd lose a ton of respect for them.

[adhuin]

Personal hopes for the new tour is that they spread the love for all the albums. Maybe 1 or 2 songs each.
No more playing I&W/Awake/Sfoam marathons, just because it is the anniversary.
I Would love to hear any new songs.
Also I would like to hear the less played songs among the 'hits'.
There's actually quite a few songs that have never been played live.


1-2 songs from each albums starting from the newest:
aVFTTotW: Answering the Call / Sleeping Giant
DoT: Paralyzed / Out of Reach
Ast!: Act of Faythe / a New Beginning
DT: Enigma Machine / The Enemy Inside
aDToE: This is the Life / Far from Heaven

BC&SL: The Shattered Fortress
SC: Prophets of War (My top 1 pick) / The Ministry of Lost Souls
Octa: I Walk Beside You / Panic Attack
ToT: Stream of Consciousness / In the Name of God

6DoIT: Literally anything from the 2nd disc would be great.
SFOAM: Finally Free (as the encore) / The Spirit Carries on
FII: Hell's Kitchen / Trial of Tears

aCoS: Any section of the song. Maybe 5-7?
Awa: Space-Dye Vest / The Silent man
I&W: Metropolis pt:1 / Another Day
WDaDU: Ytse Jam

[Dream Team]

Welcome to the forums, and nice first post! 

[Glasser]

. . . combining snippets of every DT song ever recorded.

I'm in! 

[devieira73]

From DT Facebook:
"Octavarium was released on this day in 2005! The title track in particular remains one of our favourite ever compositions..."
Just... saying?

[gzarruk]

From DT Facebook:
"Octavarium was released on this day in 2005! The title track in particular remains one of our favourite ever compositions..."
Just... saying?

"...but we haven't played it since 2006"

[devieira73]

It's true. But it's really hard to make room to a 20 minute epic in a show, specially when there's a new epic from the last album and a bigger pool of songs to choose from. ACOS and TCOT managed to broke this barrier of an epic be played outside its own album tour. I think it's the right time and tour for 8V.

[Progmaniac1988]

Here, this'll put the "are they skipping mangini era" to rest. Straight from the sources mouth. Portnoys set list will include ALL eras of the band including the albums without him. He's even learning about and listening to those albums to prepare. No reason he'd go through all that to not play a couple of said songs on the tour.

https://youtu.be/bRhRec1tad4?si=15N3ywbjDs9enl6w

[Setlist Scotty]

"...but we haven't played it since 2006"

Not completely, but it was part of Schmedley Wilcox in 2007-2008.   

It's true. But it's really hard to make room to a 20 minute epic in a show, specially when there's a new epic from the last album and a bigger pool of songs to choose from. ACOS and TCOT managed to broke this barrier of an epic be played outside its own album tour. I think it's the right time and tour for 8V.

If not this tour, then the following one.

[devieira73]

Here, this'll put the "are they skipping mangini era" to rest. Straight from the sources mouth. Portnoys set list will include ALL eras of the band including the albums without him. He's even learning about and listening to those albums to prepare. No reason he'd go through all that to not play a couple of said songs on the tour.

https://youtu.be/bRhRec1tad4?si=15N3ywbjDs9enl6w

And..."It's impossible to cover, I think, 16 albums..." 

[gzarruk]

Here, this'll put the "are they skipping mangini era" to rest. Straight from the sources mouth. Portnoys set list will include ALL eras of the band including the albums without him. He's even learning about and listening to those albums to prepare. No reason he'd go through all that to not play a couple of said songs on the tour.

https://youtu.be/bRhRec1tad4?si=15N3ywbjDs9enl6w

A couple things we can extract from that interview:

- They're definitely doing some MM era songs, but...
- They won't represent all their existing albums (at least not all on one show, but they might rotate them?)
- Mike is already practicing some songs from and getting familiarized with the Mangini era albums
- Sadly (IMO), it seems like it's going to be a "here's all the classics" setlist, so I guess (just guessing here) they probably won't be playing any deep cuts at all

[evilasiojr]

Yeah having heard Mike talk about it, I think they are either going with 1 or 2 songs from the Mangini Era, but I wonder which albums from the other eras they'll leave out. Thats indeed a very complex task, man.

It also sounds like they are playing lots of classics, Which doesn't mean playing the more radio friendly/singles songs. I think a good example is Home, I have a huge feeling they are playing that one. And, by the counting of 16 albums, we can also assume they are including new album material.

[devieira73]

Also, by "all eras will be represented" meaning the setlist will include the Majesty era? I hope so. At least it seems we'll have something from WDADU.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

Personal hopes for the new tour is that they spread the love for all the albums. Maybe 1 or 2 songs each.
No more playing I&W/Awake/Sfoam marathons, just because it is the anniversary.
I Would love to hear any new songs.
Also I would like to hear the less played songs among the 'hits'.
There's actually quite a few songs that have never been played live.


1-2 songs from each albums starting from the newest:
aVFTTotW: Answering the Call / Sleeping Giant
DoT: Paralyzed / Out of Reach
Ast!: Act of Faythe / a New Beginning
DT: Enigma Machine / The Enemy Inside
aDToE: This is the Life / Far from Heaven

BC&SL: The Shattered Fortress
SC: Prophets of War (My top 1 pick) / The Ministry of Lost Souls
Octa: I Walk Beside You / Panic Attack
ToT: Stream of Consciousness / In the Name of God

6DoIT: Literally anything from the 2nd disc would be great.
SFOAM: Finally Free (as the encore) / The Spirit Carries on
FII: Hell's Kitchen / Trial of Tears

aCoS: Any section of the song. Maybe 5-7?
Awa: Space-Dye Vest / The Silent man
I&W: Metropolis pt:1 / Another Day
WDaDU: Ytse Jam

Welcome to the forums!

[Mosh]

If there is an aspect of Dream Theater where cynicism is highly unwarranted, I would say it's the setlists. They have always been really great about listening to what the fans want and trying to keep things interesting for the hardcore fans who have seen them many times, especially when MP was in the band initially. So I'm not too worried. I actually feel very confident that they're going to deliver something that most fans are going to love.

It's no surprise that they're going to bring out a lot of "classics" on MP's reunion tour. But since they're promising a career spanning setlist, we're pretty much guaranteed some deeper cuts.

As far as representing all eras, I definitely agree this is where the challenge lies but I also don't think it's really that unachievable. The rotating setlists will allow the band to cover more of their catalog over the course of the tour, and if they break things up into eras and not albums there's plenty of room for everything:

1. Majesty/WDADU
2. I&W
3. Awake/FII
4. SFAM
5. SDOIT/ToT/8vm
6. SC/BC&SL
7. ADTOE/DT12/The Astonishing
8. DoT/View

There you have a pretty easy to work with divide of 8 sections, similar to the 8 albums that the band represented on the 20th anniversary tour. It also leaves some room for new material if the album is out by then, or multiple songs from each "era." I think there's a lot of room to deliver for the fans here.

[gzarruk]

This won't happen AT ALL, but I wish they didn't play any of the IAW and SFAM songs for a while and focus on the rest of the catalog that has been neglected lately. But, given the circumstances surrounding this tour, that's not happening.

[devieira73]

Interesting this concept of eras... personally I would classify it slighty different than Mosh:

1. Majesty/WDADU
2. I&W/Awake (Kevin Moore era)
3. FII (Derek Sherinian era)
4. SFAM/SDOIT/ToT/8vm
6. SC/BC&SL (Roadrunner era, kind of a heavier and "updated" era)
7. ADTOE/DT12/The Astonishing
8. DoT/View (Mangini era with his input in the songwriting)

But... I think what MP said was more like dividing by Majesty era and the 5 DT formations that recorded the albums. Sure, the classic formation will have more representation in the setlist for a lot of reasons, including having 6 six albums.

[Mosh]

My logic there is that they are almost certainly going to play songs from I&W and SFAM at EVERY show. It doesn't quite line up historically -I&W should be paired with Awake and FII by itself, but I'm trying to think about what a realistic setlist would look like.

[gzarruk]

My quick guess would be:

- Reverse chronological order starting with one or two DT16 tracks.
- 2 or 3 MM era songs (might be something from DT12, DOT and/or A View but mostly shorter songs and most likely nothing from TA).
- Focus on the albums made by the current lineup. Maybe longer songs here but not the epics.
-  One from FII and even maybe a section from ACOS.
- 2 or 3 KM era tracks. Classics.
- One from WDADU
- Maybe something from the Majesty era but I think bringing back OAMOT with the ending of March of the Tyrant as Scotty mentioned earlier would work perfectly for this.
- DT16 epic?
- Big classic encore with something like Octavarium or Metropolis and something else like Finally Free?

I obviously haven't done the math with these predictions but I find or hard to do so without knowing the track count and lengths for the new album or at least one or two singles out. If the new album is something like Black Clouds where it's mostly long songs or a double album, that might change things a bit.

[devieira73]

My logic there is that they are almost certainly going to play songs from I&W and SFAM at EVERY show. It doesn't quite line up historically -I&W should be paired with Awake and FII by itself, but I'm trying to think about what a realistic setlist would look like.

Understood. I didn't understand at first that you were thinking of the eras in terms of the setlist. 

[devieira73]

My reasonable guess for the setlist is Octavarium. My craziest guess (but with a hair in reality) is that they will open the show with The Instrumenjesty Medley.

[OpenYourEyes311]

My quick guess would be:

- Reverse chronological order starting with one or two DT16 tracks.
- 2 or 3 MM era songs (might be something from DT12, DOT and/or A View but mostly shorter songs and most likely nothing from TA).
- Focus on the albums made by the current lineup. Maybe longer songs here but not the epics.
-  One from FII and even maybe a section from ACOS.
- 2 or 3 KM era tracks. Classics.
- One from WDADU
- Maybe something from the Majesty era but I think bringing back OAMOT with the ending of March of the Tyrant as Scotty mentioned earlier would work perfectly for this.
- DT16 epic?
- Big classic encore with something like Octavarium or Metropolis and something else like Finally Free?

I obviously haven't done the math with these predictions but I find or hard to do so without knowing the track count and lengths for the new album or at least one or two singles out. If the new album is something like Black Clouds where it's mostly long songs or a double album, that might change things a bit.

This is a fairly reasonable guess and would not surprise me to be dead on accurate, at least as a main outline of the tour's setlist.

[Setlist Scotty]

My quick guess would be:

- Reverse chronological order starting with one or two DT16 tracks.
- 2 or 3 MM era songs (might be something from DT12, DOT and/or A View but mostly shorter songs and most likely nothing from TA).
- Focus on the albums made by the current lineup. Maybe longer songs here but not the epics.
-  One from FII and even maybe a section from ACOS.
- 2 or 3 KM era tracks. Classics.
- One from WDADU
- Maybe something from the Majesty era but I think bringing back OAMOT with the ending of March of the Tyrant as Scotty mentioned earlier would work perfectly for this.
- DT16 epic?
- Big classic encore with something like Octavarium or Metropolis and something else like Finally Free?

Hmmm....this whole thing sounds *very* familiar!   

[gzarruk]

Hmmm....this whole thing sounds *very* familiar!   

I promise I didn't go back to any of your predictions before posting this!

[Ben_Jamin]

I'd say that Constant Motion and BAI are part of the set.

[devieira73]

As MP said in the interview, it seems that it will be a "greatest hits" setlist - so, probably no deep cuts. But I still hope that it has space for one B-side, as a MP trademark special setlist. My personal wish would be a Majesty song (or medley) or specifically The Way It Used to Be - that solo section could really work live, even for those that never heard the song.

[Mosh]

I think it's worth keeping in mind that a classics oriented set can still have a lot of surprises/rare songs. The Glass Prison, Octavarium, Lines in the Sand, Voices, In the Name of God are all songs that I would consider to be among their more popular and they haven't been played in forever. I'm not expecting them to pull out b sides or anything like that, but they can do a lot to please hardcore fans without having to go there.

[devieira73]

Yes, deep cuts like those are more likely.

[DTA]

I'm really hoping for no career timeline theme or songs played chronologically or any gimmicks like that. Just mix them all up into a giant setlist.

[Dream Team]

I think it's worth keeping in mind that a classics oriented set can still have a lot of surprises/rare songs. The Glass Prison, Octavarium, Lines in the Sand, Voices, In the Name of God are all songs that I would consider to be among their more popular and they haven't been played in forever. I'm not expecting them to pull out b sides or anything like that, but they can do a lot to please hardcore fans without having to go there.

I love this idea, but the snag is that almost all of the songs we consider "the classics" are LONG and only so many will fit in there.