I can't see them knocking out 5 out of the 6 (now 7) albums that this "classic" lineup has on a medley, or even on the whole Suite. My guess is if it ever happens, it won't be on this tour.
Yeah, I tend to agree with you. But I could see the medley being a secondary option, too. Had they separated a proper tour in support of the new album from their 40th anniversary, I'd have expected the 12SS to be featured on the 40th anniversary tour. But because they're combining the two together, it's not a realistic option.
I do agree with you that a good way to do this would be to copy Rush's R40 tour. I loved that backwards chronology of the setlist they did, and it will give them a good reason to finally end a show with Only a Matter of Time! (selfish want )
I thought the same thing. They could even tack the end of March of the Tyrant on to the end of OaMoT as they did in 1993 to include just a taste of the Majesty demo as well!
All nice points!
Thanks!
Also, I don't want to be disrespectful to the debut album, but WDADU kinda kills the chronological thing, either in order or backwards. Imagine that Images and Words is their first album - you either start with Metropolis or end with Learning to Live or Pull Me Under. There are great songs on WDADU but starting with Afterlife (like they actually did in 2015) or closing with Only a Matter of Time just isn't that strong, especially with the big shadow of Images and Words looming over it.
I thought about that too. I still maintain that OaMoT could be a good track to end on. But then again, just as they bookended the 20th anniversary shows with tracks from 8v, they could do something similar with the upcoming tour. Something like:
new song
new song
The Alien
d/t track
....
IaW track
WDaDU track
new epic
~~~encore~~~
classic track (Metropolis, PMU, LtL, ToT, ItNoG, 8v, etc.)
One thing I took from the RS article is it said JP was producing, and NOT JP & MP. I thought that was interesting, though it may have just been pointing out JP's role and not necessarily diminishing MP's.
I picked up on that as well. Very interesting if JP is producing without MP. I wonder if that will be the way it is going forward, with MP taking more of a back seat in some areas, or if he'll co-produce future albums again.