I would argue that most fans STILL don't have a clue about those songs, because neither has been played since that show, in April of 2006.
I'm not arguing for or against them playing obscure songs. But I am saying that at this point in their career, it would seem to make less sense than ever for them to do so. But even if they were to do so, Raw Dog seems like an odd choice to me, even among this admittedly odd collection of songs.
But as always, whatever they want to do, obviously.
The majority of fans may not be super familiar with those songs, but just the fact that they are on Score heightens their visibility in a way that previously didn't exist. On that FB group that we're both a part of, I know I've seen the occasional comment about RtK and it's always positive; people are glad it was included or else they wouldn't have known about its existence. I think the same would be true for other non-album tracks as well.
And yeah, those songs haven't been played since 2006, but aside from the brief 2015 run in Europe (which was mostly festivals and therefore shorter setlists), there hasn't been a retrospective tour looking back at their entire catalog since that time anyway, and that is the kind of tour where it is most fitting to include these tracks. So when they do their 40th anniversary tour (which while not confirmed, I feel is inevitable following the tour in support of their new upcoming album), I could see some of these rare tracks being dusted off again for the occasion.
And how can it be they never play The School Song when Petrucci picked it as one of his favorite riffs in that Gear Factor video? 
I don't recall watching that video - did he really say that or is the emoji supposed to show it's a joke? (You realize
green type is the way to go, right?
)
But even though I'm guessing you're joking the reason why that song has never been (nor probably ever will be) played is because it wasn't completed. Same with Resurrection of Ernie.
Are you sure?
The U.S. leg of the I&W&B tour started on October 25, 2017 in Oakland with both TLF and DLPM being played 4th and 5th in the setlist (with 8 songs in the first set before intermission and the entirety of I&W). They kept both songs for the first half of the shows, through and including the Toronto show on November 12. Starting with the Albany show on November 14, they dropped DLPM and didn't replace it. Setlist.fm (yeah...I know...not always accurate) doesn't show that they ever played TSCO on that leg of the tour, and it shows that TLF remained in the set throughout the tour.
Unfortunately for me, I was subjected to both songs. I was in the mezzanine at the Wiltern Theatre show, and the lull of TLF, DLPM and Portrait of Tracy was palpable. Looking down on the floor seats, I could a small handful of people geeking out to those songs, but 90% of the crowd was underwhelmed.
They are correct. DLPM and later TLF were dropped, and when TLF was dropped, the band brought back TSCO to fill the space. As for the audience being underwhelmed? Oh well. If it was for the majority of the show, then I'd say you have a point. But for roughly 8% of the show? Nevermind the reaction of the audience, while muted, may not have been one of disappointment, but of focusing on a pair of songs that they weren't familiar with. That doesn't mean that they weren't enjoying those songs, but just that they weren't rocking out to them. There's a big difference between the two.
And being that neither of those songs is a PMU or AIA in terms of crunchy heaviness or being anthemic in nature, what kind of reaction should the audience give? By comparison, was there really that much of a difference to when they played something like Another Day? Probably not. The only flaw I could see is pairing the two rarities together. It might have been better to have split them up instead of playing them consecutively, and in both cases have JL introduce them as non-album rarity tracks.
especially since it's not even a very good song. It was crafted for a video game....it's 'generic' in the sense that, while it has your typical DT sound and experience.....it's a pretty boring and lame song. Plus, JMX didn't even write the bass on it per an obscure interview at the time of release.
JM had nothing to do with RD? That's news to me! But your post motivated me to do a little digging, and in fact it looks like that is the case, judging by MP's post in response to GMKennelty here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100114075411/http://twitter.com/MikePortnoyDTI would be curious to know why that was what happened, but being that RD was done at an LTE-style pace and JM doesn't contribute as much to the songwriting, maybe that was why. Or it could be that they only had a small window of time to work within to get the song done in time, and maybe JM had other commitments that prevented him from taking part. Without the band explaining, it's hard to know for sure.
I know you referenced an obscure interview from that time period, but any chance you might remember where you saw/heard/read it? Would love to check it out if possible.
There's no way that JLB could consistently sing it as it was on the album (or anything close to Live at the Marquee or WDADRu). However, if they take the time to re-write the vocal melody, I'd love to see it again.
As much as I love TKH (and almost everything on WDaDU - just not a fan of Afterlife), I agree that trying to do it as it is won't happen. But if it was changed/modified to adjust to JL's current capabilities, I could see it being a distinct possibility.
Topic: Re: DT16 Timeline Thread - John finished recording guitar parts (Read 113393 times)