I know the band probably took a hit when MP left, but this is really ridiculous.
... is this really the case? Can we actually blame the poor attendance on the lack of MP? The house was pretty full when I saw the ADTOE tour in Chicago, and it seems like attendance was pretty strong throughout the majority of the tour.
I KNOW a lot of DT fans (when I say a LOT, I mean like 10
) who still buy their cd's but won't pay to see them anymore without MP. That of course doesn't mean anything across the nation though, but I assume it had at least some affect on the concert attendance.
I've seen them on every tour since FII and up through the Train of Thought tour, the attendance was growing. But, I sense a downward trend in attendance starting with the Octavarium tour (aside from Radio City of course which really was a) a special show & b) their "high water mark" as far as attendance in the states). I think the two progressive nation tours (while great ideas) possibly didn't go over as well as MP might have thought, and then you had the ADTOE tour which had very up and down attendance.
While I really LOVE ADTOE and DT12, I think maybe, MP had the right idea about the band taking a few years off and give fans some time to miss them. Then again, WTF do I know!