I was going to ask you that, Scotty. When did the mailing lists ceased to exist? I can see that, in March 2004, there were less than 30 digests. Does that mean that, by that time, most people had started using message boards and early social media? (MySpace and stuff.)
I think by 2001, 2002 a good portion of the fans migrated to the message boards from the mailing list (social media probably at least few years later). I know Skadz still has 'jams going up to 2005 or 2006, but they're pretty slim pickins for content. Can't remember how long I stayed subscribed the last time I was, but I remember eventually it seemed pointless to continue receiving them, getting one once a week or so with little worthwhile in them.
I think the I&W tour paved the way for SFAM. In combination with the mixed reactions to TA and the tour, seems like DT are trying to reassure the promoters that they can still gather big audiences and are worth the investment.
Personally, i don't want DT to become a nostalgia act, and even though i would love to see SFAM performed in its entirety, it doesn't show great confidence in the new album to have this announced together with DOT.
I do think that there is probably some truth to this. And if that's what they need to get back into the promoters good graces, so be it. As was already mentioned - a second set of DT (even if just an album front to back) is better than sitting through an opening act I have little to no interest in. But I would be worried that this will become a crutch that the band would start to have to rely on, just to get good guarantees from promoters. I'd hate to see it evolve into that kind of situation.
Add into the fact that the majority of fans actually got into DT after the SFAM tour.
That can't be at all true, can it? Anecdotally, everyone I know who's into DT picked them up either with I&W or Awake. And by the time SFaM came out, it's wasn't a breakthrough (that would be I&W/Awake) as much as it was a solidification. They were firmly entrenched by the time Jordan joined the band.
Not sure Awake qualifies as a breakthrough.
But hang around here a bit, and you'll see that most of this place got into DT after Scenes.
Yeah, but does this forum represent the DT fanbase as a whole? I'd say no. If you were to go to some of the other places, such as the FB groups, you'll see that there's plenty of old school fans still around. Is what Noxon saying the truth? Possibly - but "majority" can be 51%. So my point is, while more than half the fanbase may have come into the picture since 2000, that doesn't mean that a siginificant portion of the fanbase hasn't been around since before that time.
If you’re going to play SFAM on tour, you wouldn’t hide it though would you, it would have to be mentioned in the tour announcement if you’re looking to maximise ticket sales. Don’t think it reflects their confidence or lack of confidence in the new album at all. Just makes absolute commercial sense to tell people it’s going to be a special show so don’t miss it.
Of course it's being mentioned to maximize ticket sales - I think that's a given! It doesn't reflect them having a lack of confidence in their new album, but it might reflect a lack of confidence from the promoters, which is an important piece of the puzzle.
complaining that they are becoming a nostalgia band by performing SFAM is laughable.
I don't think anybody would be making it an issue if it wasn't for the fact that they just did the anniversary tour for IaW last year. And 3 years before that celebrated the 20th anniversary of Awake by performing the second half of that album, never mind the encore of SFaM track (celebrating it's 15th anniversary).
Does "it won't be a rehash of the 2000 tour" mean that we won't get Scenes in full? I'm still trying to find out what this will entail exactly. We had a good chunk of the second half of SFAM represented on Along for the Ride, so does this mean we'll get the first part ONLY this time? Or a "reimagination" of Scenes with the current lineup and changes in the arrangement of certain songs? The last time Scenes was played in full was actually in the Octavarium tour in Sao Paulo, and they played it note for note then.
When you say “a good chunk”, they only played 2 songs from the second half of the album and one of them was an instrumental.
While that is true, they played 4 songs from SFaM for the encore, which is 1/3 of the album, which is still noteworthy enough.
The Count and A Nightmare are both too long
But what's wrong with including one of them? So they take up enough space for 2/3 other songs - that doesn't mean they're not worthy of consideration, especially given that TCoT is a fan favorite from that album, and ANtR is one they auditioned MM with. Besides, I think it would be cool to hear a rendition of ANtR with MM on drums, and see what they'd do with the "angry vocal" section of the song (perhaps have JL do it - I think he could do it justice in his Awake-style voice).
A Rite of Passage is one of their blah "single"-type songs of the latter 00's (along with Forsaken and Constant Motion).
You might not like any of those songs, but both CM and Forsaken have already been performed live - why not ARoP, which is a fairly catchy song? And Wither would be a great choice since it was only sporadically played in the North and South America, and never played in Asia.