Here's my .02 (which no one asked for, but I'm giving it anyway) - The performance of I&W (I am listening to YouTube highlights of it now from Rome) is what I expected. And if I was there, in the moment, it would have been amazing (and I hope to be if they bring it stateside).
But removed from that, and just listening on headphones to it isolated from the experience, yeah, James isn't spot-on. So what though? He recorded those songs 25 years ago. He's damn good, given that material, at this stage of his career and life. Listen to other singers who have extremely long TOURING careers that sing in the same genre -- most can't come near what James is doing with that high stuff 25+ years removed.
Ray Alder from Fates Warning is one of my favorite singers -- he doesn't even bother doing the high stuff on tour any longer from No Exit or Perfect Symmetry. He can hit it in spots sure, but not consistently. So he just does what he does. Geoff Tate -- well, we all know his voice was last quality probably in 2005 opening for Priest. He hasn't been the same since...and even then, they dropped the old songs a half-step and he cut notes.
The bottom line is -- James is singing an incredible difficult record live in its entirety, and doing a 2+ hour show every night. I may have been more critical if the effort wasn't there (see Tate, circa 2007-present) to sing and hold notes. But James is putting in the effort. And I'm pretty thankful, as a fan of Dream Theater's mostly past work (apologies to fans of the post-ToT material), that James is still out there and doing a pretty damn good job.
I'm not a musician, but I don't think DT has dropped the tuning on these at all. And for James to come out and do what he's doing -- crazy amount of respect. Unlike musicians who play mechanical instruments, James is dependent on nature to make his instrument work. It ages, it gets impacted by the weather, sickness, etc. And for him to come out belting it out as best he can, 25 years later? Come on, if you don't put your first in the air in respect, WTH?
Sure, there are flaws. So what? I personally would prefer if DT dropped the songs a half-step, or even a full step if needed (and if the song still sounds good), and let James sing it more comfortably. It doesn't work on everything of course (Tesla has royally screwed up some older songs by doing that), but on the ones that it does, DO IT.
Anyway, that's a thread for another day. Just want to say -- criticism is valid. But James deserves a ton of respect for going out there and singing songs he recorded a QUARTER CENTURY ago. I mean, that's like Tate coming out and doing all of the EP and the Warning in 2008. Had he tried that, he would have sounded atrocious. Labrie should be applauded.
Here's hoping this tour comes stateside. bosk1 and I will sing harmony on the difficult stuff for JLB from the front row and help him out while rocking out.