Now they indisputably are canning more of their performance but it is still a fraction of a percent. I typically don't like the argument, "If you don't like it don't listen to it" because I feel there should be more room for nuance and constructive destruction, but some of the comments here really have me wondering why people care so much.
Dunno how much of your comment is directed at me, but I'll just respond personally by saying that it's because they are my favorite band (even with MP gone), and for the most part I still enjoy their more recent albums - especially the latest two - but it's disappointing and frustrating to see what the band is turning into in the live setting, given what they used to be beforehand.
Sorry for barging in late, but I feel like people are talking past each other in these discussions precisely because we don't acknowledge what in Dream Theater's fraction of a percent of the show not being live is bothersome. Yes, this isn't anything new for Dream Theater, and yes, if they don't have four hands and two singers to replicate the lines exactly as they are on the album, a part of it has to come off the tape...
if they want to play things exactly as they are on the album. And that part bothers me.
On the instrumental side, the fact that it's just a few parts that they could work around if they wanted to but choose not to, it grinds my fucking pepper. That's the part someone else will call unimportant or irrelevant, but I just don't understand why they do it, and yes I've heard John Petrucci explaining how he envisions the shows now. He can go on explaining until his open jar of beard wax turns to stone, I still don't agree. To take TCOT for an example, they're not saving themselves any workload either by using the tape, it just sounds less cool in both theory and practice, it doesn't have the same kind of dramatic effect as the band coming in after the Metropolis intro. All they're doing is "hey, look how cool a Dream Theater intro sounds with more than one guitar!" and it would sound exactly as cool with a keyboard. An iPad gadget, a looper, idk, something.
Same goes for vocals. Yes, of course bands that record harmonies by the lead singer on the albums also use backing tapes, but running through my mental list, most of the ones I listen to use them sparingly, for maybe just the chorus or an important bridge or last chorus, and there is also always at least one person trying their darnedest to be heard next to the tape at some point. In Dream Theater, vocal harmonies are not as important, so why do I feel like I'm hearing every single line that is doubled on the albums coming off the tape live as well? That's more of a rhetorical question now, they're there because James actually needs the support now, but if it's that important, other people in the band that also have a mouth and decent-to-perfect pitch can try and support James too.
Idk guys, being musically challenged comes in different forms, and while it's true that people come to Dream Theater shows to see the instrumentalists play some badass stuff and not to hear JP singing backing vocals, having Dream Theater turn into a band that can play 99% of the album live is just... I already know they can do that. I want to see what they do with the 1% (and on the vocal side, more than the 1%) that they can't play live, as unimportant and miniscule as it is to others, that's still what I want to see. The View tour is awesome because any assortment of people playing Dream Theater music is awesome, including Dream Theater themselves, no one is taking that for granted here. But imagine them actually going beyond that, like they used to. If it's challenging to do that and still deliver a consistent show, well, why not do that challenge?