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Dream Theater => Dream Theater => Topic started by: DT1138 on November 15, 2017, 11:36:53 AM

Title: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: DT1138 on November 15, 2017, 11:36:53 AM
For those who have seen them in person, wondering what the worst fail you saw them do live and in person?  They were practically flawless in Chicago.  This is just for curiosity and fun reasons.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: MirrorMask on November 15, 2017, 11:49:58 AM
No fails from me either. I don't count the occasional difficulties of James as "fail", I'm thinking of trainwrecks, blatant musical mistakes, someone slipping or falling on stage, James completely forgetting the lyrics etc... never saw that happen in person.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Lethean on November 15, 2017, 12:04:42 PM
I did see James fall on stage once. I don't know if I'd count it as a fail or not. I can't remember which show it was - either on the Astonishing tour or back in the spring for this tour.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: pg1067 on November 15, 2017, 01:43:56 PM
The first thing that came to mind was when MP fake humped the stage prop ant on the Systematic Chaos tour, but maybe that's not the sort of "fail" you were going for.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: DTA on November 15, 2017, 01:59:10 PM
I'm not sure it's a "fail" really as it wasn't the band's fault, but I remember JP's guitar cutting out during UAGM at the Radio City Score show.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: goo-goo on November 15, 2017, 02:14:45 PM
A couple of train wrecks during Metropolis Pt 1 at the Aug 2000 Phoenix AZ show. They restarted the song twice during the instrumental section.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: ozzy554 on November 15, 2017, 02:17:19 PM
The fact that they didn't play You Not Me was a MASSIVE fail.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Sycsa on November 15, 2017, 02:48:54 PM
I'm not sure it's a "fail" really as it wasn't the band's fault, but I remember JP's guitar cutting out during UAGM at the Radio City Score show.
Yeah, they obviously overdubbed it for the Score DVD, but you can still pick up clues as to what happened. Petrucci is dicking around with his pedals and speakers, Portnoy keeps nervously checking him.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: SystematicThought on November 15, 2017, 03:09:38 PM
James fell off the stage during Bridges in the Sky at the State Theater in Minneapolis during the Summer leg of the ADTOE tour
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Chris Hinton on November 15, 2017, 04:07:30 PM
During the FII tour at the Fenix in Seattle the power went out at least once, and maybe twice.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: dtrocker25 on November 15, 2017, 09:05:17 PM
Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn’t  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I’m assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: ozzy554 on November 15, 2017, 09:48:08 PM
The fact that they didn't play You Not Me was a MASSIVE fail.

Just saw them again and they made the same mistake as above.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: ToT-147 on November 16, 2017, 03:43:17 AM
Not a fail of the band, but the power went down too in Buenos Aires, AFTR tour, fortunately (and not) while the youtube compilation video was on, so it didn't cut any song, but it was a tense moment where we didn't know if the show was going to conclude.. I remember JP came back almost running to the stage to start playing The Mirror to not wasting any more time..
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: TheCountOfNYC on November 16, 2017, 03:48:18 AM
The only colossal screw up I saw was at my first DT show at Hammerstein Ballroom in April of 2014. James completely forgot the words to Lie and even told the crowd that he messed up. John ended up singing the rest of the lyrics to the song into his face to mess with him. It's on YouTube somewhere.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Zydar on November 16, 2017, 03:56:25 AM
Power failure during TDOE when I saw them in 2009, Stockholm. Not sure it falls under the "DT fail" category though.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: DT1138 on November 16, 2017, 05:02:52 AM
Sorry, guess I should have defined fail as mistakes, errors, or whatever else happened that was unexpected or unplanned.  So in my opinion all of the above apply.  Interesting that there were so many power failures.  I've been to tons of show's over the years and thankfully that has never happened.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: dparrott on November 16, 2017, 08:56:38 AM
James blowing a line during Scarred in L.A.  He just smiled, did a spin and kept going.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Sycsa on November 16, 2017, 11:05:43 AM
Not in person, but there's a rare double fail here (@1:42:50), Portnoy messes up the beat, then Jordan fails to switch patches in time for the solo 10 seconds later: https://youtu.be/M81CHCBcwqs?t=1h42m50s
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Evai on November 16, 2017, 11:44:53 AM
then Jordan fails to switch patches in time for the solo 10 seconds later: https://youtu.be/M81CHCBcwqs?t=1h42m50s

Around these parts, we call that 'pulling a derek'
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: JayOctavarium on November 16, 2017, 11:47:09 AM
then Jordan fails to switch patches in time for the solo 10 seconds later: https://youtu.be/M81CHCBcwqs?t=1h42m50s

Around these parts, we call that 'pulling a derek'

#NoPatchFails
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Dublagent66 on November 16, 2017, 11:51:35 AM
James fell off the stage during Bridges in the Sky at the State Theater in Minneapolis during the Summer leg of the ADTOE tour

Did he break a leg?  :neverusethis:
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Ben_Jamin on November 17, 2017, 10:22:30 AM
In Tucson, on The Astonishing tour, during the intro to Losing Faythe, JLB forgot the lyrics. You hear "My foolish pride...da da dada...wow." Then remembered and sang the rest really giving it, making up for that mistake.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Adami on November 17, 2017, 12:14:09 PM
At one point in LA (back in the MP days) James couldn't figure out how to come in with the 2nd verse of Scarred and kept screwing up and stopping. MP looked SUPER pissed and James was clearly annoyed.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Setlist Scotty on November 17, 2017, 01:42:05 PM
At the beginning of their set covering all of Master of Puppets, JL lost his place with the lyrics to Battery because he was relying on a teleprompter for the lyrics, and the teleprompter guy had screwed up and wasn't cycling thru the lyrics like he was supposed to. IIRC, the problem didn't get sorted out until the end of the song, so we got an instrumental version of that song. But on the up side, JL was so pissed off as a result that he gave a fiery performance for the rest of that set, which benefited those songs.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: SwedishGoose on November 17, 2017, 01:52:51 PM
Power failure during TDOE when I saw them in 2009, Stockholm. Not sure it falls under the "DT fail" category though.

That was awesome.... MP entertaining the audience while the others had nothing to do...
Sweden can't handle the Meshugga riff
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: goo-goo on November 17, 2017, 02:09:17 PM
Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn’t  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I’m assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck

I was there too. I've witnessed two fails then  :rollin
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: ? on November 17, 2017, 02:44:02 PM
On the AFTR tour in Helsinki in 2014 JP flubbed the lead before the vocals come in on Trial of Tears and ended up improvising a random solo in its place.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: El Barto on November 17, 2017, 05:59:46 PM
Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn’t  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I’m assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck
Not a trainwreck at all, but JP's panicked reaction was worth the price of admission.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Adami on November 17, 2017, 06:03:13 PM
Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn’t  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I’m assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck

MM is playing to a click track. He comes in at the same time no matter what.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Evai on November 17, 2017, 06:23:41 PM
Grand Prarie when they opened with BITS JPs guitar wasn’t  turned up thru the speakers..MM still had perfect timing ..I’m assuming he had ear monitors so he could hear the guitar intro... then volume kicked in ..little derailment but not a train wreck

MM is playing to a click track. He comes in at the same time no matter what.

Yeah, for all we know Mangini could have all the other band members turned down in his in ears, so he just hears his drums and the click. He hasn't listened to Dream Theater in years
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Drinktheater on November 18, 2017, 02:54:17 AM
Its when big John Petrucci signed at the wrong part of the Song book I brought during a meet and greet.

J/K. 
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: gilpdawg on November 22, 2017, 01:50:00 AM
At the beginning of their set covering all of Master of Puppets, JL lost his place with the lyrics to Battery because he was relying on a teleprompter for the lyrics, and the teleprompter guy had screwed up and wasn't cycling thru the lyrics like he was supposed to. IIRC, the problem didn't get sorted out until the end of the song, so we got an instrumental version of that song. But on the up side, JL was so pissed off as a result that he gave a fiery performance for the rest of that set, which benefited those songs.
I remember that, I think you were right behind me. (I seem to recall that discussion way back on the MP board then)

I've never seen James that angry before.

Adding one:

Cleveland Gigantour James split his pants.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: ReaperKK on December 09, 2017, 02:21:24 PM
I'm not sure it's a "fail" really as it wasn't the band's fault, but I remember JP's guitar cutting out during UAGM at the Radio City Score show.

I remember this!

Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: legenden1 on December 10, 2017, 08:58:16 AM
The first time I saw them, on the Awake-tour, James microphone didn´t work. After a while he threw away the whole microphone stand and left the stage furious. The band jammed on and he returned about 10 minutes later and restarted the song (Pull me under). All in all, a fantastic concert  ;D
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: pcs90 on December 11, 2017, 12:32:11 PM
The first time I saw them, on the Awake-tour, James microphone didn´t work. After a while he threw away the whole microphone stand and left the stage furious. The band jammed on and he returned about 10 minutes later and restarted the song (Pull me under). All in all, a fantastic concert  ;D
Wonder if this was recorded... They had lots of great jams back then when things went wrong (the Back Pain jam being one that immediately springs to mind.)
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: TSA0074 on December 11, 2017, 12:44:12 PM
When DT played Asheville in July 2009 on the Prog Nation tour  when they played “Erotomania” – JP’s guitar rig crashed for a few minutes . The result was Mike Portnoy launched into an impromptu drum solo.   (BTW James La Brie gets also gets a fail a couple of weeks ago here in Asheville 11/29/2017 because he actually asked the crowd if they had played here before ….. Not too sure if he was joking or not ... LOL!!)
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Learning2Live on December 11, 2017, 01:40:22 PM
Detroit show this year just a few weeks back. MM played the ending of the phrase at the :31-:32 mark (or the :39-:41 mark - one of the 2) of Breaking All Illusions one beat short (he played it the same pattern/timing as in :23-:24) and was thus off a beat up through the transition at the :50 mark where he recovered. He knew it and was shaking his head for a while thereafter throughout the song.

That's a bit of a stretch for a 'fail' but that's the best I got.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Setlist Scotty on December 11, 2017, 02:10:37 PM
The first time I saw them, on the Awake-tour, James microphone didn´t work. After a while he threw away the whole microphone stand and left the stage furious. The band jammed on and he returned about 10 minutes later and restarted the song (Pull me under). All in all, a fantastic concert  ;D
Wonder if this was recorded... They had lots of great jams back then when things went wrong (the Back Pain jam being one that immediately springs to mind.)
I don't believe so - haven't seen it listed yet.
 
 
When DT played Asheville in July 2009 on the Prog Nation tour  when they played “Erotomania” – JP’s guitar rig crashed for a few minutes . The result was Mike Portnoy launched into an impromptu drum solo.
That's one of the things MP was great about doing, and did several times over the years - keeping the audience entertained with impromptu drum spots when problems would otherwise force the show to a grinding halt.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: DT1138 on December 20, 2017, 06:53:24 PM
Detroit show this year just a few weeks back. MM played the ending of the phrase at the :31-:32 mark (or the :39-:41 mark - one of the 2) of Breaking All Illusions one beat short (he played it the same pattern/timing as in :23-:24) and was thus off a beat up through the transition at the :50 mark where he recovered. He knew it and was shaking his head for a while thereafter throughout the song.

That's a bit of a stretch for a 'fail' but that's the best I got.

Stretch or not...that's a pretty impressive catch on your part!
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Anxiety35 on December 21, 2017, 12:24:26 PM
Not quite a "fail" but funny to watch.

Atlanta, GA during the 6DOIT tour (w/ Queensryche), the first song was Metropolis part 1 and during the intro music, MP was frantically running around his drum riser trying to get up there in time. He barely made it. He and JP had a laugh about it in the next 15 seconds or so.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Lonk on December 30, 2017, 06:16:01 AM
A few years ago, 2014 I believe, they were playing for the 20th anniversary of Awake and 15th anniversary or Scenes from a Memory. When they were playing The mirror/Lie, James Labrie forgot the Lyrics to the second verse of Lie. While this was happening petrucci was just trying to help him remember by singing it with him but that did not work.

Great show though, specially the “Half time Show/Video”. If you have not seen it go to YouTube and look up dream theater “half time show” it is hilarious.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: genome on January 02, 2018, 04:34:59 AM
Never seen any big trainwrecks, but they came close in Metropolis on the most recent tour, in Manchester. MM just about pulled it back.

In the first show of the Astonishing tour, James came in a full 8 bars too early for the outro to The Walking Shadow, and his big crescendo came in halfway through the build up... it sounded weird, but still in tune  :lol

There are other little things I've seen in shows, like JP forgetting to switch to his clean channel during the intro to Finally Free in London 2014, so the nice arpeggios came in at full distortion for a second or two.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: genome on January 02, 2018, 04:44:22 AM
By the way, there's a pretty impressive video (you may have seen it) of Outcry on the 2012 tour, where the band's in ear system completely failed, so they couldn't hear each other at all. Yet they still played the instrumental section brilliantly despite looking a bit panicked.

JP's reaction just before it at 4:29  :lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muBkquxoFkI

And him addressing the crowd afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbaYELnRyMo
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Ben_Jamin on January 02, 2018, 09:31:35 AM
Impressive...

And haha JP doing the sign of the cross, had to pray to baby jesus.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: JayOctavarium on January 02, 2018, 10:23:08 AM
That was impressive.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: gzarruk on January 02, 2018, 11:44:58 AM
By the way, there's a pretty impressive video (you may have seen it) of Outcry on the 2012 tour, where the band's in ear system completely failed, so they couldn't hear each other at all. Yet they still played the instrumental section brilliantly despite looking a bit panicked.

JP's reaction just before it at 4:29  :lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muBkquxoFkI

And him addressing the crowd afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbaYELnRyMo

Unreal :hefdaddy
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: MirrorMask on January 02, 2018, 12:10:09 PM
"Pratice, practice, practice"... because you never know when you have to launch into a complex and intricate 5 minutes solo section in front of a packed venue  :lol

The sign of the cross was hilarous, "We're about to get into an insane solo section without hearing each other... God help us"  :rollin I bet he asked to himself "Why these things never happen during Beneath the Surface?"
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: gzarruk on January 02, 2018, 01:07:46 PM
I bet he asked to himself "Why these things never happen during Beneath the Surface?"

 :rollin :rollin
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: OptionalPlayer on January 02, 2018, 01:10:20 PM
Toronto, 2004. Train of Thought tour. During A Change of Seasons, "But those days are gone," LaBrie was flat and bowed his head in shame. I have bootleg video of the concert so I can rewatch the pain over and over.

In 2014, during Enigma Machine, the band had just come back from a break in touring so Toronto was their first show of the North American tour. The band fumbled coming back into the song after Mangini's drum solo. It was pretty subtle though. It you weren't familiar with the song, you wouldn't have noticed it. But the band was looking at each other as they got themselves back into the song.

Saw Myung lose it on his stage tech for unknown reasons during a show I think in 2008? Systematic Chaos, I think? Damned if I remember. Been to too many shows.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: mikeyd23 on January 02, 2018, 01:13:47 PM
Saw Myung lose it on his stage tech for unknown reasons during a show I think in 2008? Systematic Chaos, I think? Damned if I remember. Been to too many shows.

Really? Care to go into anymore detail? That seems like the last guy to lose it on a tech.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: gzarruk on January 02, 2018, 07:14:11 PM
Saw Myung lose it on his stage tech for unknown reasons during a show I think in 2008? Systematic Chaos, I think? Damned if I remember. Been to too many shows.

Really? Care to go into anymore detail? That seems like the last guy to lose it on a tech.

Seems like the last guy to lose it on anybody :eek
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: genome on January 03, 2018, 05:07:48 AM
With "lose it", it probably means he gave him a hard stare, and then sent him a text message after the show saying "..."

 :P
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Evai on January 03, 2018, 05:13:27 AM
Seems to me like he tackled him
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: OptionalPlayer on January 04, 2018, 10:57:04 PM
Saw Myung lose it on his stage tech for unknown reasons during a show I think in 2008? Systematic Chaos, I think? Damned if I remember. Been to too many shows.

Really? Care to go into anymore detail? That seems like the last guy to lose it on a tech.
Unfortunately there isn't much detail to give as it looked like it took place off-stage. I can't even remember the song it was after.

Anyway, after the song, Myung looked like he was stomping on his pedals and visibly looked frustrated (I was second row, his side). He walked off stage, took his bass off and "tossed" it to his tech guy. I quote "tossed" because it really wasn't a far distance. But once he gave the bass up, he looked like he was shouting at the tech guy for a few seconds. That could've been eiher bexause it waa too loud or he was really angry. Eiher way, the tech guy disappeared for a few moments, gave the bass back, filled  the brandy glass with one thousand brown M&Ms, and Dream Theater went on and played a great show.
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: CB on January 07, 2018, 04:22:01 PM
By the way, there's a pretty impressive video (you may have seen it) of Outcry on the 2012 tour, where the band's in ear system completely failed, so they couldn't hear each other at all. Yet they still played the instrumental section brilliantly despite looking a bit panicked.

JP's reaction just before it at 4:29  :lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muBkquxoFkI

And him addressing the crowd afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbaYELnRyMo


Great video, never seen it before. I just can't imagine how they got it right without hearing each other AT ALL??? And why didn't they take their in ears out like James did?
Title: Re: Worst DT fail you saw in person?
Post by: Lynxo on January 09, 2018, 05:44:55 AM
By the way, there's a pretty impressive video (you may have seen it) of Outcry on the 2012 tour, where the band's in ear system completely failed, so they couldn't hear each other at all. Yet they still played the instrumental section brilliantly despite looking a bit panicked.

JP's reaction just before it at 4:29  :lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muBkquxoFkI

And him addressing the crowd afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbaYELnRyMo


Great video, never seen it before. I just can't imagine how they got it right without hearing each other AT ALL??? And why didn't they take their in ears out like James did?
Well, they heard the drums at least, that's the only instrument making noise loud enough. So I'm guessing they were all playing to that, but without hearing themselves.

Crazy impressive, especially during a song like that. :metal