Quote from: nobloodyname on June 19, 2025, 10:47:04 PMHow did James do? I heard a clip from Graspop and, well, I have to say I've heard him sound better. I know this is an old horse but he seemed to have turned some sort of corner on the first couple of legs.

He did OK, sounding steady enough most of the time. Not as great as Amsterdam last year but solid enough.

Quote from: Dream Team on June 20, 2025, 06:41:44 PMIn case anyone is curious, the only person still here from page 1 of this thread is SeRox. All hail SeRox a troo fan!

Who do I get in touch with to receive my five doll hairs and half a cookie for being on page 3? 

And I definitely love A Change of a Seasons more than Octavarium nowadays, I've done some maturing since then, apologies to everyone.

In case anyone is curious, the only person still here from page 1 of this thread is SeRox. All hail SeRox a troo fan!

Super classy of James. As much shit as JLB gets he's always come off as a really solid and nice guy

Quote from: SeRoX on June 20, 2025, 04:02:00 PMA reddit post about James.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Dreamtheater/comments/1lfq62u/thank_you_james/

Classy one.

Fantastic!

A reddit post about James.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Dreamtheater/comments/1lfq62u/thank_you_james/

Classy one.

Quote from: Ben_Jamin on June 20, 2025, 03:12:12 PMSo in your own words...DT are an extremely famous and well established band now. 

The "extremely famous" part is debatable at least we can say they are one of the best in their genre but being the best doesn't necessarily mean being the most famous, at least not on a global scale. As for being well-established, calling them that is quite fitting for a band that has been around for over 40 years and is still making music.

However, even with all these descriptions in mind, I still believe that Dream Theater is not a festival band — at least not under today's festival conditions.

Of course, I definitely agree with Dream Team and Setlist Scotty. Festivals can be useful for visibility and attracting more attention — just like the Grammy award helped to some extent.

Quote from: SeRoX on June 20, 2025, 12:55:54 PMIn my opinion, Dream Theater is not a festival band. Or rather, they're not suited to the nature of festivals. Sure, they can showcase their musicianship but unfortunately, that's not what festivals are about. Even from the very beginning I never saw Dream Theater as a festival-type band and now they've become even more mature and composed. At this point, they're not a festival band at all.

To me, festivals nowadays are tailored more toward bands that fall into the "overrated" category those that are either extremely famous and long-established or currently blowing up in the mainstream scene. In most European festivals, there's heavy use of stage decorations, musicians wearing bizarre costumes and over the top stage shows that often have little to do with the actual music. Ironically, many of the bands doing this are metal bands some of whom even get their names listed above Dream Theater on festival posters.

Maybe 20 or 30 years ago, festivals carried a certain weight or significance. But now they seem to be all about appearance and spectacle. That's why I find Dream Theater to be a poor fit in this environment.

So in your own words...DT are an extremely famous and well established band now. 

Quote from: Dream Team on June 20, 2025, 01:52:11 PMYeah kinda, but at least they get exposure.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

While I'm sure there are certain things that are great about playing these festivals, I'm sure there are many other things that are not, but one thing that can't be ignored is the exposure DT gets when playing to audiences that are not their fans. It's an opportunity for them to pick up new fans, and I know for each of the tours they did in the past opening for other bands (Deep Purple/ELP in 1998, Yes in 2004 and Iron Maiden in 2010) they picked up more fans based both on what MP has said as well as comments from fans whose first exposure to DT was seeing them open those shows. So even now, I would expect the same is true, even if they are to some extent considered dinosaurs at this point. At least MP makes sure that the setlists cater more to the audience that they are playing so that hopefully the unaware audience members will hear something they like and want to check out more DT stuff later.

Yeah kinda, but at least they get exposure.