Looks like Portnoy fails to meet five of the eight requirements.
Nuggetz
I think it'd be great for the original Spock's lineup to reunite. NDV isn't too busy apparently and Neal Morse seems to be a bit more open to secular music lately. Plus as a business move I reckon it would benefit everyone involved.
I think Nick is pretty committed to BBT these days, and I hear they want to do more than 3 shows a year, so they may end up becoming very busy in the coming years. They have an EP-turned-LP coming out next year (yeah, right after this year's fabulous Folklore, we're getting Grimspound next year), and there's still the 3-disc retrospective re-recordings of older songs that is being worked on, so BBT are quite busy, I think.
And between Neal's solo band, Flying Colors getting together in December, then Neal's solo band touring in the Winter/Spring, then possibly releasing FC3 in the summer and touring on that in the fall, then probably getting together with Transatlantic in late 2017 or early 2018, I'd say Neal is fairly busy himself.
As much as I would love, Love, LOVE to see the Two Separate Gorillas return to the glorious Beard, it's probably not likely. I was thinking about it yesterday, that I'm glad that all 7 of them did those two shows together, both Morsefest, and the one in Europe, doing Snow twice and the encore of "Falling For FOrever", all before Jimmy decided to leave. Definitely a landmark time for the band, but it's sad to see that after Snow, once again, a member has decided to leave to pursue his solo career.
I wonder if any professional, well-known drummers are champing at the bit to audition for SB. I wouldn't mind hearing someone like Thomas Lang drum for them, but his living in Europe probably won't work out for the band.
Does anyone here know any well-known drummers in the LA area that might become potential drummers for SB? I kind of hope they pull a Dream Theater and do an auditions-DVD to include with their next album, which I recall was already in the beginnings of the writing process.
-Marc.