Well, that's a personal quirk of Mike's and I agree with you - it was cool and I liked a lot of that about him too. But is that really so big as to make you like the band less now that he's not there? The other band members can't make themselves be Mike's version of "OCD" and they shouldn't.
Yeah, actually, for me, it is. And while you can say "well, Stadler, that's YOU", and I agree, but it's no different than losing faith in a band becuase the keyboard player is more douchey than you'd prefer leading up to an album release. The point isn't the specific issue, but the general premise that being "Team Mike" (I'm being facetious) is an irrational position to take. There's a LOT of negative nonsense about Sharon Osbourne, and I could care less about most of it. What bugs me? The releases of the catalogue that are incomplete, that leave out songs (in all the re-releases of Blizzard and Diary, "You Said It All" and the live material from 1980 with Randy has never been re-released since the original Mr. Crowley EP, except for "YSIA" on a very rare, very expensive promo CD for Crazy Babies). That to me is a "fuck you" to the fans.
I LOVED the Ytsejam releases. No, I'm not a huge Metallica fan, and so "Master Of Puppets" is sort of a dud in that respect, but it's OUT there, and they DID it. It's MUSIC. Not everything has to be for me, specifically, but I can tell you, of my other favorite bands - Beatles, Zeppelin, Kiss, Maiden, Genesis - there's nothing like it. The Beatles are now starting to flesh out their catalogue with the "50-year" releases, Zeppelin has been great about putting everything out there, Kiss is, well, Kiss, Maiden is getting there (STILL haven't released the full Soundhouse Tapes, though), Genesis, with fits and starts has finally got most of their stuff out (still waiting for an unredacted live Lamb, and the full tapes from the '76 In Concert) but NO ONE did it in real time like Dream Theater, and I deeply, deeply respect that.
But there's a lot more than just "let's rawk" posts. Jordan posts a lot of himself playing live - yes, sometimes using an iPad app, but at lot of times on the piano. I don't watch every time, but but I when I do it's cool and imo very intimate - to just record yourself playing whatever and let people watch it live. Maybe it's not him talking about his emotions, but I get the feeling that his expresses those through music anyway. (Also, you'll get to see a cool cat pic every so often.
) JP posts a lot of pictures - at one of the venues in Canada, you can see a huge Rush starman which is backstage and fans wouldn't otherwise have known, and he makes a comment about the home of his heroes. He recently posted a very nice thank to everyone who supported them this tour - including braving the weather which resonated with me having to drive through snow for that last show (both ways, probably up hill too!). Probably none of it would fill the void of how MP was on the forum, but I think you'd find stuff there to be engaged with - on some level at least.
And I'm not an animal. I like the Jordan stuff. I like that connection. He's long said he speaks through his music, and fair enough. I actually ripped one of the fan club DVDs, and separated out some of the Jordan material that he recorded specifically for the Fan Club and put it on my iPod.
Well, again, you don't like the album. Some people came away with a new appreciation for it after seeing it live, sounds like that didn't happen for you, but I remember you talking about how much you enjoyed JLB and I think maybe it was JP. You probably would have like any of the other shows better.
Yeah, fair is fair; James sang his ass off in the show I saw. I was really impressed with the performance, and in hindsight, I view it for what it was - an opera - not a "Dream Theater concert" (that's not a bad thing, by the way, its a positive). I think you're right, I should give them another shot.