Everyone's been beating around the bush, but they haven't mentioned the obvious reason why they are having two consecutive venues...
ahem... LIVE VIDEO ALBUM!!!
Also, just by chance that I end up being right, I suspect this 20th anniversary of I&W to have a great influence on the theme of the tour, while also still supporting ADTOE's release...
To explain my reasoning, I'll just assume you fans can put 2 and 2 together by linking the "I&W = ADTOE" allegations that developed from a few months ago.
BTW, I find it funny that the tour dates were announced on Friday the 13th.
Well, actually the band already made quite clear (via informal means) that the DVD would be shot in the South American Leg. However, I myself thing that something big may be in store for the second Huntington show, something big enough to be featured extensively on a hypotetical DVD2 of the video release.
As you say, though - informal means! Obstacles arise, plans change, time is in flux and all that - plus, as RMV says, this NA tour is appearing sooner than anticipated and the SA tour still hasn't shown up. My guess, for all it isn't worth, is that logistics have delayed the South American tour a little and they've bumped up the North American one into its place, so they've moved the DVD recording to fit the schedule.
Keep in mind that this is gonna be the first single-venue DVD since they dropped the Evening With format. They're gonna need a few more songs to fill out the DVD to a similar length, and with alternating setlists performed at the same venue, they can seamlessly combine the two presentations into a full-length performance whereby they don't have to miss out any songs, they don't have to flick between venues every few songs to fill the disc, and everything will look beautiful. Not saying plans
have changed, but of every possibility, a DVD makes the most sense. Not that I'm hoping they have shifted to New York, particularly - they've done the US before, and I think an SA crowd on a DT DVD would be brilliant - but it'd fit in with the original
production timeline.
I really doubt they're gonna do anything Images and Wordsy - now they've got a back catalogue of eleven or so, it's gonna be one album's birthday every year, and they've already
done the IAW thing just two tours ago. There's every chance they might do
something special that's got nothing to do with IAW or covers, (full performance of ADTOE perhaps?) but if this is a DVD, it'll be the first live recording of a brave new Dream Theater empire - this should be "look how good we are
now," not "look how good we were twenty years ago."