Cons:
1- Fan interaction has suffered. Greatly. It's been months since we had any true updates or anything new to discuss about, and that makes me forget about DT for a while (thing that never happened in the Portnoy days).
2- The 30th anniversary setlist sucked mostly, which is kind of a wasted landmark.
3- The band feels more like any other rock band nowadays, and doesn't feel as special as I felt they were back in 2006, for example.
1- I agree, but that is something relative.. For instance, I like that silence.. In fact, I would prefer they don't give any information at all until the day of the release..
Personal advice: (I'm not going to say "You should listen to other bands", because I'm pretty sure no one listen to just one band, and less when that band is DT, but) sometimes you have to 'forget' a band you like, in order to give yourself a breath from it, and then go back to it.. You'll see how it gets even better..
2- No, it didn't.. It was great.. Except for the MM's era repetitive songs, all the other were excellent choices..
3- Rock band? No fckng way!.. They're still prog and metal, and yeah, sometimes the thing gets very hardrock, but rock band?
2) It's not about the choices only, but the flow of the songs which I thought wasn't good.
Afterlife as an opener is kind of meh, and so unsuited for JLB as an opening song because he struggled a lot and didn't sound good singing that.
Metropolis is always nice, but it's kind of burnt out. What about Learning to Live? Take the Time?
Caught in a Web is a nice song, but far from being a whole representative of Awake. What about Voices? That would have been nice, and maybe would have added a better flow from Metropolis.
ACOS Innocence was awesome to listen to, no complaints. Shame it didn't make the cut for the shorter set festivals.
Burning my Soul is super meh, Peruvian Skies would have been so much better (taking a 'short song out of FII).
Spirit Carries On is always a nice song, but its slot in the set seemed very weird to me.
About to Crash was an awesome inclusion from SDOIT, but once again shame it didn't make the festival cut.
As I Am...I get its inclusion in a festival setlist, but that album has so many strong songs it seems weird to represent it with As I Am. Also, the transition from About to Crash to As I Am sounds kind of forced to me.
Panic Attack sounded amazing with Mangini, no complaints there.
I don't like Constant Motion at all, so that's a part of the set I kind of hated. They could've busted out ITPOE Pt.1 which is barely 2 minutes longer than Constant Motion and rocked our worlds. Also, it seems kind of weird playing that song without MP.
I like Wither, but also its spot in the set feels weird. I know it's an incremental set, but it feels weird you know?
Bridges in the Sky was an amazing inclusion, but it's shame this wasn't JLB's best tour ever because he didn't make the song justice vocally (judging from 4 or 5 bootlegs I listened to and the Wacken show).
Behind the Veil is not a good concert closer. Judging from the Wacken show, people were kind of bored at that point in the show. I like Behind the Veil, but its position as set closer didn't make it any justice. What about The Bigger Picture? That would have been a glorious ending song.
That's my reasoning behind my dislike of the setlist as a whole. I would have payed to see it if I lived in Europe, but would have been kind of underwhelmed.
3) Easy with the rock band thing. I know they're a prog metal band. I'm not talking about their music, I'm talking about the band interaction with the fans. They feel like 'any' band with their fans now, with little updates every now and then, every band announcement done by press releases, lack of facebook and social media interaction, etc.
Upon reading my original post again, I get why that third point might be confusing. I'm not talking about the music at all, and calling DT a standard 'rock' band wouldn't make sense considering one of my first 'pros' of this new DT is that their music feels more fresh and inspired to me. I hope that clears things up.