MP's Shattered Fortress Tour

[bill1971]

Seen DT twice last year and twice this year. Fantstic shows all of them.
Seen Mike once this year  (with Neal Morse Band ) and it was a gret show.
Will see Mike on sunday with Shattered Fortress.... really looking forwrd to it.
For this fan at lest this is a great time to be a DT and Mike Portnoy fan!

Yes, good point. I may have no interest in seeing MP without DT but there are many who do, so this is a very good time.

Also I am sure he will play some DT songs when he plays live with his new prog metal band with Sherinian. He wants to leave DT in the past but he will do it as a "favor for the fans"

[KevShmev]

Also, I've seen DT 11 or 12 times since 2003, and JLB has gotten better with every single tour. Still don't understand the flack he gets.

JLB, from the clips I have seen, is struggling badly on the current tour, which shouldn't be a surprise since the I&W songs were tough to sing live 25 years ago. And he is no spring chicken now.  He has always tried to do too much live, and rock singers who sing in the style that he does rarely age well.

[lonestar]

Seen DT twice last year and twice this year. Fantstic shows all of them.
Seen Mike once this year  (with Neal Morse Band ) and it was a gret show.
Will see Mike on sunday with Shattered Fortress.... really looking forwrd to it.
For this fan at lest this is a great time to be a DT and Mike Portnoy fan!

Fucking this man, enjoy what we can get while we can get it, this shit ain't gonna last forever, and the day will come when we'll only have memories.


May not get to a show, but I got a buddy at PPUSA who will hook up a shirt for me, it'll be a good addition to the collection.

[Samsara]

The flack JLB gets is bullshit. Yeah, he struggles at times. But go ahead, trot out another age 50+ operatic singer capable of doing I&W and ACOS night after night, and do it perfectly. You won't find any. Bottom line -- it's a really difficult record to sing. And as DT fans, I feel that personally, we should be thankful that they are doing this, as DT likely won't ever play I&W again because of how tough it is for JLB to perform.

So big thanks to Labrie for taking care of his voice and slugging it out night after night to give us such a cool treat. I'm not the only DT fan that has I&W as one of his all time favorite albums. And this is something special. JLB sounds fine. Some nights better than others. But that's singing.

[the keyboard wizard]

To go back to the real topic of the thread, yesterday I had one of the best gigs in my life. What a great audience in Paris, singing, jumping, smiling. I wasn't really glad when I saw the setlist as I wanted a few extras like New Millenium, Raise the Knife...but the setlist makes sense : Overture 1928/SDV are the best openers in DT's history and finishing the set with Finally Free sends a strong message.
The band was on fire and Mike seemed to have fun. The sound was aweful but it didn't matter. You must attend the shows if you can.
The icing on the cake : thanks to the former Presidents of the French fan club, I got my picture signed and some news: Mike will announce the full line up of his super group next month (one guitar player, one singer and one bass player to be announced) and he will tour with that band next year!!

[ich bin besser]

The sound was aweful but it didn't matter.

I'm (not really) sorry, but a bad sound ruins everything for me...

[the keyboard wizard]

Well it got better during the 12 Step Suite but too much bass and drums. Well I was near the front row so if I really wanted to get a good mix, I should have moved near the table.

[JayOctavarium]

I dig how Mike has Eric pulling vocal duties as well. There's a cool slight contrast between Ross and Eric.

[SwedishGoose]

Oh my god!!!! 
What an amazing concert I have just witnessed. Shattered Fortress live at Slagthuset in Malmö. 

Was standing in the first row (seated theater) just in front of the amazing Eric Gillette. 

Fantastic setlist, fantastic musicians... just wow!!!!
Thank you Mike...... 

Made even more special by Mike handing me and my friend his drumsticks a few songs in because me and my friend rocked out standing while everyone else sat. They got standing after that.... 

If in doubt and you have the possobility to go... just do it. It will be one of the best concerts you have seen... 

[cramx3]

Made even more special by Mike handing me and my friend his drumsticks a few songs in because me and my friend rocked out standing while everyone else sat. They got standing after that....

That's awesome.  Love that type of interaction with the crowd 

[bosk1]

This thread is about The Shattered Fortress, not James LaBrie.  Keep it on topic.

And it should go without saying that some of the off-topic posts about James were way over the line.  Offenders have been warned. 

[FOXAN03]

Well it got better during the 12 Step Suite but too much bass and drums. Well I was near the front row so if I really wanted to get a good mix, I should have moved near the table.

I'm sorry you had that, the Mix seemed to be ok at the London Gig but we had a couple of other technical faults but only minor. Its normal the start of a new tour.

I agree on Eric's vocals, I was surprised i had no idea how good a singer he was and it worked great going against Ross' vocals.

What I also loved is how much the band are enjoying these gigs, Richard Henshall and Diego especially look like kids in a candy shop.

[SwedishGoose]

Took some photos yesterday on the amazing Shattered Fortress event....

The band travelled for 16 hours after the show in Paris and the crew had to set up the stage in record  time.. one hour. Still the concert was about an hour late... but when you wait for something like this..

Huge thanks to Mike, the band and the crew for giving their all to deliver this to Scandinavia.Forfeiting their day of and instead spending the night and the day on the bus.

You should hopefully be able to see these
https://m.facebook.com/martin.sandberg.334/albums/1091381544331246/?ref=bookmarks

[FOXAN03]

What I love about the Setlist is the opening of Regression with the count down all of Mike's best Drum moments are played, from a fortune in lies, 6:00, Honor thy father as if the narrator is telling Mike to go back and remember his past life in DT and then ending with Finally Free to round it all off to say you're now free from this music. Its Poetic!

[Elite]

Saw this at Be Prog! My Friend (just got home). It was quite fun!

[FOXAN03]

Saw this at Be Prog! My Friend (just got home). It was quite fun!

Glad you had fun, its a shame you guys had one of the best songs cut due to time restrictions.

[Ben_Jamin]

What I love about the Setlist is the opening of Regression with the count down all of Mike's best Drum moments are played, from a fortune in lies, 6:00, Honor thy father as if the narrator is telling Mike to go back and remember his past life in DT and then ending with Finally Free to round it all off to say you're now free from this music. Its Poetic!

Yup, as I said before its Mikes way of finally letting go. We all know its been bothering him since he left, and this is good therapy for him.

[ToT-147]

Yeah, maybe..

[goo-goo]

So is Terry Brown going to sue MP for the use of the SFAM intro? 

[FOXAN03]

I really hope someone creates a good bootleg for this tour since there wont be an official release

[devieira73]

What I love about the Setlist is the opening of Regression with the count down all of Mike's best Drum moments are played, from a fortune in lies, 6:00, Honor thy father as if the narrator is telling Mike to go back and remember his past life in DT and then ending with Finally Free to round it all off to say you're now free from this music. Its Poetic!

Such a great touch from MP for this tour

[KevShmev]

Yup, as I said before its Mikes way of finally letting go. We all know its been bothering him since he left, and this is good therapy for him.

I think it's likely to have the opposite effect. Playing those songs again will remind him how much he loved the music Dream Theater created and he will miss being in the band even more than he did already, which is perfectly understandable. 

So is Terry Brown going to sue MP for the use of the SFAM intro? 

Using the Terry Brown Scenes intro probably eliminates any chance of any of these shows being recorded and released on DVD or Blu-ray (which I suspect was out of the question already because of the DT factor, let alone the Terry Brown one).

[gzarruk]

Richard Henshall said a while ago that Haken is going to start working on a new album soon, for a 2018 release, so I was wondering, since 5/6 members of Haken are currently touring with MP, playing DT material exclusively, will this inspire them to write a more DT oriented album for Haken? What do you, guys, think?

[JayOctavarium]

I want to see MP featured in the new album like he was on Restorations... but on something ridiculous like a single cowbell hit...


And on topic:

I so wish this was coming to LA

[Zook]

Richard Henshall said a while ago that Haken is going to start working on a new album soon, for a 2018 release, so I was wondering, since 5/6 members of Haken are currently touring with MP, playing DT material exclusively, will this inspire them to write a more DT oriented album for Haken? What do you, guys, think?

I might actually enjoy their music.

[pogoowner]

Richard Henshall said a while ago that Haken is going to start working on a new album soon, for a 2018 release, so I was wondering, since 5/6 members of Haken are currently touring with MP, playing DT material exclusively, will this inspire them to write a more DT oriented album for Haken? What do you, guys, think?

I think they already write very much in that vein and were DT fans to start with, so I don't see it having a significant impact at all.

[jakepriest]

Richard Henshall said a while ago that Haken is going to start working on a new album soon, for a 2018 release, so I was wondering, since 5/6 members of Haken are currently touring with MP, playing DT material exclusively, will this inspire them to write a more DT oriented album for Haken? What do you, guys, think?

I think they already write very much in that vein and were DT fans to start with, so I don't see it having a significant impact at all.

The first two albums maybe, but The Mountain and Affinity are nothing like DT's music imo.

[Mosh]

They're heavy and technical like DT, but they seem to be influenced by bands like King Crimson and Gentle Giant more than the prog groups that influenced DT like Yes and Rush.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Paraphrasing, but it's on there...

FB Commentor : Why isn't this tour coming to Canada. Does MP hate Canadiens?

MP: Only one.


 

[jakepriest]

I like how all the Portnoy fans in the comments find it incredibly witty.
I'm a fan of Portnoy and all, but that's pretty low. (if it is what it is, always a tiny chance it could be a lame Bieber joke)

[gmillerdrake]

I like how all the Portnoy fans in the comments find it incredibly witty.
I'm a fan of Portnoy and all, but that's pretty low. (if it is what it is, always a tiny chance it could be a lame Bieber joke)

For as bad as he is with Putting his foot in his mouth and being less than cordial on social media....i can't believe he's actually say that.

[Metro]

He most definitely did.
https://www.facebook.com/mikeportnoyofficial/posts/1788293884521579?comment_id=1788330767851224&reply_comment_id=1788342034516764&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D

[TAC]

Guy Lafluer?

[NoseofNicko]

So childish.

[Mosh]

Just below that is this comment:

As I've now said a million times already...there is no guarantee I can/will release a DVD of this...
I cannot handle anymore drama with the DT camp.
Get yourself on a plane and catch one of these shows!!
If you are a DT fan, you deserve to witness this