Thing is, most people going to the concert will not have seen the original tour anyhow. We're talking almost two decades ago, so anyone below the age of, say, 35 will most likely never have been in a position to see it. Add into the fact that the majority of fans actually got into DT after the SFAM tour.
So yes, DT has become a slight "nostalgia act". But it makes complete commercial sense to do it like this.
I was saying the bolded part earlier. That's very true. Look, a band DT's age, nostalgia is a part of it. I mean, Images & Words was done 26 years ago. That's old. I mean, DT should be celebrated for being a band for 30+ years, and that means there will be elements of the past they look to highlight. Scenes from a Memory is one of those.
People who love the record should be excited. As bosk alluded to, even if you saw it like some of us did back in 2000, the production will likely be completely different. Not necessarily BETTER, but different, and likely really something to remember. I may not personally care for SFAM as much as some of you, but the complaining that they are becoming a nostalgia band by performing SFAM is laughable. The tour is based around the new record, with Scenes as a bonus. It's a win-win. And those that are so anti-nostalgia they can't handle it...DT's first album came out in 1989. That was 30 years ago. There will be nostalgia in EVERYTHING they do at this point. The key thing is, they are still relevant because they don't RELY on the nostalgia. They include it as a bonus.
Take Fates Warning -- they've played Parallels reunion shows, and then came back with a killer record in Theories of Flight that is completely bad ass and contemporary. No one would accuse Fates of being a nostalgia act. Just like no one should be calling Dream Theater a nostalgia act for giving fans a treat like SFAM. They are doing it for the fans as a bonus as a PART OF the support tour for their new record.
This. Completely agree with you
They are a 30+ year old band, there’s no way they can just ignore their back catalog and pretend it didn’t happen, but they also ALWAYS come up with new music and actually play those songs live, instead of just playing 2 songs from the new album and then doing the same old setlist over and over again (Megadeth, I’m looking at you).
If we look at all the DT catalog, counting studio albums and extra songs, there’s only 3 songs (TBOT, Raw Dog and STR) out of 160 they’ve never played or featured live in some way. That’s impressive, and nostalgia acts just don’t do that.
And, btw, count me in as someone who got into DT waaaaaay after SFAM. I’m 23 right now, which means I was 4 when it was released, I obviously didn’t have a clue about it then
I discovered DT in 2010, with SFAM being the first DT album I got. If there’s a chance they’ll play my favorite album and also have a killer set of new songs + others from the MM era, count me in