I'm coming off having seen the last three shows (Red Bank, NYC, and Philly), and I have to say that this tour has been one of my favorites for seeing DT live. The first set is beyond solid, with Barstool Warrior and Pale Blue Dot being a couple of the D/T standouts and the new material being joined by a couple of late Portnoy era tracks that play very well live. Untethered Angel is still fine, but probably the weakest D/T song for me. In terms of studio versions, Fall Into the Light >>> Paralyzed, but the gap is much more narrow live. The FITL middle section just doesn't translate as well on stage. SFAM is my all-time favorite album (and I wasn't a fan until a couple of albums later), so the second set was awesome for me every night. The encore even worked better live for me than it did on paper, as it really does get the crowd going in a way that I don't think any of their other ~7 minute songs really could.
The band is on fire this tour as well. JP, JR, and JM are rock solid as always, Mangini is having a blast, and I don't know if it's just a much more forgiving set than Beyond Images and Words but JLB sounds spot on and powerful. That's even considering that Red Bank was the third show in a row and Philly was the second night of a back to back. Love the new set design as it really changes things up a bit and allows for some very cool moments (JP and JR playing the Fatal Tragedy unison up on the catwalk =
The only downside of the weekend was an asshole that was next to me for part of the second set in Philly. My ticket that night was a Christmas present from my parents, a first-row ticket right in front of John Petrucci. I was essentially the last person in the front row as the three seats to the right of me were empty for most of the show. I ended up getting there partway through Nightmare and everyone in the first 2-3 rows at least on my side was sitting. Now, my preference would have been to stand from an energy perspective, I stood for all of the Red Bank and NYC shows and was ready to do the same in Philly since it's better in my opinion. Had I been there from the start I would have tried to stay standing for the start of UA to influence the vibe of our general area. Showing up partway through the second song though, I wasn't going to be the one guy standing and blocking the view of everybody around me. Just a dick move if you ask me. So I stayed seated, and had a perfectly good time for the first set. The second set starts and this guy shows up to my right (in the space of the previously mentioned untaken three seats) during Overture 1928 and he is both obviously trashed and obviously hyped as fuck for what's going on. He yells at everyone around him that they're "weak as fuck" for sitting down, which he would repeatedly do for the next six songs. He also starts slapping me in particular on the shoulder and telling me to "stand the fuck up", not just once or twice, but at least four to five times. He was putting his hands on the stage and at one point nearly rolled over one of the three little monitor speakers the band had on stage. He also took his jacket off and tried to leave it on stage. The security guy made him take it off the stage, then when he walked away for a minute to deal with something else this guy put it right back there. He started yelling at me during Beyond This Life for giving him the sideeye because I was keeping my eye on him in my peripheral because he kept whacking me in the shoulder. At which point I told him to shut the fuck up and leave me alone and gave him the finger for spoiling my front row night for my favorite album. He was still on his feet screaming like a jackass for the start of Through Her Eyes, at which point the security guy thankfully did something to take care of him permanently. Cecilia, it sounds like you must have been able to see him from where you were too.
And as far as being one of the "idiots" trying to find his seat 15 minutes into the show, in my case a friend was supposed to have a ticket for her at will call, but the guy working the box office couldn't find it, so that was a 20 minute ordeal to get sorted. By the time that was taken care of the set had just started but security still had a line of people to get in. Made it to my seat just in time for the Beautiful Agony section of ANTR.
Overall though I got to watch my favorite band play my desert island album three times in four days, so it was a fucking phenomenal weekend