I don't know where to start with telling you about my experience with these shows so allow me to just go through the set list as a pragmatic way to go about it.
Intro: Love the music, where is that from? Wasn't False Awakening Suite written to sort of be their staple intro? I missed the last tour so I don't know when that idea got sacked. I prefer FAS and the animation sequence that came with it, but this new stuff is pretty good too.
Untethered Angel: Missed most of it on the Dallas show, as did dozens of other fans, venue fuck up. Saw it complete along with the intro in Austin. Sounds great live, an okay opener.
ANTR: I love what JLB did with the "day after day" section, even prefer it to the studio version.
Paralyzed: Another D/T track that works great live. I got it at both my shows and I was happy about it as I much prefer it to Fall into The Light
Barstool Warrior: What a great live vibe that track's got, sang my heart out on this one and JLB nailed it.
Enemies: Band on top of their game, it worked great at this spot in the setlist.
Pale Blue Dot: Best live sounding D/T song, easily the highlight of the first set. The parts that I felt doesn't flow well on the album version were just perfect in a live setting.
Intermission: The first set flew by. They played these 20's/30's swing music to set the mood for SFAM, very cool.
SFAM:
The room went wild as soon as the ticking started, excitement was through the roof! Again; everybody on top of their game. SFAM flew by even faster than the first set, it's hard to believe this was an "Evening With" show. The whole thing was wonderful but Fatal Tragedy, Home and The Dance of Eternity were something else, just orgasmic! I lost my voice during Home on the first night, on the second night I was struggling from the beginning
At the very last instrumental section of Fatal Tragedy, which btw was the first thing I ever heard for DT and got me to check out the band out, JR gets his keytar and jams it out with JP at that upper level of the stage. At the Dallas show the keytar didn't work so I didn't get that cool visual until Austin.
I sang "I sense the need to try and clarify my memory, my quest begins today" as I've been listening to the official bootleg version almost exclusively for the last few years, I wasn't even thinking when I did it, until dude next to me asked where is that from heh
I thought Home would lack a bit without MP's back vocals, the only instance where I would miss MP's vocals, but it worked just fine with JP and the backing track. It was great.
There's no audible hint of the sex scene in Home, I don't know if this was an artistic choice or possibly cause JP is more conservative now than he was when SFAM came out.
The Dance of Eternity, geez.. nothing to do but gush in praise. Simply my favorite 4 consecutive minutes of Dream Theater, a song has sat in my top 10 and top 5 DT tracks since I heard it. I had never seen it live before, needless to say I was ecstatic. I couldn't hear the Metropolis Pt.1 sample that should play in the intro of TDOE, neither could I hear the "open your eyes Victoria" or the gun shot in Finally Free.
One Last Time was surprisingly a bigger sing along experience for the audience than The Spirit Carries On.
The little guitar solo that JP closes Finally Free with was awesome.
Overall it was such amazing experiences to see these shows. Gun to my head to bitch about something; I'd say I didn't like the new presentation of SFAM on the back drop, it gave it a comical edge and I'd always found SFAM to be very emotionally engaging in a melancholic way. I much prefer the videos with actors from LSFNY.
In Dallas I caught a JP pick mid-air. In Austin, another one landed in my hair
At the Dallas show, we left directly after the show since I was dead tired from the 7 hour trip and limping already. Also Barto was my ride to the hotel and he had to work the next day so I didn't even consider waiting out for the band.
At the Austin show, I hung out with my wife by the buses. Not many people were there, one of the great benefits doing the shows on weekdays.
JM came out first, he walked directly to the bus with his head down so I knew he didn't feel like stopping and I didn't approach, just yelled out "Great show John, thank you", he looked up, smiled and waved then right on to the bus.
Around 45 minutes of mosquito bites later, Mr. Mangini appeared with a big smile on his face and walked directly in our direction, we had the exchange I mentioned a few posts ago. He had a marker hung around his neck and luckily I had brought the D/T booklet with me from the car, he signed it for me and we took a picture, he could not have been nicer.
10 minutes later THE MAN emerged! Mr. Labrie himself, also with a big smile, also walked directly to us, took out his marker and signed something for the couple standing with us, then without asking he reached and grabbed my D/T booklet from my hand and signed it hehe. A girl asked if she can look at his rings and asked him about one of them and he said "It's a pirate thing", she laughed asking "You like pirates?" so I intervened "You are in the presence of
the pirate", he chuckled and said "There's your answer". Then he took a picture with them and was about to take a picture with us so I said "can I say a few things real quick?", he smiled and nodded, I said "Your stage presence and voice are as good as ever and I love your work on the new album, especially At Wit's End and Out of Reach", he thanked me and then I remembered what SystematicThought has posted here about JLB losing a friend recently. So I told him I was sorry for his loss and he seemed to have no idea what I was talking about, I told him I read on the forums that he mentioned something about his friend and I assumed it was why he teared up during Through Her Eyes, he told me "Oh yeah, honestly you get caught up on tour and things from real life slip your mind, but thank you very much", then we took a photo and I thanked him for stopped to talk to us then on to the bus he went.
A few minutes later I saw Maddy leaving, I was the only one to recognize him and yelled out "Great job Maddy, thank you!", he smiled and waived, wished us a good night and was on his way. Then JR's assistant came out, I don't know his name but he's been giving his cellphone to JR every night to take videos of the screaming crowd in the front row and I was prominent in these videos on both night heh, so I asked him where he posts them and he told me he doesn't.
About 30 minutes later, JP and JR emerged with a small posse. JP was acting like JM, head down and walking straight to the bus, so I knew not to bother him, a dude I had been chatting with, waiting with us, started going after him but I told him if he didn't look in our direction then he doesn't wanna be bothered. JR however looked at us and smiled so we went to him, took a picture, he miraculously recognized my wife from when we met him during the ADTOE tour cause they had an exchange about Egypt back then, I complimented his performance and thanked him for stopping to say hello and he signed my D/T booklet. Some other fans were being pushy and wanted to take multiple pictures and sign a couple of things, he was graceful but his bodyguard (I guess?) told them they need to wrap it up. Before he walked away I thanked him for his patience and he seemed to appreciate that. Some of these people seem to forget that the band doesn't have to talk to us outside the venue, we didn't pay for that part, so be a little fuckin considerate and brief ffs.
Thank you DT, it was well worth every penny spent and every mile driven.