DREAM THEATER "POSSIBLY" Recording Show On 'SFAM' 20th-Anniversary Tour

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

I never really understood why JP was so adamant that The Astonishing would never get a Blu-Ray/CD release. It was their most ambitious tour to date. That stage set-up with the street lamps and banners, animations, and vibe of that tour and the attitude was that if you couldn't make it to a show, then you would never see it live? If anything, you would think the band would want a momento like that from the tour (although they probably have something)

I really don't know if they do.  They had camera's rolling for the one show where they filmed for the music video Our New World, but is there any indication they recorded anything else besides soundboard for other shows or anything beyond some video shots for the music video?   I think it's unfortunate that it might have been a "see it live or never see it" type of thing, but if its true it makes me super happy to have seen it twice, once from the front row (and that is still my favorite DT concert) 

Maybe a financial/budget issue? For a fact I know that The Astonishing was an incredibly expensive tour to carry around, and maybe the profits from that show weren't enough to guarantee an extra live release. I would've killed for a Blue-Ray from the whole show with video quality found in the "Our New World" music video.

[cramx3]

If they can play a city with back to back shows and film both nights, it can be done. Luna Park was filmed over two nights.

1st night - The Astonishing
2nd night - SFAM with d/t

Wishful thinking though.

I think the ship has sailed.  We may have to wait 20 years for it's anniversary.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

If they can play a city with back to back shows and film both nights, it can be done. Luna Park was filmed over two nights.

1st night - The Astonishing
2nd night - SFAM with d/t

Wishful thinking though.

I think the ship has sailed.  We may have to wait 20 years for it's anniversary.

I do feel that maybe they got a couple of shows recorded. At least I know the audio of every show is safe in a hard drive, so at least we're 50% there. Maybe they will eventually figure things out for an Astonishing live release (maybe a 5th or 10th anniversary) because I cannot see that tour (or album) happening again.

[Another_Won]

If they can play a city with back to back shows and film both nights, it can be done. Luna Park was filmed over two nights.

1st night - The Astonishing
2nd night - SFAM with d/t

Wishful thinking though.

I think the ship has sailed.  We may have to wait 20 years for it's anniversary.

I do feel that maybe they got a couple of shows recorded. At least I know the audio of every show is safe in a hard drive, so at least we're 50% there. Maybe they will eventually figure things out for an Astonishing live release (maybe a 5th or 10th anniversary) because I cannot see that tour (or album) happening again.

I really liked TA, but I don't think we'll ever see a video for it.  From a video release perspective, TA is the new BC&SL.

[cramx3]

If they can play a city with back to back shows and film both nights, it can be done. Luna Park was filmed over two nights.

1st night - The Astonishing
2nd night - SFAM with d/t

Wishful thinking though.

I think the ship has sailed.  We may have to wait 20 years for it's anniversary.

I do feel that maybe they got a couple of shows recorded. At least I know the audio of every show is safe in a hard drive, so at least we're 50% there. Maybe they will eventually figure things out for an Astonishing live release (maybe a 5th or 10th anniversary) because I cannot see that tour (or album) happening again.

I really liked TA, but I don't think we'll ever see a video for it.  From a video release perspective, TA is the new BC&SL.

And yet if they release a video from this tour, there will be a BC&SL song and no TA songs.  But honestly that's the most interesting part of this potential new live video, the songs we don't have already such as ANTR.

[SystematicThought]

You have it a bit wrong.  They DID plan on recording it.  Remember--the second leg was supposed to be PRIMARILY markets that they hadn't played on the first leg.  They were considering filming a show late in the second leg.  But then it was mis-booked and they were slated to play a bunch of places they had already hit on the first leg, which impacted attendance and caused them to change up the set list a bit.  They were still considering doing a one-off in a certain city to film it after the tour wrapped.  But they didn't due to a combination of being too busy with other things that had come up (primarily, the I&WaB tour), and not being confident there was a sufficient demand for it to justify renting that huge TA touring rig again for one show and a film crew, they just decided to pass and move on.

I didn't know that, or at least most of that. Thanks Bosk! I remember you mentioning at the time it was misbooked, which I imagine is incredibly annoying for the band. That's too bad that it happened, because like we've all said, we'd kill to have a live release of that tour. Maybe you've mentioned it before, but was the I&WaB tour in reaction to that last leg of The Astonishing? From a business perspective, to recoup some losses, because if I recall the I&W tour did really well, which is why I imagine they are doing another classic album tour?

[bosk1]

Maybe you've mentioned it before, but was the I&WaB tour in reaction to that last leg of The Astonishing?

Yes and no.  I mean, they realized the anniversary was coming up and started laying the plans pretty early on.  They wanted to acknowledge that 25th anniversary and make it special for the fans.  But then with the second leg of the tour kind of getting messed up, I think they DID also feel that the fanbase was getting a bit restless and wanted to really reconnect with the fans.  So that's why there is just a bit of "yes" in the answer.  But when I saw them on the second leg of the tour, the plan was already firmly in place, and they even had the set list.  JP had hinted to me about it early on, and after the show, he showed me the set list for I&WaB and asked what I thought. 

[SystematicThought]

Oh that’s right. Because he wanted to see your reaction to TDEN as the set opener. That was a curveball he threw at us

[bill1971]

I'd like to see that. Call it Scenes from a Mangini

[bosk1]

Oh that’s right. Because he wanted to see your reaction to TDEN as the set opener. That was a curveball he threw at us

I can't remember if I had mentioned this specifically, but yeah, he was showing it to me on his phone.  And he had a big grin on his face, and he was slowly scrolling on his phone.  It was out of the blue, and since he had to scroll, I didn't have the full context, and at first, I missed that TDEN was the first song.  He asked me what I thought of the opener, and I gave a blank look and basically said, "Oh, I actually missed what the first song was because I was trying to take in the whole thing."  So he scrolled back, and I was like, "...  ... okay ... Oh, wow.  That's an interesting choice for an opener.  I never would have thought of it in that spot, but that's kinda cool!"

[cramx3]

Out of curiosity, would you have told him you didn't like it if you felt that way?  As much as I share my negative opinions here, I'd have a real hard time saying that to Petrucci's face if I didn't agree, and in this case I don't as I've never really liked TDEN.  It's not a bad opener but it certainly wouldn't be my choice and I don't think I'd have the balls to tell him that 

[KISS 76]

I welcome each and every DT Live and Blu Ray release. What a great way to document the evolution of the band.
Besides, you can always choose not to buy it if you're not interested.

[BRGM]

Anyone knows what happened to "Back to Budokan" that Chyki mixed at the End of 2017? Has the band ever stated why it never got released?

[Architeuthis]

It was for Japanese TV, and was never planned for a official release. It's out there if you search hard enough. 

[PMA]

It was for Japanese TV, and was never planned for a official release. It's out there if you search hard enough. 

It was fairly easy to find.  Here's the URL: https://www.bilibili.com/video/av25975244/?p=1.  If not mentioned prior, it is from the Images and Words & Beyond tour.  Sounds good musically but James struggled quite a bit.  I truly love his singing but this performance reminded me of when I saw the tour locally and he just didn't sing well that night.  His embellishments didn't help. 

[SystematicThought]

It was fairly easy to find.  Here's the URL: https://www.bilibili.com/video/av25975244/?p=1.  If not mentioned prior, it is from the Images and Words & Beyond tour.  Sounds good musically but James struggled quite a bit.  I truly love his singing but this performance reminded me of when I saw the tour locally and he just didn't sing well that night.  His embellishments didn't help. 

[PetFish]

It really seems to be a huge waste to already have a really great pro edit video/audio just sitting on a shelf somewhere not doing anything.  Obviously a big effort was put into this show, both live and post-production, so to have it gathering dust the way it is kinda blows, especially when there's lots of stuff that we have no live versions of officially released.

[Setlist Scotty]

It really seems to be a huge waste to already have a really great pro edit video/audio just sitting on a shelf somewhere not doing anything.  Obviously a big effort was put into this show, both live and post-production, so to have it gathering dust the way it is kinda blows, especially when there's lots of stuff that we have no live versions of officially released.

Fully agree. That was the beauty of MP releasing all those official bootlegs. While not commissioned by the band, pro-shot footage in the best quality possible could be made available for the fans to include in their collections for a reasonable price, which the band themselves would benefit from financially. A win-win for everyone. I can't understand why it hasn't been pursued, despite the initial comments made when MP left that implied they would. 

[Chino]

It really seems to be a huge waste to already have a really great pro edit video/audio just sitting on a shelf somewhere not doing anything.  Obviously a big effort was put into this show, both live and post-production, so to have it gathering dust the way it is kinda blows, especially when there's lots of stuff that we have no live versions of officially released.

Fully agree. That was the beauty of MP releasing all those official bootlegs. While not commissioned by the band, pro-shot footage in the best quality possible could be made available for the fans to include in their collections for a reasonable price, which the band themselves would benefit from financially. A win-win for everyone. I can't understand why it hasn't been pursued, despite the initial comments made when MP left that implied they would. 

It's entirely possible that whatever network it was filmed for owns the rights to it.

[Setlist Scotty]

It really seems to be a huge waste to already have a really great pro edit video/audio just sitting on a shelf somewhere not doing anything.  Obviously a big effort was put into this show, both live and post-production, so to have it gathering dust the way it is kinda blows, especially when there's lots of stuff that we have no live versions of officially released.

Fully agree. That was the beauty of MP releasing all those official bootlegs. While not commissioned by the band, pro-shot footage in the best quality possible could be made available for the fans to include in their collections for a reasonable price, which the band themselves would benefit from financially. A win-win for everyone. I can't understand why it hasn't been pursued, despite the initial comments made when MP left that implied they would. 

It's entirely possible that whatever network it was filmed for owns the rights to it.

That's probably the case for every pro-shot DT video out there, but that didn't stop DT from releasing 2 of them (Bucharest 2002 and Santiago 2005) with MP intending to release 2 more (Download Festival 2009, Summer Sonic Festival 2010). Nevermind all the non-sanctioned pro-shot footage that ended up on both 5YiaL and CiM. I'd imagine there was probably some form of payment made, but not too expensive to make it cost prohibitive.

[Architeuthis]

Or perhaps the band wasn't happy enough with that performance to release it. I've seen the show and it is actually really good but James was having a bit of an off night. I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to release this, even though I personally thought he did ok. Those are some hard songs to sing!

[gzarruk]

They could just release it anyway as a very very high quality oficial bootleg on YJR and make some money of it. I'd buy it from them, and I'm sure lots of people would too. Like it was mentioned already, the video is already edited and the audio was mixed by their own engineer at the time. It just seems like a waste of work if they don't release it in some way.

That's probably the case for every pro-shot DT video out there, but that didn't stop DT from releasing 2 of them (Bucharest 2002 and Santiago 2005) with MP intending to release 2 more (Download Festival 2009, Summer Sonic Festival 2010). Nevermind all the non-sanctioned pro-shot footage that ended up on both 5YiaL and CiM. I'd imagine there was probably some form of payment made, but not too expensive to make it cost prohibitive.

I'm still amazed at how the rest of the Summer Sonic show hasn't appeared online yet, only two songs are on Youtube. At lest we got some pro shot footage of MP's last show with DT.

About 5YIAL, some of that footage is seriously bad... can't believe Mike decided to release that instead of the whole Paris show.

[BRGM]

I'm still amazed at how the rest of the Summer Sonic show hasn't appeared online yet, only two songs are on Youtube.

Same goes for the High Voltage show back in 2011. Would be neat to see both of these two shows in their entirety.

[Setlist Scotty]

They could just release it anyway as a very very high quality oficial bootleg on YJR and make some money of it.

That's my point. But sadly it seems that official bootlegs are something that only MP had an interest in getting involved with. But I think Architeuthis may have spotted the reason why Back to Budokan or whatever you want to call it was never released: JL's performance.
 
 

I'm still amazed at how the rest of the Summer Sonic show hasn't appeared online yet, only two songs are on Youtube. At lest we got some pro shot footage of MP's last show with DT.

It would be interesting to know how many DT shows were professionally taped, though I doubt we'll ever find out.
 
 

About 5YIAL, some of that footage is seriously bad... can't believe Mike decided to release that instead of the whole Paris show.

It's been a long time since I've watched that video, but I think there's a few things you need to keep in mind: MP wanted to cover, not just Touring Into Infinity, but everything that happened up until that point, starting with their writing/recording of Awake. On top of that, the whole Paris show would've never fit on a single video tape. In fact, I remember MP mentioning somewhere that the label was really strict on how long it would be, so that he ultimately was cutting out a few seconds here and a few seconds there to get it to the required time (this was the reason why the second verse from Voices was edited out). On top of that, visually speaking, the Paris show is not all that impressive; MP said if anything it would've been better to release the fan club (semi-acoustic) show on video due to the visuals. In any case, it was never gonna be the whole Paris show.

I would also imagine that since 5YiaL was going to be a compilation of all sorts of clips, he also wanted to include parts of other gigs they did, too. I distinctly remember some footage of them playing in front of a huge audience at a festival gig, which I'm sure he wanted to highlight as part of their history. And since most of the Paris show was released on OiaL, he probably didn't want there to be that much overlap between the CD and video release.

[KevShmev]

It's been a long time since I've watched that video, but I think there's a few things you need to keep in mind: MP wanted to cover, not just Touring Into Infinity, but everything that happened up until that point, starting with their writing/recording of Awake. On top of that, the whole Paris show would've never fit on a single video tape. In fact, I remember MP mentioning somewhere that the label was really strict on how long it would be, so that he ultimately was cutting out a few seconds here and a few seconds there to get it to the required time (this was the reason why the second verse from Voices was edited out). On top of that, visually speaking, the Paris show is not all that impressive; MP said if anything it would've been better to release the fan club (semi-acoustic) show on video due to the visuals. In any case, it was never gonna be the whole Paris show.

I would also imagine that since 5YiaL was going to be a compilation of all sorts of clips, he also wanted to include parts of other gigs they did, too. I distinctly remember some footage of them playing in front of a huge audience at a festival gig, which I'm sure he wanted to highlight as part of their history. And since most of the Paris show was released on OiaL, he probably didn't want there to be that much overlap between the CD and video release.

Given the apparent time restrictions, it seems bizarre then to have included those covers.  I doubt it's just me, but getting the full version of Voices and Metropolis, instead of the hacked-up versions we got, would have been a lot better than the Damage Inc or (end of) Starship Trooper covers.  And since To Live Forever had already been included on the Live from Tokyo live video, that could have been omitted as well.  I still like the overall package a lot, and am really glad those live versions of Cover My Eyes and Speak to Me were included, but better use of the time definitely could have been made.

[Cool Chris]

I considered myself a big fan of DT in the late 90s but was not dialed in to the internet community or anything about DT above and beyond their CD releases. I didn't know about 5YiaL till it came out in a  package set with LiT. I can't imagine buying that in 98(?) and enjoying it at all, other than the few documentary-type clips and the acoustic songs. Seeing poorly-filmed footage of parts of songs would have been a major drag. And those cover songs... ye gods. I had to listen to the commentary track to find out who was "singing" that first song, and I am not in to Metallica so had to find out what that song was too. Same thing with that next song, as I don't care a wit about Marillion. I don't want to rag on those who enjoyed that, But if I went to a DT show and they sent James backstage to flip some burgers while they trotted those songs and vocalists, I'd be pretty annoyed. (I know it was a special one-time show....).

Anyway, the commentary track saves that DVD and is an enjoyable listen, and one of the smaller things that made DT my favorite band in the early 00s. But that video, while I appreciate Mike's efforts, is a drag.

On topic, I haven't seen much of that 2017 Japan TV show. I'd normally buy up anything DT-related in a heartbeat, but with limited viewing time these days, I'd probably pass on it. Same thing with the current tour, though my interest is heightened at all the positive reviews I've seen on here.

[Setlist Scotty]

Given the apparent time restrictions, it seems bizarre then to have included those covers.  I doubt it's just me, but getting the full version of Voices and Metropolis, instead of the hacked-up versions we got, would have been a lot better than the Damage Inc or (end of) Starship Trooper covers.  And since To Live Forever had already been included on the Live from Tokyo live video, that could have been omitted as well.  I still like the overall package a lot, and am really glad those live versions of Cover My Eyes and Speak to Me were included, but better use of the time definitely could have been made.

The one thing I can say for a certainty is that you can be sure MP weighed all those decisions very carefully. Whether you agree with what he ultimately chose is up to you.

Considering that ACoS was part of that time period and MP's love for doing covers, I'm not at all surprised by his choice to include them. You'll notice that the tracks he chose from the Ronnie Scott's gig are not on ACoS and all of them feature musical guests, which was no doubt a nice feather in the cap for them. As for the inclusion of only the last part of Starship Trooper, don't forget that it was part of a 15-minute instrumental medley they did with Steve Howe - surely you wouldn't have wanted the whole medley in there, would you?    Plus, I'm not aware of video footage of that whole show being available in trading circles, so to MP, it probably seemed to be the perfect time to include some of it.

Regarding not including all of Voices - had I not mentioned the edit, would you have noticed? From what I recall, the verse that was edited out was always pretty difficult to sing, and especially just after JL had his food poisoning incident, his performance of that verse was less than stellar.

And as for why he included TLF again, good question. Probably for the instrumental section that followed at the end of the song which was completely different from what's on LiT, but I don't know. If not for that, I'm sure for some other good reason.

Oddly enough, I just came across a post MP made 20 years ago about a couple of the choices he made for OiaL and 5YiaL, one of which I think is applicable here. Regarding only the Japanese WOWOW footage (which was already in wide circulation) being used to represent the Waking Up the World tour instead of also including footage from the Concrete Foundations Forum that JR played with them (which MTV Europe filmed), he said:

You can thank eMpTVy for that......
I tried to get the pro-shot Foundations footage from them, but they wouldn't let us use it.....
The Japanese WOWOW was the only pro-shot Awake footage we could obtain the rights for...so I decided to include it in order to represent that tour for us....

So while some of the choices on that video and others may be baffling, there's a reason for why he made the decisions that he did.

[bosk1]

Spot on, Scotty.  We can debate about how we might subjectively feel NOW about each of those individual choices.  But for the time they were done, they made perfect sense as being prime fan choices. 

[pg1067]

I considered myself a big fan of DT in the late 90s but was not dialed in to the internet community or anything about DT above and beyond their CD releases. I didn't know about 5YiaL till it came out in a  package set with LiT. I can't imagine buying that in 98(?) and enjoying it at all, other than the few documentary-type clips and the acoustic songs. Seeing poorly-filmed footage of parts of songs would have been a major drag. And those cover songs... ye gods. I had to listen to the commentary track to find out who was "singing" that first song, and I am not in to Metallica so had to find out what that song was too. Same thing with that next song, as I don't care a wit about Marillion. I don't want to rag on those who enjoyed that, But if I went to a DT show and they sent James backstage to flip some burgers while they trotted those songs and vocalists, I'd be pretty annoyed. (I know it was a special one-time show....).

Anyway, the commentary track saves that DVD and is an enjoyable listen, and one of the smaller things that made DT my favorite band in the early 00s. But that video, while I appreciate Mike's efforts, is a drag.

On topic, I haven't seen much of that 2017 Japan TV show. I'd normally buy up anything DT-related in a heartbeat, but with limited viewing time these days, I'd probably pass on it. Same thing with the current tour, though my interest is heightened at all the positive reviews I've seen on here.

I've been on the DT bus since fall of 1992.  I know I bought OIALT when it came out, but I don't think I got 5YIALT until the combo DVD (sometime after 2004).  I suspect I didn't immediately jump on 5YIALT because FII was very lackluster and OIALT was not a great live album.

As I posted in another thread, I wasn't aware of the commentary tracks on 5YIALT and LIT until a couple months ago.  When I watched the DVD with the commentary, it was probably only the second or third time I've watched it.  My issue with 5YIALT is not the covers (although the vocals on the cover of Damage, Inc. are absolutely awful).  Rather, the selection of DT material is mostly lackluster.  I like having the TSM and Hollow Years videos, and 6:00, Voices, LSOAD, Anna Lee, Metropolis, LTL and ACOS are good (although I don't remember which songs were complete and which were chopped), but the rest of the material is just "meh."  I'm also fairly sure that, when I first watched 5YIAL, I assumed that Cover My Eyes and Speak to Me were covers.  Like Chris, I was not tuned into the DT internet community in the 90s and early 2000s, so I didn't know about Cleaning out the Closet and the rejected FII songs.

I think that's one of the flip sides of all that extra stuff that MP did.  While it was cool for the small minority of fans who were completely tuned into everything, some of it had the tendency to confuse the majority.

Regarding not including all of Voices - had I not mentioned the edit, would you have noticed?

Having recently watched with the commentary track, he discussed all of this stuff.

[KevShmev]

Given the apparent time restrictions, it seems bizarre then to have included those covers.  I doubt it's just me, but getting the full version of Voices and Metropolis, instead of the hacked-up versions we got, would have been a lot better than the Damage Inc or (end of) Starship Trooper covers.  And since To Live Forever had already been included on the Live from Tokyo live video, that could have been omitted as well.  I still like the overall package a lot, and am really glad those live versions of Cover My Eyes and Speak to Me were included, but better use of the time definitely could have been made.

The one thing I can say for a certainty is that you can be sure MP weighed all those decisions very carefully. Whether you agree with what he ultimately chose is up to you.

Considering that ACoS was part of that time period and MP's love for doing covers, I'm not at all surprised by his choice to include them. You'll notice that the tracks he chose from the Ronnie Scott's gig are not on ACoS and all of them feature musical guests, which was no doubt a nice feather in the cap for them. As for the inclusion of only the last part of Starship Trooper, don't forget that it was part of a 15-minute instrumental medley they did with Steve Howe - surely you wouldn't have wanted the whole medley in there, would you?    Plus, I'm not aware of video footage of that whole show being available in trading circles, so to MP, it probably seemed to be the perfect time to include some of it.

Regarding not including all of Voices - had I not mentioned the edit, would you have noticed? From what I recall, the verse that was edited out was always pretty difficult to sing, and especially just after JL had his food poisoning incident, his performance of that verse was less than stellar.

And as for why he included TLF again, good question. Probably for the instrumental section that followed at the end of the song which was completely different from what's on LiT, but I don't know. If not for that, I'm sure for some other good reason.

Oddly enough, I just came across a post MP made 20 years ago about a couple of the choices he made for OiaL and 5YiaL, one of which I think is applicable here. Regarding only the Japanese WOWOW footage (which was already in wide circulation) being used to represent the Waking Up the World tour instead of also including footage from the Concrete Foundations Forum that JR played with them (which MTV Europe filmed), he said:

You can thank eMpTVy for that......
I tried to get the pro-shot Foundations footage from them, but they wouldn't let us use it.....
The Japanese WOWOW was the only pro-shot Awake footage we could obtain the rights for...so I decided to include it in order to represent that tour for us....

So while some of the choices on that video and others may be baffling, there's a reason for why he made the decisions that he did.

Some fair points.

I have always noticed the missing verse in Voices - I know my favorite songs like the back of my hand and that is one of them.  I get omitting it if JLB's vocals weren't up to snuff on that verse, and that has to be one of the hardest DT sections to sing, but then that leads to the question: why release OiaL as is?  His vocals on much of that are pretty rough. 

Sidebar: I wish DT had done a mini-tour of shows like the Rotterdam one on that release.  They have more than enough songs that would work in that kind of atmosphere and it would be so cool.  Maybe it wouldn't appeal to the casual fan, but us diehards would love it.

[TAC]

I have always noticed the missing verse in Voices - I know my favorite songs like the back of my hand and that is one of them.  I get omitting it if JLB's vocals weren't up to snuff on that verse, and that has to be one of the hardest DT sections to sing, but then that leads to the question: why release OiaL as is?  His vocals on much of that are pretty rough.

I remember being so psyched when OiaL was going to be released. I had seen them a number of times and a live album was highly anticipated. When I heard it, I could not believe the vocals. I didn't remember James sounding like that. I was shocked that it was an official release with those vocals. Shocked.


I then remember the LA'98 show being released on Ytsejam, and I thought, great. These should have much better vocals. Nope. Just as bad. Knowing the MP was in charge of those releases, that was my first inkling that all was not well between MP and JLB. My first thought was, there's no way James could be happy about this release.

[cramx3]

I then remember the LA'98 show being released on Ytsejam, and I thought, great. These should have much better vocals. Nope. Just as bad. Knowing the MP was in charge of those releases, that was my first inkling that all was not well between MP and JLB. My first thought was, there's no way James could be happy about this release.

And maybe they've learned from that which is why they won't release the latest Budokan taping. Sucks, I don't think JLB ruins it, I watched a bunch of the songs on youtube before they were taken down and the video is well done.  Would be a really top of the line release from Ytse Jam if they did so IMO.  But I understand why they wouldn't really want to release it if perhaps JLB didn't want that performance to be an official release.

[Peter Mc]

It really seems to be a huge waste to already have a really great pro edit video/audio just sitting on a shelf somewhere not doing anything.  Obviously a big effort was put into this show, both live and post-production, so to have it gathering dust the way it is kinda blows, especially when there's lots of stuff that we have no live versions of officially released.

Fully agree. That was the beauty of MP releasing all those official bootlegs. While not commissioned by the band, pro-shot footage in the best quality possible could be made available for the fans to include in their collections for a reasonable price, which the band themselves would benefit from financially. A win-win for everyone. I can't understand why it hasn't been pursued, despite the initial comments made when MP left that implied they would. 

I assume they don’t do it for the same reason pretty much no other bands do, it’s not worth the hassle. I know they implied that it would carry on but that’s easy to say, I never expected it to continue especially when they said JLB was going to run it. In the case of this particular show for Japanese tv, if James sounds awful on it, I’d rather they didn’t release it. Why release a poor quality product which embarrasses your lead singer?

[PetFish]

I assume they don’t do it for the same reason pretty much no other bands do, it’s not worth the hassle. I know they implied that it would carry on but that’s easy to say, I never expected it to continue especially when they said JLB was going to run it. In the case of this particular show for Japanese tv, if James sounds awful on it, I’d rather they didn’t release it. Why release a poor quality product which embarrasses your lead singer?

But the "hassle" is already taken care of.  It's fully produced, both visually and aurally, and all it needs is some pretty packaging.  Hell, I'll do the artwork for free, probably a bunch of us here can and would.

I've listened to the whole Back to Budokan concert now and James sounds mostly fine to me, not sure why people think they're on the same level as the OIaL release, cuz they aren't.

[cramx3]

I've listened to the whole Back to Budokan concert now and James sounds mostly fine to me, not sure why people think they're on the same level as the OIaL release, cuz they aren't.

Yea, he isn't as bad as people make it seem, he's just not on his A game which he also wasn't for OIaL.  However, i think people are far more critical of him now than back then especially on social media.