The "A View from the Top of the World tour is awesome!" thread (spoilers)

[Max Kuehnau]

They did have that yes. During my first show, three songs were cut out on the fly. (as well as during the Budokan show in 2004) And that ironic comment was James btw

[Kram]

Wasn't the "sorry for the short set" line (which was JLB), him being sarcastic at the end of the Roseland Ballroom show in NY that was filmed for the Metropolis 2000 Scenes From New York DVD?  Because they played like a three and a half hour show.

[Stadler]

On a very side note - sometimes I wonder how a band is able to time their show down to a notch.

I mean, they know the playing time of the studio versions of the songs, and when they rehearse eventual additional outros or intros they can time that as well, but I wonder how they fill up the remaining time, and if they have conversation like "mh, we're 13 minutes short of 2 hours, what do we do? play a shorter song or allow James to introduce a bit more the other songs?" 

Dream Theater shows today seem pretty well rehearsed and timed.  They likely have allotted time in certain parts between songs for JLB to say some things.  I don't think they end up having time to spare because it's such a precise scheduled set.  For other bands who change things up and play completely live with no backing tracks, sometimes you see them scramble to figure things out.  At the Limp Bizkit concert I just saw Fred Durst asked someone on the side of the stage how much time they had left, he said 7 minutes so they played half a song and then did their final song cutting out a track from the set list.  I don't know if that happened because they talked too much (seems likely) but that was an example of things happening live on the fly.  DT may have had instances similar, but they would have been some time ago (like Sorry for the short set comment by MP).

Haha, I don't know why it shocks me that Limp Bizkit is completely live with no backing tracks and has that level of flexibility to move in real time (though I know the band isn't bad; my beef is more with Fred Durst).

it's fascinating to me that the 70's - and then the 90's - were sort of eras of free-form concerts. Springsteen, Zeppelin, the Dead, would all occasionally "feel the moment" and play for anywhere from two and a half to four+ hours.  Imagine having to coordinate lights and visuals as well as manage union labor requirements for a two+ hour extension to an existing two hour concert! 

[WilliamMunny]

Wasn't the "sorry for the short set" line (which was JLB), him being sarcastic at the end of the Roseland Ballroom show in NY that was filmed for the Metropolis 2000 Scenes From New York DVD?  Because they played like a three and a half hour show.

It was...such a great line!

He also said "especially special" during that show. Man, I love JLB.

[cramx3]

Limp Bizkit has a live DJ on set who does supply some backing tracks.  But I think that's different than just playing to a tape.  The DJ is live and making changes on the fly. You can see this by how Fred and DJ Lethal interact.  It was all a very pleasant surprise for me to see how "real" they were on stage. 

[Max Kuehnau]

Wasn't the "sorry for the short set" line (which was JLB), him being sarcastic at the end of the Roseland Ballroom show in NY that was filmed for the Metropolis 2000 Scenes From New York DVD?  Because they played like a three and a half hour show.

Indeed it was, after an about 187 minute show, which was their longest at the time. (since surpassed by Luna Park 2012) I had a good laugh at the time when I listened to the album back in the day.

[Setlist Scotty]

They did have that yes. During my first show, three songs were cut out on the fly. (as well as during the Budokan show in 2004) And that ironic comment was James btw

What was your first show?

Regarding the L@B show, no, 3 songs were not cut on the fly. MP had wanted to include 3 more tracks, but when he had been told of the tight curfew that was in place, he chose to cut those songs. That happened long before show time.
 
 

it's fascinating to me that the 70's - and then the 90's - were sort of eras of free-form concerts. Springsteen, Zeppelin, the Dead, would all occasionally "feel the moment" and play for anywhere from two and a half to four+ hours.  Imagine having to coordinate lights and visuals as well as manage union labor requirements for a two+ hour extension to an existing two hour concert!

Let's also not forget that way back when, an encore was not expected or required, but something that was usually done off the cuff when the band/artist thought that the audience was particularly good and deserved another one.
 
 

Wasn't the "sorry for the short set" line (which was JLB), him being sarcastic at the end of the Roseland Ballroom show in NY that was filmed for the Metropolis 2000 Scenes From New York DVD?  Because they played like a three and a half hour show.

Indeed it was, after an about 187 minute show, which was their longest at the time. (since surpassed by Luna Park 2012 I had a good laugh at the time when I listened to the album back in the day.

Sorry Max, but no again. You seem to forget that the 189 minute amount of time on L@LP is including 6 bonus songs taken from the second night. Each show performed at Luna Park was *roughly* 150 minutes in length. The longest DT show ever is the 2004 Paris show at about 210 minutes, followed by the second NYC show in 2002 at the Beacon Theatre (where they did the title track to SDoIT and all of Master of Puppets) which I believe was just slightly less.

[Max Kuehnau]

Scotty, my first DT show was during the Met2 tour in 2000 in Stuttgart

this was the setlist: Laura Palmer'S Theme (Intro Tape)
Metropolis Part 1
Overture 1928
Strange Deja Vu
Fatal Tragedy
The Mirror/The Mirror (Reprise)
Another Day (W/ Extended Keyboard Solo At The End)
Guitar Solo (W/ Excerpt Of Master Of Puppets (Metallica))/
Gladiator Theme
Home
Keyboard Solo (W/ Excerpt Of Kindred Spirits (Lte))
Erotomania (W/ Extended Drum Fills)
Voices
The Spirit Carries On
Learning To Live (W/ Extended Keyboard Solo, Excerpt Of The Zoo (Scorpions) Before The Final Finale And Excerpts Of Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin) And The Trooper (Iron Maiden) On Last Chord)
~~~Encore~~~
A Change Of Seasons (W/ New Solos And An Extended Guitar Solo)


Notes:   The band had pencilled in Just Let Me Breathe, Acid Rain, and Caught In Alice's New Millennium to be played after The Mirror. However due to time constraints, the band did not play these songs.

Mike ended up playing Erotomania in it's entirity with his Ace Frehely mask on. (as per the entry on mikeportnoy.com) (and I found Mike wearing the mask quite funny honestly)
And apparently I was fooled by the length of Luna Park (it shows about 195 minutes on my server), as it happens.

[goo-goo]

Scotty, my first DT show was during the Met2 tour in 2000 in Stuttgart

this was the setlist: Laura Palmer'S Theme (Intro Tape)
Metropolis Part 1
Overture 1928
Strange Deja Vu
Fatal Tragedy
The Mirror/The Mirror (Reprise)
Another Day (W/ Extended Keyboard Solo At The End)
Guitar Solo (W/ Excerpt Of Master Of Puppets (Metallica))/
Gladiator Theme
Home
Keyboard Solo (W/ Excerpt Of Kindred Spirits (Lte))
Erotomania (W/ Extended Drum Fills)
Voices
The Spirit Carries On
Learning To Live (W/ Extended Keyboard Solo, Excerpt Of The Zoo (Scorpions) Before The Final Finale And Excerpts Of Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin) And The Trooper (Iron Maiden) On Last Chord)
~~~Encore~~~
A Change Of Seasons (W/ New Solos And An Extended Guitar Solo)


Notes:   The band had pencilled in Just Let Me Breathe, Acid Rain, and Caught In Alice's New Millennium to be played after The Mirror. However due to time constraints, the band did not play these songs.

Mike ended up playing Erotomania in it's entirity with his Ace Frehely mask on. (as per the entry on mikeportnoy.com) (and I found Mike wearing the mask quite funny honestly)
And apparently I was fooled by the length of Luna Park (it shows about 195 minutes on my server), as it happens.

That is what they were playing in the 2nd American leg

Laura Palmer'S Theme (Intro Tape)
Metropolis Part 1
Overture 1928
Strange Deja Vu
Fatal Tragedy
The Mirror/The Mirror (Reprise)
Just Let Me Breathe/
Acid Rain/
Caught In A New Millennium
Another Day
Guitar Solo/
Gladiator Theme
Home
Keyboard Solo
Erotomania (W/ Extended Drum Fills)
Voices
The Spirit Carries On
Learning To Live (W/ Extended Keyboard Solo)
~~~Encore~~~
Dead Poets Society (Intro Tape)
A Change Of Seasons:
I The Crimson Sunrise
Ii Innocence
Iii Carpe Diem
Iv The Darkest Of Winters (W/ New Solos)
V Another World
Vi The Inevitable Summer (W/ Extended Guitar Solo)
Vii The Crimson Sunset

[bosk1]

On a very side note - sometimes I wonder how a band is able to time their show down to a notch.

I mean, they know the playing time of the studio versions of the songs, and when they rehearse eventual additional outros or intros they can time that as well, but I wonder how they fill up the remaining time, and if they have conversation like "mh, we're 13 minutes short of 2 hours, what do we do? play a shorter song or allow James to introduce a bit more the other songs?" 

A lot easier to do when you play to a click, I suppose.  I have been to shows where bands have made adjustments on the fly.  Probably more common at shows that have a hard legal or union curfew.  If you watch videos of festival shows, when you get camera angles that show the side of the stage, you will often see a big digital countdown clock that the band can see so they know when they have to be offstage.  From my understanding, it is usually made known to the bands that play that that is a firm deadline, no exceptions, and if you are not offstage by "zero," you are paying a hefty fine and possibly never getting another invite to play there again.

[MirrorMask]

Yeah, the click helps you to time better the songs, but still you have to construct the set... my not-so-serious question was more about wondering how they perfectly reach two hours - ok, you rehearse the songs, you time them all during rehersal, but knowing already how long the songs will exactly last might bring you to a point where you're 10 minutes short, or over, 2 hours, hence my quip "do they stick in a shorter song or add another talking slot for James".

Another detour - I wonder if bands, to time even better the show, do a full dress rehersal with all the programmed pauses and talking slots, it might be weird for James to talk into an empty hall about their memories of Images and Words (I was thinking to a time he was talking more than usual, the 2017 tour) to see if they go overtime 

[Stadler]

On the Celebration Day (Led Zeppelin) DVD package, the bonus DVD is a live run-through of the entire set, filmed, including some of the banter from Robert.  The actual show is a little different; the banter is mainly the same, but a couple of the songs - 2 or 3 - have extended solos.   But they were able to sort of "map out" where the set was going and how long it would take to get there.

If my memory serves, there is a video of a similar thing in one of the Genesis box sets; I want to say it's the third one (the Genesis - 1983-1998 set) from the Mama tour, but don't quote me on that.  It's not complete, but it's the same idea, and you have the pauses for Phil's crowd interaction (I don't remember if he actually does it or not).

Look, there are better musicians on this board than me, but in my time in bands, this isn't really rocket science.  The only real risk - which I imagine DT is immune to because of their age, experience, and the click set up - is that when on stage, the tempos increase and the band races through the sets (I think this was always a thing with early Maiden with Clive Burr).

[WilliamMunny]

On the Celebration Day (Led Zeppelin) DVD package, the bonus DVD is a live run-through of the entire set, filmed, including some of the banter from Robert.  The actual show is a little different; the banter is mainly the same, but a couple of the songs - 2 or 3 - have extended solos.   But they were able to sort of "map out" where the set was going and how long it would take to get there.

If my memory serves, there is a video of a similar thing in one of the Genesis box sets; I want to say it's the third one (the Genesis - 1983-1998 set) from the Mama tour, but don't quote me on that.  It's not complete, but it's the same idea, and you have the pauses for Phil's crowd interaction (I don't remember if he actually does it or not).

Look, there are better musicians on this board than me, but in my time in bands, this isn't really rocket science.  The only real risk - which I imagine DT is immune to because of their age, experience, and the click set up - is that when on stage, the tempos increase and the band races through the sets (I think this was always a thing with early Maiden with Clive Burr).

You're right, it's not at all.

Having played hundreds of shows (man, do I feel those stage jumps in my knees these days), you'd be amazed how precise a locked-in, well-rehearsed band can be. Even at my piddly level, there was a time when my main band would play a ten song set a few days in a row at different venues, and our stage time would be within seconds across all three times.

We didn't play to a click, but you are dialed in, you don't need a click to know if you are playing at the same tempo as the record.

[cramx3]

Another detour - I wonder if bands, to time even better the show, do a full dress rehersal with all the programmed pauses and talking slots, it might be weird for James to talk into an empty hall about their memories of Images and Words (I was thinking to a time he was talking more than usual, the 2017 tour) to see if they go overtime 

I'd say with confidence that many bands do the full show rehearsal before hitting the road, maybe even including some banter just to get a feel for it although the banter may change night to night based on whats going through his mind at that moment.  Like JLB on this tour does his banter in the same spot of the set but it's usually different night by night. 

I'd imagine Iron Maiden have just finished doing all their rehearsals because these rehearsals will also include all the lighting, video, and whatever stage show you might be doing.  Sometimes bands will even rent a venue before a tour to do the full rehearsals so they can do it exactly how they will be doing it night after night.  It's beyond just the band, the whole crew needs to be in sync for these bigger tours. 

[Stadler]

Another detour - I wonder if bands, to time even better the show, do a full dress rehersal with all the programmed pauses and talking slots, it might be weird for James to talk into an empty hall about their memories of Images and Words (I was thinking to a time he was talking more than usual, the 2017 tour) to see if they go overtime 

I'd say with confidence that many bands do the full show rehearsal before hitting the road, maybe even including some banter just to get a feel for it although the banter may change night to night based on whats going through his mind at that moment.  Like JLB on this tour does his banter in the same spot of the set but it's usually different night by night. 

I'd imagine Iron Maiden have just finished doing all their rehearsals because these rehearsals will also include all the lighting, video, and whatever stage show you might be doing.  Sometimes bands will even rent a venue before a tour to do the full rehearsals so they can do it exactly how they will be doing it night after night.  It's beyond just the band, the whole crew needs to be in sync for these bigger tours.

That last part is true; I don't know if it still happens much, but there were bands - Rush was one, Genesis was another - that would do a night before opening night at the venue OF opening night and it would be basically a full run-through of everything and everyone, except the audience.  Well, the full paying audience.  There would be friends and family there to observe.

[Setlist Scotty]

Scotty, my first DT show was during the Met2 tour in 2000 in Stuttgart
<snip>
Notes:   The band had pencilled in Just Let Me Breathe, Acid Rain, and Caught In Alice's New Millennium to be played after The Mirror. However due to time constraints, the band did not play these songs.

These comments are very curious - I don't know where they came from, as they're not in the original e-mail that I received from MP for that setlist, and I know I wouldn't have made that typo (it's Caught in a New Millennium, not Caught in Alice's New Millennium). Must've been added later by someone else, perhaps based on comments on the forum.

The interesting thing is that throughout that whole last leg of the tour, those 3 tracks were not played at any of the shows, aside from Den Bosch and London, so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for those songs not to have been played.