Had the album been embraced by the fanbase, they would have easily done it. However, it was very polarizing. Why put the money into recording a live version of an album that a lot of fans didn't care for?
If you believe in something that strongly, you have the conviction to see it through and not cave to fan pressure. They were all in until about midway through that tour and then they caved and fell back on Images and Words 25. Not to make this about Portnoy because he absolutely has nothing to do with it, but he would have fought for it. It was even better live musically.
Totally agree. By "caving in" for lack of a better term, as you said, they let the critics win, and the many fans who love the album, and there are many us, lost. I would be lying if I said that didn't dent my faith in the band and their decision-making. After being tired of the band for much of the late 00's, since it felt like the Portnoy and Friends show from a PR and public image standpoint, they had won me back over as a diehard fan for much of the 10's, but while they will likely always be one of my two or three favorite bands ever, my fandom doesn't have the same joy it did four or five years ago. And hey, that is me problem, not their problem, but I am just saying.
I get what you guys are saying. But just to add a bit to the discussion, it wasn't just about "caving" because the album didn't do as well as expected. There's more to it than that. They were planning on recording the show. But keep in mind DT's practice of typically recording shows toward the very end of their tours (which a lot of bands do). If I am correctly remembering what JP told me at the time (and filling in some other information from other sources), I believe the issue was this: They had a date and venue chosen (and, yes, I know which one), but as I recall, that date got either canceled or postponed. That created some complications for recording a show for the TA tour. For one thing, the stage production for that show was all leased to the band by a third party company--it was not owned by DT. So with the official TA tour wrapping up, their lease on that equipment was expiring. Also, they were starting the tour for I&WAB. So in order to record the show at that point, they would have had to schedule another one-off show during or after the I&WAB tour, as well as having to go back and rent the entire stage setup again. It was just a lot of extra little headaches beyond simply hiring a filming crew to document the tour. And the decision was, as I understand it, along the lines of: Given that the demand for live DVDs is already pretty low, and the demand for this one in particular doesn't seem to be high, it isn't worth it to plan a one-off date later, re-rehearse/learn the set, get the stage production in place again now that it is gone, and do this. It may feel to us as fans that, subjectively, those are small obstacles to overcome. But we aren't standing in the band's shoes. If they don't perceive that there is a demand for something that requires extra cost and effort that go beyond what it normally takes to produce something like this, I can see why they wouldn't feel it was justified. I think it's cool that they were at least still strongly considering booking a one-off to do it in the first place, even if they ultimately decided against it. I wish it would have happened. I know JP wanted to do it. But I get why, collectively, they decided that the extra hurdles and lower demand didn't justify it as a business decision.
As to the current release, I am looking forward to it. I get some of the comments about not being overly excited about it. On some levels, I am in the same boat. Back when set lists changed, it was really cool to get a release that was different than what most of us would have seen at our particular show. But that said, I still really look forward to getting to re-live the tour, even if the video presentation is very similar to what I saw. I may not listen to it as often as if it was completely different (like I did with LAB or Score, for example--I listened to those a TON). But I still enjoy getting to revisit my memories of that great live show.