Bosk already made an insightful post as to why they didn't record a live DVD but as far as the band abandoning The Astonishing...is there any official or non-official word that they dropped The Astonishing in the middle of the tour? Were they planning on playing the entire album throughout 2016 & 2017?
They were gonna play it through the end of 2016, but there was never any promise of them continuing the tour in 2017. I'd honestly be surprised for them to do that anyway, given that they had been playing it throughout all of 2016. That said, they did cave to a degree towards the end of the last leg of the tour. At that point, they dropped 5 songs from TA and added a 3 song encore of AIA, TSCO and PMU.
I recently saw a video of MM explaining why the band uses a click. Apparently, the reason they use a click (and I'm sure some of you already know this) is because of the video, lighting and audio effects need to be intricately timed. Any change in tempo could compromise the presentation so I don't have any issue with this.
That's the reason they say, but to be honest, I think it's a bit of a cop out. MM strikes me as being far more naturally disciplined than MP when it comes to drumming, and I imagine that there is little to no need for a click at all. Never mind the mantra that JP follows: What would Rush do? Rush almost *never* used a click track live. Neil says that he only used it sparingly, primarily on the Clockwork Angels tour to help with the string section that was on tour with them. Otherwise, he preferred to avoid the click. And yet, look at how intricate Rush's shows were when it came to lights, video and audio effects. So a click is not needed.
I do however find it amusing that MP would encourage players to use a click in his drum videos but would be the one to lose the tempo.
As Siddhartha said, it probably depends on the context of what you're quoting. And it makes sense that he would encourage others to use a click during practice. MP himself even used a click when in the studio recording each album. But he never used one live because that's a different setting.
I think so. People complained that MP would speed up songs live but I think that's part of the fun and energy of being in a live environment.
A performance to a click track is way different than without one. It's way less organic and rigid. It's closer to an album.
Agree with both these posts.
As far as DT's use of a click, yeah you would have to scale back the production but the precision of the musical parts would indeed make it challenging.
No they wouldn't. Rush proves it's not necessary. It might require the guys themselves to trigger some things as Rush did, and for their lighting/video guys to stay on top of things instead of simply hitting a button to start a certain light or video sequence (again, as Rush did), but it's entirely possible, more live and organic, which is what live performance is all about.
I wonder if they would need to go back to floor monitors if they did this.
Why? What does that have to do with this discussion?