It's why I have stated. MP isn't your average, run of the mill musician. He is first and foremost a music fan, who became a musician, and happened to be living the dream of becoming a "Rock Star".. .What he did during his tenure with Dream Theater, are all things he wished bands would have done while he was a music fan. He went out of his way, to cater to us fans. Many, Many, Many, bands do not do this at all. Dream Theater is the first band I know of that has done so much of this stuff, just for us fans. I appreciate that. I am not sad it is gone either. It was great while it lasted. But things don't last forever and things change, sometimes making compromises is the only way to move forward. That's acceptance.
The problem is, when he split, the guys made it sound like they were just gonna pick up the ball and continue with it - that it wasn't that big of a deal. I think JR even made a comment that what MP was doing wasn't rocket science, and yet they have fallen very short on the things that MP managed to pull off. So are things different than before? Sure. But does that mean there's no reason to be disappointed? Not at all.
I for one, did not expect them to pick up everything MP did with the band. As we all know, most of those things, MP did under his own volition. They can try, but they are not MP, and MP had that energy to want to do it. It's not what the other guys are interested in. Like MP, always having the camera, being the little film buff and movie maker he is as well. The one that has that aspect to his personality is JR. And wanting to play every song from the catalog, it's easier to do since he knew the parts on the back of his hand. He could play the part, and then could even tell the guys "Remember it's like this...(sings it)" and the guys go, "Oh, that's right." JP and JM do not have as good of a memory that MP has (he was superhuman in that department). Especially JP, he even says on that Chris Jericho interview, about remembering how to play the riff from an older song and having to look at youtube videos, or some other thing, and trying it and then snapping going "Oh yeah, I played it in this position."
But this Christmas Medley is a nice thing to be doing for the crew. And a treat for us fans of the band. Especially, considering how JP doesn't really like Medleys.
The Happy Holidays digital download was cool as well, being the first tour with Mangini, and all the older songs played live, including hearing Learning to Live with the LaBrie F# (or at least, an attempt at it, again), and To Live Forever.