DT tour delayed ...scratch that ...it's started

[hunnus2000]

Well, I requested and received a refund for Minneapolis and last night, requested a refund for St. Louis.

With the wife's health problems along with the omicron surge, we just can't risk it even though we are triple vaxxed with the Moderna. <Deeeeep Sigh>

My only hope is that with after the international leg of the tour, demand will be high enough to schedule additional dates back here in the States later on in the year. I also hope the video at least one of the shows. I'd buy a DVD.

But hey, I recognize that others have it worse than me.

Much love to all the healthcare workers! 

[bosk1]

Sorry to hear that, Hunnus.  But understandable.  Stay well.

[Samsara]

For those suffering from COVID, I hope you all get better soon. Bummer.

Regarding the tour, I picked up a ticket to the Oakland gig. Got a great orchestra section seat on the aisle. Really looking forward to the show. Hoping they play the title track from the new record. Really enjoy that one.

[TAC]

Regarding the tour, I picked up a ticket to the Oakland gig. Got a great orchestra section seat on the aisle. Really looking forward to the show. Hoping they play the title track from the new record. Really enjoy that one.

The title track is guaranteed.

[dtrocker25]

Any members here going to the Beacon show...would be cool to meet some ppl ....and does anyone have any recommendations on restaurants near The Beacon Theater

[Laughingplace56]

Regarding the tour, I picked up a ticket to the Oakland gig. Got a great orchestra section seat on the aisle. Really looking forward to the show. Hoping they play the title track from the new record. Really enjoy that one.

Jordan posted a video saying he was preparing for the tour by posting a video of the solo from the title track. I know he’s posted other things before from songs that aren’t being played, but I feel like practicing a solo from the title track of their new album means there’s a solid chance they’re playing it lol.

[The Letter M]

Mike shared pics of his new kit on Facebook and had this to say in the comments:

for the record, this kit is being used for this tour because it is the AVFTTOTW tour with a lot of music from it.  It is far less musical for older releases because it doesn't match the music. Although a 4 piece could be used, it has no chance whatsoever to be as musical since the music can't be played like the music goes. It has less tones, less frequencies to shake your lower parts, less range. It requires more sacrifices musically, but it is enough for me to play classic Dream Theater and kind of get through my era of DT pre AVFTTOTW.

I wonder if they'll be playing every song off the new album each night?

-Marc.

[ReaperKK]

Mike shared pics of his new kit on Facebook and had this to say in the comments:

for the record, this kit is being used for this tour because it is the AVFTTOTW tour with a lot of music from it.  It is far less musical for older releases because it doesn't match the music. Although a 4 piece could be used, it has no chance whatsoever to be as musical since the music can't be played like the music goes. It has less tones, less frequencies to shake your lower parts, less range. It requires more sacrifices musically, but it is enough for me to play classic Dream Theater and kind of get through my era of DT pre AVFTTOTW.

I wonder if they'll be playing every song off the new album each night?

-Marc.

God I hope they don't do that.

[The Letter M]

Mike shared pics of his new kit on Facebook and had this to say in the comments:

for the record, this kit is being used for this tour because it is the AVFTTOTW tour with a lot of music from it.  It is far less musical for older releases because it doesn't match the music. Although a 4 piece could be used, it has no chance whatsoever to be as musical since the music can't be played like the music goes. It has less tones, less frequencies to shake your lower parts, less range. It requires more sacrifices musically, but it is enough for me to play classic Dream Theater and kind of get through my era of DT pre AVFTTOTW.

I wonder if they'll be playing every song off the new album each night?

-Marc.

God I hope they don't do that.

Well, he just said...

It matches the new album though, and we're playing a lot of it, so this kit should be fun to play.

- with regards to the new kit. Then someone replied saying they should play the whole album and Mike liked the comment.

I'd say out of the 7 new songs, they'll play at least 5, including the 3 that were singles and the epic.

-Marc.

[JRuless]

TA, IM, TSG, ATM  & AVFTTOTW
My guess

[Chino]

It is far less musical for older releases because it doesn't match the music. Although a 4 piece could be used, it has no chance whatsoever to be as musical since the music can't be played like the music goes.

-MM 

Can someone who musics better than me explain what he's talking about here?

[pg1067]

It is far less musical for older releases because it doesn't match the music. Although a 4 piece could be used, it has no chance whatsoever to be as musical since the music can't be played like the music goes.

-MM 

Can someone who musics better than me explain what he's talking about here?

The drum set he used to record View was relatively small to other sets he's used.  He's using a small kit on tour.  It will work for the songs from View because it's got all of the individual drums and cymbals that he played on view.  However, he'll have to make modifications for some of the older songs because the kit won't have all of the drums/cymbals needed to play those songs exactly as they were on the albums.

[Chino]

It is far less musical for older releases because it doesn't match the music. Although a 4 piece could be used, it has no chance whatsoever to be as musical since the music can't be played like the music goes.

-MM 

Can someone who musics better than me explain what he's talking about here?

The drum set he used to record View was relatively small to other sets he's used.  He's using a small kit on tour.  It will work for the songs from View because it's got all of the individual drums and cymbals that he played on view.  However, he'll have to make modifications for some of the older songs because the kit won't have all of the drums/cymbals needed to play those songs exactly as they were on the albums.

So he's got to add pieces to account for older songs. Makes sense 

[Kram]

OK, new set-list prediction based on this latest information.

The Glass Prison
At Wits End
The Alien
Answering the Call
Invisible Monster
Sleeping Giant
Transcending Time
Awaken the Master
A View from the Top of the World

Encore: Octavarium

Total run time just under 2 hours

[Architeuthis]

That would be cool,but I don't see them doing two epics back to back.

[gzarruk]

It is far less musical for older releases because it doesn't match the music. Although a 4 piece could be used, it has no chance whatsoever to be as musical since the music can't be played like the music goes.

-MM 

Can someone who musics better than me explain what he's talking about here?

The drum set he used to record View was relatively small to other sets he's used.  He's using a small kit on tour.  It will work for the songs from View because it's got all of the individual drums and cymbals that he played on view.  However, he'll have to make modifications for some of the older songs because the kit won't have all of the drums/cymbals needed to play those songs exactly as they were on the albums.

So he's got to add pieces to account for older songs. Makes sense 

The new touring kit is basically his AVFTTOTW studio kit + 2 more drums and a few extra cymbals, but it's still smaller than his previous kits and most of the "big" kits MP used.

[Setlist Scotty]

The new touring kit is basically his AVFTTOTW studio kit + 2 more drums and a few extra cymbals, but it's still smaller than his previous kits and most of the "big" kits MP used.

It's funny that his kit continues to get smaller and smaller with each progressive tour, which is a bit ironic to me given how he was so proud of the massive kit he put together and used for ADToE. I know he has his "reasons" in trying to be more efficient or to challenge himself or whatever he says (I don't remember), but I wonder if part of it comes down to economics and the fact that he is an employee as opposed to an equal member to JP and JM. MP could get away with it since he was equal to JP and JM, but MM obviously is not. Plus with the additional "production" JP wants to bring along with the fancier stage setups and whatnot, I wonder if that could be a reason why they wanted him to trim down the size of his kit.

[hefdaddy42]

The new touring kit is basically his AVFTTOTW studio kit + 2 more drums and a few extra cymbals, but it's still smaller than his previous kits and most of the "big" kits MP used.

It's funny that his kit continues to get smaller and smaller with each progressive tour, which is a bit ironic to me given how he was so proud of the massive kit he put together and used for ADToE. I know he has his "reasons" in trying to be more efficient or to challenge himself or whatever he says (I don't remember), but I wonder if part of it comes down to economics and the fact that he is an employee as opposed to an equal member to JP and JM. MP could get away with it since he was equal to JP and JM, but MM obviously is not. Plus with the additional "production" JP wants to bring along with the fancier stage setups and whatnot, I wonder if that could be a reason why they wanted him to trim down the size of his kit.

I didn't think that he was an employee.

[Architeuthis]

They don't look at him as a employee. They said he is a member of DT the day they chose him from the auditions.  In fact, they said "Welcome to the DT family"!

[TAC]

The new touring kit is basically his AVFTTOTW studio kit + 2 more drums and a few extra cymbals, but it's still smaller than his previous kits and most of the "big" kits MP used.

It's funny that his kit continues to get smaller and smaller with each progressive tour, which is a bit ironic to me given how he was so proud of the massive kit he put together and used for ADToE. I know he has his "reasons" in trying to be more efficient or to challenge himself or whatever he says (I don't remember), but I wonder if part of it comes down to economics and the fact that he is an employee as opposed to an equal member to JP and JM. MP could get away with it since he was equal to JP and JM, but MM obviously is not. Plus with the additional "production" JP wants to bring along with the fancier stage setups and whatnot, I wonder if that could be a reason why they wanted him to trim down the size of his kit.

Are you saying that JP is dictating the size of Mike's kit? Because of economics?

[gzarruk]

The new touring kit is basically his AVFTTOTW studio kit + 2 more drums and a few extra cymbals, but it's still smaller than his previous kits and most of the "big" kits MP used.

It's funny that his kit continues to get smaller and smaller with each progressive tour, which is a bit ironic to me given how he was so proud of the massive kit he put together and used for ADToE. I know he has his "reasons" in trying to be more efficient or to challenge himself or whatever he says (I don't remember), but I wonder if part of it comes down to economics and the fact that he is an employee as opposed to an equal member to JP and JM. MP could get away with it since he was equal to JP and JM, but MM obviously is not. Plus with the additional "production" JP wants to bring along with the fancier stage setups and whatnot, I wonder if that could be a reason why they wanted him to trim down the size of his kit.

We could try, but I don't think any of us fully comprehend MM's reasoning behind a lot of stuff

What I do know, though, is that he's made comments a couple times about being asked to bring less stuff with him, specially to the studio in AVFTTOTW (since they couldn't really fit a bigger kit there). But there's also what you say about him liking to be challenged to come up with a different approach for things.

Another issue would be touring costs as you said as well, but I'd imagine that'd be something they'd consider even with MP still in the band.

[Kram]

My guess is he's a member of the Corp. or LLC, but has less of a percentage of ownership (certainly less than founding members JP & JM).

[Kram]

That would be cool,but I don't see them doing two epics back to back.

Probably not, but would be a kick ass show!

[pg1067]

It's funny that his kit continues to get smaller and smaller with each progressive tour, which is a bit ironic to me given how he was so proud of the massive kit he put together and used for ADToE. I know he has his "reasons" in trying to be more efficient or to challenge himself or whatever he says (I don't remember), but I wonder if part of it comes down to economics and the fact that he is an employee as opposed to an equal member to JP and JM. MP could get away with it since he was equal to JP and JM, but MM obviously is not. Plus with the additional "production" JP wants to bring along with the fancier stage setups and whatnot, I wonder if that could be a reason why they wanted him to trim down the size of his kit.

Do you have a source for this?  Have you seen the relevant band agreements or have other reliable information about this?  While the relevant agreements could say otherwise, everything said publicly since MM joined indicates that he is a "full member" of the band and not merely an employee.

[Setlist Scotty]

They don't look at him as a employee. They said he is a member of DT the day they chose him from the auditions.  In fact, they said "Welcome to the DT family"!

I'm not saying he's not a full band member (as opposed to a side man or "hired gun"), but I'm pretty sure he's not an owner of the band like JP and JM and therefore doesn't have an equal say in business/administrative stuff (as opposed to musical output where his input is welcomed 100% and treated equally to the other guys). I would imagine the same for JR and JL, at least for a period of time after they became band members. Probably not unlike all the guys other than Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain in Journey, or Scott Travis and Richie Faulkner in Judas Priest. They are official band members, but not equal with founding or long-time members of their respective bands.
 
 

Are you saying that JP is dictating the size of Mike's kit? Because of economics?

I'm not making an accusation that he is, but I do wonder if that could be something considered, especially given the (I imagine) especially tight budgets they are probably working within for this tour in light of the pandemic not being over yet.
 
 

Another issue would be touring costs as you said as well, but I'd imagine that'd be something they'd consider even with MP still in the band.

And that was something that did play a role in the band's tours to South America (and I believe Australia/Oceania). I know MP went from his Siamese Monster (and similar kits) to a single kit with 2 bass drums. JP also used his "B" rig on at least the 20th Anniversary tour, and preferred how it sounded, so he continued to use it for the rest of the tour. Here's video from their show in Chile where you can see the scaled down setup (in comparison to what you see in the Score video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnVjmKY5Nag

[MoraWintersoul]

We could try, but I don't think any of us fully comprehend MM's reasoning behind a lot of stuff

Yeah I've given up on this 

[Laughingplace56]

*snip* wrong thread 

[NoFred]

If ever there was a tour for them to go with a spartan setup it’s this one. Would be fine if was a simple stage and at most a simple video backdrop. Just glad to have them around again in a few weeks.

[goo-goo]

The last couple of tours, they have played at the Bass Hall in Austin which seats 2900 people. The stage is HUGE and the production that DT brought during the DoT run looked really really nice.

This time around, they are playing at the ACL Moody Theater (the one you see in TV) which holds 2750. But the stage is way way smaller. My guess is that DT is running with a lot smaller production this time around.

[Chino]

Here's video from their show in Chile where you can see the scaled down setup (in comparison to what you see in the Score video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnVjmKY5Nag

I can't believe this is the first time I'm seeing that footage. Was thay an official bootleg or something?

[Max Kuehnau]

Here's video from their show in Chile where you can see the scaled down setup (in comparison to what you see in the Score video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnVjmKY5Nag

I can't believe this is the first time I'm seeing that footage. Was than an official bootleg or something?

it was yes, a DVD.

[Sycsa]

So Mike is scaling down for the upcoming tour:


Mike' comments:
for the record, this kit is being used for this tour because it is the AVFTTOTW tour with a lot of music from it. It is far less musical for older releases because it doesn't match the music. Although a 4 piece could be used, it has no chance whatsoever to be as musical since the music can't be played like the music goes. It has less tones, less frequencies to shake your lower parts, less range. It requires more sacrifices musically, but it is enough for me to play classic Dream Theater and kind of get through my era of DT pre AVFTTOTW. (...) It matches the new album though, and we're playing a lot of it, so this kit should be fun to play.

I'm really looking forward to see him on a more normal sized kit, but it also made me think; I've been playing drums for nearly a decade now and I always pay close attention to the drums, but it never in a million years would have occurred to me that the new album had "less drums". If anything, I would have guessed the opposite, I think it's by far the best sounding drums of the Mangini-era, and they seem more melodic than ever before. So I guess it's a quality vs. quantity issue, mix the drums better and nail the sound and the end result will be more pleasing than three siamese monster kits glued together but having the snare sound of DT12.

It's also once again an interesting perspective from Mangini (speaking about frequencies and tooones) with regards to how the musician views the music as opposed to a fan. I wonder if budget restrains have anything to do with scaling down. At any rate, it will be interesting to see Mangini without his cage, although I will miss that fourth octoban.

[TAC]

Here's video from their show in Chile where you can see the scaled down setup (in comparison to what you see in the Score video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnVjmKY5Nag

I can't believe this is the first time I'm seeing that footage. Was thay an official bootleg or something?

Yes, be of the old Ytsejsm releases. It’s freaking awesome. They look like Led Zeppelin on that stage.

[cramx3]

Here's video from their show in Chile where you can see the scaled down setup (in comparison to what you see in the Score video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnVjmKY5Nag

I can't believe this is the first time I'm seeing that footage. Was thay an official bootleg or something?

Yes, be of the old Ytsejsm releases. It’s freaking awesome. They look like Led Zeppelin on that stage.

I have this DVD, it's the craziest crowd I've ever seen for a DT concert.  I think that's what makes that show so unique and worthy of the official bootleg. 

[RaiseTheKnife]

Honestly, I'd be fine if the setlist comprised mostly, if not all of A View From the Top.  Its a solid album.