Would you like some cheese for your whine?
I asked BastrdDrmr a question, I'm sure I'll get an answer.
but since you want to take it there, I'll go there....Andy Deluca, yup, know the name. For those of you who do not know, Andy played bass for the band when they toured in support of Twilight in Olympus. Thank you rocky for mentioning something and not putting it into proper context for some of the newer fans who were not around at the time. So Andy's perspective is from one tour and one tour only. Oh and did you mention it was basically the first tour, nope, didn't see that. Obviously the band should be switching things up nightly in your most humble opinion even when touring for the first time. Bah, whatever, they got out and toured and showed that they were a real band and could actually play. They proved that it wasn't just some studio project nor studio magic. They could indeed play, and play well.
now back to touring matters at hand...I've seen my fair share of concerts as well. And let's add some perspecitve to the band's touring. My apologies to anyone in Europe at this point in time, I'm going to focus on North American concerts. How many shows did they play in North America in support of the V album? Anyone, anyone, Bueller, Bueller...they played 9 shows. 9 frickin shows. Setlists consisted of a sizeable portion of the "V" album (most of the time it was Prelude through Death of Balance). What a surprise, makes sense after all to play stuff you are out in support of. Sprinkle in various other songs Dressed to Kill, Divine Wings of Tragedy, The Edge of Forever, Out of the Ashes, Through the Looking Glass, Smoke and Mirrors, Church of the Machine, Sea of Lies, Of Sins and Shadows, The Accolade, and The Eyes of Medusa and I think you have the makings of a very fine sampling of Symphony X's further back catalog.
So then comes the Odyssey...
The first chance Symphony X gets to tour in support of this in the States is opening for Blind Guardian. A support slot of 45 minutes. Room for roughly 7 songs on an average night. Kind of sucks, but they played a cross section of tunes to attempt to cover the bases. Since they are out supporting the Odyssey, I guess they should play a couple songs from that. Anyone notice a logical trend there? Anyway, so what did the fans get for that tour....Inferno, Wicked, King of Terrors, Incantations of the Apprentice, Evolution, Sea of Lies, Church of the Machine, Smoke and Mirrors, Of Sins and Shadows, and Egypt/Death of Balance. I know I listed more than 7 songs, but you know what, the band was rotating songs in and out of the set during the tour. Not too bad for a month of touring (about 20 dates if you really must know).
next up in the US show department for the Odyssey tour, 2 support dates for Halfor in New York. night one set list: Inferno, Wicked, Sea of Lies, Awakenings, Prelude, Evolution, Egpyt, Death of Balance, King of Terrors, and Of SIns and Shadows. Night two set list: Inferno, Wicked, Evolution, Communion and the Orcale, King of Terrors, Smoke and Mirrors, Church of the Machine, Imperial March from Star Wars, Sea of Lies, and Of Sins and Shadows. Go ahead and compare the two shows, were there enough of a difference for back to back nights?? Nah, probably not for SOME people.
Next US dates (GASP!) 2 weeks of headlining shows with Seven Witches as support. Oh wow, Finally they can have a little more time to play!! about 10 shows and they consisted of a mixture of what they were going for the previous support slots with Blind Guardian and Halford. A set list may have gone something like this: Inferno, Wicked, King of Terrors, Church of the Machine, Accolade/Accolade II (the hybrid version that last about 14 minutes or more), Evolution, Awakenings, Egypt, Communion and the Oracle, Sea of Lies, Out of the Ashes, Smoke and Mirrors, and Of Sins and Shadows. Still not bad set list. For those of you following along, how many headlinging shows have I menitoned in the US?? Just over 20 is the correct answer. But hey, you guys aren't changing up your set lists enough to satify us long time fans.
Then it was off to Europe to kick ass opening for Stratovarius. About another 25 shows doing a support slot. mid MArch 2003 - late April 2003
next show: ProgPower 4 - Atlanta. Sept 2003.
Setlist: Inferno, Wicked, evolution, Communion and the Oracle, King of Terrors, Out of the Ashes, Accolade/Accolade II, Smoke and Mirrors, Sea of Lies, Of Sins and Shadows, and some short number called "The Odyssey" for the encore.
Next dates consist of one month of headlining slots from mid November to Mid Decemeber 2003. Fairly similar setlists throughout this part of the tour. Still playing the odyssey as the encore. And at the end of this, it's a total of 50 or so headlining dates spread over a period of 3 years. but hey, you guys haven't changed up the setlist enough of SOME people, throw them a bone, ok.
2004 --- 10 support dates opening for Queensryche, think they will very the setlist as they are again playing to a new crowd with 45 minute sets? nah, not likely.
2005 --- Support dates for Gigantour (about 40 shows in 50 days). Time of set: a well documented 30 minutes. Setlist on a good night consists of a bout 5 songs: Inferno, Wicked, Evolution, Sea of Lies, and Of Sins and Shadows. New faces, more exposure, playing to more people who don't know who this band truly is. Guess we should play all the old numbers for the die hard in the front row because 500 other people have never seen them.
There you have it...more documentation about the band's history than most people wanted to know. Until this band is doing headlining shows on their own consistently, expect more of the fine mix that you have read of in this post. When they have control over their own shows, better bookings, etc, then let's ask them to change it up a bit more.
And that is my well researched 2 cents.
Glenn
p.s. This post took far too much time to write!! Thanks for reading it if you did.
