My concerns for James

[SwedishGoose]

Dude I've seen DT 22 times, which means I've seen Labrie 22 times. I never came away from a show thinking he was great. I can name more moments of those awful notes he hits than positives. Those notes sound like a dying cat. Actually cringeworthy and embarrassing.

He needs to retire he really does! He was never a great vocalist in the first place, but now he knocking on, he's over weight and his voice is worse than ever.

What I'd like to know is who the hell are you?  Why are you even here?

Where did he come from?  Why is he here?  Where will he go when he's banned (since the Portnoy forums were shut down)?

I see what you did there 

[shadystraz360]

[/li]

Dude I've seen DT 22 times, which means I've seen Labrie 22 times. I never came away from a show thinking he was great. I can name more moments of those awful notes he hits than positives. Those notes sound like a dying cat. Actually cringeworthy and embarrassing.

He needs to retire he really does! He was never a great vocalist in the first place, but now he knocking on, he's over weight and his voice is worse than ever.

What I'd like to know is who the hell are you?  Why are you even here?

Where did he come from?  Why is he here?  Where will he go when he's banned (since the Portnoy forums were shut down)?

I see what you did there 

Dude I've seen DT 22 times, which means I've seen Labrie 22 times. I never came away from a show thinking he was great. I can name more moments of those awful notes he hits than positives. Those notes sound like a dying cat. Actually cringeworthy and embarrassing.

He needs to retire he really does! He was never a great vocalist in the first place, but now he knocking on, he's over weight and his voice is worse than ever.

Hmmm, I wonder if this post is breaking this rule........   

12. Insults or senseless bashing of the current or former band members of Dream Theater and/or their music will not be tolerated.  Honest, open critique is always allowed, provided it is constructive and does not cross the line and become bashing, belittling, etc.

Well in fairness... he is sharing an opinion..
If he started to cuss James out then yes, i would agree he has broken a rule. But he seems to me like a longterm DT fan like myself who has expressed his concern. And a thrid person on this thread has also shared that concern.
But personally i dont consider it "sensless bashing of a current member" because he is expressing his feelings after seeing 22 or so DT shows.. if he went to 1 or 3 then yh. I agree... its sensless..... but 22 aint exactly a few.
Maybe im wrong but at the end of the day, im glad i know im not the only one who felt that way.
I believe he is the 3rd or 4th person now..

[Anguyen92]

Expressing his feelings about James in a critical sense (seeing 22 DT shows and felt that James was always subpar) is fine.  Saying something along the lines of "he needs to retire," "sounds like a dying cat," and "is overweight" is what I'm seeing as unnecessary bashing and belittling, but that's just me.

[Nick]

I only have a minute for now so let me say this, Loki, you are crossing a line and if you continue you will be banned. I'm cutting you some slack because you're new and a long time fan, but you may very well be banned already if someone else comes in and decides it's already warranted. You can express your dislike of a performance without bashing people. Keep your comments respectful.

[DT2003]

I cannot believe someone would classify James as incredibly overweight. That is far from true and just flat out stupid.

Anyhow I have seen DT close to 30 times now and James most of those times was great. I saw them last week and he definitely was not as good as I've seen him in the past, but I think that's largely due to the set list.  When I saw them during The Astonishing tour he was absolutely flawless so to say he has lost it just isn't true.

[Drinktheater]

Well, they have to be more specific about which shows because in the DT concert here in Manila, he was very enthusiastic. Especially loved the guy wearing the shirt "James LaBrie is the tits."

That Manila concert is epic! yeah he seem to be in a really good mood after the show he even showed up at the fan meet up.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

Dude I've seen DT 22 times, which means I've seen Labrie 22 times. I never came away from a show thinking he was great. I can name more moments of those awful notes he hits than positives. Those notes sound like a dying cat. Actually cringeworthy and embarrassing.

He needs to retire he really does! He was never a great vocalist in the first place, but now he knocking on, he's over weight and his voice is worse than ever.

What I'd like to know is who the hell are you?  Why are you even here?

Where did he come from?  Why is he here?  Where will he go when he's banned (since the Portnoy forums were shut down)?

He's going to YouTube after this, probably.

[No Filter Loki]

Message heard, no harm meant!

If anything my experience of DT in 94 and the countless live performances I've been fortunate to capture complements the musicianship of the band.

Sure it's my opinion I never thought JL was great live, and that's the truth. I have no reason to dislike the guy, but as a vocalist and frontman I always though he was poor.

But think about this, why did I see the band so many times, why did I buy all the albums etc? JL has a great studio voice, I don't think he pulls it off live well enough. But what did do it for me with the band particularly live was the arrangement of he sets, the fun during the show, the unbelievable skill of the 4 guys. Every show JP,JM,JR, DS and MP blew me away. It was all about the music for me. The fact I wasn't a fan of the live vocals compliments the band even more.

I apologise for angering or annoying anyone. That wasn't my intention. It's my opinion from much experience of the band and music really.

Just because I am not a fan of JL and don't think he's amazing and wonderful does that make me a bad person or even in the wrong?

[RoeDent]

Still doesn't answer why you called him overweight though. That was completely unnecessary.

[No Filter Loki]

Still doesn't answer why you called him overweight though. That was completely unnecessary.

Because he looks it to me, matter of opinion again!

[The Walrus]

I think it was just the harsh, unnecessary criticism of his appearance from a brand new user that irked a lot of people (myself included). Water under the bridge, he apologized, it's all cool. For me, I know I criticized the hell out of James back on MP's forum during the self-titled tour and Blu-ray releases. He just didn't sound good to me. Then I saw them live, finally, and he sounded great. So, interesting what recorded audio can do to your brain as opposed to hearing everyone live, right in front of you...

[ChuckSteak]

Make a topic of 80+ pages of nearly flaming and joking about MP and DS and no one blinks an eye. Call Labrie overweight and everybody loses their minds.

[The Walrus]

Make a topic of 80+ pages of nearly flaming and joking about MP and DS and no one blinks an eye. Call Labrie overweight and everybody loses their minds.

False equivalency, try again 

[shadystraz360]

Make a topic of 80+ pages of nearly flaming and joking about MP and DS and no one blinks an eye. Call Labrie overweight and everybody loses their minds.

This was the point i was trying to make earlier about rules only applying to some

[MirrorMask]

So, interesting what recorded audio can do to your brain as opposed to hearing everyone live, right in front of you...

There's the adrenaline and the excitement going on at a concert, also the sound is loud and not perfect so your brain "fills in" what you can't actually hear properly with what you know from the studio version, so the eventual mistakes are less noticeable.

Same principle why, if it's done good, we don't notice the stuntmen for movie actors.

[SjundeInseglet]

Still doesn't answer why you called him overweight though. That was completely unnecessary.

Because he looks it to me, matter of opinion again!

Well, no. Overweight is a medical definition and it applies to those who have a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more.

[ChuckSteak]

Make a topic of 80+ pages of nearly flaming and joking about MP and DS and no one blinks an eye. Call Labrie overweight and everybody loses their minds.

This was the point i was trying to make earlier about rules only applying to some

Even in this very topic you can find jokes about Derek and the rule clearly says:

12. Insults or senseless bashing of the current or former band members of Dream Theater and/or their music will not be tolerated.  Honest, open critique is always allowed, provided it is constructive and does not cross the line and become bashing, belittling, etc.

They should add: "unless we all agree that the member is not acting nice towards the other members, has a behaviour we don't approve of and says controversial and unnecessary things on the media."

But the bias seems to be strong 'round here.

[SjundeInseglet]

Even in this very topic you can find jokes about Derek and the rule clearly says:

12. Insults or senseless bashing of the current or former band members of Dream Theater and/or their music will not be tolerated.  Honest, open critique is always allowed, provided it is constructive and does not cross the line and become bashing, belittling, etc.

They should add: "unless we all agree that the member is not acting nice towards the other members, has a behaviour we don't approve of and says controversial and unnecessary things on the media."

But the bias seems to be strong 'round here.

Several people have been warned on this very thread for having crossed the line with their remaks about DS. And the same has happened on other threads with people who went too far when talking about MP. I fail to see this bias you're talking about...

[The Walrus]

Even in the Sons of Apollo thread, bosk himself has said that criticisms of what Derek and Mike have said are fair game (within reason, obviously insults and attacks are NOT allowed), because they themselves have been making comments and jabs, and like anything else, it's fair game for discussion. But that thread wasn't even created with the intention of that being the topic of conversation, it is something that blossomed naturally from Derek and MP's comments and actions. Nobody made an account and made a beeline for that thread to dump on those two guys - but a couple people seemed to make accounts and beeline for that thread with the intention of slamming DT and James, hence users' suspicions about their identities. We can all get along, there is no 'strong bias' here, I think context is very important and is key to this conversation we're having right now.

[KevShmev]

Even in the Sons of Apollo thread, bosk himself has said that criticisms of what Derek and Mike have said are fair game (within reason, obviously insults and attacks are NOT allowed), because they themselves have been making comments and jabs, and like anything else, it's fair game for discussion. But that thread wasn't even created with the intention of that being the topic of conversation, it is something that blossomed naturally from Derek and MP's comments and actions. Nobody made an account and made a beeline for that thread to dump on those two guys - but a couple people seemed to make accounts and beeline for that thread with the intention of slamming DT and James, hence users' suspicions about their identities. We can all get along, there is no 'strong bias' here, I think context is very important and is key to this conversation we're having right now.

Exactly.

The mods here are generally really lax about allowing criticism of anyone who has ever been a member of Dream Theater, as long as the criticism doesn't turn into name-calling or outright bashing.  For example, for all of the (deserved) criticism that Portnoy and Sherinian have gotten into the thread for that generic new band they are in, a mod is always there to shut down any name-calling.

[Madman Shepherd]

Still doesn't answer why you called him overweight though. That was completely unnecessary.

Because he looks it to me, matter of opinion again!

And Mike Portnoy looks bald to me. It's just my opinion though!

[KevShmev]

Still doesn't answer why you called him overweight though. That was completely unnecessary.

Because he looks it to me, matter of opinion again!

And Mike Portnoy looks bald to me. It's just my opinion though!

Derek Sherinian comes off like an old man trying to look/act young and tough with the veins popping out of his arms thanks to steroids and acting like a teenager on social media. Just my opinion!!

[Herrick]

Make a topic of 80+ pages of nearly flaming and joking about MP and DS and no one blinks an eye. Call Labrie overweight and everybody loses their minds.

This was the point i was trying to make earlier about rules only applying to some

Even in this very topic you can find jokes about Derek and the rule clearly says:

12. Insults or senseless bashing of the current or former band members of Dream Theater and/or their music will not be tolerated.  Honest, open critique is always allowed, provided it is constructive and does not cross the line and become bashing, belittling, etc.

They should add: "unless we all agree that the member is not acting nice towards the other members, has a behaviour we don't approve of and says controversial and unnecessary things on the media."

But the bias seems to be strong 'round here.

Indeed there is a lot of Portnoy/Sherinian bashing but I think the vast majority of the bashing stems from their behavior & not their performances. But I agree there is a bias for LaBrie. I get that vocals aren't the same as playing an instrument. Yes LaBrie had food poisoning and got old. But how much longer can that excuse be used?

I disagree with Loki about LaBrie always being a mediocre live vocalist. IMO LaBrie was phenomenal back in the day and I've always enjoyed his studio work. Butt anyway, most fans still love LaBrie so there's no real need for retirement.

By the  way ChuckSteak, I've been meaning to ask...is that Adebisi in your avatar? That's damn creepy Great show though!

[DT2003]

Still doesn't answer why you called him overweight though. That was completely unnecessary.

Because he looks it to me, matter of opinion again!

You might want to invest in glasses because it's James looks incredibly overweight to you, you are either blind or just stupid.

[PetFish]

Because he looks it to me, matter of opinion again!

Being fat or overweight isn't an opinion, it's fact, and since the fact is he's certainly not "incredibly overweight" and that you're trying to justify it as your opinion makes me question (again) why you're even here.

On-topic, I also have concerns about his voice but I also understand that it's going to get progressively strained as he gets older whereas instrumentalists don't have to worry about that at all... and since the small muscles (ie fingers) can be nimble almost until the end while the big muscles (ie arms/legs) become more laborious JP/JR/JM can still prog-it in wheelchairs in the retirement community.  Drummers would probably "lose it" over time more than the other guys.

[Adami]

Here's a controversial opinion about James....dude looks incredibly Canadian!

[hefdaddy42]

Here's a controversial opinion about James....dude looks incredibly Canadian!

whut

[TAC]

[hefdaddy42]

[The Walrus]

I see a lot of Steve Lukather in that face and it freaks me out

[PetFish]

Don't forget the time JP was on Jimmy Fallon around Train of Thought:

[The Walrus]

 

[Madman Shepherd]

I bless the rains down on Canada.

[noxon]

Looks in good shape for a 54 year old guy. He's always had a very full face.

[Sycsa]

Dude I've seen DT 22 times, which means I've seen Labrie 22 times. I never came away from a show thinking he was great. I can name more moments of those awful notes he hits than positives. Those notes sound like a dying cat. Actually cringeworthy and embarrassing.

He needs to retire he really does! He was never a great vocalist in the first place, but now he knocking on, he's over weight and his voice is worse than ever.

Maybe it's time you invested in a filter.