I've seen QR live more times than any other band. Think I'm at 11 live shows now. The last 3 of those have been with Todd. Every time I've seen them with him, he's been on point. Much moreso than Tate was the last show I'd seem them with him. Each of those shows you take a quick look around and there are people floored at how good he [LaTorre] is.
As for the last few albums, I enjoyed a majority of the 2013 self titled disc. For some reason I had a hard time getting into Condition Human. Not bad, just never fully clicked. The Verdict is a damn good disc. I've only listed to the new one about 2/3rds of the way, but so far I like it the best of the Todd stuff. Like I've seen LaTorre and Wilton say, they cover a lot of the band sound over the course of their career on this one. And, it's subtle, but every song seems to have an discernable, but different QR 'era' vibe to it. 'Hold On' sounds to me, like a very Empire & Promised Land (a criminally underrated QR album) feel to it. 'Tormentum' to me honestly sounds like it has a bit 'The Warning' vibe.
I'd love for them to work things out with Rockenfield. I don't hold out much hope for DeGarmo coming back. He seems to be pretty content with what he's doing now. What I'd read though, sounds like Wilton talks to him regularly, they play golf, do lunch, etc. But they don't really talk about the band. Believe I'd read somewhere that DeGarmo is also still semi friendly with Tate. I got the sense that even though his [DeGarmo's] interest in coming back is minimal, he also feels like if he played with the current iteration of QR, it might negatively affect his relationship with him.
I don't know. Things and people change. Bands evolve and people that expect that 3, 4 or 5 people are going to stay on the same page for their entire career are fooling themselves. Cripes though, there are a lot people need to give up on the nostalgia and just enjoy the music. Because they're still putting out some great stuff.