First DT song/piece you recall hearing? First DT piece you liked?

[Nihil-Morari]

Best teacher ever

I reckon        When I was studying music theory at school I recall that once a week on a rotating basis each student was required to bring in a piece of music (on tape I imagine) and the relevant music score for the class to listen to and follow.  And of course the usual stuff was par for the course -  Bach, Strauss , Tchaikovsky - and so when it came for my turn I brought in Damage Inc by Metallica with the guitar score.

My reward was a suspension from music class for a fortnight   

Haha! Same thing happened to me, with a class about music and religion. I brought along Dumb All Over by Zappa. The religious people in the room weren't too pleased.

[ProgressiveIce]

First song I heard and liked was Pull Me Under, and my reaction was "fuck, this MP3 is broken".

[ariich]

My reward was a suspension from music class for a fortnight

What? Why?! Unless you'd been given very clear instructions that it had to be a certain style, what was wrong with bringing in Metallica?

[bl5150]

We're talking 25 years ago ,so I can't remember exactly but I imagine it was considered that I was taking the piss.  Which I sorta was     I knew it would be considered inappropriate and wanted to make a point.  So did they I suppose 

[Hanz Gruber]

Heard "Lie "on the radio (believe it or not) when Awake came out.  JLB's voice was unique and reminded me or Bruce Dickinson's a tiny bit.  Dug the song and bought the album.  Loved it.  My dad heard me playing Scarred and he became a Dream Theater fan too.  (He is a huge Yes fan)

I bought Images and Words next and dug it too.  Then spent a lot of money on an import of WDADU and was shocked when I heard a Steve Perry wannabe singing on it.  (not blasting Charlie even though I don't like him in Dream Theater.  That was my reaction as a teenager)  I thought the songs were awesome but couldn't get into Charlie's voice.  He sounded wimpy too me especially on "I am the Killing Haaaaand (whimper cough)" especially after I heard James belt it out on Live at the Marquee

After that I bought every release in order as they came out.

[Zeltar]

I had just gotten an iTunes gift card, was browsing for artists similar to Rush, and came across a band whose name I didn't recognize and whose logo I really liked. An interest-piquing combination for 13 year old me. Their newest album at the time was Octavarium, so I spent the card on that. Best 10 bucks I ever spent.

I had never heard anything like The Root of All Evil. I mean, I had heard spacey intros with big climaxes, but never that kind of buildup into a riff so heavy. I had already been introduced to prog bands at the time through my dad, but progressive metal was completely foreign to me and I loved it. Couldn't get enough DT. Downloaded the rest of their discography and you can assume how the rest goes.

Shit, that was almost ten years ago and it's still so vivid in my mind. Shit, that was almost ten years ago. Shit.

[Dellers]

It might not be the first I heard, but the first I can recall hearing is This Dying Soul. Took at least a year before I actually started listening to the band. Way too metal for me at the time, I actually didn't listen to anything harder than Rage Against The Machine. Note that I said harder, not heavier, as I don't really know any music that's much heavier (although there's a lot that's harder).

[wizard of Thought]

Panic Attack in 2008 for both.

For me almost the same. I`m not sure about the year, but it was about when Rock Band 2 came out and brought my first experience with Dream Theater with it. I totally loved playing this song and eventually I bought Octavarium. Recalling back, its one of my least favorite albums, but it`s the album that brought me here.

[Tumdace]

Was playing Day of Defeat: Source in college and one of the servers I joined had that radio feature where you can load up an online radio station.

I loaded up the metal station (being a big metalhead) and they were playing The Glass Prison...

Instantly fell in love with the song and with DT.

[paulstfu]

First time i ever heard of DT, not knowing who were they: The Glass Prison. I heard the first mind-blowing solo in a Jackass video.
First time i heard DT, kind of aware of who they were: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. I asked on yahoo! answers about "Longest song you've ever heard" and someone answered me "These two: Octavarium and Six Degrees by DT". I saw the 42 minutes mark and i wtf'd, because I was used to listen "mainstream" rock/metal (Longest song was about 8-9 minutes). That was the first time I said "Well... 42 minutes... There must be amazing melodies to be the longest song on earth" and also the first time I listened to PROG and the first time I had the disposition to listen to an unknown band and a F*CKING 42 MINUTES SONG!

When "About to crash" finished, I was crying. I couldn't believe the holyness of the song, the beauty of the melodies and everything. Fell in love immediatly with DT.

[Zook]

Surrounded/Surrounded

I sort of recall hearing ads on the radio for Gigantour in 2005, so a sample of Pull Me Under might be the first DT song I ever heard.



EDIT: I could be wrong, but now I wanna say that the first DT music I may have heard were songs from Scenes from a Memory from watching the Dragonball Z movie, The History of Trunks, but I don't know exactly when I watched it. I remember watching The Cooler movie and marking out to the Disturbed songs as I was a huge fan at the time, but I can't recall if I watched THOT in the same time frame. I know when I found out DT was on there I watched it, but I just can't recall if I had watched it before and just didn't care about the music on it.