Author Topic: When I first got into DT......  (Read 8778 times)

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Offline Scottjf8

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When I first got into DT......
« on: March 18, 2017, 09:58:30 AM »
What was an early thought about the band or music before you "learned the truth".

Mine is..  first album I heard was I&W and I thought Metropolis Pt 1 was a long ass song.

Offline TheGreatPretender

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2017, 11:15:01 AM »
Lol, when I first heard their music, the awesomeness and the epic, cinematic quality of it, made me imagine the guys as these reclusive, dark, anti-social geniuses who spend all their time in some underground studio.
Little did I know they were easy going, friendly, down to earth American dudes.
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Offline Zook

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2017, 11:34:53 AM »
Boring. Back in 2006, Surrounded was the only song I ever heard by the band as I was already into Symphony X and I found out through Amazon reviews that they "borrowed" the intro from Surrounded on Through the Looking Glass. Anyway, I had bought Live at Budokan based on a recommendation by a CD shop owner and tried listening to it, but nothing was really sticking, and part of it was that the songs were so damn long! Looking at the track list and seeing the lengths was actually intimidating. I remember TTTSTA was the only song I happened to enjoy, but I returned the album pretty quickly.

Because I liked Surrounded so much, I did continue to pursue the band, and downloaded all their albums. The rest is history. This was more of how I got into the band, but yeah. Boring, and I didn't like James' voice that much.

Offline rumborak

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2017, 12:18:47 PM »
I got exposed to DT through my EE study group during college. The guy whose place we were learning at put DT on time after time, and I haaaated it. Particularly, just like Zook, I couldn't stand James' voice. But, initially the excellent music motivated me to listen to it, and over time I learned to like James' voice.
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Online MirrorMask

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2017, 12:54:30 PM »
When I first got into DT.... well, I didn't, because the song I heard from them were really not of my liking.

I'm not ancient but I'm around enough to have lived in the cassette tapes era, so when my cousin was copying cassettes for me, he used to fill up the space with Dream Theater songs since he was already a fan. It's not that I didn't like them, they were just not doing anything for me (I remember considering Hollow Years and Anna Lee decent ballads but that was it).

It took me four months or so of listening to The Mirror to finally go "Hey, actually this song isn't that bad..." and become interested, so The Mirror holds the merit of being the song that had the avalanche effect to expose me to DT and make me a fan ever since.

It was 1999 btw, by autumn I was a full dedicated fan and I was looking forward to their new album; I still didn't have easy internet access so I knew nothing, really NOTHING about the album, only the release date. So imagine me walking into the store in autumn 1999 looking for "the new DT album", whatever that was.... I'll let you figure out the rest  ;D
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Offline TAC

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2017, 02:36:12 PM »
My first exposeure to DT was actually seeing them in concert. I saw them open for Iron maiden in 1992. My first initial thoughts were:
1. The drummer is amazing, and
2. The bass player is a madman


I know #2 looks like a strange comment, but we were right in front of JM, and in those days, he played at the foot of the stage and shook his head a bit. He looked like some disco ninja warrior about to take over the world with a bass guitar.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
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Offline Scottjf8

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2017, 04:05:01 PM »
My first exposeure to DT was actually seeing them in concert. I saw them open for Iron maiden in 1992. My first initial thoughts were:
1. The drummer is amazing, and
2. The bass player is a madman


I know #2 looks like a strange comment, but we were right in front of JM, and in those days, he played at the foot of the stage and shook his head a bit. He looked like some disco ninja warrior about to take over the world with a bass guitar.

He still looks like that.

Offline fourrobert13

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2017, 04:51:42 PM »
I first got into DT through my cousin.  He was really into Rush and went on a quest to find a band similar.  The internet was only a couple years old then if I recall, but he found DT through an online search.  He bought Images and Words but didn't care for it because it was too heavy for him.  He gave it to me because I was into heavier stuff.  One listen and I was hooked and Pull me Under is still my favorite song from DT.
I probably have that album.

Offline Setlist Scotty

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2017, 11:01:56 PM »
When I first got into DT (back in 1989), I never realized how crappy the production was on the album.
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Online MirrorMask

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #9 on: March 19, 2017, 03:07:43 AM »
He looked like some disco ninja warrior about to take over the world with a bass guitar.

Well, mission accomplished.
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Offline MarkFitDT

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #10 on: March 19, 2017, 06:40:49 AM »
When I first got into DT (back in 1989), I never realized how crappy the production was on the album.

lol, same here. I was lucky enough that the legend that was Tommy Vance on BBC Radio 1 Rock Show played A Fortune in Lies and Only a Matter of Time on his show and and my first thought was "This is it" - the music I had always been searching for. Loved Maiden, Metallica, Rush etc. and DT seemed to be a mesh of everything that I loved.

Offline ChuckSteak

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #11 on: March 19, 2017, 10:02:39 AM »
The first thing I thought was that Labrie's vocals sounded very feminine.

Offline Bertielee

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #12 on: March 19, 2017, 12:20:10 PM »
First time was when I discovered LatM. Blown away from the first. I had already heard about them but couldn't put my hands on I&W, so I did it backwards : LatM, I&W, WDaDU. Never looked back since then.

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Offline As I Am

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #13 on: March 19, 2017, 02:21:41 PM »
When I first heard DT in '95 it was like a musical adrenaline shot in my ears! After 20+ plus of being a die hard music fan, I found myself stuck just listening to my '70's material, because I felt the '80's were pretty uninspired (for the most part) and the '90's was the start of grunge (which I despised...and still do). It was hearing DT and getting back into the music scene with prog metal and everything that followed. ALL due to DT! Thanks guys :metal

Offline TheCountOfNYC

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2017, 01:25:30 AM »
The first time I heard Dream Theater changed my entire life. Everything that I thought I knew about music was completely turned on it's head, and my life actually felt complete. No other band or artist has ever had that much of an impact on me save for maybe Metallica. My entire songwriting style also changed as I became more and more of a fan of the band through the years, going from a thrash metal guy who focused mostly on cool sounding riffs that were all extremely similar to each other to a guy who works very hard on crafting emotional, epic, and well thought out songs. I became a much better musician because of them.
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Offline Prog Snob

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #15 on: March 20, 2017, 01:34:04 AM »
I wondered who their crappy-ass producer was that couldn't edit Pull Me Under the right way.

Offline Grappler

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #16 on: March 20, 2017, 07:48:44 AM »
Early 1999.  I had a college roommate for a semester that was an exchange student from Mexico City.  His friend was also an exchange student, and they both liked rock and  metal music.  So they recommended that I listen to Dream Theater - they played me a snippet of the live version of Peruvian Skies, when it switches to a jam of Enter Sandman for a few seconds.  I thought it was cool, so I found a used copy of Images and Words in a record store near campus. 

I also thought the ending to Pull Me Under was way too abrupt.

Online MirrorMask

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #17 on: March 20, 2017, 08:04:58 AM »
I honestly don't remember what I thought about Pull Me Under's ending, but since I was young at the time and prog metal stood for me for "weird complex unusual stuff", I think I just took for granted that that's the way it was meant to be, whatever the reason.
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Offline Chino

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #18 on: March 20, 2017, 08:07:14 AM »
I never heard of DT, illegally downloaded Metropolis in early 2004, and then went and saw them in concert about an hour later having only heard that song. Been here ever since.

Online King Postwhore

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #19 on: March 20, 2017, 08:24:02 AM »
I heard PMU on the radio in 1992 and ordered the CD right away.  I saw them in 1993 in Warwick, R.I. and I've followed them since.
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Offline cramx3

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #20 on: March 20, 2017, 03:47:38 PM »
I was reading Iron Maiden's wikipedia page while I was working in my college's computer lab.  I read that a band called Dream Theater performed all of The Number of the Beast live.  I found an illegal download of it since I could not find it anywhere else and was blown away by the performance.  Also loved the version of Gangland which was completely different and really awesome.  I found the guitar playing to be out of this world and I needed to listen to some of their original music, which lead me to Octavarium, their newest release at the time which was a bit much for me as I had not listened to such long songs before.

Offline w_marano

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #21 on: March 20, 2017, 05:43:20 PM »
I first got into DT through a friend back in 1996. He lent me Images and Words - Live in Tokyo VHS tape and I frozen after my first listenning to Under a Glass Moon, one of my favorite songs of all times!

Offline red barchetta

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #22 on: March 20, 2017, 09:12:15 PM »
First I said, wow fantastic band but man, all those years I did not know them (started in 2009).
I liked every musicians, especially Portnoy because of his sound and his interaction with the crowd (I soon bought Scenes Live).
I loved their amazing melodies and harmonies. I loved John's playing, his ability of being soft at times and be darn heavy and fast after.
The only thing I was not sure I would like was James's voice but I got ok with it and kind of the right voice for the band.
Went over all their songs on the net, bought a few records, went to a few shows, I was hooked, then. A great band. Bought some of their solo albums, read as much about them, about their story. It was a big discovery for me.
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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #23 on: March 20, 2017, 09:13:12 PM »
My buddy saw Score on VH1 around the time it came out and got hooked. Wouldn't stop talking about it.. so I, who was big into Pink Floyd and Metallica, Downloaded a bunch of tracks from a sketchy limewire like site. Turns out a couple of the tracks were actually from Jame's solo album and mislabeled as 8VRM songs. So I listened to those a lot, plus ACOS, The Mirror, and the live version of Peruvian Skies a lot on Youtube. Fast forward a few months later and another friend burned me copies of 8VRM, Awake, and like Images and Words IIRC.


I then became hooked.

The rest was history. 
I just don't understand what they were trying to achieve with any part of the song, either individually or as a whole. You know what? It's the Platypus of Dream Theater songs. That bill doesn't go with that tail, or that strange little furry body, or those webbed feet, and oh god why does it have venomous spurs!? And then you find out it lays eggs too. The difference is that the Platypus is somehow functional despite being a crazy mishmash or leftover animal pieces

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Offline Kwyjibo

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #24 on: March 21, 2017, 08:29:02 AM »
I&W was kind of a blind purchase back in '92 (not completely, because a friend of mine spoke highly of them).

I listened to it at home hoping it was good. The intro to PMU was nice, the guitar playing especially drew me in and when James began to sing I thought this was something special and I was hooked. And had a new favorite band.
Must've been Kwyji sending all the wrong songs.   ;D

Offline CB

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #25 on: March 21, 2017, 12:28:41 PM »
It's funny, my earliest thought about DT - based on comments I'd read before actually hearing the music - was that DT is not a band for "normal" people like me, only for musicians or nerds with a high IQ :laugh:

But I listened to them anyway, I had fallen in love with JLBs voice on Ayreons Human Equation album in 2007 and wanted to know who that singer is. After listening to some songs from DTs (then) newest album SC I knew I found my favourite band. The next album I got was SFAM and after that I had to get everything... I just wish I had discovered them in 1992.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 02:28:23 PM by CB »

Offline Herrick

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #26 on: March 21, 2017, 11:48:11 PM »
Unfortunately, I don't remember the first Dream Theater song I heard. I was in my first year of college in 1999 and I walked into a friend's dorm room and he asked me if I ever heard of Dream Theater. I vaguely recall a bunch of notes swirling around but that's it.

I wasn't amazed by what I heard but I must've liked it enough to have passed by the "D" section in the CDs at Best Buy a couple years later and thought, "Let me look for one of their CDs". I picked up Images and Words and almost put it back after I saw what the band looked like on the back  :lol In those days I was listening to Metallica, Iron Maiden, SLAYER, Nile, Megadeth, Iced Earth, & Nevermore. I don't remember if any other DT albums were there. I bought Images and Words that day.

Within a few weeks I bought Awake, Metropolis Part II, Live Scenes From New York, and Falling Into Infinity.
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Offline Nachtmerrie

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #27 on: March 22, 2017, 01:32:15 PM »
I read a review of Awake in newspaper or magazine.  It made me go to the local CD-store where I bought the album.
Being a 15 year old guy listening to Guns 'n Roses, Metallica I remember being blown away by the DT-sound, the drums, the solo's..

The first songs I liked were Caught in a Web, Innocence Faded and Lifting Shadows of A Dream mainly because those are the most accessible.
After a few weeks I went back to the record store to buy I&W and was even more impressed by Metropolis & Learning to Live.



Offline Tony From Long Island

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #28 on: March 22, 2017, 01:41:54 PM »
One of my close friends was in the small group of Petrucci guitar students in the late 80's and early 90's.      He played me stuff from WDADU  every now and then, but I was in the middle of my hair band obsession (I still sorta am!!!)

When I&W came out, we were going to a Knicks game and he played "Learning to Live."    After telling him that I thought parts of it sounded like STYX!!!???!!     I was hooked.       I soon went to see them at Sparks  (RIP)   and the rest is history.

So, though I heard them in the 80's, it wasn't until 1992 that I appreciated them.
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Offline TAC

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #29 on: March 22, 2017, 02:19:51 PM »
So, though I heard them in the 80's, it wasn't until 1992 that I appreciated them.

I have a similar experience.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline bill1971

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #30 on: March 22, 2017, 04:54:34 PM »
I was with a friend in college looking at a magazine article saying how Petrucci was a big Lifeson fan, my friend mentioned how the bass player was all over the fret board on a video he saw on MTV. I went to the music store, maybe Sam Goody's and bought I&W without hearing a note. Have been my second favorite band(behind Rush) ever since. I think that was 1993.

Offline Samsara

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #31 on: March 28, 2017, 08:20:22 AM »
Summer 1996. A friend put in A Change of Seasons, and it blew my mind. Immediately went out and got Awake and Images and Words...
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Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #32 on: March 28, 2017, 08:29:30 AM »
When I first heard/got into DT, I didn't know anything about prog at all.  I was into classic rock, hair metal, and virtuoso guitarists (Satch, Vai, Eric Johnson).  The first thing I thought about DT was that this was a band FULL of virtuosos like Satch, but on every instrument.  That was the initial draw.
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Offline TheAtliator

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #33 on: March 29, 2017, 03:29:02 AM »
HAHA noobs... I was born into a family of Dream Theater fans. Beat that!  :lol


But for real, one day (after being obsessed with Styx my whole life, then later getting into Rush and Iron Maiden) I realized I should probably give what is supposedly the greatest band ever a closer listen. At one point, while Pull Me Under was playing in the car, I noticed that maybe LaBrie's vocals actually don't suck... In fact if you listen closely they're bloody amazing. Then I started listening to songs and I got totally hooked. One interesting memory is that while going back through songs that I had already heard in the background, certain little aspects of songs stuck out as things I distinctly remembered hearing before. Namely, "praying for TIIIME to disappear" in UAGM, the choruses of Forsaken and A Rite of Passage, and most powerful of all- the lead guitar melody in In the Presence of Enemies. I also hated the chorus of 6:00 before getting into DT until finally I was actually listening and the whole song made sense to me and was AWESOME no matter how hard I tried to deny it.

Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: When I first got into DT......
« Reply #34 on: March 29, 2017, 08:13:49 AM »
after being obsessed with Styx my whole life
Never read these words in this sequence before, ever.
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