When was your fandom the biggest for DT? (2 years or less)

[KevShmev]

I am amused that most are mentioning three-year stretches when I said two years or less was the criteria (something like 2003-2005 is three years..2003, 2004 and 2005).

[Zydar]

I am amused that most are mentioning three-year stretches when I said two years or less was the criteria (something like 2003-2005 is three years..2003, 2004 and 2005).

What about November 2003 to February 2005, that's like... 15 months

[Podaar]

I am amused that most are mentioning three-year stretches when I said two years or less was the criteria (something like 2003-2005 is three years..2003, 2004 and 2005).

Fair enough. Spring of 2000 through Spring of 2002.

[?]

Maybe 2009-2011 is the right answer?

Read: late 2009 through late 2011

[Super Dude]

Mine was definitely 2006 through 2008. I mean I was pretty wild about them before 2006 (I was first introduced to them a couple months after 8VM came out), but going to my first DT concert in March '06 sealed the deal. That fervor effectively ended with Chaos in Motion's release in 2008, when I realized that "Our problem is not to play" was a pretty serious one (yes, really).

[tuto]

I first listened to DT in 2008 when i was 14,saw the Constant Motion video and loved the music( I was more of a metalhead back then) But then in early 2010 I got BC&SL and it blew me away ,and since they were coming to my city I started to get pumped with it, saw them on that tour. Then I started listening to their catalog a lot more and was really obsessed with them, until i got burnt out on them . But then in middle 2011 i decided one night to give a listen to Train Of Thought, man...I couldnt believe how amazing In The Name Of God was, I freaked out. And then I reached the real climax of my fandom : listening to Stream of consciousness, that was the top for me. And well, you know, I love all of their records since then, specially Images and Train. So I would say (2010-2012)

[Azyiu]

For me, I think between 2003-2005-ish.

Back then I not only was a member of the DTIFC, and I could literally listen to nothing and no one else but DT all the time!

[ytserush]

Generally when my favorite albums came out along with that album's tour.

1989 to 1991

2001 to 2003

2005 to 2006

2011 to 2013

[Perpetual Change]

I am amused that most are mentioning three-year stretches when I said two years or less was the criteria (something like 2003-2005 is three years..2003, 2004 and 2005).

Haha, what? That's not what it means at all! I'm 2004-2006. I started listening in the summer of 2004, and listening declined after the summer of 2006. Meaning, I listened from summer of 04 thru summer of 05, and then summer of 05 thru summer of 06. That's only two years.

You only asked when our fandom was biggest, not "which years" was our fandom biggest. In that case, my answer would have been "The latter half of 2004, all of 2005, and the first half of 2006".

[Dream Team]

2003 - 2005

[Full Speed]

Probably 2002-2004.

I got into the band in '99 around the release of SFAM. I really liked that album but only listened to a bit here and there. But SDOIT was the album to really make me a fan and dive into all of their previous albums.

[MetropolisDLX]

2010 to 2011 for me.

I got Octovarium in 2009, then 6DOIT and BC&SL shortly after. It wasn't until Fall 2010 I got really obsessed. By the end of the year I had all studio albums, a few live albums, and a few DVDs. I also had both LTE albums, 2 JR albums and more than  half of JLB's solo/side projects. By the end of 2011 I collected all albums, DVDs, the Lifting Shadows book, and went to my first DT concert with a Meet and Greet! I was second row and  JLB signed my copy of Winter Rose to me and made my fucking year!!! 

Dream Theater is still my most favorite band, but I can go a few days with out listening to them now. 

[Madman Shepherd]

I'd say 2010-12.  I'm a big fan of Kevin Moore's work, but I did not get into Dream Theater until about 1995, and he had already left the band.  I also didn't care for Mike Portnoy's occasional criticisms of Kevin Moore through the years and that held back my fandom, so when Portnoy left I felt myself fully embrace DT in a way I hadn't before.  And Mangini's amazing personality totally pulled me in and made me an even bigger fan.  I saw DT five times of the ADOTE tour.

Ya know, this is a lot how I feel although I didn't realize it at the time. 

I was a casual fan from 2000-2004 and then started to really get into them after Train of Thought.  Then 8V - Systematic chaos is when I hit my first height of fandom.  I think the When Dream and Day Reunite concert was such a cool concept and it was also the time that some of their older music finally started to click with me. 

So this time period is when I finally started splurging for the slightly pricier things.

BC&SL was kind of a bummer though but I still made sure to see them once on the tour. 

Then when MP left I was really bummed.  They were definitely my favorite "current" band but all of his comments really left a bad impression and I soon began to realize that while I appreciated all of his work with the official bootlegs and what not, I really didn't like his immodest persona.  When he left we started seeing more interviews from other members and it rekindled my obsession with the band.  James was always my favorite member so hearing him speak up more was more than welcome.  The documentary about looking for a drummer and knowing that the band had more freedom got me psyched and I finally splurged for all the big stuff (Deluxe edition, Meet & Greet, etc). 

The ADTOE show in Chicago (1st leg) was one of the absolute best shows I've ever seen.  A lot has been said about whether the band was more active or James had more stage presence.  While his performance was not "night & day" compared to previous years, it was certainly a certain degree of liberation and I and a lot of the other audience felt it.

To make a long story short....

My fandom was at its peak from 2010-2011 but a close second would have been 2006-2007

[fibreoptix]

Probably the interim period between Train of Thought and a little while after Octavarium. I'd just gotten into DT after TOT came out so I made sure to fill my boots.

[Mindflux]

I am amused that most are mentioning three-year stretches when I said two years or less was the criteria (something like 2003-2005 is three years..2003, 2004 and 2005).

You're assuming people are speaking about Jan 1 of X year to Dec 31 of X year. 

[MoraWintersoul]

I am amused that most are mentioning three-year stretches when I said two years or less was the criteria (something like 2003-2005 is three years..2003, 2004 and 2005).

You're assuming people are speaking about Jan 1 of X year to Dec 31 of X year. 

On a totally unrelated note, I like the symmetry between the verbs "assume" and "amuse"

On a more serious note, I sort of echo Mebert's and Madman Shepherd's views. When I say the split has ended my fandom, I mean I felt precisely two emotions, one after the other:
a) everything cool is quite possibly coming to an end, and even if there were more cool to come, a very significant era has nevertheless come to an end. That was the first phase of "yeah we tried and we really love each other but it just can't work/he is our brother, it would be silly if we never played together again", everything in me was screaming "noooo" and "reconcile". This was succeeded by:

b) everything that was cool has been retroactively made slightly less cool, with the information that slowly surfaced, as I now realized some stuff about the band dynamics that I didn't quite understand but kind of did feel before.

And that was just it for me. I mean, even today, I was random google-image searching for pics of thisorthat concert, and among the results, I saw someone's printscreen of MP's announcement of the split, was instantly taken back and I just felt pain in my stomach. It's pretty remarkable how a big part of the fandom and the band recovered from that.

[GasparXR]

I saw someone's printscreen of MP's announcement of the split, was instantly taken back and I just felt pain in my stomach. It's pretty remarkable how a big part of the fandom and the band recovered from that.

When MP posted that announcement, I wasn't even at the biggest part of my fandom, but I was already versed well into the world of DT, and I was utterly heartbroken, mainly because it was so uncertain as to whether the band would go on or not. It's amazing how well the band has recovered from this so quickly, and that they are still going strong. I have the utmost gratefulness for this fact, and that they exist at all. Hell, I'm even really grateful that this board exists, I've had more fun on this board in the past ~1.7 years than I ever have anywhere else on the Internet.

[MoraWintersoul]

I've had more fun on this board in the past 11 months than I ever have anywhere else on the Internet.

Fixed it for me

[Jaq]

Mine's a shade longer than two years; it spans the period from October 1999, when SFAM was released, to the end of January 2002, when 6DOIT was released. 27 months, but since I can't break it down into a two year period without leaving out either album, there you go. That period was the highlight of my love of Dream Theater, but also the tail end of their reign as my favorite band, as shortly after 6DOIT I got into Opeth. DT's 10 year reign as my favorite band does remain as the longest time a band was my favorite, though.

[perfey]

2003 - 2004. It was when a friend to me introduced me to DT, it was magical. Train of Thought was kind of new and Live at Budokan had just been released. I was in awe and Live Scenes from New York really did it to me. I could watch those two DVD:s over and over.

[yorost]

Leading up to Octavarium, probably.