When did you become a fan?

[Zydar]

2007, right after SC came out.

[Bertielee]

1993, LatM. Then I got I&W, then Awake and the rest...

B.Lee

[Eldomm]

Late 1989. I bought WDADU just after it came out, but it took a while to really like it, it was something completely new for me....

[?]

Summer of 2009

[Zydar]

Interesting, no fans from the Majesty days.

WERE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

[adastra]

1999-2000 !! ^_______^!!

[Nel_Annette]

Back in 2007, my buddy played The Root Of All Evil and In The Presence Of Enemies Part 1 during a car ride and afterward, I bought Systematic Chaos from Target (it had just come out, I think). Bought the rest of the studio discography over the course of the next few months before going to college, and bought Live At Budokan and Score the day after Christmas at Best Buy with a gift card. What I remember about the next year is wearing my Scenes From A Memory shirt at college and some dude in my philosophy class telling me that he thought it was an awesome album. And then I joined MP's forum.

Sadly, though, the guy who got me into Dream Theater can't stand them anymore. He goes through phases with bands where he'll only enjoy them for about a year before moving on to something else. 

[The Curious Orange]

Summer 1992. I&W was an impulse buy during an otherwise bad summer.

[zjacobs]

Last year, people kept suggesting me DT based on my music taste. Searched for DT on YouTube and was not really impressed. Then Dec 2012 I gave them another try and was listening to SFAM, I liked it. On new years eve I decided to listen to the album Octavarium, I really liked the root of all evil and panic attack, then I heard the song Octavarium and was blown away, had it on repeat the whole night. That's how I became a fan of DT.

[lonestar]

1992, heard Pull Me Under on the radio.

[yeshaberto]

1992.  a friend brought Images over and I was hooked after the first 30 seconds.

[Zorander]

99-00

[efx]

92, got I&W on the recommendation of a mentor and that was the beginning

[Polarbear]

Late 2006!

[sylvinception]

1994, after listening Awake for the first time === >>>

[wolfking]

1998

[CharlesPL]

2002

[Mladen]

Looks like I'm in the majority, since I went with 2007-2008. It's kinda hazy for some reason, though. If I recall correctly, I first heard Pull me under in the spring of 2007 and got hooked on Images and words and Octavarium that very year. I followed it up in 2008 with Systematic chaos and Awake, then I moved onto their other work.

So that's pretty much when I became a fan, but I reached the peak of my fanboyism (is that even a thing) somewhere in the three following years.

[Tick]

I bought Octavarium when it first came out. I don't even know why? I just had a curiosity about the band. I had never even heard a single track prior to buying the album. So I turned myself on to Dream Theater, and became a diehard fan within weeks!

[Ruba]

Late 2009.

WATCH THE SPARROW FALLING

The end.

[The Stray Seed]

Late 2009.

WATCH THE SPARROW FALLING

The end.

Wow! I've just imagined the same thing happening now to someone hearing "MOTHERS FOR THEIR CHILDREEEEEEEEEEN"

[Lowdz]

1989 when I read the review for WDADU in Kerrang magazine that said they were a cross between Rush  and Metallica, with a guitarist better than Yngwie and a drummer better than Neil Peart (something like that anyway!). Although I wasn't a Metallica fan at all I was a Rush fan and a big shred fan so it sounded like a no brainer to me.
I pestered the life out of the guy at Shades Records in London to get the album for me and it was well worth it.

[Shadow2222]

2007

[Setlist Scotty]

1989 when I read the review for WDADU in Kerrang magazine that said they were a cross between Rush  and Metallica, with a guitarist better than Yngwie and a drummer better than Neil Peart (something like that anyway!). Although I wasn't a Metallica fan at all I was a Rush fan and a big shred fan so it sounded like a no brainer to me.
I pestered the life out of the guy at Shades Records in London to get the album for me and it was well worth it.

Your story actually mirrors mine quite a bit. Back in 1989, I was a fervent reader of the American metal magazine RIP! from cover to cover, and they did a review of WDaDU. The reviewer pretty much slammed the album saying that it was all chops and musicianship, and no songwriting. But what grabbed my attention was that he said it sounded like ELP, Yngwie, Kansas, Metallica and "a whole bunch of Rush". He also mentioned that Charlie would be trying to shed the inevitable comparisons to Geddy Lee in the coming years. As soon as Rush was mentioned, I knew I had to pick up the album! The only difference was that I was able to pick it up at the Galaxy music store (or was it Sam Goody by then?) at the local mall instead of having to badger a store to order it for me. 

[bosk1]

1992 - Pull Me Under.

This topic has been discussed several times, but I don't think we've actually had it in a poll, strangely enough.  I think it'll be interesting to see what the curve looks like after a lot of votes.

[Dublagent66]

1992 - I&W

[Anguyen92]

I think I've 1st heard of DT in 2012 when I was reading the ABNation forums and saw a couple of posts regarding if the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (song) was an actual song or not and, out of a whim, I listened to it, and it was good, but nothing that really make me a staying fan.

Other than that, Chris Jericho had a radio show, Rock of Jericho, and he would play DT material from time to time and it was always good, but, again, nothing really connecting to me.

Of course, flash-forward to about August of 2013 when Roadrunner tweeted a couple of pictures that had Mark Tremonti, Myles Kennedy, JP, and JLB and, then days after that, AB and DT were paired together for that Loudwire match, which DT obviously won. 

In the end, I was just very impressed about DT's work ethic, which made me revisit Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (song) along with the rest of the Score concert, and the last two albums (ADTOE and self-titled), and it was really good that made me a new fan out of that and I hope to keep pushing forward in listening to more material from these guys.

[gmillerdrake]

I'm surprised that according to the poll the majority of fans came on board after 2000. For some reason I had the impression that DTs fan base were more from the early days. Have no idea why I thought that.....maybe just assuming everyone else got in to them when I did.

[DebraKadabra]

Mid to late 1992, thanks to a good friend in Maryland talking up Images and Words.  Started to hear Pull Me Under on the radio shortly after I bought IaW unheard.

[KrashOmnis]

December 2003.  I said to my friend from high school: "Yea I'm really into Metallica and Rush right now but I need to broaden my horizons."

He says "You should listen to Dream Theater."

Listened to This Dying Soul.

Forever a fan.

[54_diplomats]

Early 2008. First album I listened to was Octavarium, I got obsessed instantly.

[serrano]

1992 with Images and Words.

[eviljust]

1999-2000 yeah, when SFAM was released

I remember I heard them on '94, I was a child and I played tennis and there was a guy who had this very metal-y brother who introduced us to the good music. I started to listen to Pantera and Metallica and once he gave me this very used cassette and told me something like "if you like those bands, you're gonna love this". There was some Awake on it and I really loved The Mirror and 6:00 but I lost it in few days and didn't pay attention to Dream Theater anymore. I started to play drums in '98 and looking for some nice bands, I was pretty good and after a year some guys told me "hey, if you wanna see if you're a real good drummer, check out this new Dream Theater record". That was my real start with drums and with Dream Theater as well. SFAM is and will always be my fav album ever.

[jayvee3]

Wow, far more modern fans on the boards than I realised. Very cool.

I was given I&W on cassette by a musician buddy of mine, and liked it quite a bit. Didn't think it was the most incredible album around, but very cool and different, and the musicianship was obviously pretty eyebrow raising. There the album stayed in my collection, and would get a regular spin in my rotation. Then in 94, Awake was released. So I grabbed it, and bazinga - I was hooked! Absolutely loved the album (interestingly still my fave, while I&W is still just cool but not top tier - just like when I first heard it). So while I first heard them earlier, I went for the '94 option, as that was the time I actually became a fully fledged fan..

[cyberdrummer]

I'm surprised that according to the poll the majority of fans came on board after 2000. For some reason I had the impression that DTs fan base were more from the early days. Have no idea why I thought that.....maybe just assuming everyone else got in to them when I did.

I imagine it's the case that a lot of the earlier fans don't tend to use internet forums as much as those who discovered DT later.