How long have you been a fan?

[YtseJamittaja]

I have been a fan 9-10 years now and I'm now 19 years old!

[kiwiclapton]

Always weird when you consider yourself a new fan and realize you've been a fan 10 years longer than most people. Getting old is a weird feeling. You feel permanently 18, and realize that you're closer to death than to life.

Now that's a DT fan reply if I've ever read one.  Philosophy and reality - truth.

[yeshaberto]

1992, with my first listen of IW.  Was instantly blown away.  Been hooked ever since.

[Zydar]

Since 2007.

[hefdaddy42]

1992, with my first listen of IW.  Was instantly blown away.  Been hooked ever since.

This exactly.

[erwinrafael]

Since 1997, just before FII was released. DT is pretty much unknown here in the Philippines but a friend of mine shared cassette tapes of  Images and Words and Awake. We ride on public transport and we have this habit of asking the drivers of public jeepneys to play our tapes. The reaction of the unsuspecting passengers listening to DT was hilarious. They looked so irritated with the long songs, indulgent instrumentals and odd time signatures.

Images and Words made a good first impression on me. Awake, not so much. But since 2010, I find Images and Words pretty much unlistenable as a whole album. Maybe it is overplaying on my part, but I actually find IAW "dated." It was good back then, but it is not exciting to listen to now. I can not finish the album in one sitting anymore.

The reverse happened with Awake. Now I listen to Awake everyday, along with DT12, as they have become my favorite DT albums. These, along with the SFAM album, and the songs Lines in the Sand, Octavarium, Stream of Consciousness, Lost not Forgotten, Bridges in the SKy, Breaking All Illusions, and ACOS, are my regular office soundtrack. Occasionally, I pop in Under A Glass Moon, Another Day, Surrounded, Take The Time, and Trial of Tears. I shake things up weekly by popping in a whole album not in my regular playlist. Last week, I just went through Six Degrees. This week, I may try Trial of Tears.

My love affair with DT had a break. After Train of Thought, I pretty much stopped listening to their new material. I only returned listening to them regularly when Mangini joined the band, as I have been following Mangini, who has been my favorite drummer since his Extreme and Steve Vai days. When I returned to regular DT listening, I caught up with their discography post-ToT and pre-ADTOE. I pretty much find songs from that era still not resonating with me, with the exception of Octavarium.

[The Stray Seed]

15 years.

[Nearmyth]

Knew about them and listened to them a bit in 2010, didn't become a real fan until ADTOE's release in 2011. So I'll say 3 years. DT12 was my first real DT album that I had the pleasure of being hyped and excited for!

[robwebster]

A full decade - probably to within a month or so. Crikey, that's a weird thought.

Go on then, ten years on, let's try and think of the order of events. I had a friend who sent me songs. My first songs were Honor thy Father and In the Name of God - The Mirror came alongside it, so they were my original three. I think around this point my brother was listening to Fatal Tragedy, so I knew it but didn't realise it was DT until later. I think Lie may have been another very early download - I got a couple of different songs, from all different albums. The one that really stuck was Blind Faith. Blind Faith was incredible. Took me on a journey, and told a story, in a way I didn't really know music could. In the Name of God was great, but Blind Faith was what made DT my favourite band. Incredible song. By Christmas, I had all six albums. (WDADU wasn't an option - out of print!) I bought Images and Words, Awake and Six Degrees all at the same time, and the other three were Christmas presents.

2004 - good year! Octavarium was then, in 2005, the first album I got to digest start to finish as a new piece of work, my first time unwrapping a new DT treat, and it left a huge impression on me. By that point I had all the DVDs, a few of the live CDs, so to take the lid off brand new Dream Theater material for the first time was an insane experience. I'm confident I love those songs for what they are, rather than for what they represent, but I do think part of the reason I get so much out of it because I put so much into it, way back when. Octavarium was the right album, at the right time, and I was at the right age. For me, it's the most important disc in their catalogue. One of those moments where all the stars aligned.

[Setlist Scotty]

Since the summer of 1989, when I read a crappy review of WDaDU in RIP! magazine. They may have slammed the album, but when they mentioned that the influences included "a whole bunch of Rush," that was all I needed to purchase the album. Been a fan ever since.

TELL US THE STORY AGAIN UNCLE SCOTTY!

Hush whippersnapper! You know you're jealous!   

Just wait until Uncle Ytserush tells his story again!   

[JayOctavarium]

There are like 3 or 4 of you who have cool stories like that. -Jelly-


My story consists of friend experiencing Score on VH1. He rants and raves about Dream Theater.  I download a bunch of random tracks labeled as dream theater. (Several of them turn out to be from Elements of Persuasion). I love it all.


And the rest is history.



And the reason I love Labrie's solo stuff so much is it is what I thought DT WAS for a while.

[MarkFitDT]

Im a 1989'r aswell! Heard AFIL & OAMOT on the Friday Rock show over here in the UK and I was blown away. Bought the album on vinyl - lucky to have a good local record shop at that time and never looked back. Was very worrying though for a while because I thought they had split up after WDADU - the internet didnt exist for mere mortals then so news was extremely sparse and they just seemed to disappear. Imagine my surprise when I heard PMU on the radio and I could recognise it was them even with James singing!

[RoeDent]

I heard my first DT song sometime in autumn 2008, but I didn't buy my first DT album until September 2009.

[Konrad]

Before it was cool...

[Tim van Duijn]

About 5 years now. A friend of mine turned on Ytse Jam and it sounded so familiar (my dad used to play that tune when i was around 11-12 years old) and i really liked it. So i asked what i was listening to and he said Dream Theater. So another day he turned on the Chaos in Motion DVD and i heard Constant Motion and Panic Attack and man i was so happy hearing that. I wasn't into rock and metal music at all but everything changed for me that day.

So i downloaded (and eventually bought) every album and started listening to them (in random order though) and the music clicked with me more and more. At that point i already bought a ticket for their show in Ahoy Rotterdam in 2009 (my first concert).

The funny thing is that when i turned on Six Degrees i had no clue what the fuck was happening with the music. The transition from War inside my Head to Goodnight Kiss for example i thought: 'what is this, the song didn't even end and the next one started completely different. Is there something wrong with the mp3 file or my ipod?!'. But then i found out that the songs are part of one big suite and that it is supposed to go this way + that my ipod had the songs mixed in a different order.

Saw them for the first time 6 months after first DT exposure hehe;). I had tears in my eyes listening to The Count of Tuscany live, i experienced something that i had never expierenced before and felt so happy and complete. I knew that i was part of something really big (the fanbase and prog/metal community). I will never forget that night.
But yeah, been hooked ever since. Seen them 4 times now and tomorrow will be my 5th time.

[Tom Bombadil]

About 5 years. It was the spring before BC&SL came out.

[Rodni Demental]

I've been a fan for 5 years now. I was also one of "those" people who first heard of DT from Rock Band.

This sums it up for me as well...

I could make my story a lot longer, but really, I had exposure to parts of SFAM in 2001 from The History of Trunks Dragon Ball Z movie, A Drummer friend of mine in 2004 showed me Honor Thy Father and it blew my mind. Then in 2005-07 Dream Theater started showing up on Guitar Hero and Rock Band games (Pull Me Under, Constant Motion, Panic Attack). 2009 A Rite of Passage plays as a sample on my media player and I finally get the hint that I need to start listening to these guys properly. Took almost 10 years of being slightly aware of them (very slack of me. ) and been a very dedicated fan for the last 5 years.

[cyberdrummer]

Around ten years now. 8V was the first new album I properly anticipated as a DT fan, and for that reason it will always be a special one for me. Being 15 years old at the time meant the album was very much an influence on the development of my taste in music. The two-night stand in London in 2005 represented what I view as my first 'proper' DT shows (I saw them in January 2004 but I wasn't familiar with the discography at that point).

[lonestar]

1992, with my first listen of IW.  Was instantly blown away.  Been hooked ever since.

This exactly.

Same here.

[BlobVanDam]

Before it was cool...

So some time from 1985 to 2014 then?

[Setlist Scotty]

And the reason I love Labrie's solo stuff so much is it is what I thought DT WAS for a while.

LOL! Gotta wonder how many other new fans ended up having the same experience, and how many of them stuck with the band once they realized that DT actually have 20+ minute songs!

Imagine my surprise when I heard PMU on the radio and I could recognise it was them even with James singing!

You've got better ears than me - I doubt I would've recognized it was them. I picked up IaW not long after it was released, but it took me several listens before I finally got into their "new" sound - and by that, I mean the production, mix and everything else - not just because JL was their new singer.

Before it was cool...

So you're still not a fan then, huh?   

[BlobVanDam]

Imagine my surprise when I heard PMU on the radio and I could recognise it was them even with James singing!

You've got better ears than me - I doubt I would've recognized it was them. I picked up IaW not long after it was released, but it took me several listens before I finally got into their "new" sound - and by that, I mean the production, mix and everything else - not just because JL was their new singer.

I definitely wouldn't have made the connection with PMU, of all songs from IAW. It's a more straightforward song, and a different style of heavy to WDADU. The keyboard leads would have probably been the only connection to me. Maybe from the rest of IAW though.

[5thofwhiskey]

Since 2004 when I found Scenes from a Memory dvd on the clearance bin at the record shop. I had bought Once in a lifetime but didn't get into it that much, but scenes changed that for me.

[JayOctavarium]

And the reason I love Labrie's solo stuff so much is it is what I thought DT WAS for a while.

LOL! Gotta wonder how many other new fans ended up having the same experience, and how many of them stuck with the band once they realized that DT actually have 20+ minute songs!

Well I had also had heard ACOS, The Mirror, Lie and Peruvian Skies as well... Plus among the songs I downloaded were TDOE and LTL.


PLUS I was already a hardcore Pink Floyd fan so long songs were already something I dig.

[MarkFitDT]

Imagine my surprise when I heard PMU on the radio and I could recognise it was them even with James singing!

You've got better ears than me - I doubt I would've recognized it was them. I picked up IaW not long after it was released, but it took me several listens before I finally got into their "new" sound - and by that, I mean the production, mix and everything else - not just because JL was their new singer.

I definitely wouldn't have made the connection with PMU, of all songs from IAW. It's a more straightforward song, and a different style of heavy to WDADU. The keyboard leads would have probably been the only connection to me. Maybe from the rest of IAW though.

when I turned on the radio it was the keyboard lead into the guitar solo that I heard first which is why I thought it was DT! spooky!

[Theme Dreater]

I was introduced to them in 2009. A kid in my AP Lang class was into a lot of the same music as me (Rush and Zeppelin) and he had a massive CD collection, and one time he brought it to class and let me borrow it. I was looking through it with him and noticed Dream THeater and asked him what it was. He said if I liked Rush, I would probably dig DT. When I brought the CD case home, I took the 3 DT discs that were in it: Awake, Change of Seasons, and Disc 2 of SDOIT. I didn't listen to any of them though until June 2010 when I went commerical fishing for the first time. I was stuck on land pre-season with no friends, no internet, and no books, so I was looking through my library and decided to put on Chage of Seasons. For the duration of the fishing season, I had it stuck in my head, and when I got home, I swore I'd use a portion of my fishing advance to buy a DT album. At the record store, I just decided to grab the one which was cheapest...which happened to be I&W. Been a devoted fan ever since, it sure was surreal seeing Portnoy leave the band just months after I really got into them though.

[nightmare_cinema]

It was back in 2005ish I believe. I was working in a guitar store and heavily into Muse at the time. A guitar salesman/friend of mine there said offhandedly one day 'pfft, you think Muse are a great band? Try Dream Theater'. He had been into them since the Images and Words days and was always busting out that little guitar/key riff from the middle section of Metropolis Part 1 when he plugged a new guitar in. I got a few of of their CDs, and thought they were cool. Then one day, on a bus, near my house, while stood up waiting to disembark, Stream of Consciousness suddenly 'clicked'. And I was besotted. And from that week on, of devouring their back catalogue, they just with zero effort or determination became my favourite band. I've seen them live ten times since then, and got my Majesty tattoo about 15 months ago. I wanted it for about six years but never knew whereabouts to get it on my body so finally just booked an appointment and went for it.

Fking love Dream Theater. Ended up going to university to study music and writing my undergraduate thesis on progressive metal and getting a first class grade for it. Did an awesome track analysis of the Count of Tuscany but couldn't fit it into the word count!

[yorost]

From around Falling Into Infinity's release. Don't recall the timing that well, but I'd picked up A Change of Seasons and enjoyed it. Then a bit thereafter got Falling Into Infinity when my brother was disappointed with it. I was definitely a fan at that point, been visiting their website from before the EZBoards. ...I guess somewhere between 96-98, then.

[ozzy554]

a couple months

[nikatapi]

It was sometime in 2004, when my guitar teacher told me to check out Dream Theater, and i bought Train Of Thought which had very cool artwork.

And, holy shit, my mind was blown, i had never heard such complex music, which left me frustrated at times, but kept me hooked to listen again and again.

Been a big fan ever since, although i have not been so satisfied with the musical output since 2010. Still my favorite band though.

[Dublagent66]

22 years.  Since the release of I&W.  Uh....yeah.

[KevShmev]

Since early '93, when my brothers and I all got into I&W.

[Jaq]

Since the video for Pull Me Under came out, though I didn't buy I&W until...I thought it was January 1993, but that was when I badgered my best friend into buying it. I got it sometime in late 1992 but the actual time frame is fuzzy, November or December 1992. A long time indeed.   

[lonestar]

Before it was cool...

So some time from 1985 to 2014 then?

[wolfking]

Since 2000.