Did you get into them because of the tour they did with DT and Queensryche? For me, it was because someone gave me a cd with an FW track on it.
I had always known of Fates Warning. I never checked them out, and never really saw their videos back in the day (I didn't have cable regularly, so no MTV). My wife was absolutely flabbergasted when I told her I had never listened to Fates Warning. She wasn't an uber fan, but since we both shared a love of Queensryche, she felt it was only natural. I, stupidly, had always assumed (this should get a laugh), without hearing them, that Fates Warning was some sort of death metal band, and I wasn't interested in checking them out. Oops.
I remember hearing "One" in 2003, live, and that sold me. Immediately. Just love the groove, love everything about it. I literally went out the next day and bought the entire catalog, and never looked back. Was lucky enough to see Fates twice on that tour. Interestingly enough, while Frank Aresti rejoined them on that tour, I didn't see Frank. I saw the QR/DT/FW tour in...I want to say it was late July, out on the West Coast. Both gigs Aresti was absent, I think because he had some work-related thing he needed to be back for. So my wife and I saw FW as a four-piece. They were two Nor Cal shows, if anyone else was there. I recall MP coming out at one of them and doing an OSI track...SHUTdown, if i remember right.
p.s. One of my biggest concert regrets was in 2006. Fates was playing two warm-up shows in So Cal before heading out to do the Rock Hard festival on June 4, 2006, in Germany.
The lineup for this tour was: Jim Matheos, Ray Alder, Joey Vera, Frank Aresti and Nick D’Virgillio
05/31/2006 Galaxy Theater. Santa Ana, California (with Three, Resistance, Hollowshell)
06/01/2006 The Knitting Factory. Hollywood, California (with Agent Steel, Ascension)
>>>>>>>>>>>I had an opportunity to see them both those shows, and just decided not to make the trek down, figuring they'd be back up North soon enough. Well, they didn't play another show near me until 7 years later in 2013 on the Darkness tour (which I attended). So this time around, in January, I'm not repeating the mistake. Going to multiple west coast shows.