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Dream Theater => Dream Theater => Topic started by: JaceTestify on May 18, 2017, 09:21:09 AM
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Thought this might be a little interesting...
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I first heard Pull Me Under on German MTV, and quite liked it, partially because I was a big Genesis fan, and it struck me as a heavy version of Genesis.
Totally forgot about it though, never followed up. Years later I had an EE study group, and the guy whose house it was was a huge DT fan. He would put it on every single time we studied, and I really didn't like the vocals. However, the music I really liked, so I just sucked it up and listened to it anyway. Later I got used to the vocals.
EDIT: Bizarre twist in the story, the guy who was a huge DT fan later switched straight from DT to Backstreet Boys. I kid you not.
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Well...
7th grade spring semester. 2011.
Basically at our middle school if music was a thing you chose to do, each year you were also supposed to perform. And I had this friend who told me about a song she was gonna do for the performance with bunch of other kids and asked me if I wanted to hear it. This song was Through Her Eyes. She did warn me that DT was not about ballads but rather a progressive metal band. She played me a few other songs too and I thought they sounded great and that’s where it all began. My first truly progressive favorite was Endless Sacrifice
I fell in love with the band slowly over the course of next four years. In 2014 I found SDOIT and JP's solos on that album inspired me to get an electric guitar myself. A year after that, having kept DT in the back burner for a while, I was home alone and working on something. I decided to put on background music and put Dream Theater on suffle from Spotify. Spotify played me Octavarium. And man. This is where my true obsession started. It just really clicked. 17-year-old me finally understood this music and was blown away by the fact that someone could even write stuff like this. I checked tour dates immediately and found out they had a show in Finland in less than a month. 02.08.2015 was my first live show. That summer I also finally went through all of their studio albums systematically.
It’s been 6+ years. I have seen the guys live twice and met them all. I’ve gotten to shake Mr. Petrucci’s hand, tell him he’s my hero and inspiration and thank him for all the music. Although it has always been and always will be more than just music.
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Panic Attack. Rock Band 2. 2008. It was a life changing moment for me.
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Never really noticed prog until PMU came out, and I was very impressed. But I was surprised when I got the album and heard Another Day and was like ??? Had to get used to that kind of variety. They're still my favorite prog band, and one of my favorite bands from any genre.
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Heard Pull Me Under on the radio and thought it was great. With JLB's voice and Kevin Moore's keys, I thought they sounded like a more rocking and ballsier Europe (who was my favorite of the hair metal bands in the latter 80s).
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Heard PMU on the radio when I was at high school. The intro got me but I was like "when the singing parts start, come on?!(After years I realized I listened long version, not radio edit). James LaBrie came in and my love started.
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I'm ancient enough to have lived in the cassette tapes era, so DT songs were leftovers used to fill up space that my cousin would sneak there at the end of the album the cassette was actually intended for.
I was quite unimpressed and indifferent to all of it (I remember considering Hollow Years and Anna Lee decent ballads but that's it) until finally, after at least 4 months or so, I realized that The Mirror was actually a good song.
That started the avalanche effect that made me appreciate the band, become a fan, and walk that autumn (1999) in a store without knowing anything about the new album aside from the fact that it was coming out (I still didn't have proper internet access at the time) and find out only then and there, in the store, and not a second later, that it was Metropolis pt. 2 ;D
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In 1992, a friend of mine loaned me a cassette of I&W. The rest is history.
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I discovered the band fairly recently, in February 2016. My music collection was becoming stagnant and I discovered Octavarium (the song) by chance. I liked it immediately.
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Always just PMU and I knew a bit else of I&W. Then a friend told me about "the guy who replaced portnoy" and his doc "a drummers dream". That led me to watching the auditions. And i then discovered those 3 songs (mainly ANTR) so I listened to BCSL, and then I was off and running.
Also, the first 2 I really listened to were BC and SC, and I think the they were awesome. And I've since discovered every album and most are way better than those original 2 I discovered.
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Discovered them in the suggested bands feature of an old streaming service back in 2007, listening to Led Zeppelin's Achilles Last Stand. The site suggested the ACOS LZ's medley. Secondly I listened to the Big Medley, Forsaken, Another Day and ACOS after that. Instant love.
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Heard them a little bit through the latter part of the 90s and wasn't impressed. I listened to much heavier music then so it just wasn't my thing although I had heard most of their lighter stuff. Had I heard The Mirror or the like maybe I would have gotten into them.
Later I got a new job and was talking to a coworker who was a big Dream Theater fan but not so much a music fan. I brought up Dream Theater hoping it would find common ground into other stuff we had in common. It turns out the fact that I listened to Dream Theater, like, three times was literally the only thing we had in common although he was/is a pretty cool guy. He said, "Hey were going to go see them next month, wanna come?" So I said sure. Listened to them a bit to prepare. This was the SFAM tour. I dug it a lot more than before but was still outside the realm of what I was into.
Went to the concert and was blown away by the first 15-20 minutes of the show. Then was bored to tears for the remain 2+ hours. Still impressive but I didn't know any of their material and was hoping for more heavy stuff.
Still, I bought SFAM when we got back. Would listen to the first few tracks and shut it off. I maintained a moderate interest in them. Bought a few of their other albums and slowly began to become a fan. Finally decided to see them again on their Train of Thought tour after picking up that release, I really became a pretty big fan. Finally, with Octavarium, I started buying their albums as they were released and was really blown away by 8V. Finally, as of 2005 I was a hardcore fan as opposed to the previous 5 years that I was a very casual fan and the 5 years before that that I was not impressed with the two songs I heard. Fun fact: One of the songs I heard in the 90s that I didn't like was Funeral for a Friend. Still don't like it.
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Where's Jay Octavarium to tell my story? :biggrin:
Since he hasn't posted it, I guess I will. :P Back in the late '80s I used to read a few different metal magazines regularly, and RIP! magazine reviewed When Dream and Day Unite. The review more or less ripped the album apart, but what grabbed my attention was the comment that there was a heavy Rush influence. Being that Rush was my favorite band at the time, this made me sit up and take notice. A month or so later, I managed to find a copy and that was my intro to DT. Funny thing is, when IaW *finally* came out 3 years later (an eternity back then), I initially had a hard time getting used to their "new" sound - that's how ingrained WDADU was in my mind.
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Every time this thread is started, I regret not having my post saved on a document somewhere!
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Well for me personally it was Train of Thought... Especially Honor Thy Father. It was so heavy so powerful, and the drumming was just unbelievable.
The first time I heard it was when my Dad, (of whom is an avid Rush fan. Like for him no band is ever as good as Rush) showed me this band that was almost as good as Rush... We were in a 1993 Ford F-150m and the song was Take the Time. I could not believe what I heard.
I over played Dream Theater so much, my Dad, even today, can barely stand it. :metal
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I started getting into metal in the mid-late 1980s. Queensryche, Fifth Angel, Whitesnake, the hair metal bands, etc.
But starting in 1990, we lost cable, and no MTV, and I honestly didn't watch much when we got it back in 1994, as I was busy. Still a huge music fan, but missed out on a ton of stuff that wasn't continually on the radio. So for me, Dream Theater started when a friend of mine put in a CD of "A Change of Seasons" in 1996 on his car stereo. I was BLOWN away, and immediately went out and got Awake and Images and Words. And in 1997, I was a release day buyer of FII.
I never recalled seeing the videos for DT until AFTER this, ironically. The first time I recall hearing DT on the radio was "You Not Me." But my DT fandom started in 1996 with ACOS.
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This innocent youtube video changed my life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuCf6ZWkYcE
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The complete non-radioness of it. Up until that point, fifteen year old me had never heard anything but radio music and the deep Beatles tracks that the radio doesn't play. I had just started playing bass like three days prior and some new friends at school recommended I listen to Metropolis. It completely blew me away, and the bass solo made me question if I even wanted to bother learning the instrument. I went and saw them that night having only heard that one song. Been here every since.
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I had a college roommate that was an exchange student from Mexico City (living in Illinois for that semester) that made me listen to the live version of Peruvian Skies. He knew I was a metalhead and wanted me to hear how they jammed on the Enter Sandman riff during the song to try to get me into the band. I thought it was cool and remember the name - Dream Theater.
Went to a used CD store near campus sometime after that and found Images & Words and then Awake. I was hooked, and those remain my favorite DT albums to this day.
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First time I heard DT:
Borrowed Once in a Livetime from a friend. Me: "Music is allright, a bit weird keyboard sound, but ohmygod I can't stand those vocals!"
LTE won me over. "When the water breaks". :heart I bought their two albums first and then started digging into the DT catalogue. It took a while to get into them, I remember downloading instrumental MIDI files and rocking along! :lol
I have lost some of the interest nowadays, though. I still visit the forums and I will always buy new records from them, but I haven't really been a fan-fan since the Octavarium days.
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Visiting my cousin, who plays guitar incredibly well. I was about twelve, very much into metal/hard rock, as he and my brother introduced me to Metallica, Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, etc. He plays a song, twelve-year-old me is astonished he can play so fucking fast. He says, "Here, check this out." Puts on a CD with a bunch of pictures that make up a dude's face on the cover. This song starts out kinda slow, an is kinda boring. I state as such. He puts on a shit-eating grin and says, "Just wait."
I was hooked from the first WOMP-WOMP! of "Home". I bought Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence as soon as it came out.
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Sometime in 2008, I chanced across the song Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and was amazed that a band could write a 42-minute song (at that point, the only epics I was familiar with were those by Pink Floyd, Echoes, SOYCD, etc.). I half-listened to parts of it, not fully paying attention because it didn't click with me at that time. Fast forward a couple of months, then I chanced across Octavarium, and it hooked me immediately, and I didn't look back after that. In fact, that moment has led me onto every other modern prog band I have discovered and enjoyed in the near-decade since.
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Apologies to those who have read this one of the last dozen or so times I've posted it.
"The Spirit Of Rush Fanzine Number 8 which I bought in New York City about August 1989. On the back inside cover was a Dream Theater feature and When Dream and Day Unite album review that was reprinted from an issue of Kerrang (Never found out what issue it was)
There weren't too many recent bands recording music that I liked in the late 80s save for maybe Kings X, Queensryche, Faith No More and Living Colour.
The feature and review mentioned influences such as Rush, The Dixie Dregs, Kansas, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and at that time it didn't seem like anyone new was recording music with those influences so I was easily suckered in.
I couldn't find the CD anywhere and was forced to spend $17 at a mall chain store for it. I listened to it constantly for about 3 solid months until Presto came out. I never heard another word about them until I stumbled on their mispelled name on the marquee at the Ritz November 14, 1989 opening for the Hogarth-fronted Marillion's debut in New York City.
Yes, I was lucky.
Never heard a word about them again until I found a promo copy of Images and Words for $5 at a spring 1992 record show. It took me a while to get used to James' voice since I'd been listening to Charlie for about 3 years, but I got used to it. James has improved SO much since then.
Anyway, I'll leave you with this amusing quote (I'm not sure who is responsible for it but I think it was the editor) regarding When Dream And Day Unite from The Spirit Of Rush Number 9 (Fall 1989)
"The aforementioned opener (A Fortune In Lies) sums up the album completely--a dense hard rockers paradise with more time changes than the entire Rush and Yes back catalogs put together. A drummer who puts Neil Peart to shame, a vocalist fully capable of holding his own and a sound so full that it actually takes 20 plays to hear everything that's going on in the mix, and all this perfectly crafted and laid down on tape in just four weeks.
Quite frankly, this album rubbishes at least three Rush albums, and the entire Yes series, Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery being the only album I can think of in the same league. I never thought it would happen, but this album makes something like Signals sound resolutely boring; I know I'm going to get hate mail for saying so, but I have to be honest...
If Geddy, Neil and Alex have heard this album, then they probably reacted in one of two ways--become blubbering nervous wrecks, in the knowledge they have some serious young competition, or (hopefully) they have pulled out their fingers in order to show that they can indeed rise to the occasion. This album will either bring out the best in our friends or finish them off..."
That quote was what sold me being a Rush fan."
First CD 1989: When Dream And Day Unite
First Cassette 1992: When Dream and Day Unite promo
First Vinyl 1990: When Dream and Day Unite
First CD single 1990: Afterlife promo
First Cassette single 1992: Another Day
First Video 1993: Live At The Marquee
First DVD 2001: Metropolis 2000 Scenes From New York
First Concert: 11/14/89 Dream Theater opens for Marillion at the old Ritz in New York City
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To make a long story short, the first time I heard any Dream Theater song whatsoever was in 2012. So, yeah, I guess I'm a relative newbie. :lol
Basically, up until that point, I was just a casual music fan - you know, just enjoyed what was "in" when I was going to school. But when I was 14, I happened upon my dad's old prog rock collection (you know, like Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, etc...) and I was just so amazed with that type of music, I wanted to find more recent examples. So I did a google search, and up came the whole Octavarium epic. Couldn't really get into at the time for some reason, so I stopped listening for a while. Then, tried again - listened to Metropolis Pt. 1 a few times, first time it was a little "weird" for me, second time I started to dig it, and third time I just fell in love with DT. Now I just about love every song they make, and can't get enough of the band!
Great question by the way! :)
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My first experience with DT was when a friend of mine gave me a copy of Awake. Think it was in ‘95.
Got blown away by 6:00. From then on, major fan.
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I know I've mentioned this before . . . .
One of my best friends was a student of John Petrucci. I'm sure he played me DT plenty of times during the WDADU years, but the first I remember is driving to a Knicks game and he played "Learning to Live." I told him it sounded like STYX!!!
Seen them about 20 times since then but not since 1999. I am going in three weeks to the Paramount!
The first show I saw them was at a dump called Sparks. Fun times!
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My older brother had a friend whose cousin would travel a lot to the US, and he would always bring new music with him (I'm talking about cassettes, by the way, circa 1994). So once he brought this funny looking, strange but very attractive one with someone like a greek guy on the cover, a big mirror, and a clock-shaped moon. My brother started listening to it (I was 9, he was 13) and I think something happened in my brain and I was unable to stop listening to it. He did a copy of it for me, and I would take it to school on my personal stereo to share it with my mates, but they were into really shitty music so it never caught up. My 2 favorites songs by then were 6 o' Clock and, by far, WAY FAR, Caught in a Web.
My brother's friend's cousin would bring Images and Words afterwards, and then my brother got Falling into Infinity for Christmas 97 on CD, and I got A Change of Seasons on a cassette. I was so thrilled, I remember that moment as it'd been yesterday.
Then, by 1999, I'd saved some money as I was looking forward to a new album (unfortunately it was very difficult to know when they would launch another one since we didn't have access to Internet back then, and it wasn't really popular around). I went with a friend of mine to a music store called BlackBox and I found a lot of music, but no DT. I asked they guy in charge, and he said the new album was coming in a few weeks. So I waited and eventually bought my first DT CD: SFAM. I can't recall if it was later that same year or the next when I bought the Live Scenes in New York VHS (it must have been in 2001, duh), to which I created a topic a few months ago as I still have it :metal
https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=47499.msg2175174#msg2175174
Then, in 2005, DT finally came to Chile, South America, in the Octavarium Tour, and I was able to see them live for the first time. I was 20 years old, and I went with my brother, his friend and cousin, and a friend of mine. I remember the band was really excited as it was the first time they were in Chile, and the audience was something over 20.000 :o That was a damn good show.
I actually remember someone jumped over the stage at the beginning of Under a Glass Moon, and LaBrie went "this guy's excited here" :lol
This is the exact part:
https://youtu.be/M81CHCBcwqs?t=1276 :rollin
Anyways, that's pretty much how I got into DT 23 years ago. :loser:
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I discovered DT in 2006 through Symphony X's Through the Looking Glass. A reviewer on Amazon pointed out the similarities with Surrounded's intro. I'm pretty sure I first heard DT on the radio in a Gigatour ad, but didn't think much of it enough to remember. I remember the commercial, but not sure if Dream Theater was featured in it. I had Surrounded on a mix CD and it took some time to grow on me. I bought a used copy of Live at Budokan because that's what the CD shop owner recommended, but it just didn't click. The Test that Stumped them All was the only song that grabbed me, but it wasn't enough. I ended up returning it. I continued listening to Surrounded but held off on pursuing the band further. I would eventually try again of course, and downloaded all their albums.
Images and Words was the first album I listened to since Surrounded was one of the songs on it. The torrent I used came with a disclaimer: first track corrupted. Being the DT noob that I was, I faded out the ending to Pull Me Under. It wasn't until I discovered this forum in September of 06 that I learned why PMU stops suddenly. I slowly made my way through their albums, not in order, but I believe Scenes was next, and that's the first album of theirs I bought. I got IaW for Christmas. 6DOIT disc 2 clicked before disc 1, and Octavarium took a long time to click. I couldn't even finish it on first listen I was so bored. I did like the title track though. I really liked long songs then, and still do, but I had an mp3 CD with tons of really long songs. It was called Epics and Trilogies. I eventually bought all their albums and the rest is history.
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1992. I heard Pull me Under and saw a brief interview on headbangers ball and I was hooked!
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In 1995 my cousins who is teaching me guitars showed me John Petruccis rock discipline VHS and they made me listen to the Images and Words album.
I was hook immdiately with Take the Time and Metropollis I became a big fan by the year 2000s
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Back in 09, a friend of mine from a Pokemon forum commented that he was listening to the Overture to Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence in a "What Are You Listening To" thread and said that it sounded like video game music. I was intrigued, so I gave it a listen. I was so totally blown away that I immediately listened to the entire song. It had literally sounded like nothing I had ever heard before (my musical taste at the time was basically alternative rock/grunge, j-rock, video game music, and some symphonic metal) and the complexity of the music was what drew me in right away. I then slowly checked out the rest of the albums (starting with Black Clouds & Silver Linings since that just came out) and here I am now.
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2004 I believe... was completely oblivious to what 'prog' stuff even was and was just looking for new rock bands to check out. A buddy suggested Dream Theater and - this was back when AIM was still a go-to method of communication - he sent me over A Change of Seasons. To say that was lifechanging is an understatement - never had I heard of this band, never had I heard a song that long (longest I knew was Maiden's Ancient Mariner which I thought was the greatest song ever written at the time), never had I heard such a perfect blend of melody, aggression, and intellectual lyrics in a band. And the tiny little guitar licks, fills, little moments here and there that gave me chills, every single band member was on fire and it blew my mind. I must've listened to that song for 6 months before I felt burnt out and in need of more stuff from the band.
I think I heard I&W sometime later that year and I've been obsessed since.
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From 1986 to 1995 in Southern California, we had a radio station called KNAC that played a lot of hard rock and metal. Sometime after I&W was released, I heard Pull Me Under on KNAC. I then bought I&W and was hooked. I first saw DT at a little hole-in-the-wall club in Westminster, CA called The Marquee (which is now a "gentlemen's club") on November 12, 1992. I then saw them at the Rhythm Cafe in San Diego (which was across the street from a strip club) on November 23, 1992. In between those two dates, the band played its first Japanese shows. About a dozen or so people in the audience hung out for about an hour after the show talking with everyone from DT (except Kevin Moore, who never came off the tour bus).
The preface to all this is that I had heard of DT several years earlier. Sometime probably in the spring of 1989, when Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime was at the height of its popularity, I saw something on MTV (I think) where someone was talking about "other bands you might like if you like Queensryche." They mentioned Dream Theater, Fates Warning and Crimson Glory. I immediately went looking for albums by these bands. I found FW's No Exit and was hooked immediately. I could never find anything by DT, although I looked a few times over the next year or so, eventually forgetting about the band until I heard PMU.
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Anyway, I'll leave you with this amusing quote (I'm not sure who is responsible for it but I think it was the editor) regarding When Dream And Day Unite from The Spirit Of Rush Number 9 (Fall 1989)
"The aforementioned opener (A Fortune In Lies) sums up the album completely--a dense hard rockers paradise with more time changes than the entire Rush and Yes back catalogs put together. A drummer who puts Neil Peart to shame, a vocalist fully capable of holding his own and a sound so full that it actually takes 20 plays to hear everything that's going on in the mix, and all this perfectly crafted and laid down on tape in just four weeks.
Quite frankly, this album rubbishes at least three Rush albums, and the entire Yes series, Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery being the only album I can think of in the same league. I never thought it would happen, but this album makes something like Signals sound resolutely boring; I know I'm going to get hate mail for saying so, but I have to be honest...
If Geddy, Neil and Alex have heard this album, then they probably reacted in one of two ways--become blubbering nervous wrecks, in the knowledge they have some serious young competition, or (hopefully) they have pulled out their fingers in order to show that they can indeed rise to the occasion. This album will either bring out the best in our friends or finish them off..."
That quote was what sold me being a Rush fan."
That's hilarious! If whoever wrote that felt that way about WDADU, he must have spontaneously combusted upon hearing I&W, SFAM, etc.
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I know I've mentioned this before . . . .
One of my best friends was a student of John Petrucci. I'm sure he played me DT plenty of times during the WDADU years, but the first I remember is driving to a Knicks game and he played "Learning to Live." I told him it sounded like STYX!!!
Seen them about 20 times since then but not since 1999. I am going in three weeks to the Paramount!
The first show I saw them was at a dump called Sparks. Fun times!
Very interesting,
I heard JP said in an Interview that he taught guitar during the WDADU days specially after Charlie Domnicci left the band. Now I am curious about John Petrucci the teacher yes we know he did some instructional DVDs but his private lessons is not that well publicized IMO, unlike Joe Satriani and Randy Rhoads who is well known to have taught Music early on.
I would love to hear stories from JPs students, I wonder is JP strict but funny type? or the mild with good humor type?
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I know I've mentioned this before . . . .
One of my best friends was a student of John Petrucci. I'm sure he played me DT plenty of times during the WDADU years, but the first I remember is driving to a Knicks game and he played "Learning to Live." I told him it sounded like STYX!!!
Seen them about 20 times since then but not since 1999. I am going in three weeks to the Paramount!
The first show I saw them was at a dump called Sparks. Fun times!
Very interesting,
I heard JP said in an Interview that he taught guitar during the WDADU days specially after Charlie Domnicci left the band. Now I am curious about John Petrucci the teacher yes we know he did some instructional DVDs but his private lessons is not that well publicized IMO, unlike Joe Satriani and Randy Rhoads who is well known to have taught Music early on.
I would love to hear stories from JPs students, I wonder is JP strict but funny type? or the mild with good humor type?
My friend who was one of JP's students is a very quiet and reserved individual. He moved from Long Island to the Las Vegas area. It is very unlikely he would speak to me about it. I know there was a very small group of guys who took lessons from JP. They all kinda ended up knowing each other.
I know my friend went to JP's wedding (the church, not the reception). I'm pretty sure the only way that we knew about the very low-key Ethyl Mertz gig that JP and MP did in the mid 90's was through the students of JP.
The picture I use as my avatar is from that Ethyl Mertz show. I think it was 1995 at a place called the Village Pub (which probably is not there anymore). I don't recall who was playing bass or singing. They did a lot of fun covers. I remember seeing "Fire" on the set list and thinking they were going to do Jimi Hendrix, but I think it was the soing by the Pointer Sisters if I remember correctly.
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My piano teacher gave me the Live at Budokan DVD in 2005. I didn't really like it at first, it was too heavy for my taste back then. I also thought Jordan was a hack, because he made his keys sound like a guitar (his wah-wah lead patch he used in ToT and in the first part of his Budokan solo), so I was like "what's the point in having a keyboard player?" I remember that frustrated me to no end. I was quite the insufferable 15-year-old '70s prog snob back then. JLB's voice also ticked me off, but I really enjoyed Instrumedley. For years, it was the only DT song on my music player.
Fast forward to 2011, I came across the drummer auditions videos. I was amazed by all the great players and the music seemed so much fun, it prompted me to give DT another shot, and it also made me take up drumming (truly a life changing experience).
I remember shuffling through random DT songs, without anything really sticking out, then I put on I&W for the first time. It started out as a neutral, casual music listening experience, but by the time the second chorus of Take the Time came around, I was hooked. JLB's voice was the very thing that finally reeled me in and sealed the deal, he sang incredibly on that album, I've never heard anything like that before (or since, he's a truly unique singer). The equation just hit me, I fell in love and I was never let down, it was a very special moment and the beginning of a new chapter in my life.
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Way back in 1992 I kept hearing the last parts of Pull Me Under on the radio and was hooked, but the damn DJs would never say who it was. It took a couple weeks before I actually heard the artist, title, and full song. Bought Image and Words that very day. Saw them for the first time on the Music In Progress tour in the summer of '93.
And now you know the rest of the story.
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Back in high school, buddy saw part of Score on VH1 Classic. Under A Glass Moon blew him away. Instant fan. He introduced them to me. Instant obsession. Downloaded a bunch of mp3s off of an mp3 sharing site (half of which were JLB solo songs mislabel). My 2 favourite bands at the time were Pink Floyd and Metallica. Lots of time on youtube discovering new songs. A Chance Of Seasons from Live Scenes blew me away. As did The Mirror and Peruvian Skies.
The rest is history.
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For me, it was the G3 DVD that JP did with Satch and Vai. That led me to buy the Budokan DVD of DT before I even bought a full CD of theirs. I was hooked immediately.
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Picked up a copy of Modern Drummer because Peart was on the cover. There was an ad for Tama or something where MP was sitting at his kit and I was blown away by it's size. I believe it mentioned what band he was in.
Few weeks later I was doing one of my 'let's just wander around the music section at Circuit City for an hour or two and see if something pops out at me' and I remembered that ad. I then went and looked for Dream Theater. ACOS was the current release at the time. I flipped through what was there and eventually settled on Awake.
Listened to Erotomania first and then the rest of the album. The rest is history.
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I've told this story on the board before, but I don't mind re-telling it! (Sorry for the RIDICULOUSLY long post!)
In 1998, the summer before high school, my dad brought me to my very first big rock concert. I had gone to my first show the year before, which was "Weird Al" Yankovic. Great show, but it wasn't anything crazy. Anyway, my dad wanted to go see two of his favorite bands play together: Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. He had seen both bands many times in the '70s, but it had been a while since he'd seen either (I don't think he went to many concerts after getting married to my mom). Anyway, we went to the show, and prior to ELP coming on, the opening band was playing. That band happened to be Dream Theater.
We had never heard of DT before this, and were surprised by how many fans they had up in the front of the audience. I don't remember much from this show, but I do remember two moments. One was when they played Hollow Years, and my dad turned to me and said, "This must be their 'Lucky Man!'" And the other moment was really cool. During Peruvian Skies, the band pulled out quotes of "Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd and "Enter Sandman" by Metallica (as documented on Once In A Livetime). Now, my dad being a big '70s rocker, obviously, started nudging me saying, "This is Pink Floyd, this is Pink Floyd!!" when Have a Cigar was being played. And myself, growing up on Metallica (they were my favorite band, more on that later...), did the same back to him when Sandman got whipped out. It was a really cool moment.
As the concert went on, ELP came out and completely, IMO, destroyed both other bands that night haha. So much so that I went out and got their Greatest Hits not long after and fell in love with it. And while they were cool to see, Deep Purple did not hold my interest as much as ELP did. And I kind of forgot about DT since I was so into ELP.
Fast forward to 1999, I see Scenes From a Memory on the shelf of a local CD shop, pick it up, and say to myself, "Hey! It's THOSE guys! haha, cool!"... and then proceed to put it back on the shelf. I vividly remember this moment, and sad to say I regret it still, to this day. I should have picked this album up on that day.
Fast forward to 2003, my favorite band METALLICA put out their first new album in five years, and it's pretty much a massive disappointment. After this, I'm looking for some new music (and a new discography to dive into). I start thinking of bands I may want to get into, and DT is the first to come to mind. Not one to ever go spending money all willy-nilly (re: the last paragraph), I go do some research (ie. download files from Napster! - Hey! I was in college, I ain't got no money! haha). So, I download two of the first songs I can see on Napster. They are "The Spirit Carries On" and "Voices." When listening to Spirit, I immediately get a Pink Floyd vibe. Love it. Then Voices, I like the soaring vocals, and it almost seems like, at the end of the song it would go into the next song. This intrigues me.
I go to the store to pick up a DT album. I see Scenes From a Memory on the shelf again. I WILL NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE. I pick it up and pop it in on the ride home. "Regression" comes on and I immediately hear the same chord progression and vocal melody from Spirit. Love it.
Then "Overture 1928" starts... then the drums start pumping in... a quick pause... the band explodes into the song... and I had found my new favorite band.
From there I went and picked up the other releases: Awake, Train of Thought (on release day), A Change of Seasons, When Dream and Day Unite, Images & Words, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and Falling Into Infinity. Love every note, and have never stopped. First day buy every time for me.
As an aside to this story, I feel very blessed that I was able to pay my dad back for that MASSIVELY influential first concert. I got to bring him to see DT in 2007, Emerson and Lake in 2010, and Deep Purple in 2011. He's unfortunately not around anymore, but his influence on me and my musical journey will always be here.
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As an aside to this story, I feel very blessed that I was able to pay my dad back for that MASSIVELY influential first concert. I got to bring him to see DT in 2007, Emerson and Lake in 2010, and Deep Purple in 2011. He's unfortunately not around anymore, but his influence on me and my musical journey will always be here.
Very cool.
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I first saw/heard DT on MTV with their single Pull Me Under. To be honest, I don't remember much about my impressions of I&W beyond that song, and in fact was disappointed by Awake.
I later returned to DT with Scenes From a Memory in 1999, and dug the entire concept, but not enough to really become a major fan, and 6 Degrees was so weird, that I kind of lost track of them again for a few years.
However over the course of 2004 and 2005, I started torrenting live shows when I first got broadband, and DT was one of the many bands I checked out and with each live bootleg, I got more and more into them. I really started to "get" what the band was doing, although it took me several years to catch up on their studio work. Pretty much from Octovarium on, I've been a major fan of the band--as they are easily in my top five of all time.
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Read a review of the When Dreams And Day..cd in a Rush fanzine in the late 80's, bought the album straight away, didn't like it much. Therefore didn't listen to them again for years, heard Pull me Under - hated it, confirmed my thoughts about the band and the first album. Years later I saw the DVD of Octavarium and rediscovered the band...
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My first exposure was seeing JP play his solo stuff, when I bought the G3 2005 DVD, because I loved Vai. My reaction was basically 'Woah, who is this introvert? Not as good as Vai, that's for sure. I guess the songs are cool though.' Sometime after that, a friend lent me the Live In Tokyo 93 dvd, and I was like 'WOAH THIS IS THE SAME GUY? HOLY FUCKBALLS. PULL ME UNDER, PULL ME UNDER, PULL ME UNDER DA NA NA NA NA. ALL THAT I FEEL IS HOTTER AND SPITE. ALL I GOTTA DO IS SET IT RIGHT'
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In '92 i read a review in a Dutch magazine called Aardschok which said that if you liked a combination of Yes Rush Metallica and where in for adventurous music you had to give this album a try.So i made a list of things i wanted to hear when i went to the music store and well they became my nr 1 band,and still are !!!
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My father bought all Dream Theater albums as soon as he could (wdadu back in 1989) - and listened to them a lot. I never really paid attention to what he was playing.
1994 - I bought a "Various Artists" CD called "Even More Power Ballads" - consisting of tracks like "Cats in the Cradle" done by Ugly Kid Joe, "Wild World" done by Mr. Big and "Another Day" by Dream Theater. Why on earth there were TWO Cat Stevens covers on the same CD I have no idea, but...
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Even-More-Power-Ballads/release/2488544
I showed this to MP, and he'd never actually seen it before in his life. But since DT is a chapter behind him, he found it more curious than wanting it...
A year later I started high school, and came in contact with some people who liked Dream Theater. Since my father liked them a lot, and I kinda liked the Another Day track, I was kinda pushed into listening more. First "real" exposure was ACOS CD, then Awake, then IAW. When, a couple of years later, FII was released, it became a bonding experience for me and my father. He brought me to the first show in Oslo in 1998. DT became -the- thing we had. So when I started becoming more and more involved in the DT "world", as it were, first helping Itchy at the official site with moderation of the chat channel that was on there (from 1999 till 2007 in fact!), doing some coding help (I did some javascript stuff for the image gallery for the SFAM tour photos)... Then, when there was a norwegian fan club starting up, I was kinda asked to overview their activities so that the fan club could see that they were serious. This was 2000. In 2002 I took over the norwegian fan club website, and became one of three "people" who ran the fan club. The "leader" left when he had a child, and we were two people from 2004 and on (or so). 2004 was also when I could repay my father for getting me into DT. We had the chance to interview MP - and I sent my father to do so - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9DLYHr7Vok .
2008 my father was diagnosed with cancer in the intestines. Three years later he succumbed to the illness. We played Spirit Carries On in the funeral, due to the immense meaning it had to our family - DT was the glue. I think this is why I'm still working very hard at what essentially is a HOBBY that I don't get paid a dime for. Other than being able to say that DT are kinda like my friends now.
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Kim, if you don't mind me asking, how old was your father?
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He was 53 when he died.
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I'm very sorry, Noxon. Fathers are amazing blokes, are they not? I've been missing mine daily for these past 15 years.
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That's horrible. So sorry to hear that.
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1994 - I bought a "Various Artists" CD called "Even More Power Ballads" - consisting of tracks like "Cats in the Cradle" done by Ugly Kid Joe, "Wild World" done by Mr. Big and "Another Day" by Dream Theater. Why on earth there were TWO Cat Stevens covers on the same CD I have no idea, but...
Cats in the Cradle isn't a Cat Stevens song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_in_the_Cradle
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My friend lent me a couple of Dream Theater albums and at first I thought they were boring.
A few years later I decided to try listening to them again and I was hooked.
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I was in 10th grade marching band back in the late summer 1991 in NW Pennsylvania. I played snare and was working with my drum instructor - I remember at the time, Rush's Roll The Bones just came out and he was pissed (as many were at the time) over Rush "rapping" on the album's title track - we started talking about some other progressive bands and he gave me a blank tape to check out of a band he called Dream Theater (Remember this was back in the days of tape trading - Something Mike P said he was heavily involved in promoting DT back then). The funny thing with the tape was it was a copy of WDADU When Day and Dream Unite and this tape copy actually had the second side on the first and vice versa - so the first song I heard was The Ones Who Helped to Set the Sun - The moment Portnoy's double bass kicked in three minutes into the song - my mouth dropped and I was hooked - I wore that tape out over the next year - Then a year later I heard Pull Me Under on MTV and got I&W - then I first saw them at a club called The Station in Orlando in Dec 1992 and then a month later in Buffalo in 1993. Been a fan ever since, end of story.