News: Welcome back, Mike Portnoy!

I assumed he meant a wider variety of material when it comes to genres/styles, plus pretty much all of her songs are vocal-heavy, while I know Bruce's songs tend to have more solos/live jams.  Ultimately, comparing the two is probably not necessary.

Quote from: lightningbolt on December 05, 2023, 11:27:48 PM

I met my wife via online dating about 10 years ago.  We both wish we had a better story regarding how we met, but it is what it is.  I know a ton of couples that met the same way, I doubt I'm unique in that regard. 

We've now been married for 6.5 years and have 2 children.  She still doesn't enjoy DT at all, aside from kinda being ok with The Spirit Carries On.  Our musical tastes are very different, which isn't a big deal to me and we've actually turned each other onto stuff we wouldn't otherwise have listened to.  Maybe my kids will eventually enjoy DT on some level

One word of advice would be not to overdo it on the first date.  You don't want to get stuck doing dinner with someone that you clearly have no chemistry with.  You can always turn the coffee or drinks date into dinner if things are going well.

I didn't write this post, but - except for the "having 2 children" (we brought our own into the relationship) - I could have.  We ended up going to this little restaurant/bar, and sat down, the waiter brought waters and we sat and talked for almost two and a half hours and never ordered a thing.  Not even a drink.  As we were walking out, the owner came out and asked if everything was ok.   I'm about as smooth as an unpaved road with the ladies, but I was on point and said "everything was perfect; that was our first date and we just got lost in talking".   We've been together ever since. 

Postscript:  Our first Christmas together, I went to the restaurant and gave one of the waiters $20 for two of their water glasses.  We still have them.

That is awesome, good for you guys!  We went to a Starbucks after 3 or so back and forth emails on Match and sat outside for hours talking.  I was too stupid to suggest going to dinner when it was obviously going very well.  A fact my wife likes to point out every now and again.  Honestly, I didn't want to push my luck after what was clearly a good first date.

A few days later, we sat outside at a restaurant and ended up staying there well past when they closed (owner didn't care).

Mostly Autumn - Passengers

Quote from: hefdaddy42 on December 04, 2023, 09:50:38 AM

Steve Morse Band - Structural Damage

Is there a more goose bump inducing song than "Just Out of Reach"? Love all the SMB discs. I'm partial to High Tension Wires...but technically that's a solo album. And if you haven't checked out Southern Steel, Coast to Coast, and Stressfest from that era in the 90's....they are all just amazing albums.

Oh yeah, I'm aware. 

Quote from: lightningbolt on December 05, 2023, 11:05:32 PM

The epic is just so "blah."  Maybe it will "click" for me one day like BC&SL eventually did.  I haven't given up on it yet.  Seeing how much some of you guys enjoy View makes me question what I'm missing and makes me more willing to give it a chance going forward

View was probably the Dream Theater album that took the longest to grow on me. It's definitely a very dense album and many of the songs, particularly Sleeping Giant and the title track, took more than a few listens to really 'stick' in my brain. Nowadays I rank it as the best of the Mangini-era alongside ADTOE.

Hopefully that will eventually be the case for me.  I didn't enjoy BC&SL until around 2017.  So, it would be par for the course for me with some of DT's material.

One thing I'm curious about is those cameo videos (and apologies if those have been dissected here previously).

I'm no vocal expert, but the Cameo version of Endless Sacrifice on YouTube was from me purchasing that as a gift for a few of my DT buddies.  FWIW, I thought he did a nice job on it