How did you Get into Dream Theater?

[Jaffa]

A friend linked me to ACoS. 

[jsem]

Saw JP videos on youtube. Checked out his band on Spotify. First song was PMU, second or third song what 8vm. I fell in love with 8vm pretty quickly, especially Full Circle.

Then I listened to all the albums.

[lonestar]

Heard Pull Me Under on the radio way back when.  Fell in love immediatly.

[Gadough]

1. Bought Opeth CD
2. Store employee says "Hey man if you like these guys you should try Dream Theater."
3. Went home, typed Pull Me Under into Youtube.
4. ???
5. Profit!

[ytserush]

Some of you have heard this before:

"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

[Nekov]

I was on lunch break at Highschool and met a friend outside. He was listening to his discman and I got next to him and asked what he was listening to. He just gave me the headphones and it was SFAM. I didn't like it at the time because I just listened to pure 4/4 metal. A couple of weeks later I was at another friends hous with this guy and he made me listen to The Glass Prision and PMU. Now, that was more of what I was looking for so I thought I should give this band another try.

To this day, SFAM is still my favorite album ever. I am not ashamed to recognize how wrong I was.

[blackngold29]

Through Adrenaline Mob.

I just did a laughing facepalm.


No offense to AM or any fans.

[patthemetaller]

I've been listening to Metal and Rock since around 1980. I was looking for a genre of music that was related but also challenged the listener. Also liking blues and a bit of jazz I discovered Prog which encouraged diversity and open mindedness: none of this "you can't like RATT if you're a Thrasher" or vice versa. DT combined for me my love of heavy metal and the more progressive elements of music. Thinking man's (and woman's) music. So round about 1999 I discovered DT, just before SFAM was released.

DT are without doubt my favourite band and the enjoyment I get from progressive metal and rock can be attributed to the path DT put me on!!!!

 

[senecadawg2]

Saw Hollow Years live at Budokan. I had no idea who it was. Almost a year later I found out about Dream Theater. I wasn't a big fan at first, only listening to Hollow Years and some of the lighter songs (I'd never listened to music with 'metal elements'). Then I took a bit of a leap of faith and bought SFAM, reading that it was one of the best albums. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard, and it took me a little while to start enjoying it. Now it's my second favorite album, only behind I&W.

[Outcrier]

The first song i've heard from them was The Dance Of Eternity...and i thought "this is amazing", then i heard the Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence(the song)... Instantly became my favorite band.
(The other day, i listened to Metropolis Pt.1 and Octavarium...that was pretty epic!)

[Blazinarps]

Read JP's column in Guitar World teaching the atonal guitar solo in Beyond This Life. I was sitting there as a teenager looking at the sheet music wondering how it was possible to play that music at that tempo. Bought Scenes, looked at the booklet and almost didn't bother to listen to the music once I saw there was a keyboardist. Decided I had to listen to it. Listened to the hypnotherapist bit, wondered what the hell was going on. A couple minutes later I had decided this was the best band I had ever heard in my life. Literally been my favorite band since that point (2000ish.) Now I get to meet them in about a month. Oh yeah, I also have learned how to play keyboard/piano since then.

[mrjazzguitar]

My chiropractor showed me Peruvian Skies many years ago and I loved it, but wasn't hooked yet. When a friend lent me Train of Thought, I was hooked forever.

[djentlemen]

watched a flash animation 6 years ago, had dance of eternity as bgm

yeah it kinda progressed from there

[RG93]

It was December 2009. A7X's the Rev had just passed on, and I found a news article about it online.

In it, it listed The Rev's main influence as MP. Being a big fan of his drumming, I decided to see how much of an influence Portnoy had on Jimmy, so I googled Mike Portnoy.

That's when I first heard about DT, but what really hooked me is a combination of listening to PMU, 8VM (track) and 6DOIT (track). I remember being blown away by Six Degrees' awesomeness and the concept of Octavarium (album).

Now that MP has left and moved on, and Mangini has replaced him, I'm excited to hear ADTOE, having restrained from listening to all previews/snippets/singles released already

[CrimsonSunrise]

Super question.
I'm 47 years now and in a way all my life i was searching for "my" music.
first time i heard about DT was early 1995, at that time i was listening to bands like thin lizzy, van halen, iron maiden but in a way i was still searching.
i'm a cook and was working in gothenbourg, sweden that time. a guy who worked in the kitchen said : you are listening to cool bands but the best is DT you have to listen to them, but don't buy their new cd(awake) take the one before(i&w) it's easier to begin to.
when i was walking in the store they just had  awake so i bought it.
i have to admit i didn't like it, i had a little very bad mobile cd player with a bad sound so awake sounded very cold and unusal for me.
End of part one.
2006 i was back in germany and had bought a big led screen to watch the soccer world cup in germany, unluckyly the tv broke down after two weeks. when the guy from samsung came to repair the screen i wanted to show him whats wrong, i had a pink floyd dvd in my player so i turned it on. the guy said oh cool but there is a band called DT , you should see their version of dark side of the moon, you can order it from their homepage.
i bought that plus the maiden and metallica covers then I&W, then the rest then everything you can get in official bootlegs.
2007 i was at my first DT concert in porto, since then 7 times two m&g, the last concert was 4th of july in rome.
i have become a DT maniac, its just what i was always looking for, heavy , melodic, never booring, just great.
awake has become a big favourite, i love the new stuff as well as the old stuff, i ordered already the deluxe version of  adtoe and hope they do many concerts on mondays(the restaurant is only closed on mondays, my only day off) in europe. hope they go on for at least 20 more years.
 

Man...you're like my twin   

I'm also 47, and was a cook at the time, 1995, when a buddy of mine told me I had to pop this CD in my truck...yeah right... how many times have we heard that before?  Anyways, it was Awake...and of course I was just floored.  Like you I was looking for "My" music, and I had undoubtedly just found it.

[obscure]

I had this friend from high school, we used to listen to some metal bands together, it was our thing. Then we sort of fell out of touch until years later we spoke again in another city (during uni). At some point, we were in my car and Rush was on. He said "oh, you like prog, I've been listening to DT for a while now, they're great" and I thought I'd check them out.



Although, I wont lie to you DTF; everytime someone asks me this question, I tell another memory.....so don't be surprised if at some point I answer the same question with "Labrie spoke to me in my dream" or something... 

none of those is lie though....

[MRix85]

Hi, my first post.

I was a fan of Joe Satriani and brought the G3 Live in tokyo in late 2006. I remember thinking who is John Petrucci? I played the first song and loved it. I looked him up and found Dream Theater and downloaded Metropolis Part 1, it was exactly the type of music I was looking for. I downloaded a few others before buying Images and Words, Awake and Octavarium together. I got the rest (including all live albums and DVD's) before Systematic Chaos came out. Been hooked ever since.

[Tumdace]

Mine is extremely weird:

I was playing Day of Defeat Source in college, and the one server I joined had a radio in game that you could listen to.

I chose a "metal" station, and first song playing was The Glass Prison.

Instantly loved the song. So I looked into who did it. Then I got a few albums (I believe SDOIT and ACOS) and then once I picked up I&W, instantly fell in love.

[FluffyMcFluffington]

Mine is extremely weird:

I was playing Day of Defeat Source in college, and the one server I joined had a radio in game that you could listen to.

I chose a "metal" station, and first song playing was The Glass Prison.

Instantly loved the song. So I looked into who did it. Then I got a few albums (I believe SDOIT and ACOS) and then once I picked up I&W, instantly fell in love.

LOL that's awesome.  That's actually how I got into trance music, by listening to it through a CS:S server.

But my story of getting into Dream Theater was quite typical.  A friend in college recommended them to me so I searched for "Pull Me Under" in LimeWire and downloaded it.  Fell in love immediately.

I tell you...Pull Me Under is quite a hook...

[farsight]

Well, I got into Dream Theater somewhere around late 2006. My story of getting into DT is a bit strange I think. I'm a guitar player and at the time I was obsessed with finding new video guitar lessons. One day I heard that JP's "Rock Discipline" is one of the best instructional DVD's available, so I immediately got it. After watching the whole thing and nearly putting my guitar on ebay () because of how stunned I was by his skills I thought that I have to check this Dream Theater out. I started quite unfortunately with WDADU. First couple of songs felt meh, but when I heard Ytse Jam I fell in love. Then I heard Octavarium and that was it !

Man, thanks for reminding me how I also got into DT, it was through Rock Discipline, and of course Adam02.

[jmbeat]

I was at a FIGHT show (featuring Rob Halford for those who don't know) and I heard the music being played between the opening act was amazing I would never forget it, and then a few weeks later I fell on hard times and started working the graveyard shift at a local grocery store, and my immediate supervisor drove me home one morning and played me I&W and HOLY SHIT it was the music I heaard at the FIGHT show and ever since.. you know the rest and thousands of dollars later i will finally meet them in clearwater

[Setebos]

I had the opportunity to browse the music library of a friend of mine. I was looking for metal bands and after listening to a few sound snippets I basically copied every album, which I felt could potentially coincide with my taste, on my computer. SFAM was one of those albums.
That was the initial step, but it wasn't love at first sight. I think it just lay there on my computer for a couple of weeks until someday, bored with my old stuff, I copied it onto my mp3 player.

Now, at that time I was preparing for my driving test and went to driving school twice a week for theory lessons. And on this way I really started to listen to SFAM for the first time.
I didn't really comprehend, what kind of masterpiece I was listening to, but somehow I was intrigued and for a very specific reason:
the mentioning of a character named "Nicholas" in several of the songs.
The reason why that is interesting to me is that my first name is actually Nicholas and naturally I wanted to find out what's up with that character that dares to carry my name. So I listened to the album even more, read up about SFAM and the underlying concept, about Dream Theater in general and all the other albums.
Since then, they constantly have been my favorite band and still are today.  

[FluffyMcFluffington]

A friend linked me to ACoS. 

That was pretty much the song that convinced me that I must listen to Dream Theater for the rest of my life and beyond.  God what a friggin beast of a song...

[jjrock88]

In 2000 I bought a Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles magazine (Canadian mag) and they listed the top 50 heavy metal cds of the 90's.  Number 1 was I&W.  It was listed above Helloween "Better then Raw", Bruce Dickinson "Accident of Birth" and "Chemical Wedding".  I had heard the name DT before, but didn't know any of their stuff.  I figured if they listed I&W above those other discs, it must be pretty good.  So I bought it without knowing any tracks and immediately became a fan.

[Accelerando]

I came across them in the Alter Bridge forum in 2004. I started a Rush thread, and from their DT was highly recommended to me. I've always heard about DT, but never actually listen to their music. Someone posted "The Glass Prison" and i was completely blown away. Then I started listening to other songs like "Under A Glass Moon", "Pull Me Under", and  "Hell's Kitchen", and everything I heard was just fantastic music. And they were really easy to get into with my metal and classic rock likings. I believe i first got Six Degrees on Inner Turbulence, then got Images and Words, and started my collection from there.  

[Metropolis Pt. II]

Was watching the DBZ special "History of Trunks" in 6th or 7th grade (2004ish I'd say), and I heard "Home" played on it during the beginning. Needless to say I was blown away, thought it was some of the best music I had ever heard. At the time I assumed it was just music done by the composer, Bruce Faulconer.

Fast forward to a year or two later, my friend tells me I have to check out this awesome song by this band that his uncle got him into. Ironically, it was "Home" the rest is history...

This is the very similar to how I discovered them. I saw History of Trunks in 2004, loved the music a lot, and then my uncle showed me DT a few weeks later. Once I made the connection that DT's music was used in History of Trunks, my mind was blown. Home and The Dance of Eternity were my two favorite tracks for a long time. SFAM has been my favorite album ever since.

[Orion1967]

"How did you first get into Dream Theater?"

I auditioned along with 6 other drummers and got the part.

ROFLMAO!
You sir, win this thread.   I was giggling to myself when I read the title and thought the EXACT same thing and was gonna post it. 

------
I was working out of town on a long assignment when a buddy turned me on to to I&W.  I listened to his CD, promplty went out and bout my own copy, listened to it back to back about 6 times through and the rest is history.  This was in 1993 I think it was.

[obscure]

"How did you first get into Dream Theater?"

I auditioned along with 6 other drummers and got the part.

ROFLMAO!
You sir, win this thread.   I was giggling to myself when I read the title and thought the EXACT same thing and was gonna post it. 

 

how did I miss this??? 

[Genowyn]

I was at a record store trying to pick up Children of Bodom's Hate Crew Deathroll, and they had a 2/$20 deal on with it. Another album with the same deal was Scenes from a Memory. I picked it up and thought it was okay but I wasn't blown away by it (if you haven't guessed I had poor taste in those days)

A year later I go to the mall to buy a t-shirt (I think it was a Children of Bodom T-shirt  ). I had about $15 left over and they were selling Systematic Chaos for like $12 at a store in the mall, so I bought it. I greatly enjoyed Systematic Chaos (don't judge me).

[Shadow2222]

Man this topic brings back good old DTF memories   
Here is my story from a topic in 2009.

I wish I had some cool story, but the truth is last September, I had just got Rock Band 2 for my 17th birthday. I already had Rock Band 1 and had downloaded Constant Motion (simply because it sounded hard to play on Expert guitar). I honestly thought the song sucked, but my friend kept asking me to play it because he liked to see me play (or should I say butcher?) the solo. He hated the song itself though (he was just starting to like metal).

Anyways, then I saw that this band had a song in RB2, so I started thinking to myself, "oh no here we go again," so I started to play Panic Attack. I actually kind of liked it. Even though I wasn't sold yet, I thought, "I have to look up these musicians, they play like crazy. I wonder if they can play live." I looked "Dream Theater Live" up on YouTube, and it was the Score (2nd disc) version of Another Day. I was blown away, but I thought I looked up the wrong band, because Another Day sounded nothing like Constant Motion.

Fast forward about two months, and I hadn't really researched them anymore. My friend was over and asked me to play Constant Motion again. I said, "Fine, but I swear I'm never playing this song again after this." I played it, and something clicked this time. I really was enjoying the song. I looked up Dream Theater again, looked up some of their other stuff and noticed that they had a song on Guitar Hero World Tour (I had it but hadn't unlocked the song yet). I played through the game and finally got to "Pull Me Under."

My life changed after I heard that song. I immediately ran out and chanced it: I bought all of their albums from Images and Words to Systematic Chaos (they were cheap at my local cd store). I sat down and spent a whole day just listening to the albums.

Fast forward another few months, and here I am, with all of their albums, dvds, and most of their Ytsejam releases. Whew, sorry I went on so long. But yeah, I have to thank Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour for getting me into Dream Theater.

Of course, I now am an even more insane of a fan, waiting in eager anticipation of ADToE 

[Jaq]

Saw Pull Me Under on MTV. Bought Images and Words. The end.

[Zydar]

I would love to have been around when Images was new. To see them in concert during that tour.

[Elite]

I could have sworn I've answered this question already, a couple of weeks ago on this forum.
Anyway, here goes again.

Whenever I was in my mother's car, there would be one of three CD's playing, these three being Images & Words, Metropolis Pt. 2 and Shadow Gallery's Carved in Stone. As a young boy I was hearing this stuff all the time, at home as well, where lots of music was played. when I got older and looking for the right music I went through all of the phases (I listened to basically everything), before settling to experimental rock and, later on, metal (Metallica etc.). I once heard the song Under a Glass Moon somewhere and recognised it as one of those songs I used to hear so often, so long ago. I went out to buy Images & Words to hear it again and was blown away. From there on I gradually made my way up to the rest of the albums. I can remember having a day off from school and shuffling through my mother's CD drawer and putting on Awake. This was then the most awesome thing I had ever heard. This was also the second DT album I bought and remained my 2nd favourite (after I&W).

From there on my music style developed and I haven't looked back since. Ah, good old times. I passed Dream Theater on to many other people, including my best friend, who was then also looking for the right music. I gave him a copy of Images & Words for his birthday. He never looked back either. We are now together in a band, making progmetal ourselves

[weddingnails]

my friend made me listen to TOT right after it was released and i was amazed.back then i was more into metal so TOT blew me away.then i watched the budokan dvd and i couldnt believe they were human.so i got all their other albums and that turned me into more of a prog fan then a metal fan.DT has opened me up to alot of great music.

[Dublagent66]

Hmmm, never seen a thread like this before.

1992:  Friend loans me a copy of I&W.  The rest is history...