John Petrucci was at the screening last night of the Live at Luna Park DVD at Island 16 on Long Island, NY. The movie theater was like 3/4 full and there seemed to be a lot of his family members there. It was kinda cool watching the DVD for the first time with the Petrucci family around me. People were hooting and clapping after every solo and every song, and John got a standing ovation at the end of the screening.
Anyway, John was waiting in the lobby and talking with fans before the show. When it was my turn, I told him that I've been a fan since Awake and I even have a DT decal on my car -- I'm basically "all about Dream Theater," I said. That being said, I told him I can comfortably look him in the eye right now and without hesitation say that the new album is the greatest thing he's ever done. I said it's better than Images & Words, in my opinion. I said it was incredibly gutsy of the band to go the self-titled route, because they are basically saying they feel like this is their best album -- and if it falls flat they could look pretty silly. It was a big risk, but they pulled it off. I said there's always some fans that won't like something, but I'm one of those long-time fans that is super passionate about DT and he should know that this new album is as good as it gets for me.
He seemed genuinely touched, like he's hoping for that kind of reaction to this album and it was satisfying to actually hear it. He even turned toward me a couple minutes later after taking some pics with fans to continue the conversation. I also pointed out that I'm one of those guys who is a hardcore fan of Kevin Moore -- and John said "Well, that's really saying something then," regarding my praise of the new album. No doubt, I came across as a fan boy, but I really wanted him to know that he's hit this album out of the ballpark.
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Topic: John Petrucci last night at the Luna Park DVD screening on Long Island, NY! (Read 4167 times)