how did you discover Dream Theater?

[erasiel]

I'm curious to hear how people first became exposed to DT. Happenstance? Recommendation? Meet cute?

My story - well, it was 1994 and back then there these things called "record stores" and I had wandered into a Tower Records. Specifically the one in Nanuet NY, just a few miles from Bear Track Studios.

Anyway at that time Tower had these cool listening stations with earphones where you could check out new releases. And I played Awake and I remember within 10 seconds of hearing 6:00 I was sold, and done. It sounded like a cool and fresh take on Queensryche to me. I remember the little description next to the album said that it was Dream Theater's second album. For years, I had no idea of the existence of WDADU because of that. I have no idea how we got ANYTHING done pre-Internet.

Another quick story. A a couple of years later, my brother, who I had gotten into DT by then too, was buying dog foot at a pet store also in Nanuet, and saw a woman with a DT t-shirt in the store, and he complimented her on it.

She said "Thanks - I am Mike Portnoy's wife."

YES! That totally happened.

-Ethan

[RMGadelha]

Erm... Rock Band 2... yeah =S

[Dark Castle]

Metal Hammer UK reviewed Black Clouds & Silver Linings, and I thought it sounded interesting, so I bought it.

[Lucien]

Sophomore year in high school.

Computer class.

We can do basically whatever we want after we finish our daily assignment.

Last.fm.

Artists related to Rush.

A song called Octavarium comes up.

Hooked.

[The Letter M]

Another one of these threads? Not that I care much but I feel like we get one of these on a monthly basis

Anyways, for me, it was about a decade ago when I was really getting in to Rush, and as I browsed Amazon.com for more albums, I found reviews for a band named Dream Theater, whose early work was said to have been inspired by Rush, so I got their first five albums and was blown away, then caught up with SDOIT and TOT. My first new DT release was LAB, and studio album 8VM, and I have been waiting on the edge of my seat for new DT (almost) every year since!

-Marc.

[Woodworker1]

I was working out in a Navy gym and heard this amazing music over the gym speakers.  I went down to the front desk to ask what the name of the band was.  The lady didn't know; she was just playing something her co-worker gave her (the CD wasn't labeled).  I was determined to find out the name of the band.  I waited 20 minutes at the desk for the guy who owned the CD to show up.  The lady was amused I waited so long; she didn't even like the music.  He filled me in on DT.  I had never heard of the term progressive before.  Turns out he was the son of the base commander.  I went home and bought BCASL and was hooked.

[Mosh]

Saw them open for Iron Maiden in 2010, As I Am rocked my face off. Picked up Awake a few weeks later and haven't looked back since. 

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I wrote a fairly long post about this a while ago, so I'm just gonna quote it.

I was on a political forum a few years back (still am, actually, though I don't post much as politics tends to just piss me off nowadays) and people were discussing Jon Huntsman as a contender for the nomination.

Someone mentioned that he (Huntsman) was a fan of Dream Theater, and I'm slightly fuzzy on exactly how it was said, but someone posted something to the effect of "there's only so many extended drum solos a person can take".

This piqued my interest, so I looked them up on Wikipedia. It mentioned that they were known for technical proficiency, but never got much radio play. I read some more, decided it was something I might like, and YouTube'd them.

Somewhat fittingly, the first song I heard was "Pull Me Under" as it was the first search result. I didn't think too much of it at first. I mean, it was good enough. The playing was top-notch, vocals were excellent, but it didn't really resonate with me at the time. (I was pretty into power metal at the time, so I guess I was looking for something"catchier").

Still, a couple of weeks later, I was rolling through my YouTube history (as I do when I'm bored) and found it. I thought, "well, I'll listen to that again,". So I did, and it was awesome! I couldn't believe I hadn't cared for it the first time. I looked up several other songs, Take The Time, Another Day, and loved those too.

Then I figured, "well, this stuff is all from the 90s. I should check out their recent stuff." Quick search of Wikipedia shows their newest album was Black Clouds. So I listen to A Nightmare To Remember.

I did not like it. At all. It was way too heavy, (power metal, remember ) and it just didn't sound like the Dream Theater I loved (for all of one week). Then I heard the Beautiful Agony section, and loved it. Then Count Of Tuscany, and so on. Eventually I grew to love the whole album. (too-heavy parts included )

I bought the live version of Six Degrees from the Amazon MP3 store (¢99 for 42 minutes, can't beat that) After listening to it about a dozen times, I decided this was my favorite band. I ordered the CD of Black Clouds (which is  one of the first three CDs I ever bought with my own money, the other two being Avantasia's The Scarecrow and Ayreon's 01011001 at the same time). I loved it, and the next time I had money, I bought I&W, Awake and Scenes.

This was the inception of my love for Dream Theater, and I owe it all to that condescending guy on some forum. I don't remember who it was, or I'd go thank him. Anyway, you probably weren't expecting this novel-esque reply, so I'll end this here.

tl;dr some guy on a forum recommended them.

[bosk1]

1992 - Pull Me Under on the radio.  Bought I&W.  Liked it, but whatever.
1999 - Went into record store.  Looking for Doro album.  Saw "Dream Theater" tab.  "LOLwut?  Metropolis pt. 2??  Dude, I'm buying it!"  Loved it.  Picked up missing back catalog and became uber fan.

[erasiel]

Another one of these threads? Not that I care much but I feel like we get one of these on a monthly basis

Sorry - I'm new and haven't finished catching up on the 78 pages of old threads.  But I am really enjoying the stories that have been posted!

[JayOctavarium]

This is just one of those threads that has a new reincarnation every 6 months or so.




Long story short: My buddy caught SCORE on VH1 Classic around the time it came out. He was hooked. He then spent the next couple months getting me hooked. I'll admit the first couple tracks I downloaded were  Learning To Live, Dance of E, and a couple Elements of Persuasion tracks labeled as DT (LOLOLOL).

I then became obsessed with Octavarium. And then the whole thing.

[Tom Bombadil]

Back around 2008 I was a huge metallica fan. I was only in 8th grade and was big on playing Dtar Ears Battlefront 2. Met this guy online and we were talking about metallica and he says his favorite band is Dream Theater and recommends the song As I Am. Great first song for me to hear back then, and pretty soon I opened up to the progressive side of DT and the next 4 years was nothin but DT. I owe that random gamer a lot.

[YouMakeMeSick]

1992- On Rock Video Monthly. Saw "Pull Me Under" and ran out to Sam Goody and got the longbox CD version on Images and Words. A month later, found WDADU on cassette on Columbia House. Even MP was surprised to see that tape when he signed it for me in '02...

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

1992- On Rock Video Monthly. Saw "Pull Me Under" and ran out to Sam Goody and got the longbox CD version on Images and Words. A month later, found WDADU on cassette on Columbia House. Even MP was surprised to see that tape when he signed it for me in '02...

Hey, is your username by any chance an Egypt Central reference?

[krands85]

At some point between the release of Octavarium and Systematic Chaos, one of my friends played a track from Octavarium when he was driving me home from somewhere. I can't remember which song it was - I assume TRoAE - but the journey wouldn't have been very long, so either I got hooked right away or stayed in the car once we'd arrived back at my house and finished listening to at least that 1 song

I checked out the rest of the album and enjoyed it, but I sort of forgot about them for a while until SC came out. It was only then that I began to explore the rest of their catalogue. Coming from a more metal background (eg. Metallica, Iron Maiden), I searched online to see what was considered DT's heaviest album - Train of Thought was the obvious consensus so I checked it out and loved it. It was my favourite DT album for quite a while (ItNoG and Endless Sacrifice duelling for my top song). Eventually I began to appreciate the genius of I&W (after only really liking Metropolis from it at one stage) and it overtook ToT - though it's still my #2 album.

No idea if I'd even have listened to them or heard of them by now if my friend hadn't played that song in his car that day around 7 years ago. Yet now I'm totally obsessed, they're just head and shoulders above every other band I like and have introduced me to a whole new type of music that I adore. February will be the third time I've seen them live and I'm travelling almost 300 miles to do so - I would never even think of doing that for any other band.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

All of these stories make me happy.

[DreamTension]

My dad got Scenes based on a recommendation from a friend.  He played it for me a couple of times, but it took a good 6 months for it to set in. I was a senior in high school.  I remember the drumming was unlike anything I had ever heard.  I then discovered LTE and was instantly hooked!  I have seem them 7 times since including the SFAM tour.

I remember waiting anxiously for the release of SDOIT.  The Glass Prison brought tears to my eyes as it ear fucked me in the parking lot of Best Buy. 

[Ħ]

Friend from marching band showed me The Glass Prison, The Dance of Eternity, and Metropolis my sophomore year of high school. I've been a follower since.

[Another_Won]

1992 - Pull Me Under on the radio.  Bought I&W.  Liked it, but whatever.
1999 - Went into record store.  Looking for Doro album.  Saw "Dream Theater" tab.  "LOLwut?  Metropolis pt. 2??  Dude, I'm buying it!"  Loved it.  Picked up missing back catalog and became uber fan.

Kinda the same for me. Except it wasn't until 2009 that I found them again.  Looked up what they had done since last hearing them

[TheGreatPretender]

I heard some of their songs on the Dragon Ball Z special, History of Trunks. It featured Home, Overture 1928, Dance of Eternity and Through Her Eyes. Best soundtrack to any DBZ movie, ever!

Anyway, my friend told me who they were, I looked them up, and I was so blown away, I couldn't even listen to them for another few years, haha. But that's how I became aware of the band.

[Buddyhunter1]

Erm... Rock Band 2... yeah =S

Yeah, that.

[erasiel]

1992- On Rock Video Monthly. Saw "Pull Me Under" and ran out to Sam Goody and got the longbox CD version on Images and Words. A month later, found WDADU on cassette on Columbia House. Even MP was surprised to see that tape when he signed it for me in '02...

So much win, for mentioning longbox CDs, Columbia House and SAM GOODY in one post. 

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

A cousin of mine was staying at my place, quite older than me and quite into music. I was looking for new stuff, so I asked him for some CDs and he gave me his whole CD holder. I didn't get all music from him, and from Dream Theater I said like "Hmmm...don't know who these guys are, but I'll get a live album and their most recent album! That should be good enough for my music library!" and so I ripped both Live Scenes from New York and Train of Thought (this was 2003). I got the stuff and began listening everything,  but didn't care much for Dream Theater. Endless Sacrifice came one day as a shuffled song, and I thought it was nice but a little bit long. Weeks later, Honor Thy Father came up and I was like "HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN", and was sold completely. Honor Thy Father was the first Dream Theater song I really fell in love with, and after that I proceeded to listen the whole Train of Thought album which completely floored me. Later on, I check out Live Scenes which I also had in my hard drive, and Overture 1928/ Strange Déja Vu had me like...Holy shit, who are these guys? Bought Scenes from a Memory immediately and well, 4 or 5 months later I joined DT.net so I could find people to chat with about my unhealthy obsession with this band.

[Aythesryche]

I was raised on classical, prog and jazz as a kid so it was probably only natural for me to eventually hear of them. My mother gave me a copy of Images and Words when I was in my teens and I clicked with it pretty deeply. My entire family has pretty strong music roots, actually. I suppose that's why I had an initial appreciation for great music like DT. Hell, from what my mother tells me, my grandfather played some Bach cello suites right as I was being born... haha. Grandfather was a cellist for Berlin Philharmonic (was best friends with Rostropovich), mother is a concert pianist, father a keyboard and guitar player, uncle is a jazz drummer. List goes on. Mother and father were in a band back in the day that was heavily influenced by Rush/Genesis/ELP, too. I remember as a kid hearing them cover stuff like Tarkus in the practice room.

[Daso]

My best friend's ex-stepfather is really into Dream Theater, and he introduced my best friend into the band through I&W live in Tokyo. He loved the band, but I didn't want to listen to it because I had read some harsh criticism from a DT fan to another of my favorite bands and thought the band had to be absolute shit or that I had to hate them because it was my obligaton (I was 14  ). Couple of months later my brother bought "Greatest Hit... and 21 other really cool songs". Pull Me Under played and I thought it was cool, but not the best I had heard. Then Take the Time played and that was it for me. I had to listen to their whole discography, learn as much about the band as I could and so on. I was absolutely in love and, well, I still am 

[LCArenas]

A friend of mine was a big fan of them and tried to get me into them; he first showed me The Dark Eternal Night (Which I didn't like ) and then showed me Panic Attack on Rock Band 2 (Which I loved on the first listen). Loved them ever since

[Evatallica]

Rock Band 2 sparked an interest in them for me. I started with Panic Attack and moved on to Wither. I was really shocked when I heard Pull Me Under on the internet, as it sounded nothing like the other 2 songs I listened to beforehand. And it really started after listening to ACoS on Youtube. God, I love that song. 

[54_diplomats]

Someone recommended Hollow Years to me, but I didn't like it very much because it wasn't very... metal. Eventually I played Rock Band 2 and I became obsessed with Panic Attack and eventually Dream Theater. Later on when I got to listen to Falling Into Infinity I started to like Hollow Years lol.

[Big Hath]

became aware of them through Bass Player magazine sometime around 1994.  Listened to a small sample of I&W, but it didn't grab me at the time.

5 or 6 years later I decided to give SFAM a shot since it was so highly rated on a couple of album review sites I frequented after I discovered Rush.  Loved it and never looked back.

[theseoafs]

Not really sure, I think just hanging out on the internet and browsing forums and stuff.  I must have been 12 or 13 or so (this is probably like late 2005).  When you're into the bands I was when I was a kid (Rush and Maiden and other classic progressive-ish metal bands), Dream Theater just sort of naturally comes up (what with them being the most popular underground band and all).  First album was Images and Words, which I grew to love, though I think it was a bit too heavy and complex for my tastes back then.  As a result, I would sort of just end up listening to Surrounded again and again (that one's still in my top 10).  Learning to Live and Metropolis just left me confused.

Anyway, while I&W didn't speak to me immediately, I stuck with it and listened to it repeatedly, only because I had a feeling I would eventually get it if I stuck with it for long enough.  (My dad had taught me that a lot of really great music can take multiple listens to digest properly.)  After Images clicked, it was sort of a free-for-all.  SFAM came next, I think, then Awake and 8V and SDOIT.  I heard WDADU, TOT, and FII later because, of course, the internet seemed more divided about how good those albums were.  Score was the first release while I was a DT fan, though I still only had a vague familiarity with their music.

I got SC on the day of its release (made my parents drive me and all that).  I liked it initially.  Saw DT for the first time on the Chaos in Motion tour.  Met MP and got my copy of Score signed on the day of the show.

I don't know, I think the honeymoon period wore off, because after a while I was really disappointed with SC.  As much as I liked the overwhelming majority of DT's back catalog, I was unenthused enough about the band's direction that I didn't buy a physical copy of BCSL and instead just downloaded it from iTunes.  Sort of weird, I guess, that I got into this band whose current musical output was so unappealing to me, but DT had cemented itself as one of my favorite bands by the time BCSL rolled around. 

[senecadawg2]

I walked in on Petrucci making sweet love to his guitar in Hollow Years L@B. It was not only my introduction to Dream Theater, but also my introduction to what has become an obsession with music of a higher quality. A life altering event.

[lonestar]

Pull Me Under on the radio, been hooked since. A little sidenote, it was about a month or so between hearing it on the radio and buying the album for me, so I do remember getting uber fucking stoked every time 96.9 The Eagle played it., I'd be all "Fuck Yeah, it's that song again!!!!" and then proceed to slaughter the lyrics in the kitchen at full volume.

 

[BlobVanDam]

In early 2003, my brother bought SDOIT after reading a magazine review that compared TGP to Metallica. The first things I heard were the intro arp solo of TGP and Overture. That was more than enough to get me hooked.

[wolven74]

I saw PMU on Headbangers Ball back in 92, picked up I&W, was kinda like... huh... ok.

Skip forward a couple years. I'd lost track of my I&W CD, saw they had a new one. Didn't buy it.

Found my I&W CD.... played the shit out of it. Fell in love.

Bought Awake the next day.

Been buying everything they release as soon as I can get my hands on it since 94.

[Zydar]

I heard Pull Me Under and Caught In A Web during late 2000, and liked them so I bought I&W and Awake. Listened to them but it didn't really click with me so I put them on the shelf.

Returned to the band in mid 2007 right after the release of SC and gave them a new shot. Suddenly I got to love the band so I got their discography and haven't looked back since.