1985 - 1990
Founding members John Myung, Mike Portnoy, and John Petrucci in 1985.
Dream Theater was formed in 1985 by guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung and drummer Mike Portnoy, while all were studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Kevin Moore, a high school bandmate of Petrucci's, was recruited to play keyboards, and Chris Colins was enlisted as vocalist.
The quintet settled on the name Majesty for the group (a name inspired by Portnoy's description of the closing section of "Bastille Day" by Rush), and the three Berklee attendees dropped out of school to concentrate on the band. Their first noteworthy recording project was the so-called Majesty demos, a collection of ideas and demos that were released in 1986. The initial pressing of 1,000 sold out within six months. However, in November 1986, after a few months of writing and performing together, Chris Collins left the band due to creative differences with the other members. After a year of trying to find a replacement, Charlie Dominici, who was far older and more experienced than anyone else in the band, successfully auditioned for the group. With the stability that Dominici's appointment brought to Majesty, they began playing more shows in and around the New York City area, and gained a considerable amount of exposure for a band which had not yet released an album.
Shortly after Dominici joined the band, they were forced to change their name when another band named Majesty threatened legal action. Various names were contemplated until Portnoy's father suggested the name Dream Theater, the name of a now-demolished movie theater in Monterey, California. They signed their first record contract, with Mechanic (a division of MCA), in 1988 and set out to record their debut album. When Dream and Day Unite was released in 1989 to less fanfare than was anticipated by anyone in the band. The album name came from the line from a song on the album called "Only a Matter of Time". Mechanic ended up breaking the majority of the financial promises they had made to the band before signing their contract, so they were restricted to playing gigs around NYC to promote the release. The promotional tour for the album consisted of just five concerts, all of which were in New York or Rhode Island. After the fourth of these gigs, Dominici was fired. Shortly after, however, Marillion asked Dream Theater to open for them at a gig at the Ritz in New York, so Dominici was given the opportunity to perform one last time. It would be two more years before Dream Theater had another full-time singer.
1991 - 1994
Dream Theater with Kevin Moore on the Another Day single cover.
Following Dominici's firing, Dream Theater fought successfully to be released from their contract with Mechanic, and set about auditioning singers and writing material for their next album. In the time until they had secured a replacement vocalist, they wrote the majority of the music for what would become their second album, Images and Words. In their search for a new singer they auditioned over 200 people, among them former Fates Warning front man John Arch, but all were turned down for various reasons. In 1991 a tape arrived from Canadian band Winter Rose's singer Kevin James LaBrie, who was immediately flown to New York for a proper audition. After a short jam session he was hired as full-time singer, and started using his middle name, James, as his first to avoid confusion with Kevin Moore.
For the next few months, the band resumed gigging and worked on vocal parts for all the music that they had written to that point. ATCO Records (now EastWest) signed Dream Theater to a seven album contract on the strength of their reputation and a three song demo. The first album to be released under their new record contract was Images And Words in 1992, the first of many Dream Theater albums to be recorded at BearTracks Studios. The song "Pull Me Under" gained a lot of radio airplay, and as a result the label commissioned a video clip for its promotion, which had moderate MTV rotation. The success of "Pull Me Under", combined with long-term touring throughout the U.S. and Japan, helped Images and Words to achieve gold record certification in the States and platinum in Japan. The album is still the most commercially successful of all Dream Theater's releases. A tour of Europe followed in 1993, which included a show at London's famed Marquee jazz club. That show was recorded and released as Live at the Marquee, Dream Theater's first official live album, and a video compilation of their Japanese concerts (mixed in with some documentary-style footage of the off-stage portion of the tour) was released as Images and Words: Live in Tokyo.
Dream Theater entered the studio in May 1994. These sessions were the first in which the band as a whole wrote music together that was specifically for an album, with Images and Words being entirely composed without a vocalist and with an uncertain future as far as recording was concerned. Awake was released in October 1994. It featured a distinctly heavier sound than the band's previous releases, which may have served to polarize critical and fan opinion of the album. Shortly before the album was mixed, Moore announced to the rest of the band that he wished to concentrate on his own musical interests and would be quitting Dream Theater. As a result, the band had to scramble to find a replacement keyboardist before planning its next tour. Jordan Rudess, an up-and-coming keyboardist who was relatively unknown in rock music circles to that point, was invited to play a trial performance with Dream Theater in the hopes that he would join the band. The gig, in Burbank, California, went well but Rudess decided to accept an invitation from The Dixie Dregs to perform with them instead. Derek Sherinian was brought on as a hired gun, and by the conclusion of the Awake promotional tour Sherinian was Dream Theater's new full-time keyboardist.
1995 - 1998
Dream Theater with Derek Sherinian
After a petition from fans to EastWest, the group recorded their previously unreleased song "A Change of Seasons", which had been written in 1989 and was originally to appear on Images and Words, and distributed it as an EP with a collection of live cover tracks. After a short run of small "one-off" concerts to promote the EP, Dream Theater entered the studio once more to write their next album. In all, almost two CDs worth of material were written during the sessions, including a 20 minute long follow-up to the Images and Words song "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper". The label, however, did not allow the release of a double album because they felt that a 140-minute record would not be digestible by the general public, so half the songs had to be cut.
In addition to, and as a function of, pressuring the band into adopting a more mainstream sound, EastWest recruited writer/producer Desmond Child to work with Petrucci on re-writing the lyrics to his demo "You Or Me". The whole band substantially reworked the music to that song, and it appeared on the album as "You Not Me" in a form that was barely reminiscent of the original. The material that made it onto the album proper was released as Falling Into Infinity, which received a mixed reception from traditional Dream Theater fans. The album was both a critical and commercial disappointment but in recent years the album has been rehabilitated to an extent, and interest was rekindled when Portnoy indicated that the unused songs - including more traditionally progressive cuts such as "Raise the Knife" - would be released through Portnoy's YtseJam Records.
During the European leg of the Falling Into Infinity world tour, two shows were recorded for a live album entitled Once In A LIVEtime, in France and The Netherlands. The album was released at around the same time as the video 5 Years in a LIVEtime, which chronicled the time from when Kevin Moore left the band right up to the Falling Into Infinity promotional tour. In 1997, Magna Carta Records' Mike Varney invited Portnoy to assemble a progressive supergroup to work on an album, which would become the first in a long string of side-projects for the members of Dream Theater. The lineup that was eventually settled on consisted of Portnoy on drums, Petrucci on guitar, Tony Levin of King Crimson on bass, and Jordan Rudess, who had finished with the Dixie Dregs by that time, on keyboards. The band assumed the name Liquid Tension Experiment, and would act as a medium through which Portnoy and Petrucci could once again court Rudess to join them in Dream Theater. They extended an invitation for him to join them in 1999, and he accepted the offer to become the third full-time Dream Theater keyboardist. This meant that Sherinian was out of a job, though he later admitted that after the initial disappointment, he saw his axing as a positive and would later move on to a solo career.
1999 - 2006
Armed with yet another new member, Dream Theater entered BearTracks Studio once again to write and record their next album. Perhaps as a response to the backlash over Falling Into Infinity, this time their record label gave the band complete freedom with its music. The follow-up to "Metropolis Part 1" of Images and Words, which was written during the Falling Into Infinity sessions (but not used on that album), was taken off the shelf as the first composition for them to work on.
They decided to rewrite and expand the 20-minute song with a fresh, new band member into a complete concept album, with the story revolving around themes such as reincarnation, murder and betrayal. A shroud of secrecy enveloped the writing and recording process. The only things fans knew before its release were a track list that had been leaked against the band's wishes, as well as a release date. They knew nothing of the title, the music, or even the fact that it would be a concept album. In 1999, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was released; it was cited as Dream Theater's best album by many fans, and critics alike, despite only reaching #73 on the charts. Scenes From A Memory is often compared to Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime, another seminal progressive metal concept album released a decade earlier.
A world tour that followed led the band into more countries than they had ever toured before, taking over a year to complete. For one extra special show, at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City, actor Kent Broadhurst was hired to play the role of the hypnotherapist, and gospel choir led by Theresa Thomason, (also present on the SFAM album as guest singers) was enlisted to play in certain sections of the show. This show, the last North American date of the tour, was recorded for the band's first DVD release. The concert was released on DVD as Metropolis 2000 in early 2001. Shortly after its release, the band announced that an audio version of the concert, with the entire four-hour long set list (much of which had to be cut from the DVD to save space), would soon be released
The covers of Live at the Marquee and Live Scenes From New York. Notice the silhouette of the World Trade Center within the flames on the right
The cover for the CD version of the concert, titled Live Scenes From New York, showed one of Dream Theater's early logos (the Images And Words-era burning heart, modeled on the Sacred Heart) modified to show an apple instead of the heart, as an allusion to the Big Apple nickname given to New York City. In the flames above the apple was shown the New York City skyline, including the twin towers of the World Trade Center. In an unfortunate coincidence, the album was released on September 11, 2001 - the same day as the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The album was immediately recalled, but many copies were snapped up by Dream Theater collectors as a piece of Dream Theater's history. It was re-released with revised artwork a short time later. Dream Theater once again entered BearTracks Studios to record its sixth studio album. Four years after they first petitioned EastWest to allow them to release a double album, they finally got their chance with Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. The first disc consisted of five tracks of 6-14 minutes in length, and the second disc was devoted entirely to the 42-minute title track, split into 8 sections, which is to date the longest song Dream Theater has written.
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence ended up being received very well by critics and the press. It was the most publicized of Dream Theater's albums since Awake, debuting on the Billboard charts at #46 and the Billboard Internet charts at #1. Throughout the next year and a half they toured the world once more, with an expanded live show including a select few "album cover" gigs (see Cover songs section, below). At the completion of their promotional tour and various side projects, Dream Theater entered the studio to record what would become Train of Thought, their heaviest album to that point, written in a mere three weeks. The album was a critical success and expanded the band's fan base into new territory, that of mainstream heavy metal and alternative metal.
Their next move was to release another live CD/DVD combination, this time recorded at the famous Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan, on their Train of Thought world tour. Live at Budokan was released on October 5, 2004. Upon the completion of the tour in 2004, Dream Theater entered the Hit Factory studios in New York City to record their eighth album. As it turned out, they would be the last group ever to record in that famous studio. The full-length studio follow-up to Train Of Thought, Octavarium, was released on June 7, 2005. Among its eight songs is a continuation of Portnoy's "Alcoholics Anonymous" suite "The Root of All Evil", steps 6-7 in the 12-step plan), as well as the title track itself, an epic rivaling A Change of Seasons and which spans several musical styles in its 24-minute running time.[15] Like nearly every album by the band, Octavarium has received mixed reviews from fans and been the subject of spirited debate. In particular, some fans thought that the band wore its musical influences too prominently on their sleeves (e.g. "Never Enough" has been compared to Muse's Stockholm Syndrome and the relatively radio-friendly "I Walk Beside You," which combines a sound reminiscent of U2 and Coldplay. Octavarium was the last album under their seven-album deal with Elektra Records, and the band subsequently left the label.
Dream Theater toured extensively throughout 2005 and 2006 to celebrate their 20th Anniversary as a band, including a headlining spot on Gigantour. During a show on August 2, 2005 in Dallas, the band paid tribute to Pantera's late guitar virtuoso Dimebag Darrell by performing "Cemetery Gates" as an encore; what made the performance even more remarkable was the unexpected appearance of fellow musicians Russell Allen, Burton C. Bell and Dave Mustaine, who joined the band on stage to perform parts of the song.
Dream Theater later departed from Gigantour and continued their own series of concerts; including a show at the famous Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 1, 2006 with "the Octavarium Orchestra". The show was recorded for a CD/DVD called Score, released on August 29, 2006 through Rhino Records.
2007 - present
The band entered Avatar Studios in New York City on September 1, 2006 with sound engineer Paul Northfield. On February 8, 2007, Dream Theater announced the signing of their new contract with Roadrunner Records. Six days later, the final mix of their new album was signed off. Systematic Chaos was released on June 5, 2007 and was released in two versions: a "standard" CD as well as a two-disc "Special Edition" CD/DVD package that contains the album mixed in stereo on CD format and a 5.1 surround sound mix of the album and a 90-minute documentary entitled "Chaos in Progress - The Making of Systematic Chaos" on the DVD. An authorized book entitled Lifting Shadows detailing their first twenty years is also set for release before the end of 2007.
The 2007/2008 Chaos In Motion World Tour started off in Italy. Dream Theater played in the Gods of Metal concert on June 3, 2007. Dream Theater also appeared at the Fields Of Rock Festival in the Netherlands on June 17, 2007. They will also be playing various other festivals including the UK's Download Festival and the French festival Hellfest Summer Open Air with other bands such as Megadeth, Korn, Mastodon or Slayer by example. Systematic Chaos reached number 19 on the Billboard 200 making it the best start of an album in Dream Theater's career.
Logo and imagery
The Dream Theater wordmark and Majesty symbol.
Early on in their career, Dream Theater adopted a custom logo (known as the Majesty symbol) and wordmark which have appeared on the vast majority of their promotional material since, with at least one of the official marks appearing on the front cover of every major release to date, with the exception of Once in a LIVEtime. Even after the band dropped the Majesty name the symbol remained as an official mark of the band. The Majesty symbol is derived from Mary Queen of Scots' mark, which was re-worked by Charlie Dominici for use on the album artwork for When Dream and Day Unite. Also the symbol is made up of the Greek letters Phi (Φ), Mu (Μ), and Alpha (Α) layered. Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is a music fraternity to which John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, and John Myung belong. The wordmark shown has been used on covers of all major releases except for studio albums When Dream and Day Unite and Falling Into Infinity.
Live performances
Throughout its career, Dream Theater's live shows have gradually become bigger, longer, and more diverse. The most obvious example of this is their rotational set list policy. That is, every single night of every tour has its set list devised by Portnoy using a meticulous process that ensures it is unique. Factors such as set lists from previous cities are taken into account to ensure that people who see Dream Theater multiple times within the same area will not see the same songs performed twice, and even the set list from the last time the band was in a particular city is taken into account for the benefit of fans who see the band on successive tours. For this to be possible, the band prepares to play the majority of its catalogue at any performance, depending on what Portnoy decides to program for that night. This process also requires the employment of a complex lighting system to load pre-configured lighting cues based on the individual songs.
Being known for their significant musical versatility, Dream Theater has performed with a diverse range of acts. Some of their more notable touring partners include Deep Purple, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, King's X, Marillion, Megadeth, In Flames, Pain of Salvation, Porcupine Tree, Queensrÿche, Spock's Beard, Fear Factory, Enchant, Symphony X, and Yes. In 2005, Dream Theater toured North America with the Gigantour festival, co-headlining with Megadeth.
The band's full world tours, since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, have predominantly been so-called "Evening with..." tours, in which the band performs for at least three hours with an intermission and no opening act. The show that was recorded for Live Scenes From New York was nearly four hours in length (LaBrie humorously apologized to the audience for the "short set" after the show), and resulted in Portnoy almost being hospitalized.
There is also a significant amount of humor, casualness, and improvisation attached to a Dream Theater concert. In the midst of "A Change of Seasons" it is quite common for themes such as those for Major League Baseball and The Simpsons to be quoted, and Rudess routinely modifies his solo section in this song and others, often playing the ragtime section of "When the Water Breaks" from Liquid Tension Experiment 2. Other quotations include "Mary Had a Little Lamb" during "Endless Sacrifice" on the Gigantour, a calliope-inspired break between verses of "Under a Glass Moon", a quote of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina"'s main melody played by Petrucci while performing the intro solo of "Through Her Eyes" in Buenos Aires, and the Turkish March at a concert in Istanbul. On the most recent "20th Anniversary World Tour" Rudess has even thrown in a short "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" theme in a break during "Endless Sacrifice".
Occasionally, a member of the audience is picked at random to perform on stage, an example of which can be seen during Portnoy's drum solo on the Live at Budokan DVD. There have also been many impromptu renditions of "Happy Birthday" when a member of the band or crew have a birthday corresponding to a tour date, which normally results in a birthday cake being thrown over the subject.
Perhaps the best example of Dream Theater's unpredictable concert structure is that during Derek Sherinian's time with the band, at selected shows the band members all swapped instruments and performed an encore as the fictitious Nightmare Cinema. They usually performed a cover of Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers", and, on one occasion, Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution." At some shows, Sherinian, Petrucci and Portnoy would take the stage together under the name "Nicky Lemons and the Migraine Brothers". Sherinian, wearing a feather boa and novelty sunglasses, would perform a pop-punk song entitled "I Don't Like You" with Petrucci and Portnoy backing.
Dream Theater's largest audience as a headlining act was 20,000 in Santiago, Chile on December 6, 2005.
