Petrucci’s Current Touring Rig (TSJMajesty, bring paper towels)

Same although I'm an older one at nearly 40.

I'm listening to the last track on I&W right now and it sounds like video game music. I keep thinking "oh this sounds like something from a Final Fantasy game I haven't played".

Planning to keep running through their albums to see what sticks. I will say the first five minutes of Metropolis I were pretty cool.
Best DT albums can be found under “Liquid Tension Experiment”. IMO
 
LET'S GET THIS THREAD BACK ON TRACK
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I loved everything they did up until SFAM. They were such a huge influence for me both as a drummer and later as a guitarist.

I was just listening to A Change of Seasons yesterday and remembering how many times I put that album on and played along on drums! I still remember every single part


I loved the rigs with the Rectifiers, Tri-Axis and Mark IV all together.

It would be a lot of fun to try to replicate those rigs all in an AxeFX
 
his live "Train of Thought" and his "Suspended Animation" rigs sounded killer, I think those were both RoadKing II based rigs before he switched back to using Mark IV's?
 
his live "Train of Thought" and his "Suspended Animation" rigs sounded killer, I think those were both RoadKing II based rigs before he switched back to using Mark IV's?
I think he went to Mark V's after the RK's.

I'll figuratively put on my Gallagher plastic covering before I say this, but my favorite JP era, for the music, his rig/tone, and his look, was ToT/SDoiT. Short hair & goatee. The highlights in his hair was a bit too much, but I really think his playing and writing peaked around that time.

I play around with a lot of Petrucci songs with all 3 bands, and there's great stuff in all of it, but lately it seems quite repetitive, as if the creative well is drying up. Songs on both DT & LTE latest release sound similar. And yes, I agree they had a very unique thing going on around Awake, and that music was special. I wonder how much of the reason so many people mention that era is because of Kevin Moore.
 
I was able to really get into LaBrie’s voice because I instantly heard it from the “That dude is a technical giant with his voice, I need to learn that” more than “Ew, he kinda sounds like a wimp”. I can absolutely understand his placement in the band and I LOVE his vocals on I&W. Even Awake, despite not really digging his gritty voice.

What’s funny is I never thought the whole food poisoning thing was a legit reason of why his vocals started changing. LaBrie himself didn’t mention that for about 20 years and then he came out and said his voice was never the same after throwing up and f*cking up a vocal chord, but I have to wonder if he just decided to rest on that ‘excuse’ because he just can’t do the early 90’s kind of vocals like he used to night after night and it’s easier to dispel it with one “I just can’t do it anymore since that food poisoning” than it is to explain how delicate the voice is, aging and those notes are REALLY f*cking high.

For being a dude who was told what, how and when to sing for more than half his career, he’s done quite a good job. I can’t sing other people’s lyrics, I feel stupid doing it and I can’t immerse myself in them. The times I have done it, it feels like someone else is singing. It was the most miserable aspect of being a singer in a band for me, I couldn’t imagine being locked into doing it as a career. Apparently he’s had the biggest beef with Portnoy over the years and I’m assuming a lot of it stems from exactly that.
 
For being a dude who was told what, how and when to sing for more than half his career, he’s done quite a good job. I can’t sing other people’s lyrics, I feel stupid doing it and I can’t immerse myself in them. The times I have done it, it feels like someone else is singing. It was the most miserable aspect of being a singer in a band for me, I couldn’t imagine being locked into doing it as a career. Apparently he’s had the biggest beef with Portnoy over the years and I’m assuming a lot of it stems from exactly that.
Yeah there's a clip where both JP and MP both give him like 4 critiques in a row, and you can tell from his response that he's a little pissed.

And LaBrie not only sings others' lyrics, but also emulating the vibe of those lyrics through different characters, both male and female. Tall order indeed.
 
For being a dude who was told what, how and when to sing for more than half his career, he’s done quite a good job. I can’t sing other people’s lyrics, I feel stupid doing it and I can’t immerse myself in them. The times I have done it, it feels like someone else is singing. It was the most miserable aspect of being a singer in a band for me, I couldn’t imagine being locked into doing it as a career.
Rush'd :LOL:
 
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Geddy never seemed to mind Neil’s lyrics though. Actually, I want to say I’ve read him saying he quite enjoyed them over time but maybe I’m confusing that with someone else?
 
I was able to really get into LaBrie’s voice because I instantly heard it from the “That dude is a technical giant with his voice, I need to learn that” more than “Ew, he kinda sounds like a wimp”. I can absolutely understand his placement in the band and I LOVE his vocals on I&W. Even Awake, despite not really digging his gritty voice.

What’s funny is I never thought the whole food poisoning thing was a legit reason of why his vocals started changing. LaBrie himself didn’t mention that for about 20 years and then he came out and said his voice was never the same after throwing up and f*cking up a vocal chord, but I have to wonder if he just decided to rest on that ‘excuse’ because he just can’t do the early 90’s kind of vocals like he used to night after night and it’s easier to dispel it with one “I just can’t do it anymore since that food poisoning” than it is to explain how delicate the voice is, aging and those notes are REALLY f*cking high.

For being a dude who was told what, how and when to sing for more than half his career, he’s done quite a good job. I can’t sing other people’s lyrics, I feel stupid doing it and I can’t immerse myself in them. The times I have done it, it feels like someone else is singing. It was the most miserable aspect of being a singer in a band for me, I couldn’t imagine being locked into doing it as a career. Apparently he’s had the biggest beef with Portnoy over the years and I’m assuming a lot of it stems from exactly that.
This is where I stick up for LaBrie. You won't see this often :bag

That time period where he (and oddly enough, different subgenre but 100% SAME vibe from my POV) and John Turturro in Sevendust did that thing where they think they're heavy with the godawful shouting backing vocals just needed to STAHP already. If I was LaBrie; that whole tell me what to do thing would be in the rearview really quickly. It took Portnoy getting dumped, I mean quitting, I mean not asked to join Avenged Sevenfold to seem to be humble. Though now he's in a band with a bunch of Rush heads releasing songs called Xanadu and another one that's one letter away from a Mr. Big song title and seemingly oblivious to how :wat that is
 
This is where I stick up for LaBrie. You won't see this often :bag

That time period where he (and oddly enough, different subgenre but 100% SAME vibe from my POV) and John Turturro in Sevendust did that thing where they think they're heavy with the godawful shouting backing vocals just needed to STAHP already. If I was LaBrie; that whole tell me what to do thing would be in the rearview really quickly. It took Portnoy getting dumped, I mean quitting, I mean not asked to join Avenged Sevenfold to seem to be humble. Though now he's in a band with a bunch of Rush heads releasing songs called Xanadu and another one that's one letter away from a Mr. Big song title and seemingly oblivious to how :wat that is

Hahahah I thought you said you were gonna stick up for him? :rofl

Yeah, the Turturro screams could have been done on maybe 2 songs and been cool, but a whole career doing it….meh. It’s my least favorite part of Sevendust. Add to the fact that Morgan lip syncs those live and has been for about 15 years now, just get rid of them. Keep them in the popular songs and ditch the rest, man.

As for Portnoy, I’ve never had an issue with the guy and the several times I’ve met him, he’s been really kind and cool to talk to. He seems to rub the majority of people the wrong way though. My thoughts on him might be skewed because I’m such a huge fan of his playing and it was precisely him that got me listening to every instrument instead of just the guitar, which I’m extremely thankful for. I’ve told this story before, but when I was teen going to one of the NYC shows, he signed every single autograph until around 3AM. I was standing there waiting for Petrucci to come back, the last fan standing, Portnoy went to get on the bus, stopped and asked if I was all set with a ride and if I was good. I’ve been curious ever since what would have happened if I said “No and I’m scared!” (I WAS getting ready to hit the subway at 3AM after walking from Roseland to Times Square as a puny little teenager, alone, I WAS actually scared :ROFLMAO: ).

But yeah, I dunno if the musical climate around the time they recorded Awake was what spurred LaBrie’s gritty vocals or what, but even today they don’t really sit right with me. I don’t think he was a fan of doing it, either. I can very much imagine the band sitting around, “Can you do like a gritty Hetfield voice?” “Doooon’t tell meeee”, “YEAH! THAT’S IT!!!”
 
I was a Dream Theater fan for a few months in high school before I realized DT is female repellent. I like John, I enjoyed Mike when he was still in it, not really into James. I like the idea of DT, just not the execution.
I had an opposite experience. Took a really hot GF to SFAM tour 2000, she LOVED it. Granted she got the hots for JP, but whatever. We hit both legs of the tour and then I hit both her legs after. Win win!

Dating my now wife, wasnt into DT, but we saw JP in G3 and she now likes a few DT tunes.
 
I had an opposite experience. Took a really hot GF to SFAM tour 2000, she LOVED it. Granted she got the hots for JP, but whatever. We hit both legs of the tour and then I hit both her legs after. Win win!

Dating my now wife, wasnt into DT, but we saw JP in G3 and she now likes a few DT tunes.
I tried turning a gf onto one of DT's live DVD's, and it had barely started and she's like, "It's all dudes!" :rofl
She was really smart. Had a doctorate in something. Nothing got by her, lemme tell ya!
 
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