Dream Theater – The Sundance Premiere On Long Island

“Hi folks, I’m sure most of you remember a band called Majesty, who played here three times in the past, supporting major acts. Majesty are local boys from Long Island, and these guys are HOT. They’re not called Majesty anymore, but Dream Theater, and they’ve just released a really amazing LP called When Day And Dream Unite. Welcome to the Mechanic/MCA artists Dream Theater playing here as our headlining band tonight!”

A standing ovation followed, one could hear shouting, stomping and cheering. The Long Islanders are proud of their hottest boys and their amazing debut album and most people present tonight will have already fallen under Dream Theater’s spell. Apart from the Long Islanders however, large parts of America are still not quite sure what to make of such enthusiasm, “...they have to digest us first...” was what Mike Portnoy said before the concert, as he tried to explain the more sober approach taken by large sections of the US press.

Accompanied by Holly and Charity, two very friendly and helpful girls from Mechanic Records, the three of us ran into quite a few hiccups trying to get to the Dream Theater gig that night.

“The petrol’s gonna run out any minute...”

“Then leave at the next turning and fill the tank. After all there are gas stations all over the place.”

But petrol-pumps aren’t always open this late. Whereas the tank-dial was slipping faster and faster into the red zone of the hired Oldsmobile, Charity drove from one exit to the next. We looked hard, but all we found was emptiness and darkness...

“How can anyone actually want to live in a place like this?” Charity exclaimed in amazement.

At last we found a garage that was still open even at this time of the night and we filled up, discovering at the same time that we’d got completely lost in the Long Island wilderness and didn’t have the faintest idea where we were. The fact that we’d detoured so much wasn’t my fault nor the two Mechanic girl scouts, it was the Long Island traffic coordinators, who had non-existent signs to blame! We were helped on our way by the pump attendant who told us how to get to Bay Shore.

Things had already started heating up when we arrived. There was a local band on stage at the Sundance Club, the only larger venue in Long Island. They were the first of three openers, doing their best to warm up the audience. Dream Theater, consisting of Portnoy, Petrucci, Myung, Moore and Dominici spent time waiting for their first live appearance since the album was released in a backstage hovel that was meant to be a dressing room.

The walls were covered in strange graffiti. Virgin Steele seem to have left their mark engraved there as had Candlemass and Winger. The wardrobe seemed to have played host to a number of pretty big bands in the past! And now Victory would also be changing their clothes there for the third time, and it would be their first time headlining a long night of fun. We were told how the venue kept booking too many bands to play the same night. It must be because the proprietor of the club wants to get all the kids to come down as early as possible, to hopefully stay and down as many drinks as possible in the process. That’s how he makes his money!

Exhausted

The circumstances didn’t seem ideal for Dream Theater. They already had a long and tiresome day behind them and were hanging out backstage exhausted, and waiting for their turn to go on stage. This was meant to be at around midnight. but kept getting delayed.

So John Petrucci carried on doing finger exercises on his B.C. Rich when all of a sudden he came to a startling conclusion: “I just can’t cope with this guitar somehow, Its really strange playing on it.”

Why, is it a new guitar?

“No, it’s an old guitar, he’s been playing It for ages. He recorded most of the parts on the album with it. Don’t take him too seriously...”

“Wow, look the Crumbsuckers are outside and are trying to get in.”

Derek Simon burst in with hot news.

“The Crumbsuckers are old friends of ours. They’re fans of ours and we’re fans of them.”

It was also the Crumbsuckers who got Dream Theater their deal With Mechanic Records. It was a guy called Chuck who nagged Mechanic boss and label founder Steve Sinclair with the boys’ demo for so long, until he finally gave in and decided they deserved a signing.

“That was a demo with some of our newer songs a private recording we’d made. At the time we hadn’t really planned to approach a record company. And Mechanic’s offer was also the first one we received. Obviously we were approached by other companies later on, but we’re so happy on Mechanic that we didn’t really even think about signing to anyone else. On the one hand Mechanic is small enough to give a band all the attention it deserves, which is good, and on the other hand having MCA as a partner makes it easy for an act to get effectively promoted all over the world. Advertising for our LP When Day And Dream Unite is a good example. We had ads in all the magazines, combined with effective promotion in the right shops - what more could we have asked for?”

What about a video, surely bands have to shoot a promo video if they want to get anywhere in an MTV dominated country like America these days?

“Okay, that really is our biggest problem at the moment, and we’re really trying to find a solution to it. We’re meeting up with some people next week to agree on some kind of video budget. We really have to try and convince our label bosses that we need a video urgently. They mustn’t even be given the possibility of saying no or anything, we have to convince them that well. The problem is that we’re a brand new band, and our music isn’t necessarily incredibly trendy. We’re pretty uncommercial I’d say. But that shouldn’t really matter - the situation can only improve. I met someone just now who actually bought our album, things must be looking up.”

Portnoy’s Complaint

The band are right on one thing: their brand of progressive and demanding rock might not be what typical all-American kids are into, especially as American radio has refused to play any of the tracks. MTV seems to be the bands only chance of reaching a broader audience at present, as MTV have organised a forum ideal for bands like Dream Theater, the Headbangers Ball.

The band have also thought up an ideal video for themselves, once they’re given the go-ahead to film it. Mike Portnoy explained: “There’s this old film theater in California called the Dream Theater, after which we named the band, it’s a really classical palace going back to the time when cinemas were really pompous and elaborate. It seems obvious to film the video in it. and include all the little original extras, like popcorn, sweets and things like that. We’d use the old screen as well, incorporating live shots in between film shots, and the whole sequence would be set in an unreal story...”

Dream Theater were meant to go on stage by 1am by the latest. That was soon forgotten, because the third support band only went on stage at around half past midnight to soundcheck.

“Hey Derek, tell those guys to shorten their set, I can’t be bothered to sit around much longer!”

The last support band was meant to play for a whole hour and it soon became clear that Dream Theater needn’t think about starting their set before 2.30am.

“Hey man, we’re not in such a bad mood as we seem you know. We’re just wiped out and exhausted. We always try and give support bands the best conditions possible, they’re even allowed to use our equipment. We’ve really often meet bands who are treated badly by the main acts, and we always swore not to do the same thing if we ever got a chance to headline.”

The opening band would be playing for a whole hour, and in the meantime, John Petrucci was just discovering that he could cope quite well with his B.C. Rich, even though the amp he was using had a really bad sound.

He’s had that for ages too.

“Hi guys.”

Charlie Dominici, the vocalist and latest addition to the dream band burst into the room at that point

“Oh man, I once got hold of one of these guys demo by sheer fluke, and I realised: I had to sing in the band! So I got hold of their phone number and pestered them by phone for ages.”

“What do you mean pestered? That’s the understatement of the year!” John Myung interrupted, “That man started a real telephone terror campaign, and got on my nerves so much with his ‘Hey, I’m Charlie!’ I wanted to strangle him, but one day I came to rehearsals, and there was this guy standing there. The other guys in the band told me he’d come to audition, and that was basically fine by me, but then he told me who he was and I freaked. I went crazy ‘Oh no. not that guy! I don’t want him anywhere near me, get rid of him, immediately.’ I didn’t take Charlie seriously enough then...”

Charlie is now taken as seriously as he deserves.

Poverty

Charlie Dominici is originally from Brooklyn, but he also recently moved to Long Island. Before meeting Dream Theater, he had loads of odd jobs, but he was one of the lucky people who always manage to get work somehow associated with the music biz, which was his real love in life all the time. He worked as a studio musician and when times were hard you could have even caught him busking on the streets and sleeping in cars. Throughout this period of poverty and suffering, he always had music in his eyes, ears and blood. Dream Theater was the kind of band he was looking for during that time.

“Charlie, you’re brother’s outside!”

Derek Simon burst into our cosy little gathering carrying this happy news. Derek is the bands’ shoulder to lean on, he also helps them when unexpected things crop up. Derek is the band’s manager, he’s the kind of man they were always looking for, and looks after even the most sordid details regarding the band. He seems to be a really good man for the job.

Apart from having a brilliant manager, the band haven’t got much else! The band would really like to do a larger tour of the States, but they haven’t got “a suitable agency yet. That will be our first aim once we’ve shot the video. Without a good agency to organise you, there’s not much point even contemplating a tour of the States or even Europe. We’ve held talks with quite a few agencies, now the main priority is to find out who’ll give us the best deal. Hopefully we’ll reach a decision soon, because we’d really like to start playing as soon as possible.”

And with playing, they don’t mean a gig at the Sundance.

The band want to conquer America, the same America that at present doesn’t really know what to make of them. There’s hardly been any press reaction, Dream Theater’s music is rarely played on the radio, and the attack on MTV has still not materialised because of lack of video funding. Dream Theater are still a million miles away from bands like Mötley Crüe, Winger, Guns N’ Roses, Cinderella and Bon Jovi, for most of the country they are a new dimension all together.

But Europe loves them, they went straight into the charts over here in the UK. and in the rest of Europe people are going crazy about them and all fans of seriously good rock music made up their minds about the band long ago.

“It’s really strange. Europeans have been supportive of us for a while now, people used to even like us in the olden days when we were still called Majesty, as one of many demo bands. We get loads of fan mail from Germany, and it’s just amazing to find out how much the kids out there already know about us. They sometimes ask really specific questions, and we’re just amazed and wonder how much people know about us and our music. We’re under the impression that Europeans, and especially the press are much more open to new influences anyway and the kind of thing we do. America still has real difficulties with us. That’s why it’s really important we get a video and a tour organised. We’re gonna really have to go out and fight for our American fans on the live circuit, helped by a video that the people can see in advance and will give them an idea who we are, what we want and what we sound like...”

Hell

The audience at the Sundance Club, Long Island’s largest live temple won’t need much convincing. There are about 800 people in the audience, and they all know how hot their boys will be! When finally, at three in the morning the lights go on for Dream Theater, there was a burst of cheering and all hell broke loose. And then the show started. The set kicked off with ‘A Fortune In Lies’, and it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen, played by a band who were just amazing. The only thing spoiling the sound was the man behind the mixing desk, and he should have been shot! As things turned out, this gig was also his last with Dream Theater. That the gig was so out of this world, despite the lack of a particularly good sound just goes to show how well the band carried off even the most difficult parts of the set – and with what perfection!

The show continued with ‘Afterlife’, ‘Light Fuse And Get Away For Ever’ and ‘The Ytse Jam’. John Petrucci astounded everyone with his finger-breaking solos, unbelievable breaks and riffs giving all the tracks their personal mark, without forcing himself to the forefront too much. This man must be one of the most unusual guitarists of the new generation, an astounding technician and a million times better than any of the Mike Varney boys who claim to be such heroes!

John Myung was also impressive, a bass-man extraordinaire who managed to release his bass from the straitjacket of a regular rhythm section, playing sometimes against the guitar and then taking over the lead parts, or forming a blanket of rhythm with drummer Mike Portnoy, as confusing at the same time remaining solid and strong.

Portnoy is as accurate as a drum computer, and then all of a sudden jazzy and improvised, strong and energetic in one instance, acrobatically twirling in the next, unbelievable fills, surely a drummer who deserves a special status in the world of rock?

The band carried on with the tracks ‘The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun’, the current single ‘Status Seeker’, ‘The Killing Hand’ and the last track of the regular set they played was ‘Only A Matter Of Time’.

Kevin Moore the keyboarder standing tall in the Rick Wakeman tradition, who can create an atmosphere seldom experienced since the heyday of great keyboarders from the seventies. An exceptional musician. But Charlie Dominici beat the lot. Although he has still got slight problems handling the live situation, and he obviously lacks all show routine, he’s also a singer who really fits in with the band, giving the whole show that extra buzz. Charlie doesn’t just sing, he plays his voice as an independent instrument, applying emotion and drama, creating atmosphere and tension, delaying highlights until you can wait no more.

The concert was over far too quickly, but it wasn’t the end yet, because although it was getting pretty late the Long Island audience wanted more. And they were given more. They were treated to ‘Golden Slumbers’ and ‘Carry The Weight’ as encores.

Dream Theater achieved something with their concert that no-one else would have thought possible. They managed to interpret their album sound on stage, despite all sound problems. And they interpreted it so perfectly and playfully, that even if you had never seen the band before in your life, or if you’d previously had difficulties understanding the band, this live offering was a unique experience. This was a rock concert that was an occasion, convincing everyone there they must have just witnessed one of the great bands of the nineties. Please God, let someone tempt this band over to Europe for a few live dates.

—Edgar Klüsener