Mike Portnoy’s Drum Theater – Part 2

The purple monster for the US was joined for the Touring into Infinity tours by two identical kits for Europe and Japan (the European kit being stored in the UK when DT had downtime and the Japanese kit stored there). The Euro kit was green/white/green and the Japan kit was red/white/red. As time went on too, Mike had Promark sticks with green bands (for Europe) made in addition to the standard red band models (so if you have one of those as a souvenir, they’re pretty rare!) In addition to the drums being coloured for the area they were based, the 1st Chair throne/stools were also finished in the same colours as the kits – supercool, though as the kit got used through the upcoming legs and tours, the thrones certainly on the Euro kit, got replaced by more normal black versions. MP usually has a towel over his thrones anyway to soak up some of the sweat!

When FII was recorded, Mike had two kits set up in the studio. In addition to the purple monster, he had a four drum set made up of parts of his original Imperialstar kit: 24” kick, 12” mounted tom and 16” floor tom. Snare tended to be one of his normal Starclassic air-ride mounted units; cymbal selection was 22” Rock ride, 16” and 18” AA crashes, 10” splash and 12” mini China. A double pedal was set up too.

Mike enlisted the services of John “Magee” McGary for the FII tour as his regular drum tech Jose “Ho” Baraquio was unavailable due to family commitments for the whole FII tour. Jose DID meet up with Magee as by this time the album had been recorded and Jose had built the Starclassic kit prior to that, so Magee was coming in cold. Luckily everything is labelled on the kit, so assembly was fairly straightforward. The meeting was prior to the first showcase show of the tour and Magee joined the DT crew straight after that.

When touring in support of FII, MP started off with plain black Tama/Starclassic logo front kick drum heads. These went through two changes during the tour; the first being when the album cover design heads were printed and mounted. But these (in the US and Europe at least) started off life WITHOUT the Tama logo on them. This was the case up to the end of 1997; the ‘98 legs saw these heads resplendent with the white Tama logo added.

Also during the FII tour, Mike did some one off clinic appearances around and about, and for these they were tied into the cities in which DT were playing at the time (e.g. Helsinki) and Mike used his full European kit for this, and [for] others (e.g. Brazil) the US kit was used. Curiously, the front FII heads got replaced with black Tama logo heads for most of these one off clinic shows.

There was one exception to MP using the green/white/green Euro kit on the FII tour – when the band played Athens, MP used a locally supplied Starclassic kit which had standard black Octobans and Gong bass drum. There was no rack, so Magee had to set up the kit using stands clamps (a tough job). This kit was in sunburst fade finish and had black front kick heads with white Tama logo.

Cymbal changes up to this point were that the 10” China Kang which used to be on the left above the first pair of Octobans, was replaced by an 8” version and the 10” version got mounted on top of the 10” splash (so they touched).

The 12” Mini China to Mike’s right was now stacked on top of a Sabian Jack DeJohnette 14 Encore crash. With both of these setups, the upturned edges of the China/Kangs got quickly trashed, especially the 10”, but they sounded AWESOME! Mike and Sabian christened them “firecracker” stacks because of their sharp explosive response.

The 6” splash which got moved above tambourine was now joined by 6” and 8” Latin Percussion Ice Bells underneath on the same stand.

The 17” HH crash cymbal to MP’s front right had now been upgraded to a 19” version and the 16” AA crash to his front left became the 17” HH!

Also at this time, MP used a Tama Rhythm Watch, which is a sort of electronic metronome which was mounted to his far left. That was also initially present on all three kits (but as time went on became less of a requirement).

Mike has ALWAYS had stuff attached to his LP Ridge Rider cowbell, which is mounted on the right hand kick drum hoop. This has ranged from ash trays to photos of his wife/kids and animals! (Note when MP had the Mapex kit, he was smoking and the ash tray would sometimes move to be mounted on the same boom arm that his right hand tambourine was attached to – until this became the home for the 6” splash for the recording of ACOS!!!)

MP went out on the FII tour with two kits – in the US, it was the four drum version of his original Imperialstar kit as used for the recording of FII), but with slightly a reduced cymbal arrangement. In the UK and Europe, this kit was not shipped over; instead a walnut finish four drum Starclassic kit with DEEP power toms (both mounted) was used. However for the Rotterdam show it WAS used – complete with Majesty kick drum front head and augmented by a 14” tom mounted to MP’s left (see LTE section). And on ALL shows, Mike used the 12” tom for the “audience participation” part of his solo.

On the ELP/Purple tour in the US (the final FII shows), Mike got two new sets of bar chimes – the LP versions being replaced by shiny new sets. Some of you may have noticed the gradual deterioration of these chimes – especially the set to Mike’s left – as the tour went on. This was also the case for the Awake tour.

Footwear for the FII tour (and this remains for most live shows up to current) was ASICS wrestling boots. These are great for drumming and they grip the foot/ankle well and have a thin sole for good foot/pedal contact – I know this because I have some myself!

Scenes From A Memory and Beyond....

The recording of Metropolis Part 2 – Scenes From a Memory at BearTracks Studios, Suffern, NY saw the US purple monster in action once again. The only major changes to the kit for this session were the addition of prototypes of the Max splashes and Stax and some Sabian Bozzio Radia cup chimes, which were as follows: 7” mounted above the 10” Medium Stax at kit front, the three bell disks which were at MP’s left had been replaced by two more Radia cup chimes (7” and 8”), and finally the two LP Ice Bells that were mounted underneath the 6” splash to Mike’s right (this cymbal had also been replaced by the 7” Max Splash) were replaced with another 8” Radia cup chime. However, by the time the SFAM tour came, the cup chime over the 10” Stax had been replaced by a 6” Sabian Cymbal Disk.

Other changes for the SFAM tour were that the Sabian Thunder Sheet – which was to the right rear of the kit on the FII tour – was replaced by a 28” Sabian Zodiac gong and a couple of dates into the tour, this was seen to have swapped sides from right rear to left rear. This was because of positioning limitations for the percussion rack, so Jose and MP decided to pension this off and move the gong to Mike’s left rear.

When DT came to Europe in November ‘99 to get some shows in with Jordan (and debut some of the SFAM material), the Euro Starclassic kit reverted back to plain black Tama logo front heads. This was also the case for the opening few dates of the SFAM world tour in the US which started [at the] end of January 2000. The new “newspaper headline” front heads appeared on the US kit around mid-February – many of you will have noticed that the newspaper had had the word “Daily” replaced by “Tama” – supercool!

Also on those November ‘99 Euro shows, the band were using a new sound engineer/production manager in Jerry Carillo, and Jerry was to favour different microphones to what Vinnie Kowalski tended to use, though the new mics didn’t appear on the kit until the tour began proper in the US in January 2000. The most notable differences being Shure kick drum mics – which sit on the pillow inside the drum itself – and the tom mics used were also Shure, but way smaller and easier to position than the previous larger tom mics favoured by Vinnie Kowalski, the previous DT sound guy for many years.

Cooling-wise for MP for those November dates (and this continued for the majority of the SFAM tour), the two micro fans that for FII were mounted either side of the kit, had gone and were replace by a massive floor standing version which was to MP’s left.

The dates on the tour from around about March onwards saw the luminous sign “Echo Hill” appear above the gong (mounted on the gong stand). This was luminous because it was a GENUINE road sign which had been “borrowed” and forwarded by some DT fans to the band and thus got used for the rest of the tour! (At the Roseland show, this was present at rehearsals during the day, but had disappeared for the show that same evening!)

Another change which came towards the end of the SFAM touring schedule was that the Radia Cup Chime which started out under the 7” Max Splash sometimes disappeared completely or otherwise (like the Roseland show) got mounted on top of the Low Stax – this was purely because the extension above the right hand tambourine just didn’t allow for more than one cymbal to be positioned there. On the Euro kit for the SFAM tour, the right side cup chime was left out completely.

Working Man

I mention this as it is kind of significant in that it was the FIRST time that MP used a Tama kit since his split with Mapex – in fact for these sessions, he had a real mix of gear. It WAS basically a Tama kit, but no Octobans were used; instead a pair of LP Mini Timbales were used as the high pitched toms followed by an 8” concert tom, then double headed toms across the top of 10”, 12” and 13” – no Timbalitos were used and the cymbal arrangement was pretty much as per the upcoming Tama kit minus the 12” splash – this was [at the] end of 1995. Mike did a fantastic job on this kit and as it was his first venture outside of DT and with Magna Carta, it is even more worthy of praise. MP’s drum sound is very alive on this album and despite the adverse reaction it got from the Rush camp, is an essential album for Portnoy/DT fans.

Liquid Tension Experiment / Transatlantic

As many will already know, fate was to play its hand in choice of kit selection for the first LTE album as Mike HAD to use an alternate kit to the normal DT setup because the purple monster was being shipped back from South America when the LTE1 sessions were due to start. So he had to assemble a kit from parts already in his armoury and he again chose the bulk of this from his Imperialstar kit, sizes being 24” kick, 12” tom mounted on the kick drum and 14” tom mounted to the left of his hi-hat and an 18” floor tom. This was augmented with the LP Timbalitos he normally had to his left under the hi-hat on the DT kit. As for snare drums, he used a couple of different options but none were the Starclassic air-ride mounted versions. All were stand mounted and his 6.5” deep steel snare from the Imperialstar kit was also used on the first LTE sessions.

Cymbal-wise on LTE1 MP had 14” hi-hats, 22” HH Rock Ride, 17” crash, 19” crash, 10”/10” and 12”/14” firecracker stacks, 8” and 10” splashes (the 8” mounted over the hi-hat and the 10” mounted above the toms on the kick drum), an 18” China and 20” Rancun Wuhan China. For LTE2, this set up was augmented by a 7” Sabian Bozzio Radia cup chime above the Timbalitos; also an 8” version was added to MP’s far right, a 17” crash also appeared. The hi-hats were 13” and additional percussion added underneath the hi-hat were a pair of LP Jam Blocks (which are plastic versions of woodblocks!). A tambourine was used for both sessions mounted above and to the left of the hi-hat.

A double pedal was used for both albums – an original Tama Iron Cobra on both, rather than the more expected DW version.

Live LTE shows had a few more changes! For the first shows for LTE1, MP had the basic kit as laid out for the recording of the album, but the front kick head was an Aquarian head with “LTE” stuck on with white gaffa tape! The LTE2 shows saw Mike using a Tama supplied kit for the US West Coast shows in Cherry Black lacquer finish and with brass finish Timbalitos. Mike also used current Tama Iron Cobra double pedal, and hi-hat cymbals were as per LTE2 except the Rancun China was now a more normal 20” Sabian HH model and the Radia cup chime to MP’s far right had disappeared. Also the Jam Blocks had gone and the snare was a Starclassic Air-Ride mounted 14 x 5.5”. The kick drum head was the standard Starclassic Tama logo in gold but with an additional Promark sticker attached.

The Liquid Drum Theater LTE footage was shot directly after the first Transatlantic album sessions in June ‘99 at Millbrook studios, so the set up MP used for the first TA album was as it appeared on LDT – i.e. identical to LTE2 except for the fact that the Firecracker stacks had been replaced by Mike’s new range of Max Stax (10” Medium and 12/14” Low sets) although these were prototypes and not actually the production versions, although there was basically no difference in sound or production technique. If you look very closely you can see the word “prototype” stamped on the cymbals! (How’s that for Eagle Eye?) Also the Rancun China was replaced by a Sabian HH version.

Transatlantic live shows in support of the first album in the Eastern US saw MP using basically the same setup as for LTE2 and the recording of SMPTe, this time though he had a full set of Max Splashes and the Medium and Low Stax sets, no Jam Blocks and the one tambourine, the kick drum front head was a plain black Tama logo version – the only exception to this kit being the Nearfest show they played in LA where MP used a locally supplied kit with Tama mini timbales (steel shell) in place of the more usual LP Timbalitos and full Tama hardware; whilst the hardware on the LTE/Transatlantic kit is pretty much ALL Tama, a DW cymbal stand top/titter provides the home for the 17” crash MP had mounted to the front of the kit.

Just to show that my powers of observation were still tip-top, I spotted in the live video “Transatlantic – Live in America” (a must have if you haven’t already bought it) that at app. 35:51 near the end of “All of the Above”, Mike’s hi-hat develops a problem – you can see him gesture to Jose. Then you see Jose come out when the song finishes to make the necessary repairs – check it out!

Transatlantic2 saw Mike recording with a Tama supplied Cherry Black finish kit of 8”, 10” and 12” toms across the front and a 14” and 16” floor toms. Also he used for the first time ever, BOTH of the MP Tama Signature Melody Master snares – the 14” version as the main unit and the 12” mounted to the left of his hi-hat. Cymbal-wise, he used 7”, 9” and 11” Max splashes and the 10” Medium Stax, 12”/14” Low Stax, a Radia 7” cup chime and 16”, 17” and 19” crashes, the normal 22” ride and the 20” China; he also had one tambourine mounted above left of the hi-hat, also the hi-hats were 15” diameter. The NAMM one off show the band played in January 2001 saw MP using a locally supplied Tama kit, with LP Timbalitos and again Mike used BOTH new Signature Melody master snares.

Euro Clinic Tour 99

This gets a mention in that it was a MAJOR milestone for me personally in that it was the first time that I conducted an interview with Mike! Not actually the first time I’d met him (that was in December 1997) but this was a BIG event for me! I was hoping for 45 minutes but we ended up having 90 minutes – this interview was published in the first issue of Theater of Dreams after the Dutch guys took over from Neil Elliott as the official DTIFC magazine/fanclub, so I was doubly lucky – especially as it took up the first 13 pages!

I also presented MP with two “Clinically Proven” T-shirts which I designed and had printed up. It was a total honour and surprise for me that he not only wore one of them for the clinic that very night, but went on to wear them (as much as he could stretch just two shirts!) for several other dates on the tour, and has since been photographed numerous times wearing the same shirts (I sent MP another eight shirts in early 2000) so I think he liked them! But they’re pretty rare items in that and now out of production!

The tour was a MAJOR success for MP – it was his first actual tour on clinic duties and was VERY positively received. I saw three shows in the UK at Birmingham, Leeds and Reading and he was AWESOME on all of them (even if he was severely jet lagged at Birmingham!)

Mike arrived in the UK for the start of the tour and was pleasantly surprised to see that Tama had had a replica kit made of the purple monster. Initially it was thought that this was the only version of this set up, but it turned out that there were other replica kits for MP to use of identical configuration for the rest of the tour. Also one curious point to note was that the UK kit was supposed to have been given away in a competition with the winner announced in a subsequent issue of Rhythm magazine, but I never did discover who the lucky winner was!

The basic setup was 8” and 10” Tymp Toms, 8”, 10”, 12” and 14” mounted toms and 16” floor tom with two 24” kick drums, all Iron Cobra pedals (no DW!), 8” Bell Disc, 6”, 8”, 10”, 12” splashes, (the 6” splash tended to get mounted to Mike’s far right for some reason), 18” and 20” Chinas, 16”, 17”, 18”, 19” crashes, 22” Rock Ride, 10” and 12/14” Firecracker stacks (these predated the Max Stax), 13” and 14” hi-hats – one other point was that there was no tambourine for the Birmingham (1st) show somehow it got missed, but it was there for the second show and the rest of the tour! All the drums had Remo Pinstripe heads except the snare which had the usual CS coated reverse dot. No rack, all stands, no Octobans or Gong bass drum.

The UK shows were supervised by Tama’s Mark DeCloedt, and he and his team did an amazing job to get the kit up and running so well; all this and Mark had never met MP before the first day in Birmingham. I think by the end of the three days they got to know each other pretty well!

Liquid Drum Theater

As mentioned earlier, the LTE footage for video one of this package was shot directly after the Transatlantic session at Millbrook Studios. The DT section was shot at BearTracks studios after the recording of SFAM had been completed (but not directly afterwards). Jose was already back on board with Mike at around the time of the start of recording and actually set up the kit for MP at BearTracks. Its configuration was as it had been for the album’s recording, including the FII kick drum front heads!

It was curious that Mike used an old (original style) Tama Iron Cobra double pedal for the LTE recording and old Iron Cobra singles for the DT footage.

There’s not much more to say about LDT except for those of who, who haven’t done so, GO BUY IT! It’s all VERY explanatory and there’s something in there for all DT fans, not just those of us that are drummers. This package would be FANTASTIC on DVD too! Check out my interview in issue #20 of Theater of Dreams for more info direct from MP on the recording detail.

Now and the next album / tour

So, what’s next for Mike as regards his drum set configuration? I knew things were due for a change and that the purple/green/red fade kits were all going to be pensioned off after the end of the SFAM [tour]; Mike had mentioned this in September 1999 and confirmed it in October 2000.

Rumours abounded when I started putting this piece together in mid-January 2001. Mike was BOUND to include BOTH of the Melody Master Signature snares in his new kit. Also, was he going to be using Sablan’s new HHX range of cymbals or maybe even their Triple Hat, would the Octobans remain and would MP develop some sort of 360 set up possibly incorporating two setups on the same riser? Or maybe go for a triple kick kit? Whatever happens, it’s almost certain that Mike will continue the “more is more” philosophy for the new kit!

Well it was all conjecture and as I write, DT are into their second month at BearTracks studios to work on the next album and it transpired that MP was keeping his options open with his new set – by now the US purple monster had found its way back to his basement, the green Euro version remained in storage in the UK and the red Japanese kit was shipped to the US for Mike to use as his studio base setup for the new kit ideas he was formulating. (Also this kit featured on the Tama stand at the winter NAMM show in Los Angeles in January in all its glory!) In addition, both Tama and Sabian were preparing to supply him with lots of new drums and cymbals to experiment with on the new album.

The Sabian Max Stax Signature line of cymbals launched in early 2000 have established themselves in the ever changing cymbal market, and as I write, Mike’s two new Tama Signature snare drums are about to hit drum stores worldwide. With these new products, Mike continues to keep his name and that of DT in the public eye; obviously all of these will feature on MP’s new kit configuration. The latest Tama Signature Pallete snare drum brochure features photos of MP with the purple US kit, with the two new snares in place – all of these pics were taken in November 2000 at BearTracks studios and straight after that session, this kit was shipped to Mike’s house where it currently resides in his basement.

One thing which I believe to be correct is that for the next tour DT are going to experiment with in ear monitors – this is primarily to get around stage mix problems that sometimes manifest themselves in certain venues. Stage volume at a DT show is pretty loud – I know – I’ve heard several soundchecks from right up by the stage and also sat through one show BEHIND MP’s kit and it’s LOUD!

G3 kit

I was lucky enough to travel to New York in July 2001 to see the two shows that G3 played at the Beacon Theater, and of course John Petrucci was one third of G3 with MP playing the hired gun role drumming in his band (with Dave LaRue on bass).

Needless to say, the shows were awesome, and also significant from a drum setup standpoint in that Mike debuted a totally new kit layout for this tour. The kit was very close to what we should expect to see as the smaller half of the Siamese monster on the new DT tour in 2002.

Drum-wise the kit was made up of drums from the Japanese monster which had been set up as a contingency at BearTracks during recording of the new DT album, prior to the G3 tour, but there was a new drum in that the kick drum had been custom made by Tama and was a 20” version in the same white/red finish, the other drums were the two lowest Octobans, the 10” rack tom, the 14” “floor” tom and the gong bass drum as a floor tom, the snare was the MP 125 Melody Master (12” diameter drum). There was no rack, everything was supported on stands and clamps.

Cymbal-wise, MP was using a brace of Sabian HHX cymbals (mainly crashes). He also had two Chinas (one on each side); also in action were the medium and low Max Stax and 7” and 9” Max splashes. A Sabian Radia (Bozzio) cup chime was also mounted above the medium Stax, Tama Iron Cobra hi-hat and double pedal were also used. Also on the right hand side of the kit, MP had a pedal operated remote Sabian triple hat set up, there was one LP Cyclops tambourine mounted to Mike’s left side.

Interestingly, the kit was not off set at an angle like Mike has his LTE/Transatlantic kit set up; instead the drums were facing the audience square on, on their rolling riser. On the front kick drum head (standard black Tama logo version) there was a sticker with “Mike Portnoy” on – same as appears on the Melody Master signature on the snare drums, also the initials “MP” had appeared as the tour had progressed, I think also Mike was using a different form of kick drum muffling for this kit in that he had toweling gaffa taped to the batter head – much like Simon Phillips uses.

Final notes

This whole kit thing is a bit of an obsession for me! Maybe you’ll have gathered that by this point! I get most of my info from photos, believe it or not, but increasingly I have been able to tap into the additional resources of Jose Baraquio and Mike Portnoy direct! Obviously I also [check] studio video footage pretty carefully too. I try to make everything as accurate as I can, and if I’m in any doubt, tend to double check things before going public, but PLEASE let me know if you see any inaccuracies, and I’ll try and respond! There is additional info to add to all of this from the interviews I’ve done with MP (in issues 16 and 20 of Theater of Dreams) and my interview with Jose which appeared in issue 18 – if you don’t have these back issues, I strongly recommend them and not just because my stuff is in there, there’s PLENTY more cool stuff in these issues too.

As ever, my thanks got out to all the DT fans and photographers which provide me with the visual info, also Mike (for being supercool and answering ALL of my crazy questions!), Jose, Dave Hatlee at www.mikeportnoy.com, Denis and Roots at DTIFC, my bro’ in law and fellow DT fanatic Robbie and the whole of the DT band/crew who are always SO helpful to me with my obsession! I’ll get over it!