Originally published in New Voice fanzine 10 · 2008
Progressive Nation
Article4 min read
With Progressive Nation 2009 now on the horizon, we feature reflections on last year’s tour from on and off the stage...
Chris ‘Gartdrumm’ Gartmann, 3
Progressive Nation 2008 was the best tour that I have ever done. Dream Theater and their crew are consummate professionals and all should hail Mike Portnoy for conceiving Progressive Nation.
During the month long tour; there was not a single glitch in the production, the logistics or the performances and I was able to take away some incredible memories.
The tour started in Los Angeles at the venerable Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City. This was a star-studded event in Tinseltown and an incredible way to kick off the tour. LA always sets the bar for entertainment so one must be able to bring it right out of the gate. And if the standing ovation is any indication, I’d say “3” brought it!
Contemporary music is alive and well, and in good hands. Whatever genre you care to call the music, all four bands push the musical envelope. Such was the cast of musicians on the tour that I pushed myself to play as well as I could. By the end of the tour; I was a much better drummer.
Watching and talking with the audiences, I know that Progressive Nation offered a lot of a bang for their buck. A good band should draw you in and hold you like a great movie and this was the case for all the bands performing.
My highlight of the tour was the first night at Terminal 5 in New York City. “Percussive” Nation 2008 defined the tour for me, namely the drum solo where MP invited the other four drummers on the tour to perform with him both separately and collectively. This was definitely a high water mark in my career and it can be seen on the “Chaos in Motion” DVD or on my myspace site – myspace.com/gartdrumm
Another high point included watching a space shuttle take off from the balcony of the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando, and then sneaking into the adjacent amusement park through an employee entrance.
Finally, there was the last show of the tour in Tampa/Clearwater. I walked out to my drums in front of thousands of people for the final performance of PN08 only to find the snare drum generously covered in a fine white powder. In the set, my performance began with a snare build up. By the end of this build up, I was completely enveloped in a white haze of baby powder as if I had spontaneously com busted. When I could see the drumhead again it read “Boo-Ya! ‘Thanks for a great tour!’ – Mike Portnoy.”
Progressive Nation 2008 was a class act both behind the scenes and on stage, giving each audience the chance to experience some of the world’s most original bands as opposed to the factory farmed music that pervades the airwaves and microwaves today!
I cannot wait for the next Progressive Nation tour so that I can go as a fan!
Mikael Åkerfeldt, Opeth
Progressive Nation was a great thing for us in many ways. Personally, I’d been a fan of Dream Theater since their second album and touring with them felt like it had to happen eventually.
Portnoy and I had become ‘penpals’ and he mentioned the idea of bringing us over to North America for the Progressive Nation tour pretty early on. In fact, making it become a reality was a bit of a hassle since both bands have such hectic schedules. Once it finally happened I was very relieved and happy. It’s the best support tour we’ve ever done. We’ve had lots of new fans coming up to us saying that they saw us for the first time at Progressive Nation, and that’s really the whole reason you do support tours... to reach out to new fans.
The whole tour was great for us. Everything from the bands to the crews, and the venues were just top notch. I also discovered the band ‘3’, who completely blew my mind to be honest. ‘Between the Buried and Me’ were great too, and great people indeed. The Dream Theater guys were kind a laid back and we didn’t see much of them at first. I’d met Mike and James before so it was good to see them again, but I’d never met the other guys. I met them eventually, of course, and they were all super nice and down to earth, which is obviously a good thing.
Playing with Dream Theater, and in front of their crowd is a bit intimidating, to be honest. We had to up our game a little, but I think we mostly came across well, despite our extreme metal parts! The worst show for us was in Miami, Florida as a rig truss broke and the fire curtain came tumbling down in the middle of our set. It could have killed us, but it turned out to be a nice little ‘Spinal Tap’ memory. We had to stop the show for about 20 minutes, which was a drag. I expected a big roar for our return but, instead, we got a big yawn from the Miami crowd who definitely seemed more interested in seeing Dream Theater by then. Fair enough....
I can’t say what show was the best, to be honest, as there were so many great ones... we went down well in Canada (as usual) and we had many very nice shows in the US too... overall it was just a fine tour!