Band On The Run

Jon Van Daal wrote this article for an Australian music magazine. It’s a little different for the usual content of ‘New Voice’ but we thought it was a nice change of pace and it fits nicely with the article in this issue with Robert, Zocco and Maddi.

The final bars of the extended encore quickly fade into the night as Dream Theater finish yet another successful live appearance at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion. The various members thank the crowd and clap their appreciation as the noise reaches fever pitch. The five members link arms and take a formal bow and leave the stage. The lights come on, music blares over the PA and a gang of roadies swarm over the now silent stage. The concert might be finished but a new story has just begun...

I thought it would be interesting to look at the behind the scenes story that most fans never get to see. I was able to spend two shows backstage during their recent tour of the Antipodes and this gave me an awesome insight into what goes into the production of a Dream Theater show.

On this travelling acoustic circus, the band’s tour manager, Rikk Feulner, is in charge of all aspects of the tour from city to city. He is ably assisted by a small but knowledgeable staff that includes assistant manager Matt Kuney and stage manager “TJ” Rodriguez. Rikk’s job may seem easy to someone on the outside but it is all about juggling the band’s time and commitments, but more of that later. Each of the band members have their own tech and when you add sound, video, lighting and production staff, there is a crew of a dozen or more.

Back to the Hordern Pavilion, and as the members of the band make their way to their dressing room, their respective instrument techs carefully load away their gear into specially marked cases. Normally Dream Theater plays their A rig for most of their gigs which are mainly in Europe and America, however for this short tour they brought their smaller B rig.

Probably the most noticeable difference on stage is in Mike Portnoy’s drum setup. His usual Siamese Monster with its three kick drums and every tom and cymbal known to man has been replaced with a smaller two kick version. The Monster normally has a regular kit side by side with Mike’s larger over the top prog rock version. This is mounted on a riser at the back of the stage and maintained by his long time drum tech, Jose “Ho” Baraquio.

On the Saturday night I was invited to the Aftershow that was held in a back room that looked down over the stage. Despite the massive size of the drum kit Jose had it down to the floor mounts within thirty minutes of the show finishing. Like a school of piranha gorging on a limp carcass, this school of tattooed roadies grabbed every amplifier, light stand and stage prop that had been pulled apart and taken away. They were packed away into numbered boxes with the whole process only taking about an hour. These boxes were placed into the back of a large trailer and spirited off into the dark eternal night.

The disassembly is probably the easiest part of the whole tour process as it is quick and easy with everything having its place. At the height of a European tour the distance between stops is mostly only a few hundred miles so everything can be pulled out and set up again the following day. The distances in Australia however are much longer with the truck from Sydney getting to their Melbourne concert venue the following afternoon. As such there is a lay day in between concerts and the gear is set up on the Monday morning.

The differences between venues can be enormous with the wide open-plan stage of the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney being totally different from the older style theatre stage of the historic Palais Theater in Melbourne. Erecting the Black Clouds and Silver Linings set in a completely different type of building is not always a straight forward process and the Dream Theater techs were initially having power issues at the Palais. Across the road, a huge laughing face on the entrance to Luna Park was almost mocking the techs as they tried to get everything up to speed.

Show four of seven was a relatively easy day as the crew’s diary attested. 9am is breakfast with load in taking them through to lunch at 12.30pm. Everything is checked and double checked, light towers are put in place, stage props are finished and just about everything is in place when Dream Theater come in for their 4pm sound check. During that time stage manager TJ is like a ring master trying to co-ordinate the rigging, lighting and band’s gear with the techs and production staff.

The Sydney show saw an unintended glitch when Jordan Rudess switched from his main keyboard rig to his Zen Riffer mid-show. His keyboard tech Robert explained, “we brought our B-rig so we had to make adjustments to some of the instruments for these performances.” Unfortunately for Jordan and as Robert testified, “the signal went to the axe but at zero volume and therefore at the time it seemed like it wasn’t working.”

With Rudess’s wealth of experience, he has seen a few glitches over the years, so ever the professional, he picked up where he left off back on his Korg Oasys. When I was talking to Robert he opened the back of the axe and started pulling the old batteries out. “I’m replacing them just in case”, he said to me with a wink. Akin to the professionalism of the band, the techs pride themselves on having everything in tiptop condition so Dream Theater can deliver their music at the very highest level.

Throughout set up stage manager TJ monitors everyone and the jobs that they are doing. Entering a brand new venue can be a bit daunting at times as the huge amount of gear being carried on to the stage would dwarf most other band’s rigs. I was able to talk to John Petrucci in the lead-up to the first Melbourne gig and he was lamenting the fact that he could not use his newly developed Mesa Boogie amplifiers with the smaller B rig. “I have been developing these over the Northern Summer tour and they just sound so good”, he revealed. “I have become very used to them but we just couldn’t bring them out for this short tour.”

Petrucci’s guitar is set up front left of the stage (looking towards the audience) with his assortment of pedals flanked on each side with a pair of “Majesty” foot stools. His tech, Maddi Schieferstein, assists JP with his arsenal of six and seven stringed MusicMan guitars that will be traded back and forth over the course of the night. The sound check saw a rather quick run through of all the instruments and the minimal amount of variation needed.

I was fortunate enough to be able to set up a remote control camera behind Mike’s kit. Ably assist ed by his tech “Ho” we tried to figure out the best place for it. There was a fair amount of room to the back left side of the riser so we taped it so the bottom of the tripod so it did not infringe on the space within MP’s drum rack. This was set up at snare height and a test shot with “Ho” driving the rig in set up looked great. Enter the man.

“I’d rather it was up over my left shoulder if you could”, he informed me. I couldn’t really do this because the bottom of the tripod would extend well within the drum rack. So I grabbed my monopod and held it above my tattooed hero as he gave the kit a play in sound check. As thought. I would have had to fasten it to the corner of the riser; so we decide to mount it to another cabinet to the left of the kit.

Gaffer tape strapped down each of the three corners and the height, angle and rigidity seemed spot on. What I didn’t know was that sometime during the show one of the techs undid one corner to move an electrical cord. Furthermore, with vocalist James LaBrie going back and forth past this opening whilst also twirling a rather large mic stand, it was a wonder that the tripod actually stayed in place for the whole performance!

I was able to set up my computer to monitor these shots near John Myung’s bass tech’s station. John Zocco moved some empty bass cases and I was all set. Over the course of the night JMX (as he is known behind the scenes as there is obviously another John in the band) would come off stage during solos and practice his upcoming parts. JMX is such a perfectionist that even with the sound turned off his fingers were flaying at the strings with such force that I am sure any normal guitarist would have been down to bloodied stumps. Whenever Myung was on stage Zocco would feed him enough cable to ensure he wouldn’t come up short.

Like the band, their Crew and production staff are on the road for months at a time. Between the start of June and the end of August the band undertook a 44-concert tour across Europe and North America before returning to Europe for another 25 date Progressive Nation tour. Many of the techs had photos of wives and family at their respective stations and obviously missed them. Dream Theater’s song Endless Sacrifice is testament to the down side of touring with an entire crew being away from home for weeks or months at a time.

After sound check the stage is left virtually empty but there is a buzz around the band with interviews, meet and greets and various special guests. This is where Rikk is on his game, skillfully ensuring all commitments are met so that the band can go back to relaxing before going on stage.

The doors open at 7pm and the hoards flock through doors to find their seats early. A representative from Roadrunner Records has the job of leading lucky fans who are attending the meet and greet. At 7.15pm, they are lead down stairs to an area where the band come to have their photos taken with them.

Extra technicians arrive to assist the band’s production staff for tonight’s performance. This includes lighting personnel to man the spot lights, video and sound technicians as well as catering staff delivering food to various parts of the building. The stage door is where everyone must enter and exit the building – the chief security guard has heard all the stories for fans wanting to get back stage, and no-one gets past him!

As the support band Pain of Salvation are about to go on stage, I hear the dulcet tones of Mr. LaBrie in the cellar below warming up and singing scales. PoS take the stage right on 7.45 and will do a 45 minute set. The theatre is about two thirds full and I make my way to the back of the room to take some photos of the entire stage just as they start their last song.

The lights go up for the break and soon there is an air of expectation as the fans start making their way back to their seats to wait for the main attraction to come on. With the clock approaching 9pm, the intro tape begins. The hall is in total darkness but behind me the lighting director and soundboard operator go through a strange ritual.

No doubt having sat through this intro a hundred times before, they undertake a strange call and answer type shimmy and perform cavorting gestations, rolling arms being countered by shadow dancing in a highly camp intro to the show. Back on stage. the figures on stage are now back lit and their shapes are visible through the curtain material. The intro stops. the curtain drops and 400,000 watts of Dream Theater’s progressive metal sound fills everyone’s ears. They are off and running for another night.