Interview: Prog-rock legends Dream Theater brings drama to Caesars on Saturday

Jul 16, 2012 Updated Jul 17, 2014

The 11th album finally proved the Grammy charm for the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Last year, the group last year received its first Grammy nomination for a track from its most recent record, “A Dramatic Turn of Events” (Roadrunner).

“It was amazing for us,” says co-founder and guitarist John Petrucci, who performs with the band and Crimson Projekct 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 21, at Caesars Atlantic City.

“We’re not exactly a pop band. For us to get that kind of recognition by the Recording Academy in that community was really something special for us.”

Even losing to Foo Fighters in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category didn’t diminish the thrill of the first-time experience.

“It was really a ton of fun – it was great being part of that event and the whole community and having our names with great bands in that category,” Petrucci says.

The album’s title proved prescient in signaling a new chapter for the band. Co-founder and drummer Mike Portnoy exited the lineup among some acrimony in September 2010, before the record was produced. Mike Mangini was hired the following year, through an audition process captured in a three-part YouTube series, and plays on the record.

“It’s definitely an apt title,” Petrucci says. “At the time, it had nothing to do with what was going on with the band. It’s a coincidental title – it has more to do with the subject matter of the changing world and everything that’s been going on. There are a lot of dramatic events going on in the world that we’re getting a chance to experience in our lifetime.”

Dramatic is also an apt descriptor for the band’s live shows. Dream Theater, which is wrapping the U.S. portion of its tour for the album in A.C., will feature three video screens, special lighting effects and the material itself – a two-hour setlist replete with emotive songs with intense subject matter and story lines – and of course plenty of shredding guitar licks.

Having been influenced by Rush and Iron Maiden, Petrucci is a lifelong student of the guitar whose aggressive, yet melodic style has landed him on many “best” lists for practitioners of the instrument.

Petrucci also has a distinctive credential on his musical resume for a metalhead: He formed the band with bassist – and middle school pal – John Myung and Portnoy when they were all students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Petrucci spent two semesters at the prestigious school known for its jazz curriculum, before leaving to launch his rock career.

“I definitely enjoy pushing the technical boundaries of the instrument,” Petrucci says. “As far as the guitar as a craft and being good on the instrument, I still practice hours a day with the metronome and try to get better.”

Petrucci doesn’t have to worry about bringing home the noise, either. He is married to Rena Sands, the guitarist in the now-defunct, all-female heavy metal band Meanstreak; their three children all play guitar and piano and sing.

“It’s a very noisy house,” he says. “There are three pianos, guitars on every level and a full setup and a studio, with little amps in every room. It’s what we love to do and promote. It’s a great way to bring us all together and a cool way for my wife and I to relate. The kids are teenagers – that can be tough enough. It’s good to have the musical connection.”

Opening for Dream Theater is Crimson Projekct, which plays the music of another longtime progressive rock band, King Crimson. On the bill are three members of King Crimson’s most recent lineup: Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto, joined by Markus Reuter, Julie Slick and Tobias Ralph.