BEDN Day 2- Why I Love Dream Theater So Much

Last winter I met (technically re-met. I knew him when I was little but hadn't seen him in like 10 years) one of my good friends Jeremiah. He was really into this band called Dream Theater. I heard him talk about it a little bit and eventually I saw a live DVD he had. I was blown away by the sheer amount of skill these musicians have.

I didnt pay too great of attention to them right away though. After a while I got into listening to the music with him as he played video games and stuff. We discussed the various albums they have and I decided which ones I wanted to check out first.

I started by listening to their third album, Awake, first because that was the only one he had other than their greatest hits album. He'd lost most of them over the years. I got SO INCREDIBLY INTO IT! I was also constantly looking up the band on youtube and stuff and seeing the technical abilities these musicians are capable of.

For a good reference point, here's a video of a song of theirs that they only play live. Its called "Instrumedley" as its a mash up of instrumental parts from various songs they've written:

The album that I first had by them is a bit 80's sounding and while is known as one of their best albums, still doesnt showcase everything they're capable of.

There is SO MUCH to get into with this band. They have 10 studio albums, one EP and quite a few live albums. They also have dozens of side and solo projects, the biggest one being Liquid Tension Experiment, a jazzy rock band that's like Dream Theater but with a completely different feel:

Their 10 different albums each have their own feel, mood and theme to them. This wide range of sounds plus the deep storytelling of the lyrics allows Dream Theater to be THE BAND for anyone to obsess over. There are so many things to just kind of think about with their music. Lots of it is interconnected as well. For example, the drummer, Mike Portnoy, used to be an alcoholic and made one song on each of their 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th album that span over the 12 step program in Alcoholics Anonymous. The last and first songs of sequential albums 5-8 are connected starting with the last song on the 5th album, connecting through the first on the 6th, last on the 6th to first one the 7th and so on. The 8th album, Octavarium (8, octa, get it?) starts and ends with the same note hit on a piano making the whole album becoming one continuous circle. It's fitting with the album cover which can be seen here along with one VERY IMPRESSIVE song from that album:

So many little things like this keep one interested in the band and wanting to find out all these fun little details about them.

Having acquired all 10 studio albums my addiction has reached its full potential. I have severe trouble picking favorite songs or even a favorite album because it's all so equally good that I feel like im cheating one album if I were to pick something over it.

Having so much material is also one of the ways im able to stay so interested in the band. You cant ever get tired of the music because theres so much of it and you can constantly switch between their abundance of songs. The other thing is that an average Dream Theater song is about 7-12 minutes. There is so much to just one song that it's nearly impossible to get tired of one of their songs.

The biggest thing about this band is their skill. They are so completely techincally brilliant. They've all graduated fancy music schools. As my friend says "I believe that a musicians job is to fuck the shit out of the instrument that they're playing." That's exactly what every one of them does. Each member of the band can easily be listed as one of the top 5 musicians for their respective instruments. In my opinion the drummer could be in the top 3 and their keyboard player is easily the number one most highly skilled keyboard player of all time.

Their singer can hit a high F#. Its quite impressive:

Their drummer is unlike anything I've ever seen before. To truly get him you have to SEE him play. The way he plays is very precise and almost roboticly perfect:

Their bass player plays a 6 STRING BASS! So you can imagine how great he must be:

And their guitarist plays very uniquely and completely unbelievable:

I think these videos pretty much speak for themselves.

If you'd like to get into Dream Theater i'd be happy to help guide you into it.

Over the past 10 months Dream Theater has climbed up to be my favorite band. I honestly can't see coming across anything in my lifetime that I will put ahead of them.