the masked drummer

QUOTE (PuppetKing2112 @ Apr 2 2006, 06:00 PM) http://www.roadrun.com/blabbermouth.net/ne...ewsitemID=50489 Wow... I've been following DT for a long. long time now and Portnoy, acting as spokesman, has given so many other bands praise, never saying anything nasty ever, so I can see why he's tired of biting his tongue. I've heard him promote QR several times in interviews. DT makes QR look like they're still in diapers musically, not that it makes DT a better band or anything, but I can't blame Mike for striking back this time. When you work as hard as DT does, against the grain, & you're always supportive of other bands and they go around your back dogging on you, it's gotta be really hard to stay nice forever and not vent...

If you like unique cymbal sounds, don't mean to get off subject of Rush, but Bill Bruford used a cymbal he found mangled in the trash on King Crimson's Red album which sounds totally bad@ss. Song is "one more red nightmare".

Sabian Maxx Staxx

QUOTE (BassUnderPressure @ Mar 23 2006, 07:46 AM) QUOTE I really like the "upside down" platter cymbal that NP hits in his drum kit. I think he uses it in "Mystic Rythms". Kinda like a shattering sound. What kind of cymbal is it? M R sounds awesome. The special pedal Alex uses... Those are electronic stax. Stax are made by putting a cymbal directly onto another crash cymbal to create a muted spraacsch. Sabian makes Max Staxx, by Mike Portnoy, if you want a pre-fab sound kinda like that. You can hear it on Dream Theater's Scenes From a Memory album. Uh Oh, I said some bad words...

QUOTE (Earthshine @ Mar 22 2006, 02:04 AM) QUOTE (rotyb @ Mar 21 2006, 11:01 PM) ok how about the seperation on hemisphers when you where head phone when geddy sings hemespheres. I love that one, too!

I meant to say "Cygnus" not "Tidbit". oops (blush)

Thanks for the heads-up, Tidbit. I'm definately gonna check that out. And, to tell you the truth, it's nice to see Uncle Tedly play the guitar for a change. He's a pretty busy guy. In fact, he's coming to Dearborn, MI later this year to be a keynote speaker for the Precision Machined products Association! I should go to that for work. I haven't seen Ted since 1987 in Saginaw warming up for Kiss...

QUOTE (launchpad67a @ Dec 8 2005, 01:02 PM) I still don't understand what the problem is here? I started listening to DT (and all prog-rock) BECAUSE of Rush. DT is a rock musicians band, and I hardly know any rock musicians that don't think they are great at what they do. Rush is a musicians band also but happened to get radio play, thus making them more appealing to the masses (plus they write music that most people understand and can listen to easily). I personally think this is the problem: Some people on this forum are so 'Peart-Peart-Peart/Rush-Rush-Rush is God' and can't get it through their heads that there are other great bands and players out there that WE like too! Ooohhh, let's not let anyone intrude on our sacred band Rush because of course, they are the only band and have the 3 greatest players of all-time! Blah frickin' Blah!!!! Get real and feel free to talk about Any band or musician you like...BUT Please Don't put down something/someone just because you feel threatened or feel they have invaded your sacred musical grounds. There is plenty of room for all of us!! I love Rush but there are other bands too, that 'Others' like as well. With that said....... sleep tight! Very well said! This is one the best postings I've seen on the subject. My thing is, I just don't like negativity. It's ok to say you don't care for an artist, but saying anyone sucks is just negative. If you don't like or want to explore what DT has to offer (a lot IMHO), then go to a thread you like and reply in a positive way. Or maybe if you have something to say you could do it in a more mature manner than just to make a blanket statement that they suck. DT has gone the extra mile (not to mention extra time) to be the best at what they do without selling out and been very successful at it. Take a music appreciation class at your local university. You don't have to LIKE music to APPRECIATE it! Open up your mind and see what wonderful things life has to offer you! After listening to Scenes From a Memory about 50 times it just might even sink in that it's an incredible piece of artistic ear candy!

QUOTE (tick @ Mar 21 2006, 08:20 AM) QUOTE (the_masked_drummer @ Mar 21 2006, 07:57 AM) DT DETROIT SHOW CANCELLED! For anyone who had tickets to the Detroit show, they did the right thing by cancelling. I've seen them like 17 times and when James is "not feeling good" he is absolutely dreadful. He's either amazing or crappy depending on the condition of his vocal chords. Probably twice I've seen him suck really bad. What's important is that they pull off the New York show well so we have a great performance on DVD. Sorry to anyone who was going to see them for the first time. Don't take it the wrong way. I'm sure they'll be around for a while longer... ok dont take this the wrong way but , BITE ME ! im going to see them for ther first time in connecticut next wednesday and i could give two shits about new york ! Don't worry Tick, That's why James had them cancel the Detroit show. He's much better at taking care of his voice these days. I haven't seen him in bad form since the Falling into Infinity tour. Enjoy the Show!!!

DT DETROIT SHOW CANCELLED! For anyone who had tickets to the Detroit show, they did the right thing by cancelling. I've seen them like 17 times and when James is "not feeling good" he is absolutely dreadful. He's either amazing or crappy depending on the condition of his vocal chords. Probably twice I've seen him suck really bad. What's important is that they pull off the New York show well so we have a great performance on DVD. Sorry to anyone who was going to see them for the first time. Don't take it the wrong way. I'm sure they'll be around for a while longer...

QUOTE (Disco @ Feb 15 2006, 06:00 PM) OK, now I've heard a lot about DT on this board and even downloaded their version of Tears (a bit over emoted in my opinion). Following the leads given to me by others in this thread I checked out what people had said about Dreams From a Memory on the UK site of Amazon. It's not good news. There are two (we've got to admit it) wonderfully written reviews that make me fear to tread in DT's waters. Here they are... ... Well, I don't know the credentials of these "critics", but I've got one thing to say about those reviews: "Opinions are like @ssholes. Everybody's got one and they all stink!" Professional critics have been saying bands like Rush suck and bands like Nirvana are brilliant since day one, so if you wanna believe eveything that's printed that's up to you. For example: To say that a lack of harmonies equates to inept composition is a load of B.S. Truth be told, Dream Theater avoids harmonies for the most part since the only member who sings live is Labrie, with the exception of a few backups from Portnoy, the drummer. That way, they sound almost exactly like the records, which is a noble plan. Any band could overdub several harmony vocal tracks to thicken the sound, but D.T. sticks with what they can do live, like Rush does...

Well, I'm here to support this thread since I've been a DT fan for 16 years and I've seen them about 16-17 times. I met all the guys on their first tour (Images and Words) in October of 1992 when they were playing bars. Mike Portnoy is a really cool guy. He talked the most, and we just drank a pitcher of beer and shot the sh!t with MIke for a long time. I got all their autographs on an old bumper sticker I bought there (but lost it). Petrucci was on the pay phone Keving Moore was a regular guy, and Labrie's hair was already gray, which is what I remember most -lol. Case in point for how cool they are: Mike sent me two bottleg CD's of them as "Majesty" in 1986/87 (the Majesty demos) for free after writing him a letter. How cool is that? Very, very dedicated to fans. Anyway, DT was the only band for me besides Rush who sent shivers up my spine when listening to them. And for those who haven't seen them live, they are the tightest band I've ever seen (no disrespect to Rush, of course)... I've been beat up several times on this forum for praising DT and I don't know why, unless maybe peeps are close-minded to other bands. C'mon, Rush is awesome, but they're not the only great band ever formed. "the mind works like a parachute: It only functions when open"

Another interesting point about DW drums are that Pacific drums by DW are of the same construction, made of the same exact maple, on the same machines, and the only difference is that the Pacific's are made by Juan(Mexicao) and the DW's are made by John(California). BTW, the Pacifics are about maybe 20% the cost of DW... I'm sure I'll get lots of criticism about this by people that own DW kits, but that's what the DW rep told my buddy who's a dealer and sells both...

I think there is some good and interesting music these days. If you think you'll find it on the popular radio stations, though, you're sorrily mistaken. Popular music has rarely been interesting. As far as all the great bands of yesteryear like Rush, Zep..., It's already been done, however great it is...

Heart is an excellent band. Their greatest hits CD is indeed great and their fairly recent DVD proves they still kick butt!

1) I like the samples neil used on Mystic Rhythms. He had several people all hit different percussion instruments all at same time to achieve that thick, awesome sampled sound. All he has to do live is hit the trigger pads and all those sounds are reproduced perfectly. 2) What also comes to mind is the sound effect in the middle of Natural Science. They really do that well live, I noticed. 3) From a musician's standpoint, what they don't seem to pull off live (one of the few things!) is the intro to Hemispheres. Going back to a 1978 bootleg I've got(when they used tape intros) to the last few tours, it doesn't seem to come together like it did in the studio. The problem, seemingly, is that Neil has to click his sticks to establish the beat & cue the band in, which lends itself to being a little different timing every time. Usually he's too early and there's like a double-crescendo when they all come in. Any one else ever notice this? I would think that since they spend sooo much time and energy behind the scenes to make things right, they would sync up a click track and feed it to the monitors so they all come in perfect every time. There's gotta be some reason for not doing this. Maybe Neil likes to control the start and doesn't want to have something else establish the tempo/timing? Food for thought, huh?

Rush didn't need groupies. Back in the 70's they had hotel rooms, prostitutes and drugs provided to them by their promoter at Polygram. That's the promoter's job, if you didn't know. Hookers don't tell their stories like groupies do. Plus they never say "no". It's too risky to get involved with groupies. Rush were too smart for that...

Nice to hear someone give Alex a compliment like that after all the rotten criticism I've heard over the years as a drummer in several local rock bands. I totally agree that he is very unique, awesome, and I lose all resect when I hear inexperienced/uncultured/clueless guitarists claim Lerxst has contributed nothing to the guitar world. I've heard countless fools say "he sucks". Sad. I guess that says a lot about the Detroit area local rock scene, the crappiest musical city on the globe. Yeah, like any other guitarist would fit Rush? Geddy and Neil didn't keep him in the band all these years for nothin'!!!

Damn! I meant to vote for Between the wheels but accidentally voted for red lenses. Oh well... both tunes R good...