Mike Portnoy Touched By The Warmth Of Fans On The 40th Tour Of Dream Theater

JAKARTA - Mike Portnoy, drummer for Dream Theater, was honored and touched by the warm welcome of the fans. He felt this when he performed at the 40th anniversary concert of the band from the United States.

Had left the group in 2010, Mike had many adventures in the music world. He was once an Averaged Sevenfold drummer, formed a super band project, until he finally returned home.

For Mike, this experience is very memorable. Aoalagi this tour is the first tour ever since he left 14 years ago.

"It feels amazing. It's a bit funny because for the whole world, they've just started seeing this reunion now, but we've been together for a year behind the scenes. So it's been more than a year for us behind the scenes and making new recordings, but only now in the last few weeks since the [40-year-old anniversary in Europe] tour started and since the first music video [from the upcoming DREAM THEATER album] was released, people actually saw us back together again," Portnoy said as he was invited to the Coffee With Ola event with John Petrucci., quoted from Blabbermouth, November 20.

"Meanwhile, for us, this is like old news. But it's exciting. And you can feel the joy, love, and emotion in every show. And every night [DREAM THEATER] James [LaBrie] welcomes me back from stage. And that's great, a lot of love and everyone who is so friendly and everything," he added.

The guitarist, John Petrucci also felt great energy while traveling around Europe and various other regions for this tour.

"There are some debates about which singles we should present as an opening, and 'Night Terror' is the first song we wrote together. When we are together, that's what comes out of our mouths. So, for us, yes, there may be songs that are a little more direct to the general fan base, but for us, we feel it's important that the first thing people hear is, 'Listen, this is DREAM THEATER," said Petrucci.

"This is the first thing we wrote down. It identifies all the things everyone likes about this band and features Mike.' I've always said that the opening fillout before Mike's guitar riff was done, the stuffing was like, 'I'm back.' [mind you] 'If you guys.' And I think he did it in one pick-up. It's like, 'Yes, it's him. That's his trademark,'" he continued.

Dream Theater has become a part of life, as well as a family for Mike Portnoy. He is happy to be able to get through a lot of experience, be it bitter, sweet and various other emotions so far.

"Back with them, it feels so special. It feels like family, really, to be honest. John, me, and DREAM THEATER bassist John Myung have played together for almost 40 years at the moment. We formed a band when we were teenagers and met in college, the first month of college. So, for us, this is more than just part of a band together," said Mike.

"We've been living a life together. We met our wives together, our wives played in the band together, we had families at the same time, we've attended funerals of parents and siblings and things like that. So, we've gone through all these experiences of life together. For us, it's more than just music. Even so, at least for me, it feels like no time has passed. It doesn't feel like 13 years. Once we started writing together, it feels so natural and fresh. 'Night Terror' is the first thing we've worked on, and the results are so natural. Not much to think about. It feels like, 'Okay, here we are, at a point we just left behind.'".