Summer 08 – The 10 Year Reunion Tour

It began for us just a couple of days before the first show, in Bethlehem, PA. for the wonderful NearFest – prog rock’s premier festival gathering.

The band came in two days before our show, to rehearse – both to re-connect to the old material, and to work up a something new for the show.

The band: Jordan Rudess, John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy. oh, and moi, of course.

Rehearsing... off to the usual start:

A big bonus here at NearFest -- throughout rehearsals and festival, Greg is here with his first class espresso rig...

Then Mike tells us, revealing his new bass drum head, that with a band bass drum head, we must be a real band now!

So, racks working, and espresso’s ingested, we’re finally underway rehearsing.

Spent most of the two days trying to mold Rhapsody in Blue into a prog metal arrangement... wasn’t easy, there must be dozens of modulations in this piece.

Gradually my charts went from correctly titled, to things like “Raptor City in Blues”... and from riffs written out, to section names like “Metallica riff in F”...

And then, before you knew it, it was Friday evening, time for us to stop rehearsing – my buddy Larry Fast began his Synergy concert, and I was free to hang around until Sat. evening soundcheck for our show.

Back in New York at the very pleasant BB Kings Club, where we’ve all played before.

But I hadn’t played there for an audience this enthusiastic. Some had come in from as far away as Brazil.

These are Dream Theater fans, for sure. As I walked back onstage right after soundcheck to get my Stick, people were already finding spots right in front.

Not too hungry though lots of food arrived backstage -- we’re doing two shows tonight.

What a night!

Did I mention that there were two shows, each 2 hours long? There was no gas left in our tanks when it was through!

Chicago – one show at the classic club, ParkWest.

Before the show, things normal, we talked over some rough bits in the songs, relaxed in dressing room...

Then, about 2/3 way through our set, fate had a surprise in store for us.

Jordan’s keyboard went out. Here’s my web diary about the details:

Big surprise tonight, at the ParkWest, Chicago show. After 2/3 of the show (my guess here...) Jordan’s keyboard went out of order. The other three players jammed awhile while techs and Jordan worked on it. But couldn’t get it fixed. The jam took epic proportions... it turned out Jordan, in his efforts to get it fixed, got on the phone to Japan, where a panel of people from the keyboard company was trying to determine the problem. But still, we couldn’t work it out, and we couldn’t move back to our written material without the keyboards.

Anyway, Jordan ended up the night’s hero, not by having his keyboard fixed, but by joining in the jam, on guitar! with a rockin solo.

Then.. more jamming... and we had to end the night without playing any more of our prepared pieces.

Certainly out of the ordinary, and a blast for us. I can only hope the audience enjoyed it. Good thing this is a band that loves to jam!

(not many photos from here on... that jam lasted about an hour, I’m told, and very few spaces for me to grab the camera!)

HEY, I rarely look at the ‘guestbook’ section of my website, but just took a peek, and somebody wisely pointed out that I had forgotten to mention a few small details about that jam: Anthrax drummer, Charlie Benante sat in at one point – and there was some major instrument switching when Jordan played guitar, John moved to the bass – at another point Mike took over on bass too! (Me, I Stuck to the Stick.)

There. Thank you Charlie, thank you Tim Shokley, for pointing it out. I gotta read my own site’s comments more often!