Me & Dream Theater

Derek Sherinian & me - October 3, 1997

My history with DT goes back to the fall of 1994. I had heard DT before, and seen videos for "Take the time" and "Another Day", but I didn't care about prog those days as I was a grungee (laugh). A friend bought "Awake" and I borrowed it for a weekend. It was like a lightningstruck, I fell in love instantly.

"The Mirror" was THE song to convert me into dreamtheaterism. I guess it's my heavy metal background that helped me here. The song is still among my most favourites. I shouldn't try to name favourites as every song seems to have a different meaning for me. But some other 'good ones' are "Only a matter of time", "Metropolis pt.1", "Space dye vest", "Voices", "Learning to live", "Peruvian Skies", "Finally Free", and "The Glass Prison". If you ask what my favourite DT album is, the answer differs depending on what mood I happen to be in. When I listen to "When Dream And Day Unite" I think it's totally excellent, but so are rest of the albums.

I saw DT live on February 22, 1995 at 'Tavastia Club' in Helsinki. It was a sold out show (but of course!) with Fates Warning supporting. I only knew 2 Fates songs ("Eye to eye" & "Point of view") what was a shame. The gig was totally excellent and since then I have become a big fan of theirs and would die to see them live again. Dream Theater on stage is something one can't describe. At least I can't. Breathtakin'. Ecstatic. Rockin'. I think I stood there, in the 1st row in front of Petrucci/LaBrie, with my mouth open with amazement all through the gig. The best show I have (or will) ever seen. Like a Finnish mag put it... "it was a big masturbation session" ;-)

I was lucky enough to meet the band both before and after the gig, and that's something that made the whole experince very special, something that can't be topped very easily. Mike and Derek were in Helsinki on a PR tour and I met them again on October 3, 1997. Joy! I have a few pictures of that. I saw the band for the second time on March 4th, at the House of Culture with Vanden Plas supporting them. I also saw a Portnoy/Petrucci clinic and met the gentlemen. Pictures are my witness :-).

Lucky as I am, I got to see them band again, at the Nummirock festival in Finland on June 19th, 1998. Absolutely fabulous gig. In the autumn of 1999 I went to see both Portnoy and Petrucci at their clinics in Helsinki. March 24, 2000 was the 4th time I saw the band live, this time in the ice hall in Helsinki. Spock's Beard gave a good support. I met DT at a record signing session the day before. The guys had just arrived and were really exhausted, but it was nice to meet them anyway. The concert itself was a dream come true. It was SO good, I can't express it with words. I was crying my eyes out during "Finally free", I've never felt this emotional at any other gigs. I ended up buying lots of merchendise (t-shirt, baseball cap, tourbook) after the gig. Hehe.

Dream Theater likes Finland almost as much as we like Dream Theater -- the guys returned to our country on June 14th, 2002 to play at the Provinssirock festival. John Petrucci did an in store -appearance in a small town near the festival so I got to meet him again. I first feared there wouldn't be many DT fans in the audience as it was a mainstream festival, but seeing all the DT shirts in the crowd was great! I rate the concert as their second best (I told you, nothing will beat Tavastia 95) ever. Hearing the news songs as well as old classics like "6:00" and "Surrounded" was amazing and the band was in an excellent shape. It's something about seeing this band live that makes you thank heavens for music! Now if only they would do one of those "An evening with..." shows here next time! ;)

Ytsejam. In January '97 I decided to try IRC for the first time as all the Internet chatlines were just pure crap. :-) So I logged on to #ytsejam - the Dream Theater channel on irc.dreamt.org server that is also a home for the Marillion channel #freaks. It didn't take long before I was completely addicted, I'd say it took about a day :-). At one point I was online for 12 hours a day. Pathetic, eh? But it was damn fun! I made some very good friends there, and it was always a good place for info, serious chat or harmless fun. Salute to all my ytse buddies bows! Miss you lot! I'm not irccing anymore. Simply because I don't have a puter at home, and I cannot (believe me, I've tried!) have IRC at my work puter. sigh Maybe it's better this way. I'm still on the notorious Ytsejam Mailing List and Mike Portnoy's Forum to keep up with the news. Maybe I'll return to home AKA #ytsejam some day. I hope so.

DREAM THEATER LINKS
The Official Dream Theater Site
Mike Portnoy
John Petrucci
John Myung
James LaBrie
Jordan Rudess
Lines in the sand
Derek Sherinian
Kevin Moore / Chromakey

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