Progressive metal legends, Dream Theater, wrapped up their monumental 40th-anniversary tour this past weekend, delivering a sold-out, unforgettable performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Drummer and founding member Mike Portnoy shared his heartfelt reflections on the emotional evening and the tour’s conclusion through social media: “Still recovering and basking in the glow from Saturday’s EPIC evening at Radio City Music Hall…hands down, one of my most favorite shows I’ve EVER played. Absolutely perfect in every respect!”
Portnoy continued, expressing the magic of the night: “Looking out and seeing a Sold Out Radio City packed with the biggest DT fans in the world all gathered together to celebrate the band’s 40th Anniversary together was absolutely magical from start to finish!”
One of the obvious highlights of the evening was the long-awaited live debut of “The Best of Times”, a track from their earlier catalog that had never been performed live, which carries a very deep and personal meaning for Portnoy.
“And the surprise live debut of The Best Of Times (the only song in my original DT discography that had never been played live), joined by Jonathan Dinklage on violin, was the icing on the cake. I honestly could not contain my tears throughout the performance. It was so emotional for me to pay tribute to my dad (who was in the audience when we played RCMH in 2006) in such a glorious way. It was absolutely perfect…”
As the tour came to a close, Portnoy shared the band’s plans for some time off before resuming their journey: “After 5 months of touring Europe, South America and North America, we are taking a couple of months to recover and spend some time at home with our families before we resume touring in June/July for another round in Europe for a combination of metal festivals and some more special DT40 headline shows.”
Guitarist John Petrucci had previously teased in an interview with Metal Hammer Spain that the band was considering a full performance of their latest album Parasomnia during the tour: “That’s something that we hope to do, later in the tour. Eventually, we’d like to kind of shift things to more focus on Parasomnia. And it would be great to play it from beginning to end. I think it would be a cool experience for the fans. I think that we could do some great imaginative things with the visuals of the show. And I look forward to that. Yeah, it’s going to be great.”
As Dream Theater winds down their epic celebration of 40 years, we can look forward to more special moments ahead in the next leg of the tour and arguably enjoying Parasomnia in its entirety. Color us excited.
