Dream Theater

Doubtless!

Wow. I just discovered and read this post. Interesting one too!!! My opinion? Well, I must tell you that I discovered DT a couple years ago, when they came to Mexico in 2011. I had Budokan, Once in a livetime and Hit and 21 other pretty cool songs. That was it. To be honest I wasn't quite into them back then. Then I found out about their concert. Somehow I knew I wanted to go see them play live. Somehow I knew they were a guarantee for a great gig, even though I didn't know their music. So, I bought a ticket in the first 5 rows of the venue and attended alone. That was it, I was hooked.
I bought every single cd they'd recorded in like 7 or 8 months and that was the beginning of studying and comprehending this band. And that's when I felt sad about having never seen them as a full band, (I mean with Portnoy). But then I saw Mike, along with Steve Morse in this, really tiny, intimate venue last year, in october. I enjoyed him a lot.
Anyway. I don't feel really qualified to provide a really strong, accurate opinion. But somehow I agree with you, talking about their last production. I like it but it's not one of my favourites. Maybe it's because it's the first cd lacking Portnoy's vibe. Maybe it's because Mangini didn't actually have a real input this first time. Dunno.
I like Systematic chaos a lot, though. Lol. Ask me this question again in a year, or so. Cheers!!!

@Jorge Armando: Hi Jorge. Wow, this post is really a blast from the past. It's cool to reread all of the things that people were saying. At this point in time, I'm really intrigued to hear what the forth coming album is going to sound like. From the things that are being said on the news updates, I have a feeling that the new music will be awesome.

I also enjoyed reading your story of how you became interested in Dream Theater. So, what is life like in Toluca?

@Phrygian Sunshine: Hey bud. Well it is an interesting posting. You should post things like like these more often, ha. Unleash the controversy!!!!
Life in Toluca, thanks for asking, is ok really. It's a tiny, little city about 60 miles away from Mexico city. I'm from a beautiful, colonial city named Morelia, though. Now that's a gorgeous place, full of life and stuff to do. They have a guitar and film festival every year and I'm pretty sure you'd like it my friend. Hope everything's good up the border. Greetings!!!

@Jorge Armando: Morelia sounds fabulous. Guitar festival? Have you gone to one? What is it like? It definitely sounds like something that would interest me.

Everything here is going great. Beautiful weather today. The nicest yet this year. I'm getting very excited about another performance that I have to give on Monday. An acting showcase. I'll be portraying a detective in a funny one-act play. Most of my weekend will be dedicated to rehearsing. I'm also hoping to get to see the latest Iron Man film as well this weekend. We'll see. Cheers!

@Phrygian Sunshine: Two links for you. The first one is from my home city, Morelia. On the top go to "Idiomas" and change it to english, of course. There's a pretty cool video in a tiny window. Watch it. Browse and enjoy:

http://www.visitmexico.com/en/morelia

The second one is a link to a video. Miguel Castellanos, from Mexico playing Yuri Nilo's Prelude. This video will give you a good idea as to what kind of festival this is. There are also guitars from Venezuela, The Czech Republic, Italy and many other countries:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHA-LhWjYlc

Enjoy your performance!!!

@Jorge Armando: Ah excellent! I'm going to check out these videos tonight when I have time sit down and enjoy them. I'll let you know what I think. Thanks for sharing.

@Jorge Armando: Ah, I just checked out the video about Morelia! Fantastic. I love the sight of all of that classic art and architecture. You're lucky to live in such a beautiful place. The music that accompanied the vid was perfect. It really made me want to go on an adventure.

I'll check out the other video soon. Tonight's the performance. Wish me luck! Cheers!

@Jorge Armando: Hi Jorge! I just checked out the guitar video. Yes, I think it's safe to say that I would dig the guitar festival. Fingerstyle/classical guitar is right up my alley.

It's been a busy week here. The performance went really great on Monday. I'm going to it up on YouTube pretty soon. Then, I went to my son's 4th Grade concert yesterday. Busy, but really fun times.

Hope all is well. Cheers!

I kind of have mixed feelings about Mike Mangini's addition to the band. His playing during verses and choruses are kind of slow and boring to listen to (except for Breaking all Illusions, the whole thing is crazy) but it contrasts greatly with the intense playing during intros, bridges, instrumentals, ect... I think its mostly because the drum part came from Petrucci's mind. I think on their next album, it will be more of Mangini's ideas and hopefully be more creative.
With Black Clouds.... I didn't like that album. the whole thing was dark and long with 4 over 10 min songs. They didn't impress me much except for The Count of Tuscany. It surprised me that the cover album included with it inspired me more than the album did.
With Systematic Chaos, I thought that was a very amazing album with the exception of Repentance. Don't get me wrong, I loved what mike was doing with the whole 12 part suite, but that song just bored me. The rest of them i loved.
I have good hopes for the newest album and for the upcoming live album... I'd like to hear new mikes renditions of old mikes parts.