Shawn LaDouceur has been a good friend since we met at Daytona Beach Community College, probably in 1988. Though much younger, he has had an impact on me. His influence helped me decide to become a Christian, and he introduced me to my favorite band of all time, Dream Theater.
Shawn had been attending Cincinnati Bible College in the 1992-93 academic year, and when he came home in the summer of 1993, one of the first things he did was to play “Pull Me Under” from the first Dream Theater album to feature James LaBrie on vocals, “Images and Words.” When he first heard the song on the radio in Cincinnati, he thought Fates Warning had come out with a new album. He soon discovered it was Dream Theater, and I found myself really liking the band. I consider them a progressive rock band. Some might think of them as heavy metal or progressive metal, but they are so much more than that.
Shawn has a ticket from a Dream Theater concert Monday, Aug. 7, 2000, at Bogart’s (just above, to the left of the David Lee Rother After Show ticket in the center). I believe that was my first Dream Theater concert. It seems like it should have been earlier, but the only other Dream Theater concert I could find at Bogart’s was in January 1993; I don’t think I got to Cincinnati until August 1993. It would not be until 2009 that Shawn and I attended another Dream Theater concert together, this one on the Progressive Nation Tour in 2009. My wife, Wendi, the founder of this blog, bought me a ticket to the show in Orlando where Shawn and I, plus some other friends attended the concert at the Hard Rock Live inside Universal Studios. It was a great concert. I was introduced to Scale the Summit, BigElf, and Zappa Playing Zappa, featuring Dweezil Zappa. It was an incredible show. I really loved BigElf. The only downfall was because four bands were on the program, Dream Theater played maybe 90 minutes. Not enough time, if you ask me.
Because Wendi did not want me to miss a Dream Theater concert in Columbus, Ohio, about 90 minutes from our house, she came with me to see them at the Palace Theater in July 2010. At the time, they were the opening act for Iron Maiden (don’t ask me why; Iron Maiden should have been opening for them), and they did some one-off shows. I was glad Wendi wanted to go, because it was one of the last concerts with drummer Mike Portnoy, one of the founding members of the band.
I am not sure I have missed a Dream Theater tour since seeing them in Orlando with Shawn. In 2012, I saw them at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica in Cleveland with my friend Duane Martin. Duane was one of Dream Theater’s earliest fans. If I remember the story correctly, he had a friend who worked at a radio station, and the friend gave him a demo tape from Dream Theater. He loved the band, and even had a chance to see them in Cleveland when they were still driving themselves around from gig to gig. I think he was standing next to guitarist and founding member John Petrucci at the club in Cleveland, but was too shy to speak to him. We did get to see new drummer Mike Mangini’s first tour with the band, joining founding bassist John Myung and keyboardist and wizard Jordan Rudess.
I cannot tell you how much I love Wendi. In order for me to see Dream Theater in 2014, she worked our vacation around their concert outside Pittsburgh at the Palace Theater in Greensburg, Pa., on April 2, 2014. On this tour, I got to hear “Lifting Shadows off a Dream” from one of my favorite DT albums, “Awake.” This version was much harder than the album, and I really enjoyed it.
In January 2016, Dream Theater released a two-disc concept album, “The Astonishing.” The album is incredible, and unlike anything the band has put out. I told Shawn we had to go see Dream Theater together, and we did … in Cincinnati on April 27. I had not been paying much attention to the tour, and I did not realize they were playing the entire album in their concerts. Shawn and I had seen Queensryche right after “Operation: Mindcrime” came out, and after playing a few songs, Geoff Tate said, “This is a little indulgence, we call Mindcrime.” The band then played the entire album. I had hoped this would be the same situation, and it was. The concert was nothing short of amazing.
Dream Theater is not for everyone, but they are for Shawn and me, and that’s enough for me.
