JOHN PETRUCCI
VENUE THE THEATRE AT ACE HOTEL, LOS ANGELES, USA
DATE 04/11/2022
After the messy, public 2010 divorce between progressive metal titans Dream Theater and their co-founder drummer Mike Portnoy, the prospect of a detente seemed like little more than, well, a dream.
Time heals all wounds, however, and after initially documenting his reconciliation with guitarist John Petrucci via social media, Portnoy proceeded to rejoin his longtime bandmate in the studio twice in 2020 – first to record the third album by the instrumental supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment, and then to man the throne for Petrucci’s second solo LP, Terminal Velocity.
Two years later, as Petrucci embarks on his first-ever solo headlining tour, Portnoy sits behind the kit. It’s one thing to reconnect in the studio, but it’s another thing entirely to travel together in close quarters for several weeks (with their wives, who play together in reunited support act Meanstreak, no less!).
The duo’s musical kinship runs deep, though, something Petrucci acknowledges at one point tonight when introducing Portnoy by telling the crowd that they met as 18-year-old students at the famed Berklee College Of Music.
Four decades later, the pair takes the stage with bassist Dave LaRue (Dixie Dregs) at a 1920s movie palace in downtown Los Angeles, a fitting location for the Hollywood ending of prog metal tour of the year. The next 100 minutes proceed to fly by nearly as quickly as the flurries of notes delivered by Petrucci, the first swarm of which can be heard just seconds into tonight’s opener, the upbeat title track from Terminal Velocity. At this point in his career, every superlative under the sun has been thrown Petrucci’s way, but his performance tonight proves that he might actually be underrated. Combining an unrivalled mix of fluidity and precision with an elite melodic sensibility, he brings to mind a carnival strongman demonstrating a feat-of-strength, yet he somehow makes it look effortless in the process.
The Happy Song is perhaps the best guitar instrumental since Joe Satriani’s similarly titled Summer Song. A warm and fuzzy avalanche of sonic rainbows and unicorns, the track’s cascading primary lick sounds like the love child of the knockout opening of LTE’s classic Universal Mind and the theme song of an 80s TV sitcom.
After greeting the crowd and acknowledging that it’s “the first time me and the man behind the clear kit have played together [live] in 12 years,” Petrucci launches into the boomy, baritone riff of Jaws Of Life. As he does throughout much of the night, he spends a good portion of the song in attack mode, his shoe planted firmly on one of the imposing metal footrests that flank his pedalboard. It provides one of several showcase moments for the bearding aficionado to test the limits of how fast a human can play, but unlike the shreddingfor-shredding’s-sake approach of the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen, Petrucci never loses sight of the groove. Portnoy, meanwhile, is a bit more understated than usual tonight. While he still eggs on the crowd and indulges in the occasional over-the-top (and in one case, comically errant) stick toss, he seems content
“EVERY SUPERLATIVE UNDER THE SUN HAS BEEN THROWN PETRUCCI’S WAY, BUT HIS PERFORMANCE TONIGHT PROVES HE MIGHT BE UNDERRATED.”
playing Robin and letting Petrucci enjoy his moment in the solo spotlight.
Other highlights include The Oddfather, in which Petrucci channels his inner EVH with an extended finger-tapping passage as part of a kitchen-sink performance; the sneering swagger of Gemini; the visceral riff of the very proggy Temple Of Circadia,; and the soaring melodicism of the show-closer Glasgow Kiss.
Commendably, Petrucci and Portnoy resist the temptation to cross the streams and never segue into the likes of Acid Rain or Paradigm Shift and instead keep the focus on the guitarist’s solo oeuvre, save for a brief nod to the James Bond theme at the end of Damage Control. It remains to be seen when – and with whom – the pair will play together next, but for now, one thing is clear: never say never again.