Marquee

Relato coletivamente assinado (mas q aposto ser coisa de Mike Portnoy) na contracapa do de “Live At the Marquee” (1993):

“Hey there!

What we have here are songs recorded at The Marquee in London in April 23, 1993, the last night of our European tour. Its purpose is to serve as a snapshot of a very enjoyable and enlightening tour overseas.

In November ’93 we broke off our American tour for a week to play three shows in Japan, where we were treated far too well and experienced first hand what we had heard about – the loyalty and enthusiasm of Japanese fans.

After a few more months on the road in the States, we set off for a long-anticipated European tour. Playing Europe was something we’d been trying to do for years as it was part of our invented criteria of being a ‘real band’ (namely: 1) An album, 2) No day jobs, 3) A video, 4) A tour bus, 5) ‘Oh I think they’re touring Europe now’).

Not having had the exposure on radio that helped us (and surprised us) in the States, we were prepared to swallow our pride and suffer the hardships of being a new band again (ie: bad hotel, smelly tour bus, audiences smaller than the band). However, the tour ended up being quite sucessful and we were grateful to sidestep these hardships. (Okay, our bus was kind of smelly.)

We’d like to thank the people at WEA for making things run smoothly, and the journalists who keep the buzz going. But most of all we want to thank our European and Japanese fans for making the tour sucessful, and for sticking with us until we finally made it over.

We had a great time playing for you and enjoyed meeting those of you we had a chance to hang out with. You made this album possible… And yet you still have to pay for it. The irony…

See ya soon!

Dream Theater“