A fan recorded the video of Dream Theater’s concert on October 23 at the Palladium in Cologne, Germany.
The band played their first concert with Mike Portnoy in 14 years on October 20 at the O2 Arena in London, UK. The drummer helped start Dream Theater in 1985 with guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung.
Mike played on 10 of their albums before leaving the band in 2010. He returned to Dream Theater in October 2023 after Mike Mangini took his place.
London was the first concert of Dream Theater’s 2024-2025 40th-anniversary tour. The European part of the tour, called ‘An Evening With Dream Theater,’ will continue until November 24 in Amsterdam. It will visit many cities in different countries.
In a recent interview with Jorge Botas from Portugal’s Metal Global, Portnoy talked about performing live with the band again after 14 years. He said, “I said it to the guys right after the [first] show [of the tour in London on October 20], it’s, like, ‘We can all take a deep breath now and now we can start to have fun.’”
The rocker added, “The first show was just so intense that even during the show, it just was a lot of concentration and there was so much expectations. And so now with that out of the way, we can actually take a deep breath and now start to enjoy it.”
When asked if he felt nervous before going on stage in London, Mike replied, “I’ll admit — I was. I never, ever get nervous before a show, but it was nerve-racking. My first time back with the guys in, I guess, 14 years live, plus such a massive venue and so much expectations and focus on us that we knew we’d be under the microscope. So, yeah, it was actually nerve-racking.”
The band will next perform in Munich on October 28 and in Zagreb, Croatia on October 29.