In a recent interview with Chile’s Sonar FM, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy revealed he is not in charge of things in the band anymore, but another member is.
“I always wrote all the setlists for Dream Theater, as well as any of my bands or projects,” he explained. “That’s an area that’s very important to me. And yeah, when I came back to Dream Theater, a lot of the things we have to figure out who’s gonna be in charge of what. There’s a lot of areas that I used to be in charge of, which now John [Petrucci] may do, or maybe the band makes band decisions. So I have to kind of find my place within the band’s chemistry now.”
The drummer rejoined Dream Theater in October 2023, and right away, the band gave him back his leadership role. James LaBrie revealed earlier that Portnoy is in charge of the setlist for the band’s 40th anniversary tour.
“And just so you know, we let Mike Portnoy take over the setlist again,” he explained. “So he’s back to creating the setlist and he’s doing, like we were almost positive he would, he’s done a terrific job. I mean, the setlist he put together… And the thing is with Mike, he was saying, ‘Hey, guys, if there’s a song you don’t wanna do, let me know. If there’s songs that you really wanna do, let me know.’ And so there’s some very strong and cool communication going on. But yeah, he’s glad to be putting the setlist together.”
It looks like Portnoy will be including some songs that haven’t been played live as much. And he has a reason for it. “For me, changing the setlist for all those years with Dream Theater, a lot of it was a reaction to me kind of — I don’t wanna say ‘get bored’, but you get a little complacent playing the same songs over and over and over and over,” he explained during an interview with Pure Saturation.
He added: “So I would switch it up a lot, not only for the fans, but for ourselves to keep it fresh. But now, coming back after 13 years, it’s gonna be fresh every night for me. So that in itself will be exciting. But all that being said, I think the band really does want to interject those kinds of things back into the live show.”
In April, Dream Theater announced the European leg of their ’40th Anniversary Tour 2024 – 2025.’ This will be their first tour since Portnoy’s return. The European leg includes 23 cities, starting on October 20 and running through November 24.