Dream Theater's Jordan Rudess: my best and worst gigs ever

Continuing our series My Best And Worst Gigs Ever, Dream Theater keyboard master Jordan Rudess talks about one show that stands out in his mind as being particularly memorable – and two that he'd like to forget.

“Picking a best show is a little tricky. Luckily for me, there’ve been quite a few over the years that could qualify for 'the best' or 'the greatest.' Of the really good shows, there are sometimes little or big things that can push them over the top. One thing I’ve noticed is that when Dream Theater adds the element of filming a concert, it can either make it particularly special or it can detract from what were doing – the pressure we’re all under changes the energy somewhat.

“One show we filmed that was fantastic from beginning to end was Radio City Music Hall in New York in 2006. On a personal level, that gig was so wonderful. I grew up in New York and studied at Julliard, so I can remember driving by Radio City and dreaming ‘One day…’ Years later, there I am in the dressing room of this iconic place. We were playing this beautiful theatre, we were using an orchestra – it’s big stuff! [Laughs]

“Then came that moment to walk on stage and make it happen – it was so intense. It’s almost as if your nervous system can go off to the side, and that’s when you might get into a negative place. Fortunately, I kept everything in check and stayed strong; I was on my game, played well, and I was able to take in the whole experience.

“There were family members and fellow musicians out in the audience. One thing that makes Dream Theater unique is that people come in from all over the world for a big event like Radio City. Half of the audience for that show was from Europe or Asia or South America. That was really cool. That’s the kind of thing where you go, ‘All right, I’m gonna look out and take this in as a really great memory.’ Something else that added to the night was that it was the final gig of our 20th Anniversary tour. It felt like a culmination, a celebration – the whole deal wrapped up in one amazing concert.

“When you play a high-level show like that, you walk off stage with a mixture of elation and reflection. You think, ‘Oh, my God, I think I played that part a little sloppy. I missed a note here and there.’ Then you let go of it and you realize, ‘Hey, you know what? It was actually a pretty good show. ‘ And when I looked back at the footage – the concert is on a DVD called Score – I did think, ‘Hey, that was as great as I thought. We did it.’”

“It’s really easy to pick the worst gig – actually, two stand out in a big way. Because I use all of this technology and am interested in the art of entertaining, I open myself up to the possibility of things going south.

“I remember a Dream Theater show at the National Auditorium in Mexico. I was playing my then-newest keyboard stand creation. The thing operates on hydraulics – it goes this way and that way and in all different directions. I was very proud of it. Everything was going fine, and on the second tune I wanted to show it off a little bit. I moved the stand so that the keyboard would face the audience, and there I was, playing in all my glory, feeling all special and showing off. 'This is so cool,' I thought.

“Well, after I was done playing my lead, I hit the ‘Back’ button that would send the keyboard to its normal position, but the thing just wouldn’t move. It was frozen. I called my tech and waved him to come out on stage, and he rushed over to me and attempted to get the thing back to where it should be. It was all the way down, so I was leaning over it while playing.

“After a minute of him putzing with it, I realized, ‘This thing isn’t gonna budge.’ As this is happening, we’re continuing to play. Then the guitar tech came over with his tools, so he starts in on it. Pretty soon, I had every tech kneeling below the keyboard stand trying to fix it – all of this going on while I’m playing. I’m just thinking, ‘This is so embarrassing. Beam me up, please. I want to disappear.’

“By the time we got to the next song, John Petrucci and James [LaBrie] came over, trying to lift it. Now my back is starting to hurt because I’m leaning way over the keyboard trying to play my best in this absurd fashion – and I'm in front of 10,000 people. I had to do that for the rest of the show.

“It was such a mental test. Each part would come up, like a piano solo, and I would think, ‘Oh, shit, can I do this? Can I actually get through it?’ You can’t lose track too much, because it’s Dream Theater. I ended up getting through it, and I actually heard that it was an OK show. I think it was fun for the audience because, not only did they see something unusual happen – it’s different than just a normal show – but they got to see my hands on the keys really well. Not that I was planning it like that.

“I walked off the stage all crooked from being contorted the whole night. I asked my tech if he could please arrange a chiropractor for me the next day. What an ordeal."

“The next of the bad gigs was a Liquid Tension Experiment show in Chicago. I was playing on my Roland Phantom keyboard, which is a really great keyboard, but I had one of the first ones before it was actually released.

“So I’m playing along, everything’s fine, but all of a sudden I started hearing these half-steps. It was as if I was playing in C but somebody else was playing in C-sharp. I was looking at John Petrucci, like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ But then I saw him stop for a second, and I looked down at my hands and thought, ‘What is that?’ I realized that every time I played a C, the keyboard would also play a C-sharp; every time I played a G, it played a G-sharp, and so on. It was playing everything in the worst possible dissonant way.

“I turned my volume down when I discovered it was me and rebooted the machine. When it came back up, I started in again to see if everything was all right. No go – it played the half-steps again. I didn’t have my usual tech there, nor did I have a back-up machine, so this was a serious problem. Later I found out that the scanning part of the keyboard that’s underneath the keys had slid over, so it was in-between two keys. Every time I hit a note, it thought I was playing two notes.

“I spent a good portion of the show in the back alley of the theater, literally talking on the phone to Japan. I called up my good friends at Roland to find out what I could do. Finally, I realized there wasn’t anything I could do at the time, so I went back in the theatre and said, ‘I’m still gonna be part of this concert.’ I went on stage and walked over to John Petrucci. He had his head buried in his instrument, he’s doing this intense two-handed tapping stuff, trying to make it a good show without me. I tapped him on the shoulder and he looked up at me, like, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘Gimme your guitar.’ [Laughs]

“So he did. He gave me his guitar, and then he went over and played bass. Tony Levin was playing the Stick. In those days, I was playing a bit more guitar, so I went for it and jammed. I had a fun time busting out some riffs. It was insane. People might have enjoyed it for the novelty factor, but it definitely wasn’t the show we had planned at all.”