Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy recently spoke with Metal Pilgrim about how aging impacts their live performances.
“Well, we’re older. It’s harder to play three-hour shows when you’re in your 50s and 60s like we are,” he said. “It’s not like it was all those years ago in our 20s and 30s. We have physical limitations that the body can only endure so much.”
He also mentioned adjustments made to some older songs, particularly in the vocal melodies, as lead singer James LaBrie is no longer in his 20s. “And you asked in the last question if there was anything that we were conscious of when I was putting the set list together. There weren’t any songs that we stayed away from,” he explained. “Everything was fair game. But there were some of the older songs where maybe we had to make some adjustments to the vocal melodies just because James isn’t 20 years old anymore. There’s physical limitations to what a voice can physically do.”
“So there were some of the older songs, maybe from ‘Images and Words’ or ‘Awake,’ where we had to look at the melodies and make some adjustments to accommodate that. And the same could be said for the drums. Not that I’m making any adjustments, but the drums are also, like the vocals, a very physical instrument. And your body can only do so much,” the drummer added.
Portnoy first admitted in 2024 that he was beginning to feel his age but added that he’s doing his best to keep up. “I’ll be honest, I’m starting to feel my age a little bit. I’m not the kid I was 20, 30 years ago,” the drummer said in a chat with ‘So…You Want To Be A Musician?’ podcast. “So you’ve just gotta do the best you can. I mean, for me, I play so much that it keeps me on my toes.”
Even aging doesn’t affect Dream Theater energy. They will perform in Philadelphia on February 7 and release their new album, Parasomnia, the same day.
