I keep trying to get into SOA, I LOVE Sherinian’s playing and the sounds he comes up with, Falling Into Infinity is one of my favorite Dream Theater records and I’ve always been a huge Portnoy fan. Really, I love ALL the guys in the band, I just haven’t found the tune that’s made me want to listen to it repeatedly. Hopefully I can catch them live at some point, as that always turns me into a fan.
Ron Thal is a stupid-good singer. He was on my buddy’s podcast/streaming show, Band Geek, they did a cover of “More Than A Feeling” and he killed it on the vocals.
I always kick myself in the ass for this, but back in the late 90’s I moved to Staten Island. This was back when AOL had all these assorted message boards, but one of them was a Shred board for guitarist. I introduced myself on there and a short while later got a message from the screenname Bumblefoot, welcoming me to Staten Island and offering lessons and a studio hang. I had zero clue who he was at the time and was a fairly shy teenager so I never took him up on it. It wasn’t until 2-3 years later, after I moved, that a buddy of mine played “I Can‘t Play The Blues” for me and I started putting the pieces together. That same period was when I met Richie Castellano, he was a senior in high school and I was a freshmen. I used to cut all my classes and hang out in the guitar classroom the entire day. Richie only had a class or two to take each day so we’d hang out there or in the guitar teacher‘s office dorking out over guitars and prog music.
