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John Petrucci

Dream Theater

To reach the virtuosic heights of John Petucci’s perfomances takes focus,energy and a shed load of practice.Sorry,dudes! How do you prepare yourself for a live show?

John Petrucci:

“What I like to do is really focus on the songs that I know I’m going to be playing that night,so I just look at the setlist

and I go Through it-’What’s the difficult part in this song? What’s the solo in that song?’- and I practise those over and

over to get it engraved in my memory.I play them slowly with a metronome because when you,re in the heat of the moment and

you’re playing live and the tempo is too fast,you need something that grounds you so that you remember everything.”

What are the best and worst aspects of playing live?

John:

“The best thing is that (played live) it’s a different version of a song. I think there’s a certain energy that happenes

live because of the audience that you can’t really capture in the studio.The worst thing is that I’m a perfectionist so if

I don’t nail things exactly,I get really mad at myself!That’s the worst part,trying to make the perfomance happen in that

environment where it’s hot and sweaty and your hair’s in your face,people are throwing beer bottles and whatever around.”

What are the most important ingredients of putting on a killer live show?

John:

“It’s absolutely the energy,for me personally.You can’t convey it.What’s important for me is that it sounds good.We’re in a

comfort zone where we have in-er monitors,and if that sounds good I have all the confidence in the world to look out on the

audience.If that sounded funky,it really puts you in a weird headspace.”

Do you guys use stage props or themed stage sets,or do you think they’re lame?

John:

“You know,I wish we would have (a themed stage set),but this portion of our tour is mostly festivals,so we don’t really have

any production with us right now.When we continue in the US in the summer the video show will be a big part of our

show-videos and movies and cartoons and stuff that goes along with it.As for actual stage props,I would like to have more!

Sometimes I’ll see (Iron) Maiden,and bands like that,and they have so much cool stuff on stage with them.”

Is there a tried-tested formula you follow when putting together a set list?

John:

“Thankfully,I don’t have anything to do with it.Our drummer (Mike Portnov) writes all the setlists and they depend on so many

different things,it constantly changes.He’s funny-he bases it on how many hours from the last gig,if people are gonna have to

drive,if we’ve been through parts before and what we played.It’s so detailed,it’s unbelievable.”

Finally,what is the one piece of advice you’d give to a band just starting to play live?

John:

“I think there are some practicalities that you have to think about when playing live,and they may seem like stupid things

but I can remember learning these from experience:tape down your cable,so you don’t accidentally step on something and the

plug comes out;and if you’re playing when it’s dark make sure can you read the setlist,things like that.You need to think

practically:’What do I need to play this show?’ And,of course,you have to prepare yourself musically.”

Total Guitar

Dream Theater