John Petrucci Announces Solo Tour Dates With Mike Portnoy

Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci has announced a brief run of solo tour dates, which will feature Mike Portnoy on drums. The reunited Meanstreak, which stars the wives of three Dream Theater icons, will also open each show.

These upcoming performances, set for Oct. 7 (Boston), Oct. 13 (New York City) and Oct. 15 (Washington D.C.) will mark the very first time Petrucci and Portnoy play together onstage since the drummer's high-profile departure from the Dream Theater lineup back in 2010. They have, however, linked back up in the studio recently as Portnoy played on Petrucci's 2020 solo album Terminal Velocity and they united again on last year's album by prog supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment (which features Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess and progressive rock legend Tony Levin on bass and Chapman stick).

Adding to the excitement is the news that power/thrash metal group Meanstreak, whose lone record Roadkill was released in 1988, will open each gig. The band is comprised of Bettina France (vocals), Marlene Portnoy (guitar, married to Mike Portnoy), Rena Sands (guitar, married to John Petrucci), Martens Myung (bass, married to John Myung) and Yael (drums).

Joining John Petrucci's live lineup is bassist Dave LaRue, who also played on Terminal Velocity and has familiarity with Mike Portnoy as they play together in Neal Morse's Flying Colors.

The tour will be quite the family affair in both the literal and figurative senses.

While there are only three dates on the books for now, it is said that additional dates will be announced at a later time, so stay tuned for more to come. Look for tickets to go on sale on July 15 at this location.