For the awesome music, go [[AwesomeMusic/DreamTheater here]].
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* John Myung '''tackling''' James [=LaBrie=] in the middle of a show ''on a bet''.
* Mike Portnoy playing drums with one hand while playing catch (using his own drumsticks) with one of the sound guys offstage in the MIDDLE of "Erotomania".
* During the Progressive Nation tour in 2009, Mike Portnoy did drum solos with the drummers of each of the bands touring with them - Landryx of [=UneXpecT=], Steve Frothingham of Bigelf and Martin Axenrot of Music/{{Opeth}}. After individual solos with each drummer, '''all four of them''' played at once on Mike's gargantuan drum kit. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiXS6tk5r40 It has to be seen to be believed.]]
--> "This drumset is too big for me alone."
** Dream Theater had attracted criticism that they were trying to sound too much like Opeth with Portnoy's shouted vocal parts on more recent albums. So, in that same show, Mikael Ã…kerfeldt came on stage to do the shouted vocals in "A Nightmare to Remember" with his characteristic growling. Check the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4St7Sr8ZliI awesomeness]].
* ''Score'', where an entire orchestra [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Vkow5KGyM performs]] the overture to "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" made it all very much worthwhile. Not to mention any and every thing that followed said moment.
* The "spider solo" during some of their live performances of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjvVXm3cfYs Caught in a Web]]". ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VCPdhom8V4 Especially]]'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VCPdhom8V4 the one in Rio]], where [[AudienceParticipationSong the audience]] ''[[AudienceParticipationSong really]]'' [[AudienceParticipationSong got into the song.]]
* The entire "Live Scenes from New York" concert: they played the entirety of ''Scenes from a Memory'', another full concerts worth of music after that (including all three parts of "A Mind Beside Itself"), and then for the encore, they played the [[EpicRocking 23-minute long]] "A Change of Seasons". The icing on the cake is at the very end when James [=LaBrie=] apologizes for having such a short set. Even more impressive, James [=LaBrie=] was suffering from food poisoning the entire time, and was hospitalized after the concert. And it ''still'' sounded awesome.
* Any and all of James [=LaBrie=]'s highest notes, but most notably 'trapped inside this octavarium!' (raised to an epic descending G5 on ''Score''... with orchestral backing) and of course the legendary F#5 from "Learning to Live".
* ''Music/ImagesAndWords'' [[http://loudwire.com/dream-theater-images-and-words-wins-march-metal-madness-2013/ being voted best metal album of all time.]] What makes it particularly impressive is that a fairly niche prog rock album managed to not only win, but in doing so defeat legendary albums by the likes of Music/{{Metallica}}, Music/{{Slayer}}, Music/{{Megadeth}}, and Music/JudasPriest. Not bad.
* The band ''finally'' playing "Space-Dye Vest" live for the 20th anniversary of ''Awake''.
* James [=LaBrie=] deserves one himself for having the guts to tackle the ever-so-complicated topic of sexual assault and the horribly traumatic effects it has on the victim and their ability to maintain a relationship on "At Wit's End". Said song is from the husband's point of view, and said husband is determined to help his wife overcome the trauma and help her see that she deserves love and what happened in her past that she didn't intend to happen is ''not'' her fault at all.
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