Former DREAM THEATER Drummer Schedules Las Vegas In-Store

December 2, 2010

Former DREAM THEATER and current AVENGED SEVENFOLD touring drummer Mike Portnoy will take part in a signing session at Sam Ash in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday, December 12 at 4:00 p.m.

Sam Ash
2747 S. Maryland Pkwy
Las Vegas, NV 89109
Phone: 702-734-0007

Drum-cam footage of Portnoy performing the songs "Almost Easy" and "Welcome To The Family" with AVENGED SEVENFOLD on November 20, 2010 in Stockholm, Sweden and November 14, 2010 in Paris, France, respectively, can be viewed below.

AVENGED recruited Portnoy to play on its new album, "Nightmare", following the death last December of the band's drummer, James "The Rev" Sullivan. Portnoy was Sullivan's favorite drummer.

Portnoy recently confirmed that he will remain on the road with AVENGED SEVENFOLD until the band has completed touring in support of "Nightmare", which sold 162,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at the top of The Billboard 200 chart. He told cymbal manufacturer Sabian, "The relationship started as a tribute for Jimmy, and as a result of the musical and personal chemistry making the record, it's blossomed into being on the road with them. Originally that was only going to be for a couple of months until I went back to DREAM THEATER. Now because of the way the DREAM THEATER story unfolded, I will remain out with AVENGED SEVENFOLD into 2011, and stay on the road with them through the whole album cycle."

He added, "Although I'm not a band member [of AVENGED SEVENFOLD], I'm definitely part of the onstage presentation and chemistry. During the first couple of shows I played I was trying to lean back and be respectful. I was thinking, 'This is Jimmy's drum throne, this is his space.' But they were like, 'No! Be yourself, do your thing.' I came out of my shell and now I'm totally at home with these guys. We have a great chemistry, musically and personally."

Portnoy has added one of Sullivan's cymbals to his touring kit: a Sabian ride The Rev had owned for years which the company had refurbished, but hadn't been able to return before his death.

Portnoy made his concert debut with AVENGED SEVENFOLD on July 25 as they played live for the first time since Sullivan's death at the Heavy MTL festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).