The foyer of the ICC Theatre hums with the low-frequency anticipation of a band whose catalogue has outlived formats, fashions and entire streaming platforms. Tonight, Dream Theater arrive in Sydney as part of their 40th Anniversary Tour 2026.
Billed as An Evening With Dream Theater, the show carries added weight. It marks the first Australian run since drummer Mike Portnoy’s return to the fold, reuniting him with vocalist James LaBrie, guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung and keyboardist Jordan Rudess. Tonight, the original chemistry is back onstage.
Formed in Boston in 1985, Dream Theater have built a career on complexity without compromise. Images & Words remains canonised in metal’s upper tier, while Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory continues to loom large in progressive rock discourse. Their more recent work, including 2021’s A View From The Top of the World, earned them a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for ‘The Alien’, proof that their technical ambition has never dulled their mainstream resonance.
This anniversary tour arrives in the wake of a completed European leg and carries the promise of deep cuts and fan favourites drawn from four decades of meticulous musicianship. It is also the first time in more than 15 years that the band have played multiple Australian states with Portnoy back behind the kit, restoring a dynamic that defined much of their formative era.
There is something fitting about a band so invested in narrative returning at this point in their own. Their sixteenth album, Parasomnia, stands as both a nod to their past and a statement of intent. The stage setup tonight reflects that duality: precision-engineered visuals, expansive instrumentation, and a setlist designed to thread together eras rather than separate them.
After the curtain drops, James LaBrie reappears almost theatrically, stalking the lip of the stage before retreating during the band’s extended instrumental passages. Behind him, Mike Portnoy sits ensconced within one of the most formidable drum kits to grace the ICC Theatre, a gleaming fortress of cymbals and toms from which he occasionally peers out, commanding the room with measured force. To his right, Jordan Rudess operates a keyboard rig that feels architectural in scale, it tilts and is illuminated by shifting projections on a screen that wraps around the instrument itself. John Myung remains the quiet axis at centre stage, his bass lines steady and exacting, while John Petrucci, composed and precise, threads intricate leads through the mix with the assurance of someone who has spent four decades refining the language.
Dream Theater’s music has always demanded attention. Forty years in, it still commands it.
The tour moves to Brisbane next, tickets HERE.
Images Deb Pelser
