Music

Watch former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy have a half-rapped temper tantrum on stage in Manila

by Tyler Munro

If you’ve never seen Mike Portnoy drum, this clip needs a bit of a preface: his kit is more often than not completely insane. Often seemingly as wide as the stage itself, it’s usually as big as his ego. And that might be the reason why the stage crew in Manila had a hard time setting one that wasn’t his own up properly.

Mid-song, he smashed his cymbals to the crowd before breaking into some sort half-sung, half-rapped slam poetry.

He did at least comment on the tantrum on his web forums, not so much apologizing as contextualizing his actions. He did at least say he wasn’t trying to excuse them.

He writes that it might be the last time he tours without his own kit and drum tech, adding that his band has arrived “on at least a half dozen occasions” to find their gear wrongly set up.

“We’ve been as patient and understanding as we can possibly be,” he says, perhaps using the Royal “We” in defiance of how uncomfortable his band looked throughout his little outburst. “But when you get four guys who haven’t slept more than a couple of hours every night in order to fly to these shows, sometimes our patience can wear thin.”

He says “frustrating circumstances create frustrated behaviour,” adding that he’s been waiting his whole career to play in Manila and wasn’t going to let anything ruin his night or their show. Which is weird, because wouldn’t this tantrum have done exactly that?

His explanation almost makes sense, though. He says his snare mic was acting up, and when he motioned for the tech to come fix it, he took the mic off entirely.

“Realizing he had no idea what was going on or how to fix the situation, I stopped playing and did my little “rap” while they fixed the situation and we wouldn’t have to play the whole song with no snare in the mix,” he says. [via Metal Hammer]