Mike Portnoy has become a star of Drumeo’s highly entertaining “For the First Time” videos, which challenge notable drummers to play along to songs they’ve never heard before.
Maybe it’s because of Portnoy’s immense talent, but the Drumeo hosts seem to get a kick out of tormenting the Dream Theater drummer in particular — like when they forced him to cover the drum parts from Tool’s “Pneuma” and Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” after hearing both for the first time, minus the drum tracks.
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Portnoy has now enacted his revenge, flipping the script and making Drumeo host Brandon Toews learn a Dream Theater song on the spot: the band’s latest single “Midnight Messiah,” which was unreleased at the time of the challenge.
In the clip, Portnoy is behind the studio board in Toews’ usual seat and prefaces the song reveal by stating that he threw Toews a bone by picking one of the only new DT songs that’s almost all in 4/4 time.
“I’m sure you’re gonna have some parts in there that are gonna be a bit of a doozy,” said Toews, to which Portnoy replied: “I have faith you’re gonna be able to do this.”
Toews listens intently before deliberately practicing each section of the song. Although Toews is a skilled drummer in his own right, mimicking Portnoy’s parts proves to be quite challenging, as the session pushes three hours in length. That said, there was one thing he didn’t need much practice on.
“You’ve got the Portnoy fills down,” enthused the Dream Theater drummer, eliciting a comment from Toews’ colleague: “He’s only been doing them for 15 years.”
After three hours and 22 minutes behind the kit, Toews eventually knocks out the final take with a clean run, much to the excitement of Portnoy.
“That’s all you get from me, Mike,” Toews said in exasperation. “I’m only a man.”
Dream Theater officially released “Midnight Messiah” last week, and notably, the song features the first lyrical contributions from Portnoy since 2009 — as he returned to the prog-metal act in late 2023 following a 13-year absence. The single arrives ahead of the release of the new album, Parasomnia, and DT’s highly anticipated 40th anniversary tour. Get tickets here.
Below you can watch the Drumeo clip featuring Portnoy challenging Toews.