BLABBERMOUTH.NET
DREAM THEATER keyboardist
Jordan Rudess has teased a reunion of
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, his instrumental progressive rock/metal project with fellow
DREAM THEATER member
John Petrucci (guitar), alongside ex-
DREAM THEATER drummer
Mike Portnoy and progressive rock icon
Tony Levin (bass) of
KING CRIMSON and
PETER GABRIEL fame. The band has not performed live since 2008, when it embarked on a brief tour commemorating the tenth anniversary of its self-titled debut.
Earlier today,
Rudess shared what appears to be a recent photo of the four members of
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT wearing masks, with each mask featuring either a letter of the alphabet or a number. The resultant phrase, "LTE3", is an apparent reference to the fact that
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT is working on its third studio album, the follow-up to 1999's
"Liquid Tension Experiment 2".
This past May,
Rudess addressed the prospect of a
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT reunion while filming a video message on
Cameo, which lets users hire celebrities to record brief, personalized video messages about virtually any topic.
Asked if he thinks
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT will ever get back together,
Jordan said: "Well, the answer is we are looking at our schedules, we are organizing a time. With the [coronavirus] pandemic, it's been a little difficult to coordinate personal kind of gatherings, but it looks very good, my friend."
In February 2019,
Portnoy and
Rudess reunited on stage during the
Cruise To The Edge to perform
"Instrumedley" from
DREAM THEATER /
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT. They were joined by
NEAL MORSE BAND guitarist
Eric Gillette and
HAKEN bassist
Conner Green.
Back in April 2015,
Portnoy and
Rudess both joined the British progressive metal band
HAKEN on stage in New York City. Three months earlier, they were photographed having what appeared to be friendly banter at the 2015
NAMM show in Anaheim, California.
Nearly three years ago,
Portnoy posted a photo of him hanging out with
Petrucci in a move that clearly represented a thawing of tensions between the two musicians who had been friends for more than three decades. More recently,
Portnoy laid down the drum tracks on
Petrucci's second all-instrumental solo album,
"Terminal Velocity", which was released in August through
The Orchard Music on
John's
Sound Mind Music record label.
In February 2019,
Rudess discussed his
Cruise To The Edge encounter with
Portnoy during an appearance on
SiriusXM's
"Trunk Nation", which is hosted by
Eddie Trunk. The keyboardist said: "I think it's really nice. People whose music you love, you wanna see them getting along. So, even from my perspective, I see
John and
Mike together, and I'm, like, yeah, that makes sense. They were so close. They made so much music together."
He continued: "I told
Mike the other night. I said, 'The way I look at our relationship is that we've toured around the world together numerous times, we've written all this music together, we've been on tour buses everywhere. How many people in this lifetime that we're in can you be that close to and have that many experiences with?"
Although
Portnoy and his former bandmates in
DREAM THEATER engaged in a public war of words following his exit from the group,
Rudess said that he harbors no resentment toward his longtime friend.
"When
Portnoy left the band, there
was tension — natural tension — because it was a big deal,"
Jordan told
"Trunk Nation". "But what's really important to me is finding that… especially somebody who I care about, who I had so much life experience with. And he's a really great guy. There are so many wonderful things about him. So I wanna enjoy that.
"People will say, 'Oh my God!
DREAM THEATER is gonna have
Portnoy back in the band.' That's not what it's about,"
Rudess added. "This is about people and people who spent a lot of time together being able to be close together and be friends."
Rudess acknowledged that some of his other
DREAM THEATER bandmates have "their own feelings" about maintaining a connection with their former drummer. "But
Mike and I enjoyed hanging out and chatting about old times and all the stuff," he said. "So it was really cool."
In November 2017,
Mike told
Loud that he left
DREAM THEATER because he wanted to expand his musical horizons. "[I didn't] want to go to my grave and just be the drummer from
DREAM THEATER," he said. "I knew there was way more to what I had to offer."