page_title: Dream Theater
section_title: Addition of James LaBrie and Images and Words (1991–1993)
hierarchical_section_title: Dream Theater / History / Addition of James LaBrie and Images and Words (1991–1993)
caption_attribution_description: English: James LaBrie, american vocalist
context_page_description: Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to concentrate further on the band that would eventually become Dream Theater. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remained together until September 8, 2010, when Portnoy left the band and he was replaced several months later by Mike Mangini. James LaBrie has been the lead singer of Dream Theater since 1991, replacing Charlie Dominici who had left the band two years earlier. Dream Theater's first keyboardist, Kevin Moore, left the band after three albums and was replaced by Derek Sherinian in 1995 after a period of touring. After one album with Sherinian, the band replaced him with current keyboardist Jordan Rudess in 1999.
  To date, Dream Theater has released fourteen studio albums. Their first album, When Dream and Day Unite, was released in 1989 and is the only record to feature Dominici on vocals.
context_section_description: Following Dominici's departure, Dream Theater fought successfully to be released from their contract with Mechanic, and set about auditioning singers and writing material for their next album. In their search for a new singer, they auditioned over 200 people, among them former Fates Warning front man John Arch. John ultimately decided that his personal commitments were more important and he opted not to join the band. On June 9, 1990, at a gig at Sundance in Bay Shore, New York, Dream Theater introduced Steve Stone as their new singer after playing half the set as an instrumental band. Stone had successfully recorded demos with Dream Theater, but he was fired following a single, ill-fated live performance. According to Mike Portnoy, Stone moved around the stage in a rather odd manner, seemingly doing a bad impression of Bruce Dickinson. Additionally, he shouted "Scream for me Long Beach!" several times throughout the show (Dickinson can be heard saying this on Iron Maiden's live album Live After Death), although they were actually performing in Bay Shore. The audience was immediately turned off by the new singer.  It was five months before Dream Theater played another show, this time all-instrumental (under the name YtseJam). Until 1991, the band remained focused in an attempt to hire another singer and writing additional music. It was during this period that they wrote the majority of what would become Images and Words (1992).
  In January 1991, the band received a demo tape from Kevin James LaBrie, of glam metal band Winter Rose. The band had received the tape just before they were about to commit to another singer. The band was so impressed by his demo that he was flown from Canada to New York for an audition. LaBrie jammed on three songs with the band, and was immediately hired to fill the vocalist position. Once recruited, LaBrie decided to drop his first name to avoid confusion with the other Kevin in the band. For the next few months, the band returned to playing live shows (still mostly around NYC), while working on vocal parts for the music written before acquiring LaBrie. Derek Shulman and Atco Records (now East West), a division of Elektra Records, signed Dream Theater to a seven-album contract based on a three-song demo (later made available as "The Atco Demos" through the Dream Theater fan club).
  The first album to be recorded under their new record contract was Images and Words (1992). For promotion, the label released a CD Single and video clip for the song "Another Day", but neither made significant commercial impact. The song "Pull Me Under", however, managed to garner a high level of radio airplay without any organized promotion from the band or their label. In response, ATCO produced a video clip for "Pull Me Under", which saw heavy rotation on MTV. A third video clip was produced for "Take the Time", but it was not nearly as successful as "Pull Me Under".
  The success of "Pull Me Under", combined with relentless touring throughout the U.S. and Japan, caused Images and Words to achieve gold record certification in the States and platinum status in Japan. A tour of Europe followed in 1993, which included a show at London's famed Marquee Club. The show was recorded and released as Live at the Marquee, Dream Theater's first official live album. Additionally, a video compilation of their Japanese concerts (mixed in with documentary-style footage of the off-stage portion of the tour) was released as Images and Words: Live in Tokyo.
caption: James LaBrie joined the band in January 1991 and has been their vocalist ever since.
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