Clang & Clatter

Mike Portnoy is one interesting character.

The Dream Theater skin beater plays an extravagant drum kit that in size is just this side of Neal Peart’s (not to mention that he can do a spot-on imitation of his biggest influence). He wrote a five-song “Twelve-Step Suite” that documents his struggle with alcoholism, one song appearing on each of the last five Dream Theater albums. He has drumming awards out the wazoo, and he collects side projects like others collect stamps, coins, or model trains (Transatlantic, OSI, Liquid Trio Experiment, and Liquid Tension Experiment, just to name a few). He has a penchant for playing on tribute albums and lending his drumming talents to other artists’ releases. And he has assembled no fewer than four tribute bands to pay homage to some of his favorite artists—Led Zeppelin, The Who, Rush, and The Beatles.

One of these was a one-off supergroup of sorts he put together in 2003 called Yellow Matter Custard, the name being taken from a line in The Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus.” The band consisted of Portnoy on drums and vocals; Neal Morse (Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic, solo) on vocals, keys, and guitar; Matt Bissonette (Mustard Seeds, Joe Satriani, Jughead, Rick Springfield, and many others) on bass and vocals; and Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr. Big, solo) on guitars and vocals. The band played only two shows, the second of which was on May 18, 2003 at B.B. King’s Blues Club at Times Square and was recorded for posterity in the form of Yellow Matter Custard: One Night in New York City. King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor was originally asked to fill the guitar slot, but was unable due to other obligations. Not to snub Gilbert, I would have much preferred Tabor in that role, with his being a huge Beatles fan and influenced greatly by them—John Lennon especially—as well as having a very Lennon-esque quality to his vocals (I also think Ty has a much better guitar tone and would not have overplayed as Gilbert does on a few of the songs, but that’s just my preference). There was a fifth “Beatle” off-stage that handled additional keyboard work and samples duties.

Yellow Matter Custard played songs that spanned The Beatles’ career, and while their versions are fairly faithful to the originals, the intent was not to perform true reproductions of the songs like the Fab Faux (Gilbert’s solo in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is just one example of where they strayed from the original). That being said, the performances are excellent, and it’s amazing to see how well five guys can (mostly) recreate some of the greatest music ever recorded.

One of Portnoy’s insistances with his tribute bands is to play a drum kit that is scaled similarly to what the original drummer would have played. I have to say, it’s a bit strange to see him behind such a small kit.

In addition to the One Night in New York City CD, Mike Portnoy has made available a DVD of the performances that also includes practice sessions and backstage antics, but alas, it is currently out of stock.

Here’s the Yellow Matter Custard version of “A Day in the Life” from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

I will probably feature a few more clips of the Yellow Matter Custard clips in the future, but if you’re interested, you can jump out to my YouTube playlist to watch the videos at your own pace.