DREAM THEATER has announced new tour dates for a North American headline trek billed as the Along For The Ride tour. The coast-to-coast run will pick up on March 20th in Toronto, ON following the band’s European tour and then continues through the end of April where it will eventually wrap up in Guadalajara, MX (see attached itinerary). Pre-sale tickets will be available starting at 10 AM, ET on Wednesday, December 18th with general onsale for select dates starting at 10 AM, ET on Friday, December 20th. For up-to-the-minute news and ticket information, visit this location.

Dream Theater’s guitarist, John Petrucci commented, “We are all really pumped and excited to bring our new live show to North America and to take all of our amazing fans ‘Along For The Ride’! Returning to the ‘An Evening With’ format will enable us to deliver the best DT live experience yet with time for lots of music, and we can’t wait to share it with all of you. With this tour, our goal is for you to be able to step into the world of Dream Theater from the moment you enter the venue. We hope to create an intense and stimulating night both musically and visually and have prepared some really cool things this time around. We’ll be premiering some songs we’ve never played live before, as well as featured tracks from our latest self-titled release and plenty of classic DT songs for all of our long time and hard-core fans. We are all looking forward to a great night of music and super-psyched to kick it all off!”

Along For The Ride Tour dates include:

March

20 - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
21 - Montreal, QC - Bell Center
25 - Boston, MA - Opera House
27 - Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theatre
28 - New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom

April

1 - Washington, DC - Lincoln Theater
2 - Pittsburgh, PA - The Palace
4 - Detroit, MI - Fillmore
5 - Chicago, IL - Chicago Theatre
6 - Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater
8 - Minneapolis, MN - Burnsville Performing Arts Center
9 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater
10 - Denver, CO - Paramount
12 - Vancouver, BC - Queen Elizabeth Theatre
15 - Salem, OR - Elsinore Theatre
17 - San Francisco, CA - The Warfield
18 - Riverside, CA - Fox PAC
19 - Los Angeles, CA - The Orpheum
23 - Monterrey, MX - Arena Monterrey
25 - Mexico City, MX - Arena Ciudad De Mexico
26 - Guadalajara, MX - Auditorio Telmex

Dream Theater's spirit of adventure and fearless musical virtuosity continues to reap dividends for the progressive metal titans who’ve just earned their second Grammy nomination, this time for Best Metal Performance for their single 'The Enemy Inside' from their current self-titled album on Roadrunner Records.

The band - John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass), James LaBrie (vocals), Jordan Rudess (keyboards & continuum) and Mike Mangini (drums) - received its first-ever Grammy nomination in 2012 for On The Backs Of Angels (from their A Dramatic Turn Of Events album) in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category.

Dream Theater has expressed their excitement over the Grammy news in this group statement: “We are all incredibly honored and excited about being nominated for a Grammy this year! News of our first nomination two years ago was amazing and now to be nominated for a second time is just mind blowing! We’re so proud to be included in such an awesome group of bands and extremely grateful to all the academy members who voted for us. To us the acknowledgment, affirmation and recognition of progressive music by the Grammys is especially meaningful and rewarding for us. Best of luck to all the nominees - and thank you once again!!”

METALLICA, LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH, ANTHRAX, VOLBEAT and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE are also among the nominees for the 56th annual Grammy Awards, which were announced last week by The Recording Academy in the US.

The nominees in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category include:

ANTHRAX - 'T.N.T.'

BLACK SABBATH - 'God Is Dead?'

DREAM THEATER - 'The Enemy Inside'

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE - 'In Due Time'

VOLBEAT feat. King Diamond - 'Room 24'

Led Zeppelin's ‘Kashmir (Live)’ also earned Best Rock Performance while Zep's Celebration Day and Black Sabbath's 13 earned Best Rock Album. Sabbath's ‘God Is Dead?' also gave Black Sabbath a nod in the Best Rock Song category. Metallica's Through The Never received a nomination in the Best Recording Package and ALICE IN CHAINS' The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here was chosen for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

The Grammy Awards will air live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on CBS on Sunday, January 26th at 8 PM, ET/PT.