Drum legend Mike Portnoy (The Winery Dogs, The Neal Morse Band, ex-Dream Theater) celebrated his 50th birthday on the Cruise To The Edge (February 7th - 11th) by performing - for the first time ever - Dream Theater's "12 Step Suite" in its entirety on the cruise. The music documents the musician's battle with alcoholism, and is an ensemble of five songs recorded by the band from 2002 to 2009, with titles that reflect his struggles: "The Glass Prison”, "This Dying Soul”, "The Root Of All Evil”, “Repentance" and "The Shattered Fortress”. 

The show took place on February 10th and featured Portnoy, Eric Gillette (Neal Morse Band), Daniel Gildenlöw (Pain Of Salvation), Ted Leonard (Spock's Beard), Ross Jennings, Charlie Griffiths, Richard Henshall, Diego Tejeida and Conner Green (Haken). The setlist was as follows:

Set 1 (Liquid Tension Experiment)
"Paradigm Shift" 
"Acid Rain"
"Universal Mind"

Players:
Mike Portnoy - drums
Tony Levin - bass, chapman stick 
Diego Tejeida - keyboards 
Eric Gillette - guitars

 

Set 2 (12 Step Suite)
"The Glass Prison”
"This Dying Soul”
"The Root Of All Evil”
“Repentance" 
"The Shattered Fortress”

Players:
Mike Portnoy - drums
Conner Green - bass 
Diego Tejeida - keyboards 
Richard Henshall - guitars
Charlie Griffiths - guitars
Eric Gillette - guitars
Ross Jennings - lead vocals on "The Glass Prison" 
Daniel Gildenlöw - lead vocals on "This Dying Soul"
Ted Leonard - lead vocals on "The Root Of All Evil"
Mike Portnoy - lead vocals on "Repentence"
Ross Jennings - lead vocals on "The Shattered Fortress"

 

Portnoy recently checked in with the following announcement:

"Hola Amigos! I am so excited to be bringing my Shattered Fortress show to Mexico! The Shattered Fortress is myself and an all-star prog lineup performing Dream Theater's 12 Step Suite live in it's entirety for the first time. This is not a new band or project for me, it is an exclusive event that will be making several select live appearances in select markets throughout the world in 2017, and ESP Prog Night is one of the selected shows!

The setlist at the show will be comprised of the 12 Step Suite and select other Dream Theater songs that I've written the lyrics to. Keep in mind, I have no plans (or interest) in revisiting DT material in any of my other bands. This is not an ongoing project or career move, this is merely a unique event that I am doing in select markets in 2017 to share with fans around the world...so catch it while you can!!

I am also excited to announce that my special guests at this show will be one of the greatest prog bands of today: Haken. As well as one of the greatest prog bands of tomorrow: Next To None.

This is going to be an amazing evening of music!"

Upcoming Shattered Fortress shows include:

June 
30 - Barcelona, Spain - Be Prog My Friend

July
14 - Loreley, Germany - Night Of The Prog

September 
8 - Atlanta, GA - Prog Power USA
10 - Mexico City, Mexico - El Plaza Condesa

Stay tuned for updates.