Dream Theater - Pink Floyd

Dream Theater has been known for covering other artists' work throughout their career. They took this practice to a new level during the promotional tour for Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. At three special gigs, one each in Barcelona, ChicagoMetallica's Master of Puppets album in its entirety after a full set of Dream Theater material. This came as a surprise to fans, as there was no sign that this was to occur, other than it being announced that the gigs involved, which were the second of a two-night stand in each city, would be "extra special". This tradition can most likely be traced back to one of Mike Portnoy's favorite bands, Phish, who began a series of performing "musical costumes" of entire albums from other artists each Halloween beginning in 1994. Portnoy devised this "album cover" as the first in a series of gigs to be played as tributes to bands that had been influential in the formation and development of Dream Theater. The covers set divided many fans who attended the shows, with some people saying that they went to a Dream Theater concert to see original music and not another artist's work. Others, however, said that it was a bonus and not a replacement for a normal Dream Theater concert, since an ordinary gig had been played the night before. and New York City, they covered

On the next leg of the tour they covered Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast and received a similar reaction to Master of Puppets, although it was already known that a cover was to be performed that night because the tour itinerary included two successive gigs in a single city. On October 11, 2005, Dream Theater covered Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Dream Theater's official webpage stated that the second sets of the second nights in Amsterdam, London, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Tokyo (October 11, October 25, December 4, December 11 and January 13 respectively), and also the second set of the January 15 show in Osaka, would be a classic album covered in its entirety. Dark Side of the Moon was played again on October 25 in London. However, in Buenos Aires (December 4) and São Paulo (December 11) the 'classic album' played was Dream Theater's own Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, to make up for not having visited Argentina and Brazil in their Metropolis 2000 tour. On January 13, 2006 (Tokyo) and on the 15th (Osaka), Dream Theater covered Deep Purple's live album Made in Japan. Portnoy says that he has one more cover show planned, but refuses to reveal when it will occur, or what album will be covered.[34]

During Gigantour 2005, Dream Theater did a cover of Pantera's "Cemetery Gates" as a tribute to the late "Dimebag" Darrel Lance Abbott. As an added bonus, they had Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory, and Russell Allen of Symphony X do guest vocals and Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, do the main solo for the song.

In addition, Dream Theater released several live cover songs on their EP A Change of Seasons, including songs from Elton John, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Journey, Kansas, and Dixie Dregs.

In 2008, they recorded a version of Iron Maiden's To Tame a Land for a Kerrang magazine compilation.