Sons Of Apollo–former Dream Theater members Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses), Billy Sheehan (The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, David Lee Roth) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Journey, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force) — are pleased to announce the release of ‘Live With The Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony’ on August 30th via InsideOutMusic / Sony.
Live With The Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony documents the band’s remarkable one-off performance at the Ancient Roman Theatre in Plovdiv, Bulgaria alongside a full orchestra & choir, playing tracks from their debut album ‘Psychotic Symphony’ as well as a selection of tracks by legendary bands. It will be available as a limited deluxe 3CD + DVD + Blu-Ray Artbook, Special Edition 3CD + DVD Digipak, Standalone Blu-Ray & Digital Album.
Today they launch a full clip of the band performing the Dream Theater track, Just Let Me Breathe, a song from Mike & Derek’s time in the band. Watch it now, below.
Mike Portnoy comments, “In writing the setlist for Sons Of Apollos’s very first tour, I knew we had to include a few songs from the Dream Theater album, Falling Into Infinity, which was the only full length studio album we did while Derek was in the band. I wanted to do Just Let Me Breathe as it’s one of the deeper cuts on the album and I knew SOA would absolutely slay it. Between Bumble, Derek & Billy’s crazy guitar, keys & bass unison sections and Jeff’s overall driving, funky vocal delivery (with myself on the verses & chorus and Bumble on the bridge), I knew the Sons would breathe a whole new life into this track and even kick it up a few notches! Plus, as the song’s lyricist, I took artistic license and changed the lyric from ‘Shannon Hoon’ to ‘Chris Cornell’ to give it a little more relevance in 2019.”
Portnoy continues, “I’ve released several dozen live albums through the years with about a dozen different bands, but I have to say that this live release from Sons Of Apollo may indeed be the most special one of them all!! Everything was aligned that evening: an absolutely beautiful Roman amphitheatre and a perfectly gorgeous summer evening, one set of SOA material and one set of specially chosen cover songs, and to top it all off being joined by a symphony orchestra and choir…it was a magical evening for everybody in attendance and now we can share it with the rest of the world immortalized in this incredible live package.This package will serve as a nice souvenir to capture the band’s first year on tour and should tide over all of our fans while we complete work on our sophomore studio release that will coming in January 2020.”
Pre-orders for all formats are now available here: https://soa.lnk.to/LiveWithThePlovdivPsychoticSymphony
Live With The Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony track listing:
CD 1:
1. God Of The Sun
2. Signs Of The Time
3. Divine Addiction
4. That Metal Show Theme
5. Just Let Me Breathe
6. Billy Sheehan Bass Solo
7. Lost In Oblivion
8. Jeff Scott Soto Solo Spot (The Prophet’s Song / Save Me)
9. Alive
10. The Pink Panther Theme
11. Opus Maximus
CD 2:
1. Kashmir
2. Gates Of Babylon
3. Labyrinth
4. Dream On
5. Diary Of A Madman
6. Comfortably Numb
7. The Show Must Go On
8. Hell’s Kitchen
9. Derek Sherinian Keyboard Solo
10. Lines In The Sand
CD 3:
1. Bumblefoot Guitar Spot
2. And The Cradle Will Rock
3. Coming Home