John Petrucci is surprised by the low number of women at Dream Theater shows: “I’d love to see more women come to our shows”

Many progressive metal fans may have looked around at gigs and noticed that there are often very few women. Or at least that seems to be the case with Dream Theater, one of the giants of the genre.

The band’s guitarist John Petrucci at least seems puzzled by the lack of women at prog concerts. His response to a humorous question from a Metal Hammer reader about whether Dream Theater ever thought of using the low line for women’s bathroom at their shows as a marketing technique was as follows:

“That’s funny! I’m not sure why it’s like that. I just did my third guitar camp called John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe and I have lots of guest instructors that come in. This was the first time my wife Rena came as a guest instructor – she’s a guitar player from Meanstreak, which was an all-female thrash band, and she plays in [all-female Judas Priest tribute band] Judas Priestess now.

All the campers there except for two were male. We had discussions on why more women don’t come to camps and concerts in this genre. There are tons of female players and drummers out there, why don’t they come to shows? We’ve seen an increase in DT audiences lately but the ratio is still well off and I always wonder why. I’d love to see more women come to our shows!”

The band’s new album “A View From Top Of The World” has just been released.