I saw the following post from Antimusic and said “Mike Portnoy plus Neal Morse and Steve Morse?  I’m in!”

With all the will-they-won’t-they news about an impending announcement from Dream Theater regarding the identity of their new drummer, one could be forgiven for losing track of outgoing drummer and founding member, Mike Portnoy.

But Portnoy has surfaced at the dawn of the New Year with a major announcement of his own, as he will be joining Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse in a brand new project.

The as-yet-unnamed project will also include multi-instrumentalist Neal Morse (Spock’s Beard), vocalist Casey McPherson (Alpha Rev, Endochine), and bassist Dave LaRue, who plays with Steve Morse in the on-again-off-again Dixie Dregs.

But then I saw news of some new Yellow Matter Custard dates (Portnoy’s Beatles tribute band, also featuring Morse) complete with a Chicago tour date.  Road trip?  Hmmmm.

After having had such a fun experience the first time around in 2003, drummer Mike Portnoy (ex-DREAM THEATER), guitarist Paul Gilbert (RACER X, MR. BIG) and guitarist/keyboardist Neal Morse (ex-SPOCK’S BEARD) will reunite as YELLOW MATTER CUSTARD once again to pay tribute to their greatest influence of all: THE BEATLES!

Feb. 25 – Long Beach, CA – Art Theater of Long Beach, CA
Feb. 27 – Chicago, IL – [to be announced]
Feb. 28 – New York City – B.B. King Blues Club & Grill once again to pay tribute to their greatest influence of all:

The Mike/Neal project really excites me – I’ve enjoyed the Transatlantic stuff and with Neal, I’d be happy to hear him get back to anything as good as the Spock’s Beard Snow album. The latest Transatlantic album hit that mark for me and I’d welcome more of that here in 2011!