Waking Up the World Tour was a tour by progressive metal/rock band Dream Theater promoting their third studio album Awake. After a headlining concert called Pre-Awake show on September 9, 1994 at the Foundations Forum in Burbank, California, with Jordan Rudess performed with them at the show, but decided against joining the band for the entire tour, the band held another round of auditions and were impressed with Derek Sherinian, who studied at Berklee College of Music the year before Petrucci, Portnoy and Myung did. He had previously played with Alice Cooper and Kiss and enjoyed similar music to the other members of Dream Theater. He was offered the position on a trial basis at the beginning of October 1994, giving him just two weeks to learn two hours of highly complex music. Derek Sheri