Progressive Party : These Are Good Times for Dream Theatre, Whose Rapid Success Is a Surprise Even to the Band

The progressive rock sound of sheer, showy chops amid a sea of pseudo-classical white noise was killed off in the late ‘70s by the do-it-yourself tenets of punk rock.

At least, that’s what conventional rock-history wisdom says. So what’s the explanation for the popularity of Dream Theatre, which takes over for the likes of Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Gentle Giant and other great dinosaurs of the progressive era?

Isn’t this supposed to be the age of the simplistic amateurism of grunge?

Maybe so, yet Dream Theatre’s 1992 debut album has been certified gold, a video of its single “Pull Me Under” has been in steady rotation on MTV and the group is promoting its new album, “Awake,” with a national tour that includes a show Thursday to open the new Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana.

It all adds up to a level of success that seems to have taken aback even the band members themselves.

“We’re totally shocked,” said Dream Theatre drummer Mike Portnoy in a recent phone interview. “We always expected that the band would have to work really, really hard, and it would be a slow, building process. We thought it would take a few years to get to the level we had on the first album. We never counted on MTV or radio or anything like that, so we’re really grateful.”

Dream Theatre--consisting of Portnoy, guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, vocalist James LaBrie and touring keyboardist Derek Sherinian--parlays technical virtuosity into long compositions with extended instrumental breaks that showcase the members’ respective soloing talents.

This is the kind of band often featured in musicians’ magazines. In fact, the nucleus of the group met at Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music.

“(Berklee) was very jazz-oriented while we were there,” remembered Portnoy. “We were like these long-haired, metal kids playing Iron Maiden covers and Rush covers. We were kind of outcasts.”

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The metal edge to Dream Theatre’s music is perhaps what sets it apart from such ancestors as Yes and makes the group’s sound more accessible to modern audiences. The attitude is more rebel than quasi-spiritual, even as they display chops that took years of devoted practice to develop.

“We grew up listening to real progressive stuff, like Yes, Genesis and the Dregs,” said Portnoy, 27. “But at the same time, we were also listening to Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and so on. When the group got together, we wanted to combine both of those worlds. We try to incorporate everything. We’re all very open-minded listeners, and that comes out in our style. We let all of our influences become part of the sound.”

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Portnoy makes no apologies for the group’s displays of instrumental skill and believes that its “look-at-me-shred” approach is what sets it apart.

“It seems that the trend right now is to be as simple as possible, whereas what we’re doing is the total opposite of that,” he said. “We’ve been called the ‘alternative to the alternative.’ A lot of people thought that was something that would kill us, but I think it actually worked more to our benefit.

“What we’re doing isn’t flavor-of-the-month. There’s a void of music like this out there, and there’s an audience that definitely wants it, wants music that requires a little more thought than the younger grunge and the alternative stuff.”

No musical reactionary, Portnoy is quick to note that he likes a lot of current rock and believes that many of today’s top groups deserve their success. If he bears any animosity about the current scene, it’s directed toward the media.

“I think once a certain sound or style starts doing well, the media tend to take off with it and ignore everything else,” he said. “So that’s why I think (the scene has) become a little too one-dimensional.”

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Next up for Dream Theatre is a record that will break even more rules. Portnoy said the group plans to record a single 20-minute composition to be released as an EP next year.

“The only rule we have when we’re writing is to have no rules at all,” he said. “We take the clock off the wall, and everything takes a back seat to whatever pops up.”

* Dream Theatre and Fates Warning perform Thursday at the opening of the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $19.50. (714) 957-0600.