Dream Theater lives! Rumor of band’s demise shattered by new double-live album and video

Rumors can be difficult to extinguish, especially when spreading through cyber space like globally ignited wildfire. For the guys in Dream Theater, this one was a doozy.

Shortly before the band embarked on another leg of a far-ranging international tour last spring, fans were alarmed when word allegedly came from drummer Mike Portnoy that Dream Theater was calling it quits. Portnoy sets the record straight: “That all stemmed from something I put on the Internet saying that these would be the final dates of this tour, and it was completely misinterpreted as the final dates,” he recalls.

The realization was driven home that one must be oh so very careful in the age of potentially errant e-mail. “ Basically, the dates came in and they were posted as something like, ‘These are the final dates — here ya go.’ And then somebody blew it out of proportion.”

If anyone out there doubts Dream Theater’ s continued viability, the group’s smokin’ new double-live opus Once in a Livetime should enlighten the misinformed. Judging by the energy driving tracks such as “Take the Time” and the multi-part “A Change of Seasons,” there’s a long road ahead for progressive metal’s standard bearer.

Recorded at Le Bataclan in Paris, France, last June 25, the album represents Dream Theater’s fifth release for Warner/Elektra’s EastWcst subsidiary. It is accompanied by a long-awaited home video 5 Years in a Livetime, featuring rare and behind-the-scene footage dating back to 1993.

“I’m a Dream Theater fan myself,” enthuses Portnoy,” so I know what folks are looking for in terms of material from us at’ this point in our careers.

“I follow all the Dream Theater websites very closely, and I remember the bands that I followed and the kind of stuff I wanted to see from them. This was really a labor of love for everyone in the band.”

The album was conceived as a “best-of live,” a chronicle of Dream Theater’s first 10 years. As such, no new songs are included, although the video does feature previously unreleased material.

Those introduced to Dream Theater during the band’s short North American tour last summer as openers on a triple bill with Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Deep Purple will discover some fascinating pleasures and treasures on the new live album. That’s because the group’s usual two-hour set was reduced to a mere 45 minutes as support act. Consequently, newcomers witnessed but a hint of the band’s prolific capabilities.

For instance, keyboardist Derek Sherinian comes across on Once in a Livetime as much more than a backing musician, with a deft piano/synth solo spot that was missing from the group’s truncated opening set. The breathtakingly nimble, dual chops of guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung also have room to stretch into adventurously progressive realms over the two-disc span.

Looking back on the ELP/Deep Purple tour, Portnoy says the band attempted to emphasize its “progressive” side vs. its “metal” component within the brief time allowed onstage.

“We tried to include the progressive stuff like ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Millennium’... ‘6:00’ is real keyboard-driven, so we figured the ELP fans would probably get into that,” he says. “Then we had more varied pieces like ‘Peruvian Skies’ and ‘Hollow Years,’ so it was like a little taste test for the people that didn’t know us.”

Singer James LaBrie recalls how many fans of the older bands seemed won over by the end of their maiden voyage with Dream Theater.

“At first, obviously, the people who didn’t know us were sitting back sort of reserved and checking us out. But usually by the end of the set people were standing up clapping, and looked like they were into it,” he says. “So I think that exposure was very beneficial to us. We touched a lot of new people, I think. There were so many generations there, too. You’re going from people that are 17 to 57, it looked like. There was a wide range in ages.”

A significant change indeed for a band that had headlined to its own rabid following for six years running. Interestingly, the Long Island born-and-bred Dream Theater continues to draw better abroad than in America—one reason it seized the opportunity to play for arena crowds as an opening act.

Traditionally. Dream Theater has been a darling of European audiences, drawing especially well in Holland and Italy. Portnoy is quick to blame domestic music media for the band’s comparative lack of notoriety at home.

“I think it’s MTV’s fault and radio’s fault,” he says. “Our fans in America are just as great and just as devoted as everyone else. It’s just that there are smaller numbers here because of the amount of exposure we get.”

LaBrie adds that in many overseas markets, particularly Europe and Japan, music buffs rely on magazines for information on favorite artists. In the United States. Dream Theater coverage in the printed press apparently lags as badly as on the airwaves, save for support in select heavy metal publications.

The band does have strongholds in the U.S. LaBrie identifies the tri-state New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania region as very supportive, along with Los Angeles, southern Texas and greater Seattle.” But there still is so much of the States that we need to conquer,” he says.

Dream Theater’s plans for 1999 are unsettled, though more live dates and studio time in preparation of a new album are likely. Members will continue dabbling in side projects, such as recent sessions for a second Liquid Tension Experiment album for the Magna Carta label, to which Portnoy and Petrucci contributed.

Another Magna Carta project drawing Dream Theater involvement was the Explorers’ Club album, conceived by Magellan’s Trent Gardner and featuring an all-star cast.

‘That was a great one,” recalls LaBrie. “We were doing a show in Palo Alto [Calif.] and Trent and [Magna Carta representative] Mike Varney were there. They came up and told me about this project and asked if I’d be interested. I said ‘sure.’

“They let me hear some of the tracks and I just went in and sang the sections they wanted me to do. It was weird in a way. because they just send you the tape and instructions on what they want you to do. You go and sing it and send it back.”

While no one in Dream Theater has actively pursued a solo album, LaBrie admits the prospect lingers in the back of his mind. Noting that his recreational listening of late has included the likes of Gino Vanelli, Sting and George Michael, LaBrie says he might someday try his hand at “more of the pop type of thing.”

“I’d like to get a little more under my belt with Dream Theater and then branch out when we take a little hiatus later in our careers,” he says. “I think at that point I’d like to use the fact that I might hopefully be better known. That would help me get better players.”

For now, though, Dream Theater embellishes its association with progressive music through side projects such as Liquid Tension Experiment (featuring King Crimson bassist Tony Levin and keyboard virtuoso Jordan Rudess) and Explorers’ Club (which involved a host of prog and metal artists, including Yes guitarist Steve Howe).

Continuing in that vein, bassist John Myung guests on the new Sean Malone (bass. stick) project for the Laser’s Edge label, Gordian Knot. And keyboardist Derek Sherinian guests on the new Rocket from the Crypt CD, RFTC, on Interscope Records. He also contributed to the Alice Cooper tribute CD, Humanary Stew.

In early ‘99, Portnoy will meet in the studio with the following for a new, unnamed project, likely for the Magna Carta label: Jim Matheos (Fates Warning) on guitar, Neal Morse (Spock’s Beard) on vocals and keyboards, Pete Trewavas (Marillion) on bass. Winding up recent Dream Theater-related happenings, Platypus is yet another prog all-star project, including Myung on bass, Sherinian on keys, Rod Morgenstein (Rudess Morgenstein Project, Dixie Dregs) on drums and Ty Tabor (King’s X) on guitar. When Pus Comes to Shove is the title.

When Dream Theater does release another studio album, don’t be too surprised if it’s a two-disc set. Portnoy campaigned mightily with record company brass to make Once in a Livetime a two-CD offering, and has stated that all Dream Theater releases should comprise two discs.

“It all comes down to the politics of the record company. We make the music and they control how it’s marketed and how it’s put out. I would have loved for our last studio album [1997’s Falling into Infinity] to be a double, because we had that much music,” Portnoy says. ‘There are lots of reasons they would prefer not to do that. We can only be in so much control.”

Yet LaBrie stresses that Dream Theater has been very lucky as a major-label act in determining its own musical direction.

“They are there to say, ‘Well, where’s the hit? ‘That’s just [the record company’s] mentality, and obviously it’s their job,” he says. ‘They’ll be there going, ‘what can we market? What can we push to radio? What’s radio friendly?’ even though they really don’t understand what kind of band we are and probably don’t care to understand.

“We have to play that game. But for the most part, we’ve had a lot of creative freedom.”