Dedicated to the Dream

When you release a twin-CD studio recording with a 43-minute title track and an opening cut more than 13 minutes long, you are obviously not shooting for radio airplay or mainstream acceptance. Such is the case with Dream Theater’s newest release, “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” on Elektra Records.

Bringing its three-hour show to the 9:30 Club Sunday, the Long Island, N.Y.-based band has managed to carve a niche for itself in the modern music scene, despite its predilection for writing songs of epic length with extensive instrumental passages and weighty subject matter.

Originally inspired by rock giants such as Rush, Yes, Genesis and Emerson, Lake and Palmer - bands that invented the “progressive rock” genre - Dream Theater struck gold with its 1992 mosh-pit anthem “Pull Me Under” from the breakthrough album, “Images and Words.”

The head-banging classic was the band’s last song to gain more than cursory radio airplay and heavy rotation on MTV, but drummer Mike Portnoy said those concerns are not important to Dream Theater, anyway.

Besides being revered among percussionists for his ability and massive drum kit, Portnoy also helps compose the band’s music and has even directed videos. The band members - which also include guitarist John Petrucci, vocalist James LaBrie, bassist John Myung and keyboard player Jordan Rudess - first met in the mid-1980s while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass.

Portnoy said that the band’s hardcore fan base is what has enabled them to not only survive but thrive, reducing worries about radio play or MTV exposure.

“We’ve been around for 16 years so I think we’re at the stage where we can’t go unnoticed,” Portnoy said by phone from Detroit. “We’re doing pretty successful tours and we’re doing that based on the strength of our fan base without MTV and radio play. I think that kind of dedicated fan base, that kind of self-driven career, is something that has to be taken notice of [by promoters].”

Besides the more muscular progressive influences in the music, elements of Radiohead, the Beatles, Tool and Pink Floyd can be heard in each member’s playing.

They have all the trappings of progressive rock heroes - extensive and complicated equipment setups, cover stories in magazines such as Guitar Player and Modern Drummer, instructional videos, a slew of manufacturer endorsements, clinic tours and a host of magazine reader’s poll wins.

All without major recognition from the general listening public.

“Six Degrees,” the band’s seventh studio album, follows few of the standard rules of pop music. Acrobatic drumming and virtuoso performances on guitar, keyboard, and bass abound.

Lyrically, the album tackles topics such as stem-cell research (“The Great Debate”), mental illness (“Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence”), addiction (“The Glass Prison”), death (“Disappear”) and the alienation that can come with fame (“Misunderstood”) - not your usual party-rock approach.

The album also marks the band’s new approach of writing in the studio. In the past, members would have songs mostly completed before beginning the recording process.

“For this record, we were free to get very experimental on tape,” Portnoy said. “In a lot of cases we would write the songs during production, or we would just lay down my drums and then experiment with the instrumentation and the orchestration beyond that.”

Dream Theater also has used the Internet to great effect to promote itself. According to Portnoy, the Internet allows progressive bands to reach their fans without the worries of record sales or heavy promotion, helping the genre stay alive.

Besides the band’s official Web site, each member has his own page to reach fans and promote numerous side projects.

“There is a whole world, a whole underground that doesn’t rely on mainstream media or TV and radio play,” Portnoy said. “In that respect I think the progressive scene is probably bigger and healthier than ever. There are so many independent labels and so many bands and musicians that are doing challenging music and progressive music and getting big followings, and a lot of that is due to the Internet.”

The fact that large-selling bands seem to be releasing more eclectic and experimental music has opened people’s minds also, he said.

“You have bands like Radiohead and Tool that aren’t necessarily progressive metal or progressive rock or even progressive at all. But they’re taking chances and they’re being very daring with their music, and they are taking it to new levels,” Portnoy said. “Bands like that are kind of making mainstream America take notice of progressive bands.”