Can a band be too good for its own good? That all depends on what its "own good" means. But if success is measured by album sales and the size of venues, Dream Theater might answer that question in the affirmative.
The quintet will make a stop at Kingsbury Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m., and anybody attending the show, or who is familiar with the band's body of work, will know that appealing to the masses or being the latest pop flavor-of-the-month is not what Dream Theater is about. It's style is hard to classify but is usually given the label "progressive rock."Decorated drummer Mike Portnoy, guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung met at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, finding that they had similar influences, tastes in music and hometown addresses.
The three have remained at the core of the band, which has had, at times, made extensive searches for a vocalist and for a keyboardist. James LaBrie and his voice have been on board since the band's '92 breakthrough, "Images And Words." The third and newest keyboardist is the highly esteemed Jordan Rudess, who studied at Juilliard starting at the age of 9 and who contributed to the band's latest disc, "Metropolis 2: Scenes From A Memory." ("Part 1" was a single 12-minute song released in '92.)
Following the example of some of their influences, they have produced a concept album that tracks one complete story from start to finish in the tradition of Pink Floyd, Rush, Frank Zappa, The Who, Led Zepplin, ELP and the Beatles.
The band has not appeared in Utah since a show at Saltair six years ago and has only 26 U.S. tour dates scheduled before it leaves for Europe in March and then Japan in May.
Kingsbury Hall reports brisk initial ticket sales, but some seats are still available at Kingsbury Hall or Smith'sTix locations.