John Myung, Mike Portnoy, and John Petrucci in 1985.
Dream Theater was formed in 1985 by guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung and drummer Mike Portnoy, while all were studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Kevin Moore, a high school bandmate of Petrucci's, was recruited to play keyboards, and Chris Colins was enlisted as vocalist.
The quintet settled on the name Majesty for the group (a name inspired by Portnoy's description of the closing section of "Bastille Day" by Rush), and the three Berklee attendees dropped out of school to concentrate on the band. Their first noteworthy recording project was the so-called Majesty demos, a collection of ideas and demos that were released in 1986. The initial pressing of 1,000 sold out within six months. However, in November 1986, after a few months of writing and performing together, Chris Collins left the band due to creative differences with the other members. After a year of trying to find a replacement, Charlie Dominici, who was far older and more experienced than anyone else in the band, successfully auditioned for the group. With the stability that Dominici's appointment brought to Majesty, they began playing more shows in and around the New York City area, and gained a considerable amount of exposure for a band which had not yet released an album.
Shortly after Dominici joined the band, they were forced to change their name when another band named Majesty threatened legal action. Various names were contemplated until Portnoy's father suggested the name Dream Theater, the name of a now-demolished movie theater in Monterey, California. They signed their first record contract, with Mechanic (a division of MCA), in 1988 and set out to record their debut album. When Dream and Day Unite was released in 1989 to less fanfare than was anticipated by anyone in the band. The album name came from the line from a song on the album called "Only a Matter of Time". Mechanic ended up breaking the majority of the financial promises they had made to the band before signing their contract, so they were restricted to playing gigs around NYC to promote the release.
Founding members The promotional tour for the album consisted of just five concerts, all of which were in New York or Rhode Island. After the fourth of these gigs, Dominici was fired. Shortly after, however, Marillion asked Dream Theater to open for them at a gig at the Ritz in New York, so Dominici was given the opportunity to perform one last time. It would be two more years before Dream Theater had another full-time singer.
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