I bought a few Frank Zappa T-shirts from the Zappa Family Trust’s shop recently, a budgetary decision that thoroughly confused my wife.

Seemed to me like money well-spent, and on a good cause to boot — that being the encouragement of one of the greatest (and least understood) legacies in 20th century recorded music. A no-brainer!

On the back of one of the tee’s is scrawled a popular Zappa aphorism, one that referred to his ensemble’s approach to music — “We don’t mess around,” reads the quote. Why the Zappa reference in a discussion of prog-rock? Well, though the man himself would wretch at the inclusion of his work beneath that particular umbrella, few artists have been more progressive than the late FZ. And the whole “We don’t mess around” thing seems completely apropos when discussing a strain of rock that posits itself as a necessary antidote to the mainstream pop conventions of any given day — the tendency to whittle away at musical ideas until they fit neatly into 3 1/2-minute, cliche-littered cubbys.

Prog-rock hit its commercial high-point in the 1970s, and is seen as the very reason punk came along to dumb things back down to a democratic ideal suitable for rock lovers who value aggression and attitude over, um, long guitar solos and spacey ambient textures acknowledging the influence of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno’s work. In the mid-’80s, when Steven Wilson was forming Porcupine Tree, prog was not fashionable. Songs were short. Guitar solos were out. Eno was the guy producing U2, not the man responsible for creating ambient music and collaborating on stunning David Bowie albums.

Somehow, though, Wilson — who recently told the Chicago Tribune that he grew up listening to Giorgio Moroder’s lengthy ambient-dub-disco workout on Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby” (courtesy of his mom) and Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” (that’d be Dad, natch) “repeatedly” — has managed to build a worldwide audience brick by brick in the time since. When Porcupine Tree plays the Town Ballroom at 8 p. m. Tuesday — the band’s first performance in Buffalo — it will be doing so with the firm conviction that its persistence of vision has paid off.

Porcupine Tree’s latest album, the critically lauded “The Incident,” is a double-disc set that kicks off with the 55-minute 14-movement title piece, a song that moves nimbly between Floydian soundscapes, drop-tuned metal riffs, and the odd pop chorus, with consistent coherence. It is nothing if not ambitious, and certainly fulfills Zappa’s “We don’t mess around” mantra.

Yet, Wilson — who handles guitar, vocals and most of the songwriting, and is joined by former Japan keyboardist Richard Barbieri, bassist Colin Edwin and drummer Gavin Harrison in his efforts — is not simply reframing and sprucing up classic art prints here. He’s no prog-rock purist, even if elements of King Crimson, Yes, Rush, Genesis and King’s X abound in Porcupine Tree’s music. The band might more accurately be seen in the same light as more menacing proginfluenced acts like Tool and Nine Inch Nails, both of whom have indulged in multisection song-stories and fully developed, often challenging musical ideas.

In early April, when Trey Anastasio of Phish inducted Genesis into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, he noted during his speech that the day should be marked as a victory for fans of progressive music, including himself. Anastasio also opined that the best prog stuff — Genesis in particular — can be heard in the music of Radiohead and many other contemporary cutting-edge bands. What Anastasio was getting at was this: People who grow up on challenging, imaginative music expect more, and thus, answer the challenge to create art of depth. If they are denied entrance to the trendiest parties along the way, it’s really not too much of a price to pay. After all, they have the music to keep them company.

Wilson and Porcupine Tree can count as peers a new class of prog-rock bands, including the Mars Volta, Mew, System of a Down, Muse, Coheed and Cambria, and more jam-based outfits like Umphrey’s McGee, Particle and STS9. The band stands apart, though, as one of the first to suggest that a progrock renaissance might be more than a far-flung idea. Its success can’t help but be interpreted as the same sort of victory Anastasio spoke of from the Rock Hall induction ceremony podium.

PREVIEW

WHO: Porcupine Tree

WHEN: 8 p. m. Tuesday

WHERE: Town Ballroom, 681 Main St.

TICKETS: $22 in advance, $26 on the day of the show (box office, Tickets.com)

INFO: www.townballroom.com