Lagwagon Double Album Tour – Blaze and Double Plaidinum – Interview

Lagwagon is back out on tour, and Toronto is getting a stop. The band will hit up The Velvet Underground on December 11, playing Blaze, and December 12, playing Double Plaidinum, front to back. Red City Radio will be supporting throughout the tour. Have you got your tickets yet? Saturday’s show is sold out, but there were still tickets available for Sunday’s show at the time of writing.

We had the opportunity to ask frontman Joey Cape some questions about the tour. Check it out below.

Q&A with Joey Cape of Lagwagon

Why do the full album treatments on this run?

Mostly because it’s fun but, there are a few other positives. Revisiting specific older albums centers the band. Learning and performing specific early albums in their entirety helps us reconnect with our early chemistry.

Also, It’s great to play multiple nights in the same town. Normally, a band has less than 24 hours in any city they visit and that time is full of duties. Day two, everything relaxes and we actually have the better part of the day to do whatever we want. Soundcheck, for example, doesn’t have to repeat. The tour feels more like a holiday than work. I love it.

How did you choose Blaze and Double Plaidinum?

We considered all of the albums but agreed we would do two albums and both would be older. We played Hoss and Let’s Talk About Feelings on earlier album tours. We all felt Double Plaid was the next logical step. Blaze was the winner of a band vote. We have already played much of D.P. over the years. We were less familiar with the songs from Blaze. It was the more challenging of the two records but, challenge is always good for band morale and confidence.

It’s been 18 and 24 years respectively since you released those albums, do the songs still resonate with you the way they did when you released them?

I can’t recall how I felt about those albums back then. I can say the songs resonate with inspiration. I definitely feel something I haven’t felt in a long time. It’s hard to say specifically what that is. There is something different about playing an entire album in the original sequence. It’s a much more powerful aphrodisiac than simply performing random old songs from your catalog. It feels great every night.

How’s the tour going?

People seem genuinely ecstatic every night. I think they see a rebirth in energy coming from the stage and with us, they seem to reconnect to something from their personal past. It’s Rad!

You started the tour on November 3rd, have you noticed any patterns in the audience picking one or both nights to come out?

The Plaid crowd tends to move a bit more, Dancers. While the Blaze crowd seems to be focused, a bit more analytical. Nerds. Haha

I want to ask about instruments, is it all new (or new to you) gear for the tour, or will classic instruments be showing up?

Same old gear.

What’s Lagwagon’s relationship with Toronto like?

Toronto has been supportive of the band since our earliest touring. We love it there. It never fails to be a great time. The band is playing better than ever so, I think these shows are going to be some of our best in Ontario.

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Trish Cassling

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Toronto Music Blogger