The anniversary of a band is a time to look back on your career and celebrate everything you have accomplished. Theory of a Deadman is celebrating its 15th anniversary with an acoustic tour of western Canada, including a Yorkton stop at the Painted Hand Casino on January 29.
Joey Dandeneau says that it’s something the band has never done before, born out of a desire to give something different to the fans that have been with the band from the beginning. Western Canada was where the band started out and while they tour around the world it was a desire to do something different for the people who have stuck with the group from the beginning.
“Our fans have never seen us in that light before, never really heard our songs performed in that type of atmosphere. It’s not going to be a big, loud rock show with a big light show, it’s going to be a lot more toned down. It will be something totally different for our fans and for us.”
While a departure from the band’s usual sound, Dandeneau says that having an acoustic tour shows the craft that is underneath the songs themselves.
“A good song can always be played on an acoustic guitar, and that’s sometimes how you can tell if it’s a good song, if you can play it on an acoustic guitar with just somebody singing the song... We’re going to deconstruct all the production on our songs, and just play the song for what it is.”
The band has always been a lyric and melody-driven band, and Dandenau says that the acoustic shows really demonstrate the personality behind the music. That personality is also one that has tried very hard to be a fun band, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously, as is evident from the earliest recordings to the most recent single.
“We’ve tried very hard to show our ability to be goofy and not take it be too serious... There are a lot of bands where there are no smiles, it’s hard rock and it’s all serious, and we’re like man, that’s not us... We were goofy all the time, so why would we hide that?”
For the band, Dandeneau says it’s been a trip back to the archives, as they’ve been going back through the early albums and rediscovering the songs they started their career with. While not a founding member, Dandeneau was a fan of the band before he joined, and watching his bandmates go through the material has been a way to connect more closely to the group’s history.
“We don’t really play a lot of our first and second records of material anymore, so it would be kind of neat to go back and bring back some of those old songs that did well for us... Bring those back, but bring them back in a way where people can go ‘I remember this song from when we were doing this,’ or ‘this is where I was...’ A broken down version of it with acoustic guitar seems like a cool new way to hear old songs you haven’t heard in a while.”
The anniversary tour is also going to smaller towns, which Dandeneau says was a very deliberate choice, because since they do not always have a time to tour in Canada they want to go places where it’s going to mean something to the audience.
“I think the smaller towns are where it’s at, personally. Anything that comes to town they get really excited about, and it brings a different level of excitement, and a different vibe and atmosphere to the show... I know I’m from a small town, and I’ll tell you what, when something came to my small town I appreciated it a lot. Whoever I went to go see seemed to do their job at a higher level, and to me it’s more fun to be in a situation like that.”
After a tour that remembers the past, the band will again look at the future, the plan will be to return to the studio and record the next album.
