106.5 The Zone couldn’t have picked a better band to headline its “Mistletoe Jam” this Sunday. The alternative rock favorite Taking Back Sunday will lead the bill a the Toledo Civic Theatre, inside the Erie Street Market.

Taking Back Sunday

106.5’s program director and deejay Carolyn Stone said the station and its listeners are “super fired-up” for the concert. Taking Back Sunday went gold with its last album and has scored two huge alt-rock hits since 2004 with “MakeDamnSure” and “A Decade Under the Influence.” Their 2006 album “Louder Now” reached Number Two on the Billboard Top 200 album charts.

TBS hails from Long Island, New York but one of its members has a special connection to northern Ohio. When not on tour guitarist Eddie Reyes lives in Sandusky with his wife Nikki and their two children.

Toledo Free Press had a chance to speak with bassist Matt Rubano from “an undisclosed location in Missouri” this week.

Rubano said the band is excited to come back to Toledo and the Glass City is exactly the type of place the group is hitting on this tour, medium to smaller cities that TBS might not have play on larger tours like “Taste of Chaos” or on their own. Recent sites have included Tucson, Tulsa, Grand Rapids, MI, and upcoming sites include a southern swing of Norfolk, VA, and Winston-Salem, NC.

“We’re pretty much trying to do the cities we don’t normally get to,” Rubano said.

The band’s touring in advance of their new record, “New Again,” which is set to be released this coming spring. It gives them a chance to “break in” their new guitar player Matt Fazzi, Rubano said.

The title of the new disc “New Again” represents a number of things in Rubano’s mind. The band itself is “refocused, reenergized, and somewhat re-formed with Fazzi” coming on board, Rubano said.

“New Again” also captures what Rubano “the zeitgeist of change” that Americans are feeling, “with the election” and other factors.

“There are a lot of old ways of thinking purveying that might be replaced,” Rubano said.

Fans can expect more of the catchy, soaring but still hard-driving and intense sound the band has become famous more but there also will be changes fans will like, he said.

“The album is another big step forward for the band,” Rubano said. “It has a new feel. I also think fans can look forward to a super honest Adam Lazzara (singer and lyricist),” Rubano said.

The band is listening to mixes of the album while on the road and has not yet chosen the first single, he said.

When asked, very simply, “what is the best part of being in a rock band?”, Rubano said:

“Going to places you never been before and might never get to, whether its Japan, or El Paso. It is always fresh and exciting.”

Rubano is also very excited about the band opening for TBS, a group called Envy on the Coast.

“They’re really great to watch, so get there early. They are original and intense. Definitely an up and comer,” Rubano said.

Many in the alt-rock world have wondered what the name Taking Back Sunday means. Its not an animal, like say 80s rockers Def Leppard, a concept, like Nirvana, or just gibberish, like Stone Temple Pilots. But unfortunately, not even Rubano really knows.

“We get asked that all the time. There are a lot of great stories out there but we’re not sure what’s true. Some say it’s a Christian reference but I hear that (singer) Adam just took it from a lyric he heard from another New York band,” Rubano said. “They had a line that said ‘taking back Sunday’ and he used.”

The show is Sunday at 6 p.m., with local bands likely opening the show, according to Stone from 106.5. Tickets are available at Culture Clash Records and Ticketmaster.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 7:52 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert.
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