Buffalo Tom Bring 'Skins' to the European Faithful + Exclusive Tour Pics

For some bands the rewards of a 25-year career aren't exhaustive box sets, tell-all documentaries or a throng of stadium gigs, but the fact that a loyal audience thousands of miles from home still care enough to come and see you when you play. Buffalo Tom might have started in Boston, Mass., but Belgium and Holland were amongst the first places to recognise the scuzzed-up power trio's charms. Twenty-five years after they first practiced together as college students, the trio -- guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn and drummer Tom Maginnis -- embarked on a whistle-stop tour of Belgium, Holland, Germany and the UK to accompany the release of their eighth album 'Skins.'

It's their second album since a nine-year hiatus after 1998's 'Smitten,' and these days the touring has to be juggled around the needs of family, kids, and day jobs. Not that they're complaining; before the tour, the band asked fans via their Facebook page what songs they wanted to hear live, and the shows duly featured clearly long-loved BT classics such as 'Mineral,' 'Crutch,' 'Sunflower Suit' and 'The Bus.'

Spinner jumped on the tour van and spent a few days with the trio as they toured Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne. Plus you can check out some exclusive pics of the band on tour in 2007 below.

In the early 1990s Buffalo Tom toured most of the year. How does it feel to be doing small tours like this?

Chris Colbourn: In the old days it felt like much more of a campaign. Now it's an artistic thing. We have a long catalogue, we're not trying to be a bigger band anymore. It's a different mentality, when you have your own audience... it's part of getting on.

Tom Maginnis: We appreciate the loyalty. That they've come to see us again. It's great that the music has stuck with them.

'Skins' is the second album after a long break. Has the dynamic changed?

CC: We're writing more for ourselves, we're not changing anything. There's no commercial pressure.

Writing the songs it's a pretty similar experience, that hasn't changed. But if we didn't play live, I don't know. I can't imagine what it's like to be in a band that never tours. I know it's not for everybody. Some days it can be a struggle, you don't want to get out there.

The band really seem to have taken to social media -- your Facebook page sees the band talking to fans a lot.

Bill Janovitz: When you disappear, from a record and touring sense, you really go away from the public eye. It's only the hardcore fans who keep with you. It's important to keep them informed.

That talking to fans thing is funny. Sometimes I think you have to rein it in -- especially me. Last night I was checking the Facebook and going back and forth with the fans over requests.

We're used to seeing bands operating with a game-plan -- getting bigger with every record.

BJ: We don't know what our objectives are. We want to sell more records but not to the point where it becomes full-time again.

We're much more likely to have time to record than we have to tour. It would conceivably take years to get to the point where you can go on tour for a long time.

CC: I think we've adapted really well along the way. We went from the SST days where it was vinyl-only, through to the Beggars Banquet fancy singles and then to the MTV videos and the major labels, touring with big bands and now the move towards this social interactivity.

There seems to be an understanding that the shows can't just be about the new record, that you have to play a lot of these older songs.

I think we're pretty good about playing the Buffalo Tom standards and doing the new songs. I saw Teenage Fanclub and Superchunk recently, I remember being a little disappointed there were so many new songs, even though they were great shows.

TM: Yeah, there's that thing like, 'I might like it, but I just don't have it yet.'

The album starts quite boldly -- 'Arise, Watch' doesn't sound like any earlier BT songs.

BJ: I'm not sure if anyone wants to experiment with extremely different writing or recording techniques. We tend to gel on a lot of things.

In the studio the process and arranging it can get a little, "what are you trying to say?" You can push the songs too far for what they are.

Radiohead certainly seem to be going down that road...

BJ: "Does experimentation or growth necessarily mean electronica or does that mean a band trying something like 'Arise, Watch?'

I look at Wilco, and that should have been our audience. They are outside of the mainstream but only slightly. They've been opening up for Neil Young in the US, and that's pretty mainstream. They're playing ballparks and gigs of 3,000 to 5,000 people. That's a good audience for them. I respect the way they go about things. That's a real cottage industry.

Buffalo Tom's 'Skins' is out now. The band play US dates in April.