(already subscribe? log in).

Dan Zanes returns to Boston

First Person/Dan Zanes

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

February 05, 2012|By Geoff Edgers

(Photograph by Gala Narezo )

> Today, Dan Zanes and Friends performs a pair of family shows at the Somerville Theatre, and then you return February 22 for a reunion gig with your Boston-based ’80s rock band, The Del Fuegos, at Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Do you have a different approach to each? There’s definitely no cursing at the family shows. But you know what? The two are much more alike than they are different.

> When you did your Del Fuegos reunion last year, you said you found it hard to connect to those songs. But then when we played the shows, it was like flying off a log, it was so easy. There’s something on a primal level that it was like revisiting a part of myself that had been sleeping for a while. And it was fun to do with the guys.

> I noticed at last year’s reunion gig your younger brother, Warren, didn’t have a microphone. Will he this time? Yes [pause]. It’s not going to be plugged in [laughs].

> Let’s talk about the Dan Zanes and Friends group. You basically quit rock ’n’ roll and helped save us parents from Barney and the Chipmunks. It was so clear to me that I wasn’t meant to be playing pop music anymore at that point. I was just beating my head against the wall, and it wasn’t going to go anywhere. If the universe is giving us momentum, we can feel it. The momentum for me was family music.

> And people actually listen to you when you tell them to dance. Oh, man. That’s the thing I realized when I started playing family shows. I had found the audience I had always been looking for. The grown-ups are a little bit deep in their shell to burst into some spontaneous free dancing.

> You recently put out the Zanes and Friends album Little Nut Tree. Any favorite song you’d like to highlight? “Summer Trains” is my favorite. It’s about the passing of time and paints it more from a parent’s point of view. I was really thinking about my daughter, who is now 17. I thought I’d be changing diapers for the rest of my life, and all of a sudden she’s telling me she can walk herself to school.