The Devil Wears Prada’s Back to the Roots Tour Is ‘Meant for the Fans’

With any measure of success often comes a big ego. Such is not the case for the Devil Wears Prada. This summer, the band is mixing small, sweaty, packed-to-the-rafters club gigs with major outdoor festivals. The band will be playing some of the largest venues of their career all the while canvassing the type of clubs they hit when they were on the up and coming circuit. It's a perfect touring yin and yang situation.

The Devil Wears Prada tour dates began this past weekend, and vocalist Mike Hranica was happy to talk about his band's rationale for straddling the line between their past and their present.

"We get to [the level of] playing 1,000 cap rooms to 2,500 cap rooms, and every tour is the same thing, it feels," Hranica told Noisecreep. "We did that a number of times with Chiodos, Underoath, Killswitch Engage. This tour is meant to go back to what we did before that. It is meant for the fans. While all tours are meant for the fans and are meant to be entertaining for them to enjoy the music, this is meant for the fans beyond that, to be an experience where we can have fun and do the best we can." The band will be dragging out songs from 'Dear Love,' which they haven't played for quite some time.

Hranica says they are grateful for their good fortune as a successful band and that they "enjoy big rooms and everything that comes with that, but this tour is meant for the memory. Fans will see House of Blues show and remember seeing bands, but not at a crappy bar. We want them to see it with 150 people. They will remember this for a long time and think back to when they were 15 to 21 years old and going to shows ... they will remember the Devil Wears Prada show where they hardly survived in a packed room."

Surviving a summer show isn't easy, though. People pass out and T-shirts become bodily sweat mops. "Honestly, I wish I had more advice, because I would take it," Hranica laughed when asked what he would recommend to fans coming to the small shows. "You get conditioned to it and we'll have a lot of Gatorade and keep drinking, but sometimes you feel no refreshment. I'd sat dress accordingly so you are not dying. I have done more conditioning for other tours, like running and weight lifting to build up my immunity. It'll be tough to do this tour, even if I conditioned for two months, but we'll get adjusted."

One thing is for sure: TDWP continue to rack up milestones in their relatively young career. "The first time we toured with Silverstein, those were our biggest shows that we ever did and it was only four shows," Hranica said. "We played Bamboozle to 5,000 people, and then to 10,000 at Download. You always have those milestones, and I still remember the shows where there were 250 people and it was complete chaos, and the PA hardly worked. They were disgusting, awesome memories."

With their ethic, attitude and knack for metal melodies, TDWP will continue having those moments. The Devil Wears Prada tour dates will be Miss May I and Your Demise.