Incubus Says Morning View Tour Is a ‘Departure From the Way People Listen to Music’

In an era of infinite niches and personalized playlists, rock band Incubus is giving concertgoers the kind of shared experience they had while growing up together in Calabasas, Calif., on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The five-piece is currently on a 10-city arena tour, Morning View + The Hits, and playing its album Morning View in its entirety before tacking on eight or so favorites (such as “Drive” from 1999’s Make Yourself and a cover of The Beatles’ “Come Together”). 

Albums are “nostalgic sort of experiences,” guitarist Mike Einziger tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. For the band’s older fans, the concert might take them back to buying the Morning View CD in 2001 and listening from start to finish. “But people don’t consume music that way anymore,” he says. For the band’s younger fans who are most comfortable streaming playlists, the Morning View tour could be a first time hearing the songs in their original sequence. “So, it’s like kind of, in my opinion, a really welcome now departure from the way that people listen to music,” says Einziger.

For all the familiarity built into playing an album in its entirety, the songs aren’t a carbon copy of the versions originally released in 2001. As the band was re-recording the songs of Morning View for its latest release, Morning View XXIII, it realized they no longer performed the songs as they did when recording the album decades ago. Parts of songs had “naturally evolved into sounding different,” says singer Brandon Boyd. “For example, ‘Echo’ has, like, a different ending that we kind of added to it. The song ‘Nice to Know You,’ which starts off the record, begins differently.”

The band’s lineup has changed since Morning View was originally released, too. Boyd, Einziger and drummer José Pasillas founded the band in 1991. DJ/keyboardist/multi-purpose player Chris Kilmore has been with the band since 1998. Original bass player Alex Katinuch’s replacement, Ben Kenney, left in February. “We have a new bass player, Nicole Rowe, who’s kind of brought her own sort of new energy into the mix of what we’re doing,” says Einziger. “A new member of the band just changes a lot of the dynamics.”

The Morning View + The Hits tour stops Thursday (Aug. 29) at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, goes to Boston’s TD Garden on Aug. 31 and heads west before finishing at San Francisco’s Chase Center on Sept. 12.

Listen to the entire interview with Brandon Boyd and Mike Einziger via the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music or Everand.