Q: I’ve definitely seen the quartet — and, of course, the trio. But looking forward to catching the five-piece as well. Are you playing a lot of material from the new album on this tour?

A: Quite a bit. There are only 10 songs on the new album. And we play 25 songs (in the set). We are playing nine out of those 10 songs off “Little Rope” — so, a good portion of the set. That also leaves us about 14-15 that we pull from the older albums. So, it’s a really nice blend of old and new.

Q: Do you feel bad for that one new song that you don’t play in concert? What about that poor little left out “Little Rope” number that didn’t make the set list?

A: Usually there’s more than one song that we don’t play from the current album. This album really lends itself well to the live setting. And the songs blend very seamlessly with the older records. It’s actually a bit of a rarity to be able to play so many of the new songs live.

Ever since “The Hot Rock” era — (1999’s) “Hot Rock” was a really difficult album to play live — we’ve had to wrestle with which songs really lend themselves to the live setting.

I think one advantage of having additional musicians joining us onstage is that we can play the full iterations of the songs. Even early on, we had overdubs and keyboard parts and other things that we couldn’t incorporate live. And now we are.

So, no, I don’t feel bad for that one song. I think it will survive.

Q: I know that some of the music was inspired by the tragic loss of your mother and stepfather (who died in a car accident in Italy in 2022). Are those songs therapeutic or difficult to play in concert?

A: Music is interesting and kind of ineffable in the way that you can write a song in one state of mind and it can take on different iterations and permutations when you play it. Because you have to reckon with the present moment. You have to reckon with the collective emotional state of an audience. And something that you perhaps wrote in a place of despair or despondency can be transformed into a joyful or hopeful moment.

Q: That’s fascinating to me.

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