It’s not easy being a road warrior, but Dr. Dog has honed their festival mojo during their decade of thrilling fans at large and small events all across America. Bassist-singer Toby Leaman says that while there are a number of musical extravaganzas he enjoys being on the bill for, he favors Bonnaroo more than any other. The guys have graced the Roo stage several times over the years, and the singer notes he’s “always psyched” to play the event because “every time, I think, we played well.”

Despite the happy vibes the guys always reap from rocking the crowd down on the farm, Leaman adds the group ran into a bit of trouble at last year’s edition of the fest. The singer reveals the band was accused of breaking the unwritten rule of moving their bowels in the bathroom of the shared trailer that EDM superstar Skrillex occupied right after they were done with it. “We had it first and then we left and then somebody from his camp was complaining that somebody has sh*t in there but we definitely did not,” he proclaims. “We wouldn’t sh*t in our trailer. Who does that? It’s a known thing not to do that. We’re professionals.”

Leaman notes he’s had a positive experience at about 90% of the festivals the band performs at; however, there’s one major concert event that doesn’t thrill him. The singer reports he had a terrible time at Coachella back in 2009, not because of the quality of the band’s live performance, but because of the event’s surrounding environment. “So far as music goes, that’s not really a musician-friendly place,” he declares. “It’s more about the festival atmosphere itself and the L.A. scene and actors and actresses. It’s just not a place for Dr. Dog. They haven’t had us back, either. It’s not my scene.”

After years of performing at other people’s festivals, Leaman announces he’s ready for the band to launch their own concert event. He says the band’s eager to start “dipping our toes in that water” after pulling off a successful event this past summer in their home state of Pennsylvania.

Another lesson he’s learned the hard way over the years: when it comes to scoring a quick meal at a festival, make sure your food is fully cooked. Leaman admits he came down with a wicked case of salmonella a few years ago at New York’s Mountain Jam by snacking on some chicken that needed a few more minutes on the grill. “[It was] no fault of anybody but my own,” he confesses. “I was starving, and I saw a chicken-on-a-stick place, but I was wearing sunglasses, so I didn’t really investigate the chicken too much, and then I got salmonella. It took about a day to kick in, but it was no picnic.”

Food poisoning isn’t the only dangerous thing the singer has had to contend with during festival season. Drunken fans can occasionally be a problem, mostly because they tend to show their affection for the band’s music by tackling him while he walks the festival grounds. “There’s always real sh*t-faced people just bear-hugging you out of the blue,” he explains. “You’re just standing there thinking everything’s cool, and all of the sudden you’re on the ground.” Leaman adds that despite the aggressive display of affection, “it still feels good to know that people are into you.”

After years of performing at other people’s festivals, Leaman announces he’s ready for the band to launch their own concert event. He says the band’s eager to start “dipping our toes in that water” after pulling off a successful event this past summer in their home state of Pennsylvania. “It was a five band bill that we headlined at the Mann [Center for the Performing Arts] in Philly,” notes the singer. “And that went pretty well.”

Leaman confesses he isn’t sure whom he’d like to share the stage with at their inaugural event, but he does know it won’t be tough for him to find a number of great artists to perform at it. “There’s so many bands I’m buddies with,” asserts the singer. “Any band you tour with you end up being friends with. It doesn’t matter how you guys started off -- unless they’re just complete monsters -- everybody just becomes quick friends. It’s a pretty common thing in the band world.” Since the band has toured with stellar acts like The Black Keys, The Lumineers, Bright Eyes and Delta Spirit, Leaman will have a wide variety of talent to choose from.

Dr. Dog has yet to unveil the full list of their upcoming summer festival appearances; however, the band is part of the bill for My Morning Jacket’s One Big Holiday event in Mexico next month, as well as Atlanta’s Shaky Knees Festival in May. In the meantime, the guys are out on tour to promote their live album, Live at a Flamingo Hotel, which hit stores last week. The release is a masterful compilation that offers up stellar performances culled from recordings of 20 shows from the band’s last tour.

Photo by Nicky Devine (Toby Leaman, third from left)

Choosing the versions they liked the best from among these recordings wasn’t easy, but the guys came up with a system that helped them sift through the material. “Everybody would have three or four versions [of the same song] to listen to,” he explains. “We got it narrowed down to five or six versions for each song, and then everybody listened to those versions, and then we whittled it down from there.” The end result features 19 tracks from almost every studio album they’ve released, with the majority of material pulled from 2010’s Shame, Shame and 2012’s Be the Void.

Leaman says the time is right to put out a live album because their current setlist is “starting to get a little old,” and the release was a great way to force themselves to eliminate some tracks. “We were pretty much rocking the same songs for a couple tours, and we were really good at them, and I felt like as a band we were pretty much as good as we could get at those songs.” Now that they’ve documented their current setlist, the guys plan to pepper some older material into their upcoming tours.

While Dr. Dog has mapped out a hefty tour schedule over the next four months in support of Live at a Flamingo Hotel, that’s not stopping them from working on new material. Leaman reveals the band already has an album “almost in the bag,” which they recorded in November, and they are also hoping to hammer out another full-length release sometime in “early summer.”

If, like me, you count yourself among the Dr. Dog faithful, you’d better get out and see the guys before they potentially put amazing tracks like “Shadow People,” “Jackie Wants a Black Eye” or “Lonesome” on the sidelines for a while.

Here are the band’s tour dates for the next few weeks. The full list is available on their website at DrDogMusic.com.

1/20 -- Burlington, VT, Higher Ground
1/21 -- Buffalo, NY, Town Ballroom
1/22 -- Washington, D.C., 9:30 Club
1/23 -- Washington, D.C., 9:30 Club
1/24 -- Charlottesville, VA, Jefferson Theater
1/31 -- Boston, MA, House of Blues
2/2 -- Maya, Mexico, My Morning Jacket One Big Holiday
2/5 -- St Paul, MN, The Turf Club
2/6 -- Minneapolis, MN, First Ave
2/7 -- Minneapolis, MN, First Ave