Over the course of 25 years with the BoDeans, Sam Llanas has played his music at supper clubs, street festivals, stadiums and just about every venue in between.

But, he's never played at a hockey game.

That changes tonight, when Llanas and the BoDeans play a post-game show following the Admirals' game against Manitoba at the Bradley Center.

"I've never even seen a hockey game," Llanas said. "It should be fun ... I'm going to bring my mouthguard."

OnMilwaukee.com caught up with Llanas in advance of the show to talk about the band's longevity, his relationship with co-founder Kurt Neumann, some upcoming releases and playing a hockey game in the hometown that he loves.

OnMilwaukee.com: The Admirals organization is very excited about having you guys play before hockey fans and music fans on Saturday. You guys generally don't do a lot of shows at this time of the year, do you?

Sam Llanas: Usually not. We always do a run of shows around Christmas and New Year's, but January and February are usually pretty quiet. That's when we do a lot of our recording. In fact, I just got back from Texas. I was down there for about a month. Me and Kurt are already working on the next studio record. It's hard to find time when you're playing a lot of shows. You've got to do it when you can do it.

OMC: You and Kurt have been making music together since you started the band about 25 years ago. What's the secret?

SL: It's just luck, really. If you are lucky enough to find somebody that you have a good chemistry with, it really behooves you to try to nurture that. I'm not going to say we haven't had our ups and downs along the way. we surely have. But at a certain point, I think we just really recognized the fact that we're stronger together than apart. We really respect what each other rings to the table. So we just decided to stick together.

To last this long in this business is almost unheard of. That's what we're most proud of; that we're still here and doing it. We know we're not a big "A-list" name, but we never really wanted that. All we ever really wanted was to be able to continue in this business. to do it for 25 years and make your living by doing just that. and a pretty good living at that, I'd say that's a pretty good accomplishment.

OMC: You have such a core group of fans that have followed you a long time. Do you see a lot of familiar faces when you play shows in Milwaukee.

SL: People come back to see us a lot of times, and I think that's the best compliment you can have. The great thing now is people that grew up with our music and probably started listening to us in college or something, they all have families now so they're bringing their kids along. It's like we're being introduced to a whole new generation. It's wonderful to see kids at the shows. They don't lie. Sometimes they have their hands over their ears and sometimes they're just dancing crazy.

OMC: What is it like to convene for a show like this when you haven't been touring? Do you have to rehearse and get ready, or is it like putting on your favorite sweatshirt?

SL: It's hard for us to rehearse these days. Our bass player (Eric Holden) lives in L.A. Our drummer (Noah Levy) lives in Minneapolis. Kurt and Bukka (Allen, the keyboard player) live in Texas and I live here in Milwaukee. So, it's tough to rehearse. By now, we know our show. We've been playing some of these songs for 20 years. We know the songs. It's almost fun to not rehearse, because it's real fresh and you're not exactly sure what's going to happen. That can really be a good thing for a show sometimes.

We've developed this show over the past 15 years, and we've learned what works and doesn't work.

We'll put a new spin on a couple songs, but that's kind of the show we'll stick to. We'll always throw in a couple different songs just to keep it fresh for us, so we're not playing the same songs over and over and over.

OMC: Is it hard to keep things fresh?

SL: You might be playing the same song to different people in a different place and in a different circumstance. If people love the song and they want to hear the song, why not play it for them? They're paying you. Why not give them some of what they want?

The tough thing is that we have so many songs now and we can only play about 20 (in a given show). Someone is going to go away without hearing the song they really, really want to hear. That's kind of a tough balance. I don't get to play the songs I want to play. That's just the way it is.

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Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by FunkyBrewster on Feb. 26, 2009 at 2:05 p.m. (report)

Ewok or Cornelius from Planet of the Apes?

Posted by JKranky on Feb. 23, 2009 at 10:31 p.m. (report)

When did Sammy turn 66?

Posted by CoolerKing on Feb. 23, 2009 at 8:27 a.m. (report)

At first glance, I thought that was a pic of Hank Williams Jr.