The Pat McGee Band headlined the Z104 music festival in Old Town Alexandria on Saturday, capping off a day of performances by Adam Day, the Bicycle Thieves (soon to play Unbuckled), and Low Millions. A Virginia native now settled in Bristol, Rhode Island, Pat McGee has been traveling all over the country to support the small label rerelease of Save Me. The band, which has been touring up and down the East Coast for 10 years now, has relied on its near-nightly concerts to attract legions of fans to its back-to-basics rock, with its good-natured groove and accessible melodies. DCist sat down with Pat McGee to talk about coming home.

DCist: You got your start playing around here. What were your favorite venues?

PAT MCGEE: The Bayou – it’s gone now – down by the water. It had 600 seats, it was like a real rock club. They tore it down four or five years ago. When you’re in the Northern Virginia scene, the Bayou was like the ultimate place to play. It was a small place it but it made you feel like you were at a real arena. People really had to commit to come see you there. There was also Dylan’s Café, down on Prospect Street. That’s long gone! It was an acoustic bar kind of place. No more than a three-piece band could have fit. I played there when I was in high school. When you played at Dylan’s Café, it was like “Wow, I’m here.... In a bar!” I still have a calendar from that place, like one of those table tents, and the bands listed on there were Jackopierce, Vertical Horzion, Doug Derryberry, who was a guitarist for Bruce Hornsby, and John Alagia, who produced Dave Matthews. They were a big acoustic duo that used to play there all the time.

What do you look forward to when you come back to this area?

I slept in the bed I grew up in last night - I was paying a visit to my folks. I went out with my best friends last night and we went all over Northern Virginia going to all the bars. I felt like I was back in high school. Last week we played the national anthem at RFK stadium, for the [Nationals] game against the Marlins. I mean, I was a huge Redskins fan. Singing the national anthem at shitty old RFK is more sentimental than at FedEx Field.

Are your parents here today for the show?

Yes! This is a friends and family gig. It’s still weird, though, because sometimes you have to play a different part on stage, and they have to see that. It’s still weird, even if I’ve played in front of them hundreds of times.

You mention a list of about 50 influences on your web site. Can you name a specific moment in a song that you think affected something you were writing?

There’s a few things I wanted to do. Like I was driving around listening to this version of “Growing Up” by Bruce Springsteen. I’m a sucker for it, when he says, in the middle of the song, [gravelly voice] “Tonight, you’re going to have to settle for rock ‘n’ roll.” This version is from when he’s still not a star yet, it’s not contrived. It’s not like he’s saying it from Madison Square Garden. You have to convey that authenticity.

So are you going to do that in the middle of a song today?

No, I don’t think I could ever pull that off.

Do you ever regret naming the band after yourself?

[burying face in hands] You know, it was one of those things where I had a solo record and I wanted people to know now that I had a band. I just wanted people to know a very simple thing.

What are you listening to right now – well not right now-right now. You know what I mean.

I just bought the new Coldplay, the White Stripes, The Faces – who are Rod Stewart’s band – Elvis Costello. I was at this great record store in Portland. It was one of those old school-vibe record stores where you can pick up everything. These people just love music. It’s not like Best Buy, where it’s not inspiring to buy music at all. Around here I go to Olson’s, in Alexandria. It’s one of the record stores I grew up around.

The Supreme Court is going to announce its ruling on MP3 sharing on Monday. Bands who are known for live performances are often a bit more conflicted about file sharing because it really helps get people to their shows. What do you think about it?

We love trading of live shows. We encouraging taping and trading at will. Even when not everything is perfect and you’re letting a song go out that you know is not your best. But trading of the whole record – that’s how we make a living. That’s why, in part, we’re not still at Warner Bros. You have to sell a certain number of albums or they won’t keep working with you. They will very easily pull the plug. So [file sharing] hurts bands in the early stages. Back before all this, it took a month to tape all the albums you wanted to copy and the quality was really bad. But it was a commitment. Now, what you think is helping spread the word about a band is actually hurting them.

You’ve been doing this for 10 years now. You’re known as a live band. Where would you like to be in 10 years? Do you really want to be a radio band?

I’d still like to be considered a touring live band, but I’d like to have the one song that people know you by. Blues Traveler didn’t have a hit until 15 years into their career. And I’d rather be playing 150 dates a year, not 300. The success story is that we’re doing this after 10 years without a hit single.