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.