Tipitina’s will get the jam band treatment tomorrow night, when Dopapod bring two full sets of improvisational wizardry to the Uptown venue. Fans of bands like Phish, Umphrey’s McGee and even fusion-era Miles Davis will feel right at home listening to the Berklee-educated quartet, who have been a fixture on the festival circuit for the past few years.

Dopapod’s following has continued to grow since the group first formed in 2007, a feat that can be attributed, in no small part, to their relentless touring schedule. Of course, the music is pretty stellar too, though that’s never been a prerequisite for developing a large fanbase on the jam band scene. (Have no fear, these guys usually deliver in that respect).

Supporting Dopapod at Tiptina’s will be soul/R&B outfit The Nth Power, which features former Dumpstaphunk dummer Nikki Glaspie behind the kit. The talented five-piece–a can’t miss act in their own right–will open the night before the headliners take the stage for a full two set show.

I caught up with Dopapod drummer Scotty Zwang to talk about what’s in store for tomorrow, why the chose to tour with The Nth Power, where the jam band scene is going and more.

Dopapod  will be playing New Orleans this weekend. Are you guys particularly excited for this stop?

Yeah, we love it there. It’s always nice to come down to New Orleans, especially as a musician, because of the influence that it’s had, not only on all of music, but on improvisational music in particular. So it’s always a lot of fun to go down to New Orleans.The band has been playing down there for years, but it’s exciting to back there and play at Tipitina’s, which is something I’ve always wanted to do.   

You guys brought the Nth Power out on this tour with you. On the surface that seems like kind of an odd pairing. How did this come about?

We are big fans of The Nth Power and all the different projects that those guys, individually, have come from before. We also have the same booking agent, so when we inquired about doing some shows with them, the idea of doing an entire tour came up and we were all really into it. It seemed that they were into it as well.

What are the formats for these shows? Are there collaborations that go down every night?

The Nth Power have been opening for us every night of this tour. They do the hour before us and and then we typically do two sets after every night. So we close out the night with our typical show that we do.

You’ve only been with the band a couple of years. Has your addition changed up the sound? How has the group evolved since you got on board?

I’d like to think that, individually, we’ve all kind of evolved on our own, as well as a group. And obviously that’s changed a little bit since I’ve joined, but I didn’t really want to change too much of what this band started as. So, obviously, I’m sure my influence and my background changed that a little bit, but I’d like to think that it really hasn’t changed that much. I do think, as musicians, we all evolve over time as well.  

As a rising jam band. where do you guys see the jam band scene going in the future. What do you see as its place in the wider music scene?

I don’t know, that’s a pretty tough question. I’m definitely happy with where things are right now, and it seems that popular music and electronic music has really started to influence the jam band scene as well. So, I don’t really know where to see it, but it definitely seems to be growing a little bit. We play with bands like Big Gigantic, who come from the jam band scene but are obviously a little more electronic and get the bigger headlining spots. They are even a little more mainstream now. It’s definitely blowing up a little bit bigger than it has over the past 10-12 years. As far as jam bands go–for some of us that are big Phish fans–it’s kind of been pretty big and incredible for years and years. So it’s kind of cool to see it evolve. It cool to see that whole festival attitude evolving with electronic music and other styles of music within the jam band scene.

What’s next for you guys after this tour wraps up?

We have this leg of the tour wrapping up this weekend at the Hulaween festival in Suwannee [Florida], which is always fun. That festival should be a great time. Then we have a couple of weeks off before we continue that tour, and there’s a big New Year’s show at the Palladium in Worcester, MA with Kung Fu and Turkuaz, who are two of our closest friends as far as bands go.

We’re finishing the year strong and then, hopefully, after that wraps up, we’ll be spending a lot of time at the beginning of next year writing new music. That’s tough to do while we’re on the road playing. So it’ll be nice to have a block of time to just focus on writing.