Taproot // Photo Matt Wysocki

Nick Fredell made a comparison between his band a group of grumpy, ice fisherman, toting chewing tobacco and drinking whiskey straight.

Sure, Ann Arbor-hatched Taproot is getting up there in age, forming back in 1997, but Fredell pointed out the band’s signature energy is still very much intact.

“It might come off as we’re jaded or don’t have energy, but then we plug in and play,” said Fredell, who took over drumming duties for the band in late 2008. “I don’t feel like as I get older that it’s hard to recapture that energy. If we have 10 people with a pulse, I can recapture that energy every night. …If you lose that, you should be punched in the neck.”

Fans can expect a lot more than just 10 people with a pulse as the band, now signed to Victory Records, makes a sweep through its homeland – hitting the Orbit Room in Grand Rapids on Saturday and Planet Live Music Factory in Battle Creek on March 24.

“We’re pushing the album, “Plead The Fifth”, and we’re just going out there and trying to get to our fans as much as possible, but you’re never going to make everyone happy,” Fredell said. “We’ll make people in Michigan happy, though, because they support us. That’s where we’re from. There isn’t much of Michigan that isn’t home for us.”

“Plead The Fifth”, released midway through last year, offers both ends of the musical spectrum according to Fredell.

“I don’t want to say it’s more of the same, but we definitely attempt to gain some of our older energy back,” he said. “We had to not be scared to hit people in the face a little harder. There are parts of the album where it’s the hardest we’ve ever been and some other points where it’s more melodic than we’ve ever been.”

Back when Taproot was born, the band had to carve out its own scene, emerging in an Ann Arbor scene that didn’t have a ton of rock influence.

Fredell is the only member not from Ann Arbor, hailing from Flint where he caught wafts of the rock scene from the legendary venue The Machine Shop.

“There weren’t a lot of hippies in Ann Arbor listening to that,” Fredell laughed. “Taproot had to go out and kind of make their own scene at the time.”

And the band will be giving a nod to local West Michigan artists here, too. They’ll appear with Grand Rapids bands Night of 1,000 Knives, Shadow Status, Stone The Manic, If Tomorrow Never Comes, Tribune and Stockton at this weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day-themed show.

In Battle Creek, Taproot will share the stage with Deepfield, 8 Foot Grimiss, Lykin and Villian vs. Villian.

“A lot of people wouldn’t know Taproot is playing at the Orbit Room if it weren’t for those local bands going out there and pushing it,” Fredell said. “We play with locals all the time and we come from being that, too. Every band was a local at one point. If you forget that, you’re a jerk.”