New York prog-rockers Coheed and Cambria coming to Tucson

Seven albums later, they are no longer peddling in fiction; Sanchez and his trio of bandmates have released what lead guitarist Travis Stever calls their most honest album.

And this summer, they repackaged 2015’s “The Color Before the Sun” into a deluxe edition including never-before-heard demos that Sanchez recorded of songs as they were in progress.

The deluxe version also includes live cuts.

“We’ve been in top form live,” Stever said during a phone call in late July from home in New York.

The demos showcase Sanchez playing the songs in their most bare bones form at his home in Brooklyn.

“You get to hear the progression of each song. It’s very naked; it’s almost like when the Beatles did ‘Let It Be’ and then did ‘Let It Be Naked’ later,” Stever explained. “I’ve always been a fan of being able to experience the music at each stage.”

Coheed and Cambria, which Sanchez formed in 2000 with Stever, originally released “Color” in 2015. It was a major departure from the band’s previous seven albums, concept works based on Sanchez’s fictional Armory Wars.

On “Color,” Sanchez looked deep inside his own life for inspiration, and, in turn, told the stories of his bandmates, Stever said.

“It was very autobiographical, a very indepth look at a lot of the changes that Claudio has gone through the past couple of years lyrically. We connect on a lot of those changes. That’s why on the record, I’m speaking through my guitar, but the record is personal for me, too,” said the 37-year-old father of a 2½-year-old boy.

At the time of the interview, Stever was packing up his New York home preparing to move into a new house. He and the band were days away from heading to Europe for a handful of concerts.

“I’m prepping to go on tour and, as soon as I get home, move. But it’s all fine,” he said. “I’m excited to get out there and play the shows, to be honest. It’ll be a good break in the storm.”

Their show in Tucson on Sunday, Sept. 18, will be their first in several years, which Stever said is mostly the result of booking agents looking to put the band into bigger venues. But on this tour, they are making a concerted effort to hit cities they have skipped in recent years, including Gainsville, Florida, their only Florida show on the tour.

“It’s always so rewarding going to places where (ticket sales) aren’t the expectation, just going to the people who are extremely excited to see us,” he said. “And that kind of is what this tour is for us. Of course we want to sell tickets, but it’s also to come to people we haven’t been to in a very long time and play to the fans who are excited about it. That’s why it’s long overdue for us to come there.”

And coming to Tucson is like visiting an old home for Stever, who spent time in the Old Pueblo as a child visiting his aunt and uncle.

“I remember one of the furthest places we went when I was 21 or 22 and it was the early band days, and we had toured and gone out West, but the furthest we got on the tour was Arizona,” said Stevers. “It was a big deal for me because it was the place I had traveled to as a child and I got to come back playing rock music.”