Iconic band Blue Rodeo played to a sold-out Mile One Centre in St. John's on Saturday night, with lead singer Jim Cuddy paying tribute to local audiences.

"The people are extremely friendly — the people are extremely warm — but they're also very musical," Cuddy told CBC News.

"As a band, you're going to get the most sympatico from your audience here."

The show was part of the band's 25th anniversary, 25-city tour.

Cuddy said St. John's is a special city for musicians.

"They're going to go where you go," he said.

"If you want to go quiet, you want to go loud, you want to go up, down, and they sing really well and they clap in time, and those things all seem normal here, but they're not necessarily normal everywhere."

The tour started on Jan. 5 in Vancouver and will conclude on Feb. 16 in Hamilton.

He said the band is playing a little bit of everything on this tour, including songs from their first album, and songs from one that has yet to be completed.

"I guess you get the sort of blueprint of what we are. We've always been about that, we've always had now songs on the go, we always put out a new record every couple of years, and yet we don't find our old songs abhorrent. We don't shy away from them, we like to play them," he said,

"I think you get the whole landscape."

Cuddy said the band will finish up this tour and take a little time off before resuming their projects.

"We'll finish our record in the spring and it will come out in the fall, and then we'll do our summer touring again, and on and on and on."