Between their first and second albums, Toronto's I Mother Earth made that long, hard journey from innocence to experience -- and practically became a new band in the process.

When the foursome recorded their debut album, they had barely performed a dozen shows. By the time they began work on their new album, Scenery And Fish, they had completed a marathon tour of the world.

And by then, they had coalesced into a seasoned, solid quartet.

"If you don't soak things up and grow up a little bit after making a record and touring a couple of years before going to make the next one, maybe your eyes and ears just aren't open," says drummer Christian Tanna, who brings I Mother Earth to Porter Hall tonight with Salmon Blaster and Stabbing Westward.

"It was crazy. We were out there (touring) when we shouldn't have been out there," says Tanna.

"It was tough on us, but it helped us a lot. It was crazy, but it worked out pretty well for us."

The shared experience of seeing the world and facing the adversity and fatigue of road life brings an added element of chemistry to Scenery And Fish, he adds.

"We all experience the same things, and a lot of Scenery And Fish came out of that -- thinking where you are in life. We experience the same things, but maybe feel differently about them. Everything we go through, we all identify with, on some level.

"A lot happens in those few years. I don't think people stay the same, when they experience the things we have."

All that hard work paid off recently when the band won a people's choice award at the MuchMusic awards, edging out better-publicized and bigger-selling competition.

"Any success we've had is from going out and playing. Sometimes all you can ask for is someone to show up and watch you and let them decide if they like you, as opposed to a video or ads in a magazine. That's the honest way to do it and it goes back to how it should be and how it was."