While Chicago's Hello Dave might seem right at home tonight at Rick's American Café, the band doesn't limit itself to just one kind of venue.
In fact, unlike most independent rock bands, Hello Dave has spread out across the map, performed at U.S. Military bases overseas and plans to perform in the Caribbean on the Rock Boat cruise ship.
"We get to go on these little mini-vacations to places we'd never dream of going to," said Mike Himebaugh, lead guitarist and singer of Hello Dave.
Himebaugh said while he loves performing in college towns, rocking out for the U.S. Military is an incomparable experience.
"All the bases have little bars and stuff; we've gone to Korea and little bases all over in the Mediterranean," he said. "I learn so much about not only our military and the far reaches of it, but also the cultures and what the places are really like."
And whether Hello Dave is in East Lansing or Italy, Himebaugh said the members always are looking to party after the show.
"At the bases, we kind of hang out and hear about what they do," he said. "Some of them have some pretty cool jobs."
The band has performed at Rick's, 228 Abbott Road, before, and Himebaugh said the band usually is invited to a party after the show - and usually goes.
"It invariably happens someone is having a party at the end of the show; quite often we get to hang out for a while, take some acoustic guitars over," Himebaugh said, adding that he is a Spartans basketball fan and his father is an MSU alumnus.
And Hello Dave's music fits right into the fun-seeking atmosphere of college towns. The band's latest album, "Perfect Day," is full of upbeat, uplifting rock tunes from the 10-year-old Windy City-based quintet.
"We're all about fun and having a good time," Himebaugh said, adding that his musical roots are based on his parents' involvement in the barbershop-quartet scene.
The influences of the band members are as varied as the venues Hello Dave plays.
"The drummer is really into crazy rhythm-time stuff like Frank Zappa," he said. "The bassist is more into renegade country stuff. The guitarist is into guitar greats, like your Claptons. And Tony, the keyboard player, he's into everything."
The lyrics on "Perfect Day" deal with everything from breakup sex and chain smoking to beautiful golden mornings.
"The lyrics come from things that are going on with my life," said Himebaugh, who is also the band's chief songwriter. "Every once in a while, it will be some fictional thing that will just come spewing out, but most of the time, it's just something in my head that finds its way onto the paper."
Himebaugh said Hello Dave is known more for its live shows, especially in Chicago, than the group's five full-length albums.
"People always wonder, 'Why can't you get all that energy onto a CD ever,'" he said. "It's impossible; even on our live CDs, it just doesn't come out."
Part of the band's high level of live energy comes from the fans, who range in age from 5-year-olds to 60-year-olds, but Himebaugh said the fan base is mostly in the 20s and 30s age range.
"We always have this core of fans that come and know every word and sing at the top of their lungs; it's infectious," he said.
After tonight's show, the band will take its act back to Illinois and across to Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado.
"I love playing in the Rockies," Himebaugh said. "It's just so beautiful out there."
Himebaugh's idea of a "perfect day" is all kinds of outdoor fun, he said.
"It would have to start on a beach somewhere, perhaps with a Bloody Mary," he said. "And it would have to end with a fantastic show in a perfect little outside night club."
