Warriors of Lima

When it comes to staying out all night, touring the country and partying like veteran rock stars, Hit the Lights is one band of brothers who know how to stay true to themselves, their roots and their fans. Hit the Lights is a quintet based on the powers of vocalist Nick Thompson, guitarists Omar Zehery and Kevin Mahoney, bassist Dave Bermosk and drummer Nate Van Dame. The boys from Hit the Lights are from Lima, Ohio, a place that front man Thompson calls "the back woods of Ohio." After their formation in 2003, a firecracker of an EP, two full length albums, a frantic search for a new lead singer and finally the release of this years EP, "Coast to Coast," Hit the Lights is ready to travel the country on their first ever headlining tour, dubbed the Manatour, schedule to begin and end in Ohio.

Hit the Lights has worked just as hard as they play when it comes to their careers. Although they may sound like an immediate offspring of New Found Glory and Jimmy Eat World (two of the band's influences), Hit the Lights is altruistic with their sound, style and musical personality. Their first EP, "Until We Get Caught" (2005) was an instant success across Ohio, followed by an aggressive touring record. "Until We Get Caught" was criticized as being unoriginal and forgettable upon its initial release, but four years and three CDs later, the band has always remained consistent with their sound. Their songs have always romanticized what it means to never grow up, to lose sleep in pursuit of romance or trouble, proclaiming the need to "drop the girl" and keep brothers close.

"We're a real band that works hard," Thompson said. "Aiming to be a good live band and being serious with the fans is the mentality that got us here. It's been a ‘choose your own fate' thing, which is what a lot of bands lack."

HTL has been compassionate with their fans from the beginning. Two weeks ago, the band made a guest appearance at Frankie's Inner City to party with fans and their friends, Every Avenue.

"We got a hotel room and did terrible things that night," Thompson laughed.

Their first full length album, "This is a Stick Up…Don't Make it a Murder" (2006), which incorporated some of their more popular songs from the EP such as "These Backs are Made for Stabbing" (You look so obvious, predictable/ Someday your games will catch up to you). Nearly every song on the album, from "Bodybag" to "Speakers Blown" is pop-punk at its best, judging by the fans at their performances screaming along word-for-word.

The band came to a halt when their original lead singer left until Thompson found it in himself to fill the position. It was only a year until the band recorded an entirely new album with Thompson on the vocals. Their junior recording, "Skip School, Start Fights" (2008) brought the band media attention from magazines like Alternative Press. The album was a success with the same formula of progressive guitar riffs and lyrics serving as potential anthems for the emocore generation, although a weaker, more poppy example of their punk influenced spirit.

"I'm proud of [‘Skip School']. I'm glad we got it out, but every track is a raw pop song," Thompson said.

This year the band released what they hope to be the first step in the next chapter of their career, the EP "Coast to Coast," which is more like a "best-of" compilation of what Hit the Lights is capable of as a rock band.

"I think we always wanted to do acoustic tracks as well as songs that would turn into their own thing rather than being strictly acoustic," Thompson said. "For our new stuff, we wanted to start broadening our spectrum. It wasn't quite time to release a full record, yet. I felt like it would be cheating the fans. There has to be a long period between releases to keep the music fresh," he said.

To make up for what they missed in touring for "Skip, School," HTL plans to tour aggressively with "Coast to Coast" on Manatour.

"This tour is going to be easy," Thompson said. "We picked a lot of bands that we were already friends with and decided to finally do a headlining tour, which is something we've never done before. When we released ‘Skip School, Start Fights,' we couldn't do it justice by giving it a full tour. At shows, kids have wanted to hear songs that we didn't have time to play. This will be an opportunity to give fans what they have been waiting to hear. Plus, I get to do some songs that we haven't performed since I've been singing [since 2007]."

When they finish up with Manatour, the band hopes to get to work on their next album.

"For the next record, we want to branch out. We don't want to lose our sound but we aim for something along the lines of our influences, like Jimmy Eat World. I know we can pull it off and still be Hit the Lights," Thompson said. "We're going to work on bringing back the raw edge that people like from ‘Stick Up.' We're a little more pop, which was the direction we were going for, but now we want to stick to our roots," he said.

"It's been a really long, weird journey. When I joined this band, we were a four piece. We had the EP and I never would have thought I'd be here right now singing for the band. I know we're a lot stronger because of it. I'm perfectly happy with touring the world and people telling us that our music has affected them. This is way more than we could have expected. I'm proud of Hit the Lights."

-Hit the Lights will be performing Oct. 8 at Frankie's Inner City w/ There for Tomorrow. $12 in advance, $15 at door @ 6 p.m.