Band shares its 'Story'

St. Louis' Story of the Year's amazingly energetic show came to the Black Cat on Thursday as the band, along with Jackson, opened for pop-rockers Sugarcult.

Story of the Year tore through a set of aggressive and fast-paced songs from its debut album, "Page Avenue." The set included "Anthem of Our Dying Day," "Until The Day I Die," "And The Hero Will Drown," "Divide and Conquer," "Dive Right In" and the hard-hitting closer "In The Shadows."

Story played the entirety of 2003's Vans Warped Tour gradually moving from the small stage to the big. Next up for the band is an opening stint with Linkin Park, P.O.D. and Hoobastank on one of 2004's most highly anticipated tours. Story of the Year talked to The Eagle before the show about the craziness of touring.

Eagle: How do you think this tour will be different from A.) This summer's Warped tour, and B.) Your upcoming tour with Linkin Park, P.O.D. and Hoobastank?

Story of the Year: Well, [the] difference from now and Warped Tour is our album is out. Kids know the songs now. The difference between now and Linkin Park will be on this tour we have been playing 9- to 39-foot stages and a lot of different-sized clubs. Linkin Park is going to be all stinkin' arenas, a couple thousand people and multiple merchandise tables. This is a different world, man. It's going to be way, way different. We kind of know what to expect, but it's such a jump. There is going to be some stuff that is really going to hit us on the first day.

Eagle: Have you been getting a good response about the album?

Story: Yeah, during Warped Tour a lot of kids had some songs from the Internet, and now everybody has the songs so it's really cool.

Eagle: Is it hard to keep up, doing an energetic live show every night?

Story: You kind of get a workout every day. It's fun. At least one of us has been injured on every tour, though. We've had a hospital visit on every tour so far.

Eagle: What does your album title "Page Avenue" mean?

Story: It's a street in St. Louis, in our 'hood in the ghetto. It's the main little street that we all grew up close to. It's our '8 Mile.' Eminem's representin' the Detroit, we're representin' the STL. We practiced down the street from Page Avenue; there was a McDonald's right there that we used to eat at every day. There was a music store that Phil worked at where we bought everything we owned.

Eagle: Is the street actually on the CD cover?

Story: We were told the picture is of San Diego. We tried so hard to get a St. Louis picture, but the way it looks wouldn't have worked very well. St. Louis has trees. It would have been all green and stupid looking and would not look very neat.

Eagle: Any guilty pleasures?

Story: [Guitarist Phil Sneed] likes country music: Allison Krause, Union Station and Randy Travis, old Tim McGraw and Justin Timberlake.

Eagle: Everyone says Justin Timberlake.

Story: Well crap, I can't say that anymore.