Radioactive Man dubs thee Fall Out Boy

Guitarist Joe Trohman remembers when Chicago rock band Fall Out Boy first visited Nashville. It was as either part of a multi-act pairing or not-yet-prominent performers, and without a name.

But when it comes to town Tuesday night it’s not only the headliner for the Young Wild Things tour, it’s a chart-topping band that has been appearing at sold-out arenas in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Europe.

In addition, both its latest CD Infinity on High and the lead single “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race” have made it up to No. 1, with the CD selling some 260,000 copies in the first week, and the single ending up atop the Pop 100 chart (No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100).

After a whirlwind year that’s seen the band make appearances at the Live Earth Concerts and MTV Video Music Awards among others, Trohman said that by now the band has reconciled itself to the unexpected success it has enjoyed with its most recent releases.

“We usually concentrate on making the best art possible, making songs that we’re satisfied with and that we think our fans will enjoy and then just let things happen,” Trohman said. “The last thing that we really worry about is where something will debut on the charts. But sure, when you start out on top, it’s a big surprise and something that’s very wonderful. It’s a sign that not only the fans but also many other people enjoy your music.”

He said the trick now is to not let success change the band’s way of doing things.

“We’ve always been a very organic band, but at the same time very organized when it came time to go in the studio and record. I think we had 99 percent of this last CD already done when we headed into the sessions, and we might have tweaked things here and there or maybe combined two songs into one single, but much of it was already put together by the time we started seriously recording anything,” he said.

What’s made the band successful is a clever merger of pop and punk elements, enabling it to sometimes sound polished and other times extremely raw.

Sometimes the group will do elegant, poetic ballads, then follow those with simple, slashing arrangements. Then will come tunes employing orchestral frameworks and choral backdrops, followed by another animated, rock-tinged tune.

While bassist Pete Wentz is the primary lyricist and lead vocalist Patrick Stump the main composer, Trohman said his instrumental point-of-view is always acknowledged as songs are being conceived.

“Sometimes Pete will have a song nearly complete but will leave out the guitar parts and I’ll fill them in,” Trohman said. “But I’ve started writing a lot more in recent months, and sometimes I’ll take what I have to Pete, and then he’ll kind of shape it and work with it to see how it fits overall. We’re very conscious of a group sound in everything, so we never just think in terms of one or two instruments, but in the terms of how the overall song works within the group framework.”

Besides Trohman, Stump and Wentz, the band’s other contributor is drummer Andy Hurley.

The relationship between Wentz and Trohman dates back to their days playing in various Chicago rock bands.

“I was 16 and Pete was almost 21 when we first met,” Trohman said. “He asked me to come along and play bass in this band, even though I’ve been playing guitar since I was 10. I went through a lot of hazing in the beginning because I was younger than everyone else, but it really helped make me stronger as a musician and a person. Now Pete and I have a relationship that’s tight both personally and musically, and the same is true with everyone else in the group.”

Wentz and Trohman later met Stump in a bookstore. He initially wanted to be a drummer, but once they heard him sing, he became the lead vocalist.

Finally after some other personnel auditions and the release of a mini-LP, Andy Hurley joined them while two others dropped out, resulting in the core quartet that’s been Fall Out Boy the past four years.

As for the famous story regarding their origins, Trohman says it’s absolutely true.

“We were playing these shows and for the first two we didn’t have a name,” Trohman recalled. “So we asked the audience for suggestions and this guy yelled out “how about Fall Out Boy.” He was referring to this guy in The Simpsons [Radioactive Man’s sidekick]. The next day when we went to a club, they had us on the bill as Fall Out Boy, and it just seemed right.”

What: Fall Out Boy

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: The Municipal Auditorium, 417 Fourth Ave. N.

Cost: $28

Info: 862-6390