Photo courtesy of Sound of Urchin Members of the band Sound of Urchin go by false names. The band, which is influenced by many genres, values humorous and obscure lyrics. It opens for Cracker tonight at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St.

"So they gave me this tube of hand lotion and they made sure that I squirted it all over Sasquatch's head," Tomato said. "That ended the skit. That was one of the highlights of my life."

Tomato, whose real name is Chris Harfenist but who goes by the fruit (or is it a vegetable?) instead, is the drummer and lead singer of the band Sound of Urchin.

He was describing the money shot ending of a comedy skit he once performed while on tour in New York City with comedy rockers Tenacious D.

"They did this Spiderman thing every night, so they have a guy come out as Spiderman in a costume. They rented a couple other costumes and they asked me to be the Popeye and there was a Sasquatch costume, too. We get in a fight, and I end up eating a can of real spinach, which ended up all over my face and all over their rented costume. Jack Black is narrating the whole thing as we're doing it. Then we end up double-teaming Sasquatch after we beat him up," Tomato explained.

As one might guess, Sound of Urchin's style does not flow like the typical radio-friendly style of current tour mates Cracker.

"We're sick of the bands that sound the same," Tomato said. "We wanted to do something against the grain of the cookie-cutter bands that are running the radio these days."

Sound of Urchin consists of Tomato, bassist Doo Doo Brown (Chris Huetz), The Reverend B II (Bill Fowler) on lead guitar and Scotty Choc (Scott Heydt) on rhythm guitar.

"There is a lot of humor in our music, but I don't consider ourselves a silly band," Tomato said. "We're way serious about our music. We're not all about the humor."

Tomato described Urchin as being born from the mid-'90s indie music scene, with half of the band's members hailing from New York City, and the other half from New Hope, Penn.

The band members united because they were unhappy with the projects they were individually involved in and wanted to try something different.

"We've been a band for three and a half years, going on four in August," Tomato said. "We sort of just came together because we wanted to make something fresh. We wanted to go out there and show people how's it done."

Although the band members acknowledge that their collective sound is different than most current up-and-comers, Tomato thinks his band's sound has an audience in waiting.

"When people see us live or on the CD, they either get it or they don't," Tomato said. "That's really the stance that we'd rather take is. Rather than be mediocre and have people be indifferent about us and not even remember who they saw, we want to challenge people. The people that get it get it right away. The good thing about it is that usually more people get it than don't get it."

Tucson listeners, Tomato said, should come out to see Urchin to regain nostalgia of what a live show is supposed to be.

"If they come to the show," Tomato said. "They'll be like, 'Oh man, this is why I liked music and this is why I used to like coming out to shows.' They'll be re-born again to rock and roll, and that's the bottom line when they see us."

The Sound of Urchin is opening for Cracker at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., tonight at 9. Tickets are $13 and are available at the hotel box office or at the door. Call 622-8848 for details.