photo courtesy of the starting line The Starting Line will headline the Drive Thru Records Invasion Tour at the Rialto Theater tonight at 8 p.m.

Get ready to bounce and sweat with the crowd, as melodious guitar riffs and pop hooks hit Tucson tonight when the Drive Thru Records Invasion Tour makes a stop at the Rialto Theatre.

The Starting Line headlines the 8 p.m. show, supported by Homegrown, Allister, The Early November and Senses Fail.

Amidst the surge of indistinguishable pop punk bands taking over the music world, The Starting Line has made a splash with a lyrically diverse album and noticeable musical ability. Say It Like You Mean It, with sales of more than 200,000, has given TSL a following that doesn't only include 14-year-old-Hot-Topic-frequenting girls.

And the four-piece is only getting bigger. Their single, "The Best of Me", is sweeping rock radio airwaves. Fresh off a stint on the Warped Tour, TSL is headlining for the first time on a 45 date nationwide tour. And they just grabbed their first magazine cover with the September edition of Alternative Press.

All this for a band that formed only a little over four years ago when guitarist Mike Watts searched AOL profiles for kids who liked NOFX and Lagwagon. Watts only received one response from the 75 or so emails he sent following his search. Lead singer Kenny Vasoli, then 14, joined the band and they were signed only two years later.

After Vasoli finished high school, the band released their album and started the tour that keeps them busy today.

During a sound check on their recent tour, I talked to Vasoli about life on the road, the emergence of pop-punk and TSL's future. Vasoli, now only 19, is a lot like most college students, except he plays music for thousands of kids every night.

WILDCAT: So does headlining mean you get to tell the other bands to make you sandwiches?

VASOLI: No, not at all. The other bands are our very good friends.

WILDCAT: What kind of stuff do you do to fill the time up when you're on the road?

VASOLI: Basically watch "Family Guy" and play video games.

WILDCAT: Pick up any good albums lately?

VASOLI: I just picked up Bjork's album Vespertine and I really like that CD. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Death Cab For Cutie.

WILDCAT: Do you mostly listen to types of music that you don't really play?

VASOLI: I really don't listen to a lot of pop punk. I typically listen to a lot of indie music and a lot of hardcore. Even a lot of rap sometimes, a lot of Biggie Smalls or Black Eyed Peas.

WILDCAT: How do you think you stand out, or are planning to stand out, in the pop punk genre?

VASOLI: I guess we try our hardest to not have any gimmicks when we're writing our music. We don't try to make it for a certain stereotype or age group. We just make the kind of music that we would want to hear.

WILDCAT: I was listening to the radio the other day and it went Creed·

VASOLI: (laughs)

WILDCAT: ..and then you guys, and then Disturbed. Does it freak you out to be coupled with some of the worst bands in history?

VASOLI: I pretty much think the radio sucks anyway. I don't expect much of it. It's cool that they're actually stepping up and playing our band, when compared to those other bands we're like a garage band. I'm just happy that anybody's listening at all. Whatever else they're listening to isn't my business.

WILDCAT: So is your live show really crazy, do you dress up like robots or anything?

VASOLI: No, we basically play in our street clothes. We do have confetti cannons in this tour, and we shoot them off during the ÎBest of Me.' It's pretty fun.

WILDCAT: What's your goal for the years to come? Would you like to be the best band in history?

VASOLI: No, (laughs) I don't. I want to keep making music and hope people still listen to it. There are some bands I listen to, like Jimmy Eat World, where the first time you listen to it you're just astounded. I guess my ultimate goal is just to be able to do that. If it's only one song, and when people listen to it, they're just astounded by it.