At 5pm, the line outside of the Recher Theater in Towson is already around the block. Backstage, Mat Devine knocks around the balls on a little pool table as trays of fruit and cheese are shuffled onto bar tops around the room. “Nothing’s weird to me anymore,” he said, in the shy, pseudo-mumble that is his voice when he isn’t under the spotlight. “A couple nights ago I had a mom try to set me up with her two daughters at the same time… Its easy to imagine the type of dirtbags who groupies are with in the months preceding your tour date you know?”

Some of us already know the Kill Hannah story. It is the story of a band formed in Chicago in the late ‘90’s. In 2003, Atlantic Records presented their first major-label release, For Never And Ever. In 2006, their second album, Until There’s Nothing Left Of Us, debuted in the Billboard’s top ten. Their single, “Lips Like Morphine,” is blowing up in the UK, just recently released there in March. Their new album, Hope for the Hopeless, came out on July 1st.

That is what this tour is: “The 2008 Hope for the Hopeless Tour Presented by Hot Topic,” to be exact. Now, this is Kill Hannah headlining instead of opening. Kill Hannah—Mat Devine as frontman, Dan Wiese and Jonny Radtke on guitar, Greg Corner on the bass, and touring drummer Elias Mallin. The press release states that, as of July 8th, Kill Hannah will be hitting 40 cities here in the states, along with openers The Medic Droid, innerpartysystem, and The White Tie Affair. That isn’t to speak of their European tour dates.

“Every city has… kind of, treasures, you know?” Mat pauses to take a breath. “And every city sucks. It’s just a matter of who the people are and what you choose to make of it…” This tour is why he is sitting here, backstage on August 12th. He isn’t what you’d expect a rock star to be: slightly reserved and very gracious. Right now, he isn’t wearing makeup. He talks about the cyclical process of writing music and finding a balance between lyrical inspiration and instrumental inspiration. He wants a Narwhal, because nobody else has one. He tactfully avoids questions about on-stage fuckups, and urges friends and fans to check out his new-ish Fuse.tv blog (fuseblog.typepad.com/kill_hannah).

In the showroom, a crowd is forming around the stage blockade. The show is running a little bit behind. The openers are doing their part to pump up the crowd—all of them prove to be a solid mixture of the Kill Hannah genre of rock-pop, with hints of synth and electronic beats. Unfortunately, none of them are Kill Hannah.

It is a little after 9:30pm when the lights dim. The music starts before you can really see what is going on. The guitars are fused with safety lights and lasers. Mat walks onto the stage, to a room of screaming fans. The lights come on at the same moment that the music really kicks in. They might be playing “Paper Dolls.” All of the girls up front, hands bearing the Sharpie curse of the underage “X,” press against the metal barrier and only hear the thought “Ohmygod, that is Mat Devine!”

The boys play some songs from their new album. They tear apart “Kennedy.” The set is decent in size, but far from long enough for every diehard KH fan in the crowd. They play “Hummingbirds The Size of Bullets,” an older song from one of their independent releases, way back in the day. They play “Welcome To Chicago,” a tribute to the city—their hometown—in which their roots are deep. They play “Acid Rain.”

Before the show, Mat says “I like performing a new song called Acid Rain, simply because it’s brand new…” There isn’t much that he can say about it. “It’s kind of an underground romance.” He can say, though, that they are working on new studio material, as we speak. The prospective release date that they have been throwing around is sometime in 2009. Until then, they vow to keep us eagerly anticipating.

When they close their set it is with “Lips Like Morphine,” and everybody sings along. Especially the girls in the front with the “X’es” on their hands. There will be no encore or standing ovation. There will be the promise of signing T-shirts out front, as well as rumors of the opportunity to get drinks with the band at a bar next door.

Up on stage, Mat Devine stands with the toes of his oxblood Doc Martens hanging over the edge of nothingness. He says that he is sorry it took so long for Kill Hannah to come back to town. He says, “We’ve been in Europe.” “And,” he says, “We had to return some videotapes.”

Keep your eyes peeled for a podcasting of the full Mat Devine interview, here at The Baltimore SëN. For more on Mat and the KH boys, check out myspace.com/killhannah or killhannah.com. Make sure to check out Mat's blog at fuseblog.typepad.com/kill-hannah.

Tags: Hope for the Hopeless tour, Hot Topic, innerpartysystem, Jessica Snow, Kill Hannah, Medic Droid, Recher Theater, White Tie Affair