Saliva has hit everyone this year.

All people had to do was turn on the radio or MTV, and they were barraged with the rock act. Lead singer Josey Scott's duet with Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, "Hero," from the Spider-Man soundtrack, conquered top-five charts and overflowed onto pop stations.

Riding the buzz of that single, Saliva released its second major-label album, Back into Your System, and fans can't get enough of the latest band on the nü-metal wave.

Saliva will be playing to a sold-out house tonight at Crowbar, 420 E. College Ave.

Opening the show are newcomers Brand New Sin, Greenwheel and Breaking Benjamin.

"Fish," an afternoon deejay at WQWK Rock 9.71, said there is a huge fan base in the area for Saliva, with fans ecstatic over the band's latest single, "Always."

"When the song first came out, there were lots of requests for the song," Fish said. "There is definitely a huge crowd following."

Classifying Saliva as rap-metal, Fish called the band "Lynyrd Skynyrd with hip-hop influences."

"They definitely mix in a lot more rapping than other bands do," he said.

"[Scott's] got a hell of a voice."

Saliva's high-energy show will rock the Crowbar, Fish said, as the band is used to playing larger venues.

"They have big popularity and are big sound-wise," he said. "It will definitely be a big rock show."

Andy Dwiggins, guitarist for Greenwheel, said the tour has been going great so far, and the anxiety of playing with so many bands hasn't been a problem yet.

"Saliva, I really like their energy. Their repertoire is a good set to get the crowd ballistic and crazy," Dwiggins said. "Brand New Sin, they have so much energy and we have to try and follow them. Breaking Benjamin, they have an amazing groove."

Greenwheel is touring in support of its debut, Soma Holiday. Originally the name for the band, Soma Holiday refers to the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

In the novel, "soma"was the perfect drug, used to cure everything, and it sent the user into a blissful state.

Dwiggins said the band thought this was a good way to describe how making music feels to Greenwheel, but, unfortunately, another band had already adopted the name Soma Holiday.

"It's what writing and recording felt like to us," Dwiggins said. "It's kind of a bummer we couldn't keep the name."

The band members, all in their early 20s, are still a bit wide-eyed at the prospect of being famous musicians.

"It's affected us 110 percent. We went from waiting tables and landscaping to being professional musicians," he said. "It's not something you can set yourself up for at all. We are very lucky it happened."

Dwiggins said the best part about the road for Greenwheel is learning to play together and feel each other out as a band.

"Our live show is very high-energy. We strive to be really earnest and listen to each other, so if someone screws up, we tell them," he said.

"I think the best part about it ... it makes the songwriting process easier. We can feel each other with our instruments and just close our eyes and go."