You may wonder what those nutty guys who plan Roustabout!, our very own weekly rock 'n' roll hootenanny, were thinking when they put Scranton's pure-pop okay paddy and dingy synth-rockers Two if by Sea on the same bill.

But it's no wonder at all; those nutty guys just wanted you to have a little variety in your diet.

Okay paddy's Mike Quinn is no stranger to rocking houses with bands that don't sound like his.

"I think we're used to it," Quinn said. "We just seem to end up on a lot of weird nights. And I guess there's certainly a kind of band we're maybe a better fit with. But they're all humans, so it's nice to meet them and talk to them."

And Two if by Sea guitarist David Hardy said he'll be pleased as punch to shake hands with Quinn tonight.

"We totally love being on the road," Hardy said. "Don't get me wrong when I say it's hard to keep doing it, but it's worth it. You meet a lot of people who have a ton of creative energy and drive."

Okay paddy's lineup is unique; the band features two very distinct songwriters in Quinn and Pat Finnerty. The varying styles of Quinn and Finnerty blend seamlessly in okay paddy's music, but as Quinn suggested, they do make an effort to keep certain things separate.

"Certainly there's some collaboration, when we're practicing together and everything," Quinn said. "But usually we don't get into each other's words."

Roustabout! organizer Jeff Van Fossan said okay paddy's triumphant return to State College is much anticipated by event regulars.

"People have requested to get okay paddy back," Van Fossan said. "They've got kind of a second-generation, West Coast '60s thing, sort of like The Byrds or The Mamas & The Papas."

The band is currently mastering its first full-length, due out sometime next month. Like quite a few Scranton indie-rock bands, Quinn said he's felt an upsurge of interest in the northeast Pennsylvania scene. "I've noticed, in the last few months, with us and [fellow Scrantonian indie-poppers] The Sw!ms, a lot of younger kids will come around," Quinn said. "There's a lot of stuff going on here, but because it's a smaller area, it doesn't always get noticed. But I think that's changing."

David Hardy knows about changes. Two if by Sea's fan base in its native Baltimore is growing larger every day and the band is looking toward bigger and better things. "We feel like we're kind of on the verge of blowing up," Hardy said. "So we're trying to move from a regional record label to a more national record label, who'll help us do some promotion and get us out on a bigger tour."

But Hardy isn't going to let that newfound fame let him forget his friends at Roustabout!

"This is maybe our fourth time there," Hardy said. "As far as doing a three-or-four-day trip, State College is kind of in the middle of things, which is convenient."

If Hardy, and, by extension, Two if by Sea, has a pet peeve, it's the constant comparisons his band gets to some of the other flavor-of-the-month new-wave revivalists currently in vogue.

"It kinda bums us out," Hardy said. "We've been doing this for three and a half years now with this lineup, and these bands that are blowing up now that people compare us to that we've never even heard of."

As Van Fossan said, Two if by Sea isn't just some flash in the pan Duran Duran tribute band.

"Their sound is a gritty British industrial Manchester sound," Van Fossan said. "When I first saw them, they were like a more rock version of Joy Division."

And besides, as Hardy insists, if Two if by Sea ever sounded like, say, The Killers, they most certainly don't now. "The new stuff we're doing is more rooted in rock, and less in the huge dance-punk rip-off stuff people are overdoing now," Hardy said. "We're not flashy. We're all about the rock."