"I love Penn State and I love Zeno's; it's pretty fun," lead singer Yorg Kerasiotis said. "We always have positive responses from everyone there. A lot of people [at the last show] were requesting our originals and yelling out the names of our songs, which is really cool."
The band is stopping here as part of its East Coast tour.
"Our goal is to build on college towns out east," Tibbitts said. "College gigs make you feel a little younger, even though the average age of the band members is about 24 or 25. It makes you feel 21 again."
Kerasiotis feels that big cities pose a challenge because it is important initially to have a fan base there.
The band is slowly starting to like playing in these larger cities, he said.
"College towns are awesome because they bring in kids just interested to party and hear a new band," he said. "Our goal is to be able to play the big cities and have a good draw, so that's what we're excited about."
Bump was formed in Grosse Pointe, a Detroit suburb, in late 2002. The band consists of four members: Kerasiotis (vocals, keys and guitar), Clint Carpenter (drums), Eric Novak (bass), and Chris Sterr (guitar and vocals). Kerasiotis said Carpenter and Novak went to one Detroit high school, while he and Sterr were childhood friends who went to a rival high school. The four merged during their college years at Michigan State.
"College towns [offer] the potential for a huge crowd," Sterr said. "But at Michigan State, people prefer DJs and hip-hop. Penn State is definitely one town that's been supportive."
Bump will head to the studio in December and January to record two full-length albums, the first which is expected in March or April.
Sterr said the band is always changing, so audiences who saw Bump before will experience something new this time around.
"It's a full light show; our lighting engineer is like the fifth member of the band. It's almost cinematic, which is one of the compliments many people have given us," Kerasiotis said.
So why is the band called "Bump"?
A close friend of the band thought the word was a solid name because it is a single word that can have many meanings, Kerasiotis said. The real reason they chose it was because of Novak, he added.
"The way [Novak] plays, he sort of bumps; that's the reason why we liked it," he said. "If you came to see us, you were going to either get off your feet and start moving or the song was going to impact you really low, just kind of send you for a loop. Good music bumps."
