They've had to deal with a few bumps in the road to get there, but The Disconnect will get to play its first Penn State gig at the Dragon Chasers Emporium, 209 Calder Way, tonight.

Orginally, the Disconnect was set to play with local band Sarona and out-of-towners Settle, but complications arose and both bands had to drop out, and the Disconnect were unable to ensure another opening act, putting the show in jeopardy.

Guitarist Eric Shirk (senior-journalism) called Dragon Chasers to explain and decided to lower the price of admission to compensate for having only one act.

"They were super helpful," Shirk said. "They are just interested in getting music out there."

The venue does have a policy in which it will cancel a show if the attendance is so poor and it will end up losing money, Shirk said.

But he hopes the lowered admission price and early show time will encourage people to attend before they go out for the night.

"It's tough. At home, we do really well, and people enjoy it," Shirk said. "Here it seems like people want to go to bars, get drunk and see cover bands. I guess that's typical of colleges."

Shirk noted that the Dragon Chasers Emporium typically features original music.

Shirk is the only Penn State student of the Allentown-based group, and this trip will be the first Penn State outing for the instrumental rock group.

"Normally when people ask about our sound, I don't really know how to explain it to them. It's ambient-instrumental, Explosions in the Sky with more of a structure rather than a story," drummer Ans Gibson said.

Shirk said groups such as U2 and Coldplay are points of reference for listeners who are less familiar with the underground music scene, as those bands are the best mainstream comparison.

The band members said one major selling point that sets them apart from other instrumental rock groups is a focus on more conventional pop-song structure and melody.

"It's harder to structure an instrumental band because we don't have vocals to center everything around, but Eric and Hakiim do good coming up with catchy melodies," bassist Tyler Beck said.

Gibson said he and Beck provide a backbone for the songs, over which guitarists Shirk and Hakiim Jones both play melody.

"My concern was not being a free-form band where songs can take minutes to develop," guitarist Jones said.

The band also said that playing in an instrumental rock band lends itself to a different atmosphere than other genres. Beck compared it to his previous band, which had more of a "screamo/hardcore" focus.

"I'm used to kids trying to beat each other up, and now everyone just stands and looks at you," Beck said.

"But then at the end we get the loudest applause I've heard for any band I've been in. You can definitely tell people enjoy what they hear."