Milwaukee native Hurley keeps the beat for Fall Out Boy

For traveling musicians in the middle of a grueling mega-tour, a hometown engagement can be a like an oasis in the desert; a much-needed break from zealous fans, hotel beds, room service, mini-bars and miniature shampoo bottles.

Fall Out Boy drummer Andy Hurley, who grew up in Menomonee Falls and attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, isn't looking at his band's gig tonight at the Bradley Center in quite that light.

"We've only been on tour for a week," Hurley, who turns 27 on May 31, said during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from Minneapolis, where the band played the fifth show of the 2007 Honda Civic Tour.

"It's kind of not a big deal. Usually, it's nice to come home when you've been gone for awhile. We're just getting started, but it's always good to be home."

For the uninitiated, Fall Out Boy (the name is an homage to superhero Radioactive Man's sidekick on "The Simpsons") has sold millions of CDs, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone (March, 2007), recently appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and has a bass player, Pete Wentz, who makes tabloid headlines for dating Ashlee Simpson.

"It's weird to see yourself on MTV or on a magazine somewhere," Hurley said. "It's an adjustment. But when that happens, I just look at it and say, ‘I guess we're still out there.' We're not trying to do things in a specific way. We're still trying to push it and take chances."

What does a member of such a hot band do during his brief period of free time in his home city? Hurley, who is in the process of selling one house and buying another, will prepare for his move and relax.

"I'll probably go to my mom's house and watch 'Heroes' and 'Lost' and 'Entourage,'" said Hurley, a vegan who spends much of his time in town on the East Side. "Usually, I can hang out in Milwaukee and it's not that big of a deal. I like that."

Relaxation time is about to get scarce for Fall Out Boy. Backed by +44, The Academy Is..., Paul Wall and Cobra Starship, the band will crisscross the U.S. through early July, with stops in Japan and UK the following month. As he looks at the ambitious schedule, Hurley feels excitement, not dread.

"I'm stoked," Hurley said. "The first four shows have been amazing, and they're getting bigger."

Hurley is excited about playing the Bradley Center. "I'm a sports fan and that's where the Bucks play," he said. In the crowd tonight, he'll host his mom and roughly two dozen friends while his bandmates, who hail from the Chicago area, will also have sizable contingents.

Unlike previous tours, ticket requests won't be a major headache.

"It's old hat now," Hurley said. "Everybody knows how to say 'No.' I let my friend Matt handle it. My mom usually brings five to 10 people. There are probably only about 20 others."

The audience at Fall Out Boy shows is dominated by teenagers, and several in the house tonight will likely come from Menomonee Falls High School. While a student a decade ago in "The Falls," Hurley honed his music skills and, to hear one former teacher tell it, fit the profile of a budding future rock star.

James Kuse, an English teacher at the school, remembers running into Hurley, literally, during the drummer's freshman year.

"Back then he was this little red-headed dynamo, full of energy and a lot of sass," Kuse said. "Even then it was easy to tell he was trying to figure out what he wanted to be by the way he was always trying out different personas."

Hurley, who was five when his father died, went through a rebellious phase, which is hardly uncommon. What was unusual, though, is how he came out of it.

"The rambunctious goof eventually became a pretty quiet and introspective kid, focused mostly on his music and a straight-edge lifestyle," Kuse said. "His circle of friends was pretty small, mostly just other kids who thought like he did and who also played music, mostly hard-core and punk type stuff.

"I still remember the band director at the time (Don Huenfeld), who has since retired, commenting on the fact that Andy was phenomenally talented and probably the best drummer he'd ever seen."

Informed of the last comment, Hurley was thunderstruck.

"That's amazing," he said. "(Huenfeld) was a love-hate relationship. He was very strict and hard on everyone. It was probably like a strict coach, like (Packers head coach Vince) Lombardi. We'd argue a lot. After four years, I realized it was to get us to reach our potential.

"When you're young, you think that all the teachers are against you. I definitely didn't care about school. I mean, I loved being there. I loved being with my friends. But, I didn't really care about what was taught there.

"I was lucky to have a lot of great teachers. Mr. Kuse was a great teacher and he's a big reason I turned into who I am. There were other teachers and even the principal (Richard Woosencraft) who would kind of try to find ways to tailor things to me. They were always bummed that I wasn't doing the work, but they would try to figure out things I could do to pass."

Kuse described Hurley as a "so-so" student who, though bright, seemed bored by what was being taught in class.

"He was the kid who'd stay after class to discuss something he was reading, not what the class was reading, but something much more philosophical or socially relevant," Kuse said. "And that's still the way he is today.

"Though I haven't seen him in about a year now, I'd still run into Andy every now and then, more often than not when I was working part-time at a local bookstore.

"I'd ask how things were going and how he was handling all the attention, as it's really not his style to be out in the spotlight. And while he'd get excited about some of the things that had happened, wondering if I'd seen them on this show or that, or on the cover of a particular magazine, more than anything else he'd want to know if I had any good books to recommend."

When he's not working out or listening to hardcore from Manowar on his iPod, Hurley, who studied history and anthropology at UWM, voraciously devours comic books (a personal passion) and non-fiction works by John Zerzan and Derrick Jensen, who question modern civilization and its values while arguing that the industrial economy is harmful to the environment and human interaction.

Reading books like Jensen's "Endgame," which aren't exactly considered "summer beach reading," could lead one to question the rock star lifestyle. While Hurley thinks that the record industry is "in shambles" and the role of record labels needs to be redefined, he tries to ignore the "business" part of the music business.

"I don't care about the business part of it," Hurley said. "Pete (Wentz) is a brilliant business man. He's got a lot of ideas and I think that helps us a lot as a band."

From a business standpoint, Fall Out Boy couldn't be doing much better. (Even Wentz's embarrassing experience with some nude photos on the Web turned out to be a good marketing tool). Ticket sales have been brisk. Kids are screaming at shows and downloading songs. There are enough interviews, photo ops, meet-and-greets and celebrity girlfriends to keep everyone occupied.

On an elevated drum riser in the center of the storm sits a quiet, red-haired young man from Menomonee Falls who projects a calm presence even as he pounds away on his drums, unimpressed and seemingly not tempted by the accoutrements and excesses of fame.

"This is my job," Hurley said. "As long as I'm writing songs and playing music, that's what is important."