A couple of years ago, Senses Fail bassist and vocalist Mike Glita realized he had a decision to make. At the time, the New Jersey musician was pursuing a goal that, while not overly romantic, at least guaranteed that he wouldn't be living on Kraft Dinner. Glita was enrolled in college, working toward a major in information technology and a minor in psychology. Without hesitation, he gave it all up for punk.

"I figured that while I could always go back to school, the opportunity to do what I'm doing now doesn't come along every day," he says, on the line from a Detroit tour stop. "All I was really looking forward to doing was getting the chance to travel across the United States, but now we've been to England and we're getting ready to go to Australia and Japan."

Generating all the interest is Senses Fail's debut disc, Let It Enfold You, an underground-spawned hit that's bolstered the argument that all the best emo-leaning punk acts come from the Eastern U.S. Taking its title from a Charles Bukowski poem of the same name, the album, fittingly, offers an unflinching, often-poetic look at the various miseries of life. Over intricately intertwined guitars and body-slam drums and bass, Glita and lead singer Buddy Nielsen deliver enough intelligently articulated drama to please the most tortured of OC addicts. Anyone who's ever sat alone in the cafeteria will relate to lines like "I won't forget the day that I came to/And I started thinking that there's more than just perfect prom queens and silver spoons." Meanwhile, the reality that relationships can be hellishly complicated is pile-driven home in unflinching assaults like "Choke on This" and "You're Cute When You Scream". Taking an approach that's now become a genre standard, all songs mix sensitive-punk crooning with righteously enraged howling.

Glita says Senses Fail-which also includes guitarists Dave Miller and Garrett Zablocki, and drummer Dan Trapp-has already accomplished more than it could ever have imagined. Since forming in 2002, the band has appeared on the Warped Tour, moved a small mountain of records, and popped up on network television courtesy of Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Even more surreal to Glita is that the Taste of Chaos tour Senses Fail is currently part of is turning out to be a surprise success story of 2005. Ticket demand for next Friday's (March 25) Vancouver date was so great that the show was upgraded from the Plaza of Nations to the Forum, which has since sold out.

"We're playing to 12,000 kids here in Detroit tonight," Glita marvels. "No one ever thought that the bands from this scene-the punk-rock/emo movement or whatever you want to call it-would have ever got so big. What's craziest about that is that I grew up going to gigs where there would be maybe 20 to 100 people."

The bassist has a pretty good idea why the kids in the audience are showing up. And it's not because they happened to catch Senses Fail on Conan.

"What has helped build this whole scene is the constant touring that everyone involved has done. In some ways, we've got something in common with groups like Phish, the Dave Matthews Band, and the Grateful Dead. Like those bands, we're all about building a fan base by getting out on the road."