For three Michigan expatriates, a local band T-shirt sparked a conversation that lead to the creation of psych-punk band Awesome Color in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“We knew each other a little bit in Michigan,” explains Allison Busch, also known as Awesome Allison, who plays drums for the band. “We had mutual friends and stuff. Derek had been living in Brooklyn about a year, then I moved out there and Michael moved out there. We just met at a gig and hung out and started talking.”

The connection between Busch and (Awesome) Derek Stanton happened over a Detroit band T-shirt that Busch had worn to a show.

”Derek and I met because I was wearing a Wolf Eyes shirt and he came up and started talking to be because he's friends with those guys, so we started talking based on our mutual love for Wolf Eyes,” she says.

Together with bass player (Awesome) Michael Troutman, Busch and Stanton began to jam out in Brooklyn, got some gigs, and four years later, the trio has released two full-length studio albums, the most recent called “Electric Aborigines,” which came out in April of this year.

The band's live show includes songs off both albums, plus newly written, thus far un-recorded songs. Of the songs that have been recorded, the live versions never turn out the same as the studio version.

”We'll play the songs a lot more live, and even though we've recorded stuff in the studio...they still change,” says Busch. “You'll find something that works a little better just to change up the plan. It makes it a little more fun, if you play the same song every night, to change it up a little bit.”

In addition to keeping the music fresh for the band members, equipment malfunctions are a regular part of the show, from broken strings to Stanton's practice of using his guitar amp, in essence, as a pick, creating “rad feedback,” says Busch, but sometimes the amp doesn't make it back from the show.

”Derek breaks his amp and can't play the song the same way every night,” says Busch. “We don't really write set lists and part of the reason is that the guys break so many strings that the last part of our set will have to be the songs that don't have as many notes in them.”

Additionally, “Derek changes the lyrics and the solos every song, like every time we play it live. There's a lot of improvisation going on,” says Busch.

Awesome Color will keep its band members and audience on their toes, this coming Tuesday night at the Lil Red Lion in Eureka.

For more information on Awesome Color and to listen to songs from both of their studio recordings, visit www.myspace.com/awesomecolor.